"You wanted to see me, Liv?"
Olivia put a phone call through to Quinn, asking her to hold her calls. She stood up as Abby entered the room. Now she moved, coming from behind her desk to motion for Abby to join her on the small love-seat.
"I just wanted to check in with you." Olivia told her; that much was true enough even though there was more than that on her mind. "I know I've been more than a little busy these last few days and while Harrison and I flew off for the weekend, the rest of you have been busy working and more importantly - you and I really haven't had time to talk."
"Okay - so you want an update?" Abby's eyes went a little opaque as she gave her attention to her memories. "There's no new media chatter that I haven't heard since before you jetted off to the Caldwells' bash. There's been no new capitol chatter either, other than speculation over Susan's sudden rising star in certain political circles and that's been pretty public."
She refocused on Olivia. "But I'm sure that you don't need me to tell you that."
Before she could continue, Quinn knocked on Olivia's door, then stuck her head in. "Sorry to interrupt, just wanted to let you know that Gayle Livingston called to confirm her meeting with you later this afternoon."
Olivia thanked her for the heads-up and after Quinn had closed the door, turned her attention back to Abby, who was now looking at her with an suddenly calculating expression. She could see the wheels spinning in Abby's head but before she could say anything, Abby spoke up.
"I was just about to mention her - or did you want to bring her up first?" Abby was frowning now as she guessed at Olivia's intentions. "Do you want to tell me the real reason why you wanted to see me, Liv - or do I have to guess?"
Olivia heard the rising attitude in Abby's voice and that gave her a good idea of how Abby was feeling. Looking at the scenario from her point of view gave her an idea to how she might be thinking and that had Olivia rushing to get her words out in an attempt to head off her friend's temper. "One reason I called you in here was to give you a heads-up that she was coming in, Abs."
"I don't doubt it. And you felt the need to - why?"
Nothing would serve either one of them except the truth and Olivia knew it. "Because, yes - it worried me. Whether you know it or not - I've noticed that in the last few days - even before the Caldwell trip - every time Gayle's name has come up, you react -"
"I do not." The sharp tension in Abby's voice gave the lie to her words.
"Yes, you do." Olivia said. "Ask Harrison if you don't believe me. He saw it too."
That comment about Harrison's input checked Abby - but just for a moment.
"So now I'm an object of discussion?"
"You know I didn't mean it like that -"
"What did Huck have to say? Or Quinn? Did I miss the memo to the 'let's fix Abby' meeting?"
"Abby!"
Abby wasn't ready to let Olivia speak. "If that's the case, let's put the issue out there on the table just so that neither one of us is mistaken - I do not see the shadow of my ex-husband in Gayle's relationship with Will Caldwell."
Ordinarily, Olivia knew that she might have snapped back at Abby's tone, but she reminded herself of what her goal was - and it was not to have Abby storm out of the office with nothing resolved, so in an effort to give them both a little space, she stood up and walked over to the bar, splashing some bourbon into two glasses, then came back and handed her best friend one.
The brief paused seemed to work; Abby arched an eyebrow at Olivia's choice of drink and an unwilling smile curved her lips as Olivia sat back down besides her. "A little early, isn't it?"
Olivia grinned back at her. "Normally, you would tell me that it's five o'clock somewhere."
"Normally, you would be right." Abby lifted her glass in Olivia's direction and they touched one to the other in a silent toast. "But admit it, Liv - you did not call me in here for a normal work conversation, did you?"
"Abby…" she stopped in mid-sentence. "No, I didn't."
Olivia watched as Abby took a deep swallow of liquor and then it was her turn to stand up and turn away. She moved towards the window and stopped, her back still turned to Olivia.
"Liv, I promise - I'm not seeing bogey-men every time I turn around and neither am I jumping at every man-shaped shadow. So, see - you don't need to do this - we don't need to do this."
The last thing Olivia wanted to do was push her way into Abby's personal business. At the same time, she couldn't find a way to not to. She cared too much about Abby not to and whether her friend knew it or not, Olivia could read the resistance and denial in every line of her body.
And so she tried again. "Abby, I don't mean to push -"
"Then don't." Abby stared down into her glass before turning to face Olivia. "I don't want to have this conversation. I get what it is that you're trying to do, but it's not necessary."
Olivia didn't answer, didn't have to - her unspoken question hung in the air between them.
"Yes, I'm sure. I get it, Liv. I get what you're trying to do." Abby answered it. Unexpectedly, her expression softened. "I even know why. I mean, look at you -"
"Me?" Olivia raised her eyebrows, surprised.
"Yes, you." A brief smile graced Abby's face. "I can't imagine even half of what you must have had to have gone through in the last few years with you with -"
Abby paused. At this point, it might have been more or less common knowledge to everyone in the office that Olivia and Fitz were involved personally for the longest time, but it was nothing any of them had talked about, not even between themselves when she was out of the office. The look they shared spoke to that. " -with you and the president."
"With Fitz." Olivia said, opening that door between them and inviting her in.
This time, Abby's smile was one of acknowledgment between them. "With Fitz. But whatever it was, it's clear that everything is finally working out for you. You're happy - so happy that you're lit up from the inside like a Christmas tree and it makes you want the same thing for everyone around you."
Olivia found herself speechless.
"Don't get me wrong - you deserve it, Liv. You deserve every bit of happiness happening for you right now. And I get it that it's making you see the entire world in a whole new way. You're probably seeing everyone around you in a whole new way - and at the same time you see Will Caldwell and his fiance and the part we played in that match and of course that's what has you all worried about me. Don't be."
Olivia stared at Abby. How did this conversation get changed around to her - and was Abby right or wrong? "You might be right. Maybe."
"Of course I'm right." Abby tossed her hair back, a hint of her regular sassy self returning. "Does Gayle Livingston bring back memories I'd rather forget? Of course she does - but I have no intentions of losing any sleep over Charles -" Charles being Charles Putney, her abusive ex-husband - "-and I can promise you that."
Olivia was relieved. Mostly. "If you're sure…"
"I am." Abby said.
"And if for any reason, that should change…"
"I promise - you'll be the first to know."
Across town, two other women were also have a conversation - but it was nowhere as cordial or as caring.
"How do you do it?" Elizabeth was sitting across from Sally Langston in the vice president's office. "How do you put up with these - these Neanderthals in suits?"
Her words might be intentionally inflammatory, but that didn't make them any less real to either woman.
For herself, Elizabeth's face still burned with remembered rage as she recalled the words that Thomas Tillman had spoken to her hours earlier, in front of an audience, no less.
He hadn't given her a chance to either answer or even begin to offer an explanation. Not that Elizabeth believed that she owed him one.
No one was fooled about the real source of the Senator's fury. He'd been checked and blindsided - to hear him tell it - by that Mitchell bitch on national TV. Elizabeth was just a handy scapegoat.
Still, she'd been blind-sided by the ferocity of his verbal attack. Elizabeth had no intentions of letting him drag her through the mud without consequences, but in the moment, she'd elected to play along. "Up until now, who here took Susan Ross seriously?"
Her eyes raked over the others, daring them to say a single word against her. Very few of them were bold enough to meet her eyes.
"Well apparently things have obviously changed, haven't they?" Tillman grumbled at her; before she could offer an answer, he deliberately cut her off. "Whatever anyone thought before, none of that matters now - and all I want to know now is what are any of you preparing to do about it - about her?"
"Don't look to me to solve all of your problems." Elizabeth told him coldly. "Put some of your people to earning their paychecks. I work for the Party, not for you."
She turned her gaze to the group of men still standing by silently. "Has anyone reached out to Ms. Ross to try and establish some kind of rapport? Ask her out to coffee? Cocktails? Dinner? Offered to walk her to her car - anything?"
Her gaze raked over them before she turned back to Tillman. "This is what you're working with? Pitiful."
Elizabeth shook her head. "But luckily for you, I'm pretty sure that I still have an in with Susan's office - and I intend to use it. I'll get back to you when I know more."
That was enough to put the senator into check but the scenario reminded her that she was more vulnerable than she would like - Elizabeth knew her people and knew that Republicans tended to be sharks with blood in the water. If she's seen as weak then that's how she'll be treated and that will never do - which was why she found herself sitting in the vice-president's office, seeking her advice while her own combination of deference and cleverly phrased flattery deliberately manipulated Sally to take actions of her own - just as Elizabeth needed.
She refocused her attention to the present.
"It's done with godly patience, Elizabeth." The other woman was saying. "Men, unfortunately are weak despite their best intentions and as such they must be handled delicately - for their own good, of course."
"I can see that." Elizabeth agreed. Handling men - delicately, of course - was something she had become very good at.
"It's a shame that the Grants have separated." Sally sipped at her tea. "Mrs. Grant was such a stabilizing force in the President's life. We could certainly use her hands on the reins."
Elizabeth smiled at Sally. "I do wonder how the First Lady is doing these days..."