"You're not gonna get me to say anything bad about my brother, you're just not," Arianna said. After over a day of Gerry and Catherine being at the hospital, they were still having the same conversation.
"Honey, he got you shot. You could have died, that is not okay."
"It's not okay, mom, I already admitted that but I'm not gonna say anything bad about my Fitz and I'm not going to California with you and Dad."
"Honey," Gerry said, "this isn't okay."
"Dad, you and mom live in a house that Fitz bought for you for 3 million dollars when he was 22 okay. Now, what is it worth like 10 million? He gives you allowances and started your bakery mom. The very first thing he did when he started making money was to take care of us so how you can sit there and act like you haven't enjoyed every penny he's given you is ridiculous. Look at you mom, you have at least 50 thousand dollars worth of jewelry on and I don't think you even did that on purpose. It's literally just what you have. He's not a rapist or trafficker or anything like that, he just started off with the wrong people and now he's in it."
Catherine erupted, "that does not make it okay?"
"No, it doesn't but acting like it's a surprise that something wasn't a little fishy. You kinda knew. Even Fitz thinks you two kind of knew."
"-Yeah, I thought he was not paying taxes or maybe stashing money offshore, bribing politicians, insider trading, normal stuff not that he was some international drug lord."
'He's not!" Arianna said, exhausted by the argument and her injuries. "Just because Olivia's mom said that doesn't mean it's true."
"Yeah well, he did actually kidnap her. I saw the news articles. There's no explaining that, there's no excusing that and there's no forgiving that. I didn't raise my son to kidnap women," Catherine said.
"If Olivia's fine with being kidnapped, I don't understand why you're workin' yourself up about it. He didn't hurt her obviously or she wouldn't have chosen to be with him. She's not an idiot and she also knows how to get rid of a man who she doesn't want to be with- for example, her ex-husband."
"How did it even get to that point?" Gerry asked. "How did my son, raised in Santa Barbara, graduated valedictorian- get into this."
"Ask Fitz. Whenever you're ready to talk just ask him and I'm sure he'll tell you."
"Or he'll lie."
Arianna shrugged, "he doesn't lie to me."
"That's because you're okay with everything he does."
"Not okay with it, I just don't judge. Some stuff he does is stupid, like kidnapping someone and then falling in love with them. I mean the kidnapping part is like one thing, you took her because her dad owed you like 3 million dollars, fine but-"
"Olivia's father is involved in this too?" Gerry asked.
"He's the one who got Fitz into it. I'm guessing her mom didn't tell you that part. He kind of recruited him when he was younger, after he'd healed from his fracture."
"This is too much," Catherine said.
"Welcome to the world of too much," Arianna said.
Gerry sighed.
Arianna shrugged, "still, you won't get me to say anything bad about my brother and I'm definitely not going to California with you."
"Thick as thieves since you were kids. At least that hasn't changed," Gerry mumbled.
Catherine groaned, "I mean- is he going to stop anytime soon? He has a baby on the way, the life he lives isn't sustainable."
"Well, I shouldn't tell you this but Olivia wanted him to stop and he said was going to."
"Will he," Gerry asked.
"That was the first time he'd ever said it and he doesn't really promise things he doesn't do but also when people mess with him like this he kind of goes crazy so I was like 90% sure before but now I'm like a solid 40%."
Catherine rolled her eyes because it didn't seem that Arianna took what happened to her seriously.
"Arianna, this isn't someone messing with him. You were shot-"
"-I said 'mess with him' because it's not just me, it's Olivia- fuck." Arianna cursed when she realized she'd said too much.
"What happened to Olivia?" Gerry asked.
Arianna didn't respond.
"Arianna, what happened to Olivia and the baby?" Gerry asked again, louder.
"She's totally fine," Arianna said.
"This is not okay?" Catherine barked. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed Olivia. They hadn't spoken since Christmas eve dinner.
Saul carried Olivia into her apartment and sat her on the couch. He didn't have to but she stumbled out of the car in a bout of nausea and he insisted and carried her the rest of the way.
Abby followed behind him with her purse and Olivia's. She rested them on the side table in the foyer and met Olivia by the couch. She took both their jackets back to the coat closet. Outside of the door, Ren was standing. Saul stayed inside her apartment.
Olivia took a breath and leaned back on the couch.
"The chief gave you a week off. What are you gonna do with it?" Abby asked.
"Cry. If I get it out of my system now maybe I can function when I get back to work," she said with a dry smile. "Thanks for taking off early to come home with me."
"I know you don't really want to talk about it but is a break-up the best solution? Why don't you just take a break?"
Olivia's phone rang in her purse before she could respond.
"I'll grab it," Abby said as she ran to Olivia's bag and brought her phone over. Olivia looked down at the screen and saw that it was Catherine. She couldn't really have a conversation with Catherine, not with Abby around and not with everything that was going on with Fitz. She let it ring out and then she silenced her phone. She leaned back on the sofa and sighed. There were missed calls from Maya.
"I can't believe your pregnant? Is it exciting?"
"Sometimes terrifying, sometimes exciting," Olivia said, "and sometimes I forget. I'm not showing and I didn't really have any symptoms before yesterday." She felt wetness and blinked away tears.
"Oh my god, I can't watch this, Olivia," Abby complained, "why don't you just call him or something?"
"I'm fine, just ignore me."
"I can't ignore you. You weren't like this when you left Herman."
"Don't compare Fitz to that...that thing named Herman."
Abby laughed. "That thing?" She said then sighed, "I really think he loves you. When he found you on the roof, he looked really scared, and then he stayed outside your trauma room where we worked on you the entire time. I still don't even know how he knew you were up there but I keep thinking about what would happen if he hadn't figured it out. Are you sure you didn't break up with him because you were confused from the hypothermia?"
Olivia laid her head on Abby's lap but didn't respond because she didn't know. All she knew was that she woke terrified and needed to do something.
Abby pressed on. "Did he cheat on you?"
"He wouldn't cheat on me."
"How do you know?"
"Because he loves me."
Abby chuckled, "well, he's fucking beautiful so it's not the worst problem to have."
Olivia chuckled softly, "he is, isn't he? And he knows it too."
Abby laughed. "I heard about what happened with Justin. I laughed for about 10 minutes straight. It's hilarious he fangirls so hard over your boyfriend."
"Ex," Olivia reminded, and then she wasn't sure why she did. "Let's talk about something else?"
Abby sighed. "Well, can I sleep here tonight? Can't really deal with your mom."
"You can take one of the guest rooms," Olivia said.
"Will you really not let her see your daughter?" Abby asked.
"I thought we weren't gonna talk about her anymore?"
"I know it's just weird for me to see you so mad at her."
"It's because I've figured out her game."
"What game?"
"You know she loved Herman. She thought he was a great guy. It used to puzzle me but then I realized why."
"Why?" Abby asked.
"It's because I didn't love him too much. He didn't consume me. I still had time for her whenever she wanted. That's her thing, she's only okay with people in my life who don't mean too much to me. Whenever I have a relationship, whether it's you as my friend or Fitz as my boyfriend, if she feels like I'm too close to that person she acts out. Do you remember what she did to you?"
"Of course," Abby said. "I was so mad at you, I didn't want to be your friend anymore. Now I live with her- Jesus christ!"
"She does that. She acts out and tries to ruin my relationships and then after she creates a mess, she comes back like supermom to pick me up off the floor. Did you see how fast she ran to the hospital? Ready to be a mom."
"What did she do this time?"
"She started a big fight at dinner with Fitz's parents, which led to a fight between Fitz and his parents, and then it kind of led to a fight between Fitz and I. She did all of that and then she just left like it was nothing and as soon as I was in trouble she came running… like she was waiting for me to need her."
"Maybe she needs therapy."
"Maybe," Olivia repeated, then took a breath and sat up from Abby's lap. "Make yourself at home. Eat anything you want, cook anything you want, do whatever you want. I'm going to shower and then go to bed. If I'm not up tomorrow, Simone will come in around 7 and Anna will come in around 8."
"Who are they?"
"Fitz hired a chef for me and a housekeeper."
Abby raised her eyebrow and nodded, "well, try not to think about how many people saw your vagina while they set up the warm lavage for your bladder."
"I'll try," Olivia said sarcastically.
"At least you were waxed. It looked nice."
Olivia waved her off which made Abby try to overcompensate with complements.
"You have a pretty vagina, I told you that before, didn't I?" She yelled as Olivia walked away.
"Shut up, Abby," Olivia said playfully irritated as she grabbed her bag and walked up the stairs. She watched as Saul texted something on his phone from the door and wondered if it was to Fitz.
She continued up the stairs and went into her bedroom and locked the door behind her then walked to her bathroom. She bathed and then took the ointment for her frostbitten fingers from her bag and greased her fingers. Her face hadn't really been affected, apart from initial irritation but on her fingers, some small welts were beginning to appear. She'd done her best to protect her fingers from the cold but with only scrubs on, it was hard. The welts would fill with fluid in a few days then burst and heal.
After she greased her fingers she walked to the nightstand by her bed and opened the drawer to drop the ointment inside. The gift she left on the bed for Fitz was inside, still wrapped. She dropped the ointment in the drawer and then walked to her closet.
The moment she stepped inside her mouth fell open.
Fitz's entire half of the closet was gone. After standing in shock for a moment she marched to her bag and grabbed her phone. She stood, shaking as she dialed him and after the first ring she abandoned the call and hung up.
What was she going to say? She was the one who broke up with him.
She placed her phone on the nightstand and walked back to her closet with burning, wet eyes. She changed into her pajamas even though it was only mid-afternoon and then crawled into bed.
Sleep didn't come right away and about fifteen minutes after she laid down there was a knock on her bedroom door. She sat up, "who is it?"
"Saul."
Olivia found it funny he'd come to her bedroom.
"I'm sleeping-"
"I just need to come in and do a quick check to make sure you're okay?" Saul said.
"What?"
"Please, he's telling me to break down the door if you don't open it-"
Olivia got out of bed and opened the door slowly, just to peek outside.
"I'm fine," she said.
"I have to check," Saul said.
Olivia sighed and opened the door wider. He walked around with a phone to his ear, checking around her bedroom while Olivia stood watching. He checked everywhere, even under her bed and the bathroom and closet, and then he returned to Olivia and handed her the phone.
"He wants to talk to you?"
"He who?" Olivia said sarcastically.
Saul gave her a slight scolding look.
"I'm not speaking to him. There's a wall up and I'm exhausted from almost dying. Remind him of that."
Saul sighed like an annoyed parent and spoke into the phone then he handed it back to Olivia.
She took the phone and put it to her ear. "Do you think this is funny?" Fitz said.
"I don't know what you're talking about?" Olivia responded.
"You called me and called you back 8 times, Olivia-"
"-I didn't know you were calling me-"
"-You have to answer the phone when I call because if you don't then I'm gonna assume the worst. You just left the hospital-"
"-You moved your stuff out without telling me-" Olivia said, cutting him off.
"-You dumped me. What did you expect? Am I supposed to follow you around begging you to take me back like your crazy ex-husband or am I supposed to fucking leave you alone like you asked?"
Olivia hung up on him and handed Saul back his phone. He looked exhausted just by the small exchange. "Please don't close the door with the lock. We have to watch you a lot closer from now on and I need to come in if anything might happen to you," he said then walked out and pulled the door closed behind him.
Olivia walked back to her bed and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. She saw that Fitz had in fact called her 8 times and took her phone off silent but turned down the volume.
Fitz took a breath and slipped his phone back in his pocket. Camilla was behind him unpacking his clothes from his suitcase. When he'd asked her to stop in Boston from her flight from Spain to move his clothes from the closet to one of the guest rooms she didn't want to assume but now she had all the confirmation she needed. A grin pulled on her lips and Fitz noticed.
"Lose that fucking grin."
Camilla folded her lips together, unable to stop smiling, and went back to pulling his clothes from his suitcases.
He headed out the door, his only delay was waiting for Olivia to respond to him. He met some of his guards outside and went to meet his Panamanian friend Blaze. He was a Don for a chunk of communities stretching from the city to the surrounding areas. They met at one of Blaze's local restaurants.
When Fitz arrived, Blaze was already sitting at a private table. He smiled and stood and greeted him with a half-hug. "Fitz, you look like you haven't slept."
"I can't sleep," Fitz said as he sat, "there's someone alive who I need to be dead."
Blaze chuckled, "I've known the feeling. Let's get some food and then we'll talk- who punched you?"
"Don't worry, I deserved it," Fitz said.
Blaze laughed, "I can't take you sometimes."
Fitz shook his head, "I want the fried fish and plantains." Blaze nodded and called over a waitress and relayed their orders.
"So, my friend, what's going on?"
"I have a business proposition."
"My favorite words from you," Blaze said, "that port on the canal is making me a fortune because of you."
Fitz nodded, "would you like to own all of it?"
Blaze's eyes grew bright. "You'd give up your portion? It's making you money too?"
"I'd give it up for the original price I paid. It's worth 5 times as much now and you'd make all the profits from it."
"Why? This deal doesn't make sense for you, you could make a lot more?" Blaze thought for a moment, "are the feds on you? You don't want to be in business with me?"
Fitz chuckled, "you didn't let me finish and if I was worried about the law, I wouldn't be here talking to you, a wanted man. Not that it matters, because nothing is under your name but my point remains the same."
Blaze chuckled, "fuck, you scared me for a second, still, why would you give up so much money?"
"What I want in return is some...workers."
"How many?" Blaze said hesitantly.
"Enough."
"Am I gonna get them back?"
"Not all of them."
Blaze sat mulling over the information and the exchange. "Fuck, I knew there was a catch? This is a good deal but I give them over but then I'm leaving myself open. Those are my guys who get stuff done in the city. I need them collecting my money and laying down the law. Why do you need them?"
"Marco."
Blaze sighed, "fuck- you're going to his house? That's a statement."
Fitz shrugged.
"Oh man, he runs half of Columbia. He has a lot of men."
"Why do you think he's still alive?"
Blaze chuckled, "how would you get them there? It's too many men for a flight and you can't drive-"
"Boat," Fitz said, "then we'll have a nice road trip to his house."
"There are checkpoints and he has a lot of cops in his pocket-"
"Let me worry about that."
Blaze sighed, "why'd you have to smash that bottle on his face. Your temper man-"
"He touched somebody he wasn't supposed to touch and then he did it again so I don't really have the time or patience to sit and wait. I want him dead now."
Blaze tapped his fingers against the table then sighed, "How many 'workers' do you need?"
"30."
He closed his eyes, "I fucking hate you but fine. Deal."
"Lighten up," Fitz said, "I'm sure you can convince some other dumb fuckers to work for you for nothing more than a pistol and few hundred bucks."
"We were those dumb motherfuckers once and we survived. Still, I'm not giving you my top guys," Blaze warned. "Because I know you're not giving me those guys back. You'd rather sink the boat with them on it in the middle of the fucking sea than have 20 guys walking around bragging about running up on Marco."
"It doesn't matter, at this point just make sure they know how to point a gun and shoot it."
Blaze chuckled, "okay, let's fucking eat, where's this food?"
As he spoke the same waitress returned with their lunch. They both dug into their food.
"When do you need them?'
"Tonight," Fitz said, "and they all need to keep their mouths shut."
"Fucking aye," Blaze cursed.
They worked out the details of the exchange and after lunch, Fitz headed back to his hotel to try to get some sleep before nighttime. Still, he was falling in and out of sleep in intervals.
In his sleep, he felt hands in his underpants then lips kissing and licking up his torso and neck. "Livie...baby," he groaned in half-conscious sleep.
"No, it's me," Camilla said as she reached into his sweatpants again, feeling for his dick, "I know she couldn't handle you so let me do it, daddy."
Fitz's eyes tore open and he flung her off him. She fell off the bed and landed with a thud. He sat up. It was early evening and the lights were out. He reached to the nightstand and turned on the light. Camilla was on the ground rubbing her head as she sat up slowly. She seemed more embarrassed than hurt as she grabbed her phone from the floor.
Fitz stood and pulled her up by the hands and stared directly into her eyes, "I don't want you," he barked. Camilla turned her eyes away as she began to cry. "Look at me," Fitz said firmly. Camilla looked back. "I love Olivia. I don't want you!" A loud sob broke out of her throat and Fitz walked her over to the door of his suite and pushed her through the door then slammed it.
He walked back to his bed and rubbed his temples from the instantaneous headache the entire ordeal had given him and then he reached for his phone and checked and responded to his messages then called Ren, who had switched places with Saul inside their apartment.
He answered on the first ring, "she's throwing up, I think, In the kitchen from the food she just ate. I can hear her. The friend is still here too."
"Okay," Fitz said, then hung up.
He showered and dressed. He wasn't as rested as he would have liked before what would be an eventful night but it would have to do.
As promised, Blaze had all the men he asked for ready to go at the port. They boarded after 9pm for a two-hour ride. Fitz stayed back with a small squad of guards while the other went with the men to direct the trip.
Hours passed and when Fitz got confirmation that they docked in Buenaventura, he boarded a long-range helicopter for the flight. The men he took from Blaze would have to drive into Marco's compound outside of Cali in Columbia. He timed it to get there just after they did.
When the horde of men drove up to the gate of the exterior, it was early morning before 3am. Wade had rerouted the power leaving them in total darkness and making Marco unable to enter his panic room that used an electric door with a code only he knew.
Fitz waited, hovering in the air in a helicopter while the firefight took place and when they were able to move from the outer gate to the inner and then surround his house, Fitz gave the go-ahead for the pilot to land the chopper in the yard.
"He's just outside the panic room in the lower level," Wade said from the earpiece in Fitz's ear. "With his family. He can't get in. They have him."
"How many kids are there?"
"Four."
"Who else?"
"Just them, his little henchmen are down and his woman isn't there. Do it quickly, someone made a call to the outside. We don't know who could be coming. It was quick, I couldn't trace it."
"I don't want the kids there, have them taken somewhere else. Blaze's guys too."
"Okay."
Fitz rushed in through the front door and saw bodies scattered all over. He couldn't tell who was Marco's and or his. He'd already gone over the specs of the compound so he knew exactly where to go. It was through to the back of the first floor, down a hall, and then down a private set of stairs.
On the lower level, he saw flashlights in the distance and followed them with his until he was face to face with Marco, standing before the door of his panic room. He handed his flashlight to Vlad who was beside him.
"Didn't think you'd come. Guess we both underestimated each other," he began.
Fitz didn't respond.
"Heard your sister survived," Marco said, "your girl too so I guess I celebrated too early."
Fitz pulled out a trailing point knife from his back and stuck it in Marco's gut, just under his navel. He felt a gush of warm blood on his hands over his gloves. Marco groaned out and slump over unto Fitz.
Fitz pushed him back and he fell against the door of the panic room.
"My kids-" Marco groaned, "leave them-"
Fitz punched him in the face with so much force his head slammed back against the doors. "My kids-" Marco choked out again only to be silenced by a punch "my kids," he mumbled again. Fitz punched him until he could no longer utter the words and then he pushed him to the ground and pulled the knife from his navel until he hit the hard bone of his sternum. He punished the knife down further and pulled through the cracking noise the bone made. When he reached his clavicle he pulled the knife up and stuck his hand in his chest and searched around for his heart.
It had been sliced by his knife and was dangling in pieces when he pulled it from Marco's chest.
"Come on man, get out of there," Wade said.
Fitz pulled his knife from Marco's clavicle and stood then headed back down the hall with his heart hot between his gloved fingers.
It was then that he realized he forgot the ziplock bag.
He made his way back out of the house with his guards towards the helicopter. The group of Blaze's men who survived the ordeal was standing by the helicopter. It looked like a little less than 10.
Fitz climbed into the helicopter and turned to Vlad, "do it."
Vlad signaled to the other men standing across him, men who worked for Fitz and in a moment, they opened rapid fire on them, leaving no one standing to speak of what happened at the compound.
Two other guards came running from the other side of the yard.
"All clear," one of them signaled with a thumbs up. Fitz nodded and signaled to the pilot he was ready. Vlad and two others joined him on the helicopter while everyone else took a vehicle back to Buenaventura to rendezvous with Fitz.
Olivia sat staring at the pictures on her phone again. It was because she couldn't compute how Fitz could do that. Being heartbroken is one thing but being utterly betrayed is another. The latter was worse.
It was apparent now why Camilla acted the way she did and was so bold with him. It was because that was his pattern. He always went back to Camilla, which was exactly what the text read, followed by pictures of her lips on Fitz's soft dick.
Every time she saw it she wanted to throw up, only now, there was nothing left inside to throw up. Her morning sickness was in full effect. The only thing she could keep down was crackers, yogurt, and bread. Tea and soda helped too.
Abby had slept over for a few days but now she was back at work and she was glad because though Abby had been trying to be supportive there was only so much she could tell her and she grew tired of censoring herself around Abby.
He always come back
Camilla's text and poor grammar we're stuck in her head. She locked her phone and tried to go back to studying but eventually she gave up when it was impossible to focus.
She locked her surgery textbook and rested it on the nightstand and then tried to find a comfortable spot to sleep. She had an early doctor's appointment with her Ob to let her know what happened with the baby and see if she needed to be worried going forward. She didn't want to get into the habit of giving herself medical advice especially when it came to her pregnancy.
She turned off the light and placed her phone on the nightstand. She closed her eyes to try to sleep but only minutes had passed before she picked up her phone and was examining the pictures again.
They were dark but she could see clearly enough. Camilla's grin was hard to miss. She stared for a while until she locked her phone and laid her head back against her pillow and this time her eyes burned too badly to stop herself from crying.
She wiped her eyes and heard a buzz from the night table. When she leaned up and checked her phone it was a call from Fitz.
Of course it was.
They hadn't spoken since she hung up on him a few days ago.
She almost let it ring out but she knew he would just call back and if she didn't answer then he would send a guard. She picked up the call but didn't speak.
"Livie?"
She didn't respond.
"Olivia?" He asked again.
She cleared her throat and took a breath, "what do you want?" She tried to sound stoic but it was hard to hide that she was crying.
"Are you crying?"
"For days now," she said in a cavalier way that confused Fitz then cleared her throat again. "Not that it matters. What do you want?"
"It matters- look, I know I've fucked up but I love you. I love you more than anything. I shouldn't have moved my stuff out of the closet- It's just- tell me what you want and I'll do it. I can't lose you."
Olivia took a deep breath.
"I want you to not speak to me unless it concerns our daughter or my safety and I want you and Camilla to go to fucking hell."
"What?"
Olivia hung up. Fitz called again but got no answer. The next person he called was Camilla. He was on the deck of his boat and asked her to meet him there. When he made it back to Panama he traveled to the other side of the canal after one final meeting to settle his business with Blaze and boarded his yacht. Now, they were sailing across the Atlantic because he never liked to travel predictably from one place to another, especially when he didn't want to be tracked.
He shoved his phone in his pocket and pulled out a joint and quickly brought it to his lips from the small metal container it was in. His hands were shaking as he brought the lighter to the spliff.
Once it was lit against his lips he pulled hard, trying to calm himself with the fumes.
He'd taken a few pulls before he heard footsteps coming down the hardwood deck.
Camilla stopped in front of him. She'd been upset since the incident in the hotel room in Panama City, it was clear by her attitude that lasted days.
Fitz moved the spliff from his mouth so he could speak. "What did you say to Olivia?"
Camilla's lips pressed together firmly, defiant. She refused to speak.
Fitz took another pull. "I'm gonna ask again." He said, "and this is the last time I'm gonna ask. What did you say to Olivia?"
Camilla gripped her phone tighter in her palm. There was something off about him and she noticed. "You're scaring me."
"You should be scared."
He watched her take a step back. "You're not gonna hurt me. You never have."
Fitz didn't respond but waited for her to answer his original question.
"I sent her pictures," Camilla admitted.
"Show me."
Camilla opened her phone. Her hands were trembling nervously. She went into messages and pulled up the photos she sent Olivia then handed them to Fitz.
He scrolled through the message of the photos she sent to Olivia. There were three of them and they were all of her smiling with his flaccid dick against her face. He could see why Olivia was convinced but the problem is that he was asleep and conveniently the photos didn't show that.
He turned to Camilla and she shook her head, "I was just fucking with her- because I was mad at you. I'm sorry. I'll tell her we didn't do anything."
"It's too late for that," Fitz said.
He flung her phone over the side of the boat in the water and then grabbed her by the waist and lifted her over the edge of the boat and flung her in the cold water. He stood for a moment and watched as water filled her mouth and she began to fall under the surface of the water as she fought to stay about it. The boat was moving fast and it took just moments for her to be consumed by darkness and water as her only chance at life pulled away from her.
Two days later.
Olivia walked downstairs from her nap and was surprised to see Fitz sitting on the steps that transitioned the living room to the terrace. They stared at each other for a moment. It was hard to ignore that he looked positively sleep-deprived with heavy under-eye bags.
Olivia spoke first.
"I..um.. have a doctor's appointment on January 22nd," she began. "At 11am."
"What about the one you had a few days ago?" Fitz asked as he stood from the small steps.
"It was to make sure that everything was okay after what happened. I didn't want to wait until the end of January and since you weren't here and probably couldn't come back in time for it, I didn't bother to tell you."
"Is that why you didn't tell me?"
Olivia didn't answer and headed towards the kitchen. Fitz blocked her path before she got there. "We need to talk."
"We did. We talked about the only thing that matters," Olivia said.
"So accusing me of cheating on you- doesn't matter?"
"I'm not accusing you of anything. I know I was the one who wanted to break up, I know that but I woke up and I just felt like I needed to do something to have control- I was scared and frantic and all you could give me was one moment of being open and vulnerable and then after that you treated me like I was a bad business deal you needed to cut your losses from. Then you left."
"You told me to go," Fitz countered.
"Yeah, and you didn't have to. You could've stayed, you could've been here for me but instead, you cleaned out your closet and jetted away to Panama so that Camilla could take pictures of your dick beside her face and send it to me like it's some joke while I'm here crying because of you and throwing up because of your baby."
"I didn't sleep with her. She took those pictures while I was sleeping and I didn't know until I checked her phone after we spoke."
Olivia nodded sarcastically. "Even if I were to believe that's true- why is she even comfortable enough to do that? Why is she in your room when you're sleeping? It's because you always do that, you set no boundaries- you always go back to her and she knows it."
Fitz shook his head, "I didn't this time."
Olivia swallowed back and lump in her throat. "You put me through hell this week." Water came to her eyes and she wiped them away. "And I'm done."
Fitz took a breath and stepped out of her way. Still, after everything, they'd said there was no emotion from him. He was tired and didn't seem as collected as he usually was but that was about the only thing that was off about him. Other than that, she could have sworn she was in a business meeting with him based on his reaction.
Olivia continued to the kitchen and she stood silently and listened until she heard the front door gently slam shut moments later and she knew he was gone. It was then that she remembered it was his 30th birthday.
"Columbian Drug lord Antonio "Marco" Salazar brutally murdered in his home."
Olivia sat inside the cafeteria on her first day back to work, eating breakfast. It was almost 8am. She saw the banner flash on the screen during the international news segment and for a moment she wondered if it was Fitz. She'd seen him just yesterday and he didn't mention it but she also knew he didn't usually vocalize everything he did.
She stood from the table and walked closer to the tv screen to read the subtitles. There was no volume.
"Authorities believe Mr. Salazar was at war with some unknown Panamanian entity given the presence of many Panamanian locals at the scene of his compound but at this time that assessment is purely speculative. There are reportedly a total of almost 70 deaths at the compound, a number that astounded local police. The only ones spared from this assault were the 4 children of Antonio Salazar, who are currently in protective custody. Mr. Salazar is wanted in the U.S and most of Europe for his role in drug, weapons, and human trafficking-"
Olivia's pager went off cutting her attention from the screen. She looked down and saw she was being paged for neuro which meant that Dr. Roberts was in for the day. Now that it was common knowledge that she was pregnant, she was sure he knew it too and was anxious about how this would change his behavior towards her. She hoped it meant he would lose interest but she was not as excited about the prospect of losing surgeries. She was hoping but was not at all convinced that would distract her from Fitz. She clicked her pager and then turned back to the news.
"Mr. Salazar was found with his chest split open and his heart removed-"
Olivia let out a cackle and had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing too loudly. "That's what you get," she mumbled as she walked quickly to answer her page. She laughed all the way down the elevator and to the surgery floor where Dr. Robert waited. When she saw him she had to take a few quick breaths to calm herself. It was a weird reaction because she didn't find his death funny but still, she was elated. She would never have to see him again.
It had to have been Fitz. When he told her he'd go she didn't know how to feel but that was because the prospect of him leaving to go do it was daunting. Now it was done and it was performed with the personal touch of someone meticulous, had a sick sense of humor, and was also an asshole. It was Fitz. She was sure.
"Good morning Dr. Pope, I didn't expect you to be in such high spirits after what happened last week."
Olivia cleared her throat, "I'm fine, Dr. Roberts, thanks for your concern. I saw something funny and- never mind."
"Walk with me," he said.
Olivia nodded, "I'm thinking about taking on a spinal tumor case. It's pretty complex so there will be a lot of moving parts. I can't have you running point on this one but I want you to assist. I have a few maneuvers for dealing with spinal nerves I'd like to teach you."
Olivia nodded, pleasantly surprised.
"You seem surprised," he said as they walked.
"Um…-"
"I know you may think I'm giving you surgeries because I like you and you think they'll stop because you're pregnant?"
"I have to be honest-"
He cut her off, "-I do like you and that doesn't stop because you're pregnant. I still think you're very smart and very beautiful and charming. I apologize for how I went about my affection for you- by trying to pressure you into an outing. The invitation is open. I know you have a partner so I don't expect you to take it up anytime soon."
"But you're still offering it?" Olivia asked.
"Because I think he's young and he'll lose you. If that ever happens, I'm here but until then, I'll teach you everything I know. Are you ready to work?"
Olivia nodded. "I'm ready."
It was Sunday on the 17th, less than a week before her next doctor's appointment. She sat in a booth waiting for Catherine. She was surprised when she called her and invited her to Sunday brunch. It had been less than a month since the disastrous dinner and though she'd missed a few of Catherines calls when she got out of the hospital, she didn't think she would want to talk in person so soon.
She'd been sitting for all of five minutes before she saw Catherine saunter towards the table from across the room. She was a vision in a cream waterfall coat and curled strawberry blonde hair and large sunglasses.
Olivia wasn't sure what to do but when Catherine approached her but the closer she got, Olivia noticed she began to outstretch her hands for a hug so she stood and returned the hug.
"Oh my gosh, look at you, you finally have a cute little belly. How many weeks are you?"
"13 weeks," Olivia said with a shy smile.
Catherine hugged her again, "it's so good to see you, honey. What a disastrous month it's been."
Olivia nodded.
Catherine sat in her chair and threw off her coat over the back and took off her glasses.
"I wanted to meet with you because I needed to scrub our last meeting from my mind. Arianna hinted at the fact that something happened to you as well when she'd been hurt. I tried calling you a few times-"
"-I know, I'm so sorry
"It's alright. I completely understand. I just wanted to know if you're okay? And not just from a phone conversation."
"I-all things considered, I am, physically."
"That doesn't sound like a yes," Catherine said.
Olivia shrugged and Catherine sighed.
"After what your mother said, I immediately thought the worst without even talking to you. Also, I just needed to know what's going on with Fitzgerald because we haven't heard from him."
"Oh-uh-" Olivia mumbled, unsure where to start.
"I know we had a big fight and then he had a fight with his father but-"
"-Fitz and I broke up. I don't know where he is," Olivia said.
Catherine gasped, "You broke up? Why?"
"It's um…" Olivia felt tears and fanned her face quickly, "I said I wasn't gonna cry."
Catherine reached out and held her hand." oh honey."
Olivia took a breath, "I'm fine, I'm totally fine." she wiped her eyes and fanned her face and smiled then cleared her throat.
The waiter walked over. "Hi, can I get you ladies anything to start?" he asked.
Their menus were on the table but neither had looked. Olivia browsed earlier but now she'd forgotten what she saw.
"Coffee," Catherine said, then looked at Olivia.
"Green tea is fine."
"I'll bring that right over." He nodded and stepped away. Catherine reached into her Hermes purse and pulled out a napkin for Olivia.
Olivia wiped her eyes. "No, I'm fine, I'm totally fine."
"You're fine, you're totally fine?" Catherine asked.
Olivia chuckled, "Fitz teases me when I say that too."
Olivia opened her menu and skimmed through. Catherine did the same. When the waiter returned with their coffee and tea they ordered lunch and then finally Catherine was ready to ask more questions.
"You don't want to tell me what happened but it seems you and the baby are fine," she began, "can you tell me about Fitz and your father and the entire reason you and him…'met'. I use the word met loosely. I don't know if you can tell by my tone."
"I can," Olivia said. She took a sip of her tea, "My father left when I was a little girl. When my mom found out about what he did, she cut off all contact with him and divorced him, and then refused to have him see me unless he stopped doing what he did and since he never did I never saw him.
"My dad was the one who introduced Fitz to this life. He wasn't the only one but he was one of the big ones."
Catherine chuckled humourlessly, "he told me that he'd met a businessman in Europe and that he would work for him. Looking back, it sounds so fishy but back then, I didn't think twice. A couple of years later he told me he got his hands on some money and started his own business. I assumed it was a loan but now who knows. He became really successful really fast. Nowhere did I ever think he'd gotten into the things he has."
"He doesn't do anything with drugs. My mom refuses to believe that but he told me he doesn't and I believe him. She also refused to believe I willingly slept with him."
"It's just that I know how I raised my son. I was one of those radical feminists in the 70s. Sure, I smoked a lot of weed and did LSD for a quarter of my 20s- which might have been why it was so hard to conceive him," Catherine said with a chuckle, "but I raised him to treat women a certain way so when your mom said that, I was devastated-"
"-There's no denying he took me but he never, ever hurt me. My mom doesn't want to believe that I'd willingly sleep with someone who kidnapped me but I did. It was after he'd let me go. He told me it didn't feel right and that he apologized for involving me in whatever beef he had with my dad and he was making plans to take me back home. That's when we slept together and it was because I wanted to. He gave me every opportunity to stop. He made sure it was my decision and I think he did that so that whenever I looked back I'd know that it was my choice."
Catherine nodded as she digested the information.
"After he finally did take me home, he gave me about a month, he said that was so that I could clear my head and kind of figure out how I felt about the whole thing and as it turned out, I felt fine."
Catherine chuckled, "I guess I know how you feel about that."
Olivia nodded. "It's not the usual 'how we met story' but I don't care."
"I won't ask why you broke up because it's not really my place but I'll ask if you think there's a possibility you can find your way back to each other."
"I love him too much to say never. I keep telling myself he'll say the perfect thing to me and everything that I'm feeling will disappear but I don't really know. I haven't heard from him since his birthday. It's partially my fault, I tell him not to speak to me then I get disappointed when he doesn't. I tell him to leave, then I get mad when he goes."
"Have you tried calling him?"
Olivia shook her head in response. "I have a doctor's appointment on Friday that he knows about. He may come but I'm not sure."
Catherine sighed, frustrated.
"I just hate how our family has completely broken down- with a baby on the way. You and Fitz are broken up. I haven't seen him since the hospital. Arianna is having a hard time as well. When the baby comes her grandparents probably won't be able to sit in a room together. I mean, this is just horrible."
"Is Arianna okay?"
Olivia wondered if Catherine knew about her role in Arianna's injury.
"She's out of the hospital and healing nicely but mentally, I think the whole thing has affected her much more than she lets on and she refused to admit it because she doesn't want to say anything bad about Fitz. She's protecting him, just like you are."
Olivia wasn't sure how to respond.
"I imagine he's having a hard time too. He loves you, I've seen him with you, he truly loves you and he loves his sister."
"I know he does," Olivia said softly.
"Do you know what you want from him- or rather what you want to hear him say. Because he can't know if you don't know."
Olivia sighed heavily, "I've had some time to think about it and what I need is for this to end. Not in a few months or a few weeks. I need it to end now. I can deal with whatever comes after if he doesn't do what he does anymore but as long as he is, he can't promise me I'll be safe or that what happened won't happen again and he knows that's which is why he didn't say it. I knew about it in the beginning so I can't pretend this is new but at a certain point enough is enough and things have to change."
"I think that's a reasonable thing to ask."
She left out the whole sordid ordeal with Camilla. If they got back together that would be a big factor in her decision as well but Catherine didn't need to know about it but since she was talking she decided to get everything off her chest.
"I feel like a hypocrite," Olivia admitted.
"Why?"
"I'm wearing 20 thousand dollar earrings. I have two cars that are way too expensive and my apartment costs the price of a house just to live in it for a year. He gives me everything and here I am telling him that what he does to take care of me is the reason why we can't be together."
"I feel the same," Catherine said, suddenly tearful, "but don't oversimplify it to make yourself feel guilty. You were hurt, you won't tell me what happened but I look at you and I know it was bad, and not to mention that you're pregnant."
Olivia nodded, biting back a sob.
"What I think about is the pressure he must've felt. We put so much pressure on him and he always seems to handle it so well but if it led him to this- then I don't know- it was too much. We are partly to blame. He's so driven and so capable the expectation was always that he'd be successful at whatever he did. We didn't really question it but now we know."
The food arrived shortly after. Olivia had ordered most plain things they offered; brioche toast, fruits with a few jam options.
"You're eating light?" Catherine said, trying to change the subject. "Morning sickness?"
"She's late with the morning sickness but she certainly made up for that. I think I'm losing weight."
"Oh poor thing," Catherine said. She's ordered eggs, Benedict, with Canadian bacon and a fruit parfait.
"I'm just glad my stomach finally popped a little," Olivia said.
"It's nice to see," Catherine said, "I showed fast with Fitz, he was a big baby. 10 pounds, natural birth. I cried for days after giving birth," Catherine said.
Olivia gasped, "how was Arianna?"
"9 pounds."
Olivia covered her face, "I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear anything you just said."
Catherine laughed and then she sobered. "Will you please tell me if you hear from him? I won't ask you to call him but...he's still my son. I can't have him isolated from everyone and he certainly needs to be there for you, even if you aren't together."
Olivia nodded, "I'll let you know."
"Arianna knows but she won't tell me. I'll get it out of her though," Catherine promised.
Fitz was sitting on his deck outside when he heard his front door open. He assumed it was the regular cleaner his house manager sent to his apartments but he wasn't sure and he didn't look. His guards were all with Olivia or Arianna. A few of them went back to their homes to lay low after organizing the Marco situation. Catherine and Gerry had one trailing them.
The glass door to the terrace slid open and when he half turned to look, it was Catherine. He groaned and turned around.
"What a lovely greeting," Catherine remarked sarcastically.
Fitz cleared his throat.
"Arianna gave you the key?"
"I wore her down," Catherine said as she sat beside him on the terrace. He smelled of liquor, so much so that even outside it was hard to ignore. The marijuana, less so. She also noticed he was lacking a coat.
"We need to talk," she said.
"I assumed I was disowned...because of the blood money and all."
"I might disown you if I could push another son out of my vagina but since I can't, you're all I've got so here I am," Catherine said with snark.
"I don't want to talk," Fitz said.
"Fitz, you look and smell like hell, what is going on?"
"If you knew the things I've done, you wouldn't be here."
Catherine's heart sank and for a moment she was speechless.
"I don't want to know. I want you to stop so we can move on," she said softly.
She waited for him to respond but he didn't.
"I spoke to Olivia," Catherine said.
"What did she tell you?"
"Hardly anything, just like your sister. They both are so fixed on protecting you. I know you broke up, she won't tell me why exactly. She won't tell me what happened to her. She won't tell me who broke things off though I gather it might be her."
"Well she is-was the better half of the relationship," Fitz said as he leaned back and took another sip of his liquor but outed her joint out of respect for his mother.
Catherine grabbed it from his hands and poured out the liquid on the floor.
"That's certainly true," Catherine said, trying to lighten the mood.
"Where is my father?"
"He's standing in the hall. I asked to speak to you alone."
"Does he want to punch me again," Fitz said, "tell him to go for it."
"Punch?" Catherine said, "he punched you-" Catherine felt a cold breeze and got sidetracked. "-Why are you out here without a jacket? It's the middle of winter."
"Why are you here?" Fitz asked again.
"Because we love you, Fitzgerald. You are obviously not okay," Catherine said. "None of us are. Arianna is afraid to go near a window and she's having nightmares that she won't tell you about. Olivia is pregnant, Fitz, and she's hurting. What are you doing?" She grabbed his cheeks and stared into his eyes, "honey, this can't go on. You have to stop this? You can't continue. Look at you, you aren't sleeping, you're drinking, smoking. I didn't know it was this bad- you have to stop."
Catherine pressed her thumb against the dark bags under his eyes.
"You took great care of us, you can cut off our allowance now. We have a lot saved up and we have the businesses. You don't have to take care of us anymore. I can't force you to do anything but your father and I are asking you to stop for us and Arianna and Olivia."
She watched tears well up in his red eyes. She assumed the redness was from the weed but maybe it wasn't.
"I can't live without Olivia-" he choked out.
"Then you should be in Boston, fight-"
He groaned and turned away from Catherine. "Don't tell me to go fight for someone I don't deserve. Every time I feel the urge to go to her I think about the fact that someone broke into her on-call room where she was sleeping, woke her with a gun to her head, walked her up 15 flights of stairs to hang her off the side of the roof then left her there to freeze to death in short sleeve scrubs on a 20-degree snow night."
Catherine gasped and covered her mouth.
"When I found her she was barely breathing and unconscious. The biggest debate of the night when they were trying to save her was whether or not they should open her stomach to warm her with fluids and risk losing the baby."
Catherine closed her eyes and shook her head, "she didn't tell me."
"Of course she didn't," Fitz said with a sardonic chuckle. "She's protecting me better than I protect her."
Catherine shook her head, "you love her-"
"That's exactly what her ex-husband said a few minutes before he tried to drive a knife in her back. I kept going back and forth before but this way is better. At a certain point, it gets too much."
"Don't compare yourself to him," Catherine said then stood. "You're drunk and you're sleep-deprived. You need to shower, eat and sleep, and then in one day, you need to drive your ass up to Boston for your daughter's doctor's appointment on Friday and then have a discussion with Olivia about what she wants from you to fix your relationship and then you're gonna give it to her. I had this discussion with Olivia and I know that she wants you to stop doing what you're doing right now. You need to have that discussion with her to hear it for yourself and then you need to do it."
"It's not that easy."
"It should be very easy because every week you're away, she's getting further into her pregnancy, her belly is growing more and she's spending more time away from you at exactly the time you need to be there for her. Do what you have to do so we can put all of this behind us. You did what you had to do to take care of your family, that's all we'll remember this as. Put it behind you so we can move on. If you choose your lifestyle over us, then don't expect there to be any reconciliation when you realize it was a mistake."
Catherine ran her hand through his hair. He was cold and she realized the liquor might have affected his perception of the cold. "I'm gonna leave you alone now so you can figure out what you want to do but please go inside"
Fitz nodded.
She leaned in, "your dad loves you, he's just having a hard time figuring out what to say to you right now. I love you too but you have to fix this mess and you have to fix it now."
A/N - Thoughts?