Disclaimer: Shondaland/ABC owns these characters. But I've taken the Gladiator oath as a writer: #OLITZ4LIFE #JAMMMmmmmm
No Mellie or Joke: Public Service Announcement for any accidental non-Olitz readers
The next morning, Olivia woke to find herself hemmed in by warm bodies. It didn't take her long to identify the culprits, not when Daisy was on Fitz's pillow, making tiny little yips of noise in the middle of her doggy dreams.
There was a knock on the door. "Ma'am?"
"Come in."
The house-hold staffer opened the door and paused at the sight of Olivia still in bed. "Ma'am, er, I'm here to take the dogs for a walk."
"Good, then I can get out of bed."
The staffer grinned, jangling the dog leads; prompting the canines, who'd been snoring a second ago, to raise their heads in unison and look in the direction of the noise.
When the leads were jangled again, they leapt off the bed and raced out the door, making the staffer chase after them. But she returned a second later, to close the bedroom with a sheepish grin, giving Olivia the privacy she needed to push back the covers and pad to the bathroom without bothering with a robe.
Olivia grinned at herself in the mirror, pulling a shower cap over her hair. Then softly sang her mother's lullaby as she stepped into the shower stall, adjusted the water temperature, and let the warm water wash over her deliciously aching body.
The song gave way to a tuneless, happy hum as she squeezed a big dollop of coconut bodywash onto a washcloth and worked up a generous lather on her skin; following the trails made by Fitz, with his hands and mouth, the night before.
She was still humming under her breath, much later, when she headed towards the private kitchen on the second floor of the Executive Residence.
The breakfast rush was over and there was no sign of the chef, his assistants, two valets and the butler, who usually prepared and plated up the hot breakfast that would have been served in the adjoining family dining room, to Fitz, the children, Rowan and Felicia.
Olivia was in the middle of feeding bananas, apples, spinach and celery into the juicer, making a green smoothie, when an interruption made the muscles on her neck tense instantly.
"Olivia."
Olivia glanced at the slim dark woman with silver cropped hair who'd entered the room, and forced herself to say pleasantly, "Felicia." Before loosening her shoulders, to lift up the juice container and pour out a glass. After a pause, she asked reluctantly, "Would you like some?"
"Thank you. Yes. That would be nice."
Olivia poured out a second glass, saving a portion for Fitz that she intended to take to him in the Oval Office.
"You didn't make it to dinner or breakfast," Felicia murmured, picking up the glass Olivia placed on the counter nearby.
"I was catching up on sleep. Had a couple of busy nights, working."
They stood, leaning against the counter, sipping their glasses, avoiding eye contact.
Then Felicia took an audible breath and said smoothly, "Karen told us that you still haven't found a dress. I think I might be able to help."
Olivia angled a look at Felicia, studying her cherry red Dr Martens, ankle length figure hugging emerald knit dress, bold patterned scarf and chunky tribal bracelets.
Catching the look, Felicia gave a cold smile. "I realise our tastes differ. You prefer a more bland palette to mine—"
"Are those leather boots?" Olivia interrupted.
"They are faux leather. Perfect for vegans. But as I was saying, Olivia, having taught fashion journalism for the past thirty years, I have contacts."
"Thank you, but I was planning to go downtown today and check out the bridal boutiques."
"You're going to wear something off the rack?" Felicia clutched a hand to her heart.
"Yes, a lot of brides do that."
"But you're not like those other brides, Olivia. You're marrying the President of the United States, in the White House. People will be watching. The fashion industry will be watching. You can't just step out in last year's Amsale, Carolina Herrera or Monique Lhuillier. It has to be fresh, custom-made and fashion forward. From now on, you have to think of your body as a canvas for American design and creativity. You are fashion ambassador whether you are aware of it or not. And your dress should be unique. As unique as Jacqueline Bouvier's wedding dress that is on display in the Kennedy library in Boston."
Olivia drained her glass and put it down on the counter with a thunk."Felicia, I don't appreciate the lecture," She watched Felicia's neat brows snap together, then added, "But you do have a point."
"Of course I have a point! This is your chance to introduce the work of a struggling or unknown designer to the world. And unlike Ann Lowe who was referred to as a 'coloured woman seamstress' by Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy; you, Olivia, as a woman of colour can elevate the status of another minority designer by, at the very least, mentioning his or her name."
"Felicia, if you can keep at the forefront of your mind, at all times, that I'm not a newbie undergrad taking one of your classes, I think this could work. But we don't have a lot of time."
"Ann Lowe and her staff worked eight days straight to re-create the Bouvier wedding dress and the 10 bridesmaids dresses, after flood damage ruined the originals. I'm sure we can find someone who is sufficiently professional about deadlines and enthusiastic about quality, to create a dress for you in as much time."
Olivia stepped over Fitz, lying on the rug playing with Teddy, to place the travel mug containing the green smoothie on the Resolute desk.
"What's that?" He raised a brow.
"It's good for you."
"Oh, something I won't like."
"It's good for you," Olivia repeated, joining them on the floor. "Can we elope?"
Fitz gave a soft chuckle, letting go of Teddy who immediately crawled up to Olivia and tried to grab her necklace. "Why? What brought this on?"
"Felicia wants to help me choose my wedding dress. And I've agreed to go to Manhattan with her. But I just know itt's going to end badly. Our screaming match will be on the evening news. So I was thinking, maybe you and I could go to Vegas instead."
"And get married by Elvis," Fitz added.
"Perfect," Olivia grinned, lifting Teddy onto her lap. "So shall we leave now?"
Fitz sat up to give her a kiss on the cheek. "I'll get Marine One to fly you to New York."
Olivia covered Teddy's ears and hissed, "Why do you have to be such a hard ass when it comes to Felicia and my dad?"
"They're your family. And because of that, they'll be part of mine." He stroked her cheek with his thumb. "They're your history, Livvie. The part I don't know all that much about, the part you only reveal when you get upset with your Dad. I need him around, so I can learn more about you."
"Couldn't you get the CIA to interrogate me instead?"
He laughed. "No. I'm saving that for a special occasion."
Olivia sighed, leaning against Fitz. "So Vegas is out?"
"Yep." He kissed her temple. "But Marine One is in. That way you can yell and scream at Felicia in complete privacy."
Telecast of mid-morning chat show on ZZZ TV - DC on Our Watch - taped before a live studio audience….
"…Now are we going to talk about the upcoming nuptials of President Fitzgerald Grant the Third?"
"There's not much to talk about – all we know is that President Grant will be marrying his second wife. When? They don't want us to know, but the gossip on Capitol Hill says its sure to be a Valentine's Day wedding."
"Aww, that's so romantic - marrying the love of your life on a day that celebrates romantic love."
"Well, I'm more interested in the future First Lady. What do we really know about Ms Pope?"
"She's a crisis manager. She's handled several high-profile cases, like the one involving Senator Richard Meyers who got caught up in that sexting murder scandal."
"You mean he got caught doing 'D' business, instead of the business of legislating."
…(Pause as audience cackles with laughter)…
"But you know, jokes aside, the murder of Desiree Oaks is still unresolved."
"I'm sure there's nothing Ms Pope can do about that, she's a crisis manager, not a homicide detective. Ms Pope handles the media, like she did for Congresswoman Josephine Marcus, the Democrat from Montana."
"Key word to focus on there is 'Democrat', Ms Marcus was running against the President , or I should say, Ms Pope's soon-to-be- husband."
"Their romance wasn't public then."
"But they've known each other since Ms Pope ran Mr Grant's first Presidential campaign. And he won that race, folks. So if she put her hand up to run Josie Marcus' campaign – should we call it a 'slam dunk' scenario?"
"What I want to know is how the President felt when he heard Ms Pope had taken on Ms Marcus as a client? Guess there was no nooky for the lovebirds that night."
…(Again audience laughter)…
"I guess from that we can say Ms Pope is pragmatic, rather than loyal, when it comes to her own business."
"Well, Ms Marcus did drop out of the race, when she was widely regarded as the front runner. Now they're saying Governor Samuel Reston of Maryland has a chance to step into the void."
"Forget Reston, go back to that Marcus woman. You were talking about Ms Pope's loyalty, maybe it was loyalty to the President that got the Congresswoman out of the race. You know keep your friends close, but your enemies closer - until you can kick them out of your life for good."
...(More audience laughter)...
"Well, what would you say about her employees whom she keeps even closer. Here's a picture of them at the hearing in Georgia a couple of days ago. I mean some of these guys have criminal records, like this guy here sitting right next to Ms Pope. His name is Mr Harrison Wright."
"Didn't he get done for insider trading?"
"Yeah, he was sentenced to eight years, but got out after six months."
"Ms Olivia Pope was his attorney."
"Guess the lady is very good at her job."
"Defending criminals."
"What the hell is this shit?" Harrison stopped the recording. "Why are they talking about me?"
"Or the real question is why are they talking about you now?" Huck muttered.
"So one of our clients saw this and sent the link?" Abby frowned.
"Does that mean we'll all get outed, including me with my murder charge?" Quinn asked, switching her anxious gaze between the other three associates.
"I don't think you have anything to worry about right now. If they were going to talk about you, they'd have said something," Harrison reassured her.
But then Abby tossed in, "Weird, that they didn't mention Cytron. I mean if they really wanted to show the criminality of Liv's employees, they should have focused on the 'Molotov Mistress' aka Quinn Perkins aka Lindsay Dwyer accused of murdering seven people including her cheating boyfriend."
"Her boyfriend wasn't cheating and she didn't do it," Huck said, as Quinn opened her mouth to give a blistering reply, but settled on "Yeah, what he said." Before adding, "So I guess this means that David isn't the leak."
"Of course, he's not the leak!" Abby glared at her. "…This time."
"Aren't we missing the obvious here?" Harrison muttered.
Abby and Quinn looked at each other, but it was Huck who said, "Your colour?"
"No, man," Harrison waved that aside. "Someone's going after Liv, trying to make her look bad, and they're using me to do it."
"Did you see it?" Fitz asked over the phone, from the Oval Office.
"Yes," Olivia replied, pacing the floor of a hastily-vacated office in Lower Manhattan. "Huck sent me the link. And I've been getting calls non-stop from my former clients, worried that the leak is from my guys. They think OPA is the one talking to the media, breaking our contractual obligations on confidentiality."
"The cases they mentioned were hardly private."
"No, but there were others that the media don't know I've handled. And the high-profile clients are worried that the unsanitised information will get out and make them front page news again, just when their lives are getting back on track."
"What are you going to do?"
"What I tell my clients to do - speak to the press. I've called DC on Our Watch, and scheduled an interview with my guys on the talk show. We'll be taping at their studios tomorrow morning."
"Did you get the dress?"
"Yes, kind of."
"What does that mean?"
"It means it's a work in progress."
Taping of ZZZ chat show DC on Our Watch, an exclusive interview with Olivia Pope and her Associates, Harrison Wright, Quinn Perkins, Abby Whelan and Huck.
"Ms Pope, thank you for being on our show, even if we had to keep our live audience out, at the request of the United States Secret Service."
"We didn't want to put your audience through the invasion of privacy that would be required if they were to attend. I'm sure you can understand the Secret Service Agents have to do their job but at the same time I understand you have to do yours."
"Oh of course, of course. We're all about being accommodating our guests as much as possible, Ms Pope, and it's truly a pleasure to have you on our show. I believe this is the first media interview you've given since you've given become engaged to the President."
"I don't talk about my personal life, or my clients' personal life without a signed release form. That's a standard we follow at Olivia Pope and Associates, but I understand you're more interested in the way I run my business and the people I employ, not necessarily the clients I've handled."
"Oh, we're just doing our job, Ms Pope, we take the pulse of the people and discuss the hot topics of the day."
"Well, I'm flattered to be a hot topic, and appreciate being invited to the show so I can answer your questions in person, with my associates who are here to answer your questions too."
"So is this guy's real name Huck? That's it? Is that what's on his birth certificate?"
"I can speak for myself and my name is Huck."
"Okay then, well, I guess we should really talk about the guy who grabbed our attention - Mr Harrison Wright. Is it true you were convicted for Insider Trading?'
"Yes, it's true."
"And Ms Pope was your defense attorney?"
"Liv was more than that. She didn't just defend me in court, she gave me my life back. She got me out early on a conditional release, and gave me a job. She's like my big sister, always watching out for me. Always watching out for all of us."
"So your relationship goes way back before she became your lawyer?"
"Yeah, we're from the hood." Harrison grinned at Olivia.
"Yes," she laughed. "And when Harrison rang to say he was in trouble, of course, I dropped everything and went to help. My father, who was a law professor, has always told me that when we are faced with injustice, we must do everything in our power to counter it."
"Your father sounds like an upstanding guy, Ms Pope. What's his name?"
"Professor Rowan Pope, he's a member of the Emeritus Faculty of Cornell Law School; and regularly writes for the Journal of Empirical Legal Studies on what he considers room for improvement in our legal system."
"And did you feel there was room for improvement in Mr Harrison's case?"
"Yes."
"Mr Harrison, is there anything you'd like to add?"
"Well, everything I had to say is in the court transcript."
"We have a copy of that here. Yeah, we like to do our research on this program. The transcript, and let me just paraphrase a bit, says that you bought stock on the recommendations of one of your clients. That was the evidence given by the SEC investigator. But I'm curious, why did you chose not to defend yourself?"
"It's not that I chose not to defend myself. It was a matter of client-attorney privilege. We hadn't discussed the commission of a crime, I got a hot tip from a client who was also a friend, and I acted on it. That's it."
Olivia leaned forward. "Can I just say that the case against Harrison was just a scare tactic. The SEC wanted Harrison to roll on his client. He didn't. And his punishment didn't fit the so-called crime. I just made that clear to the parole board, and the state governor."
"In the Parole hearing transcript that we have—"
"Wow, your researchers have been unusually thorough. I watch your show on an off," said Quinn. "You guys usually get your research from US Weekly and People Magazine."
"…Yes, we have a couple of new hires in our research department."
"Yep, they sure have been earning their internship wages lately."
"You're paying your interns?" Abby raised a brow.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we are. Don't all interns get paid?"
"No," Quinn shook her head "And we're just curious because the network hasn't hired anyone for this show in the last 12 months. Isn't that right, Harrison?"
"Yep, in fact, they've laid off 20 staffers in the past week because of budget cuts."
"That twenty included the two women who complained to the network about sexual harassment. What a coincidence their names got included in the Pink Slip Lottery." Abby said with a smile.
…(Pause as talk show hosts stare blankly at the OPA, then one of them rallies)…
"Never mind that, getting back to the transcript, it says Ms Pope presented evidence that the investigator seduced Harrison in the hope of getting him to reveal his client's correspondence and when he wouldn't, the SEC brought charges against him."
"If that's what it says in the transcript, then that must be what I did," Olivia smiled.
"Yes, of course, Ms Pope, we don't expect you to have memorised everything that happened such a long time ago. But Mr Harrison did commit a crime and we just want our audience to know what happened."
"Harrison served six months for that so-called crime, and we're not here so you can re-try him on this show." Olivia said. "Even if there wasn't the matter of double jeopardy, there is a matter of jurisprudence – how many of you have passed the bar?"
"None," Huck answered.
"But they do have criminal records," Quinn said, "So I guess they do have some familiarity with the legal system."
"DUIs, possession of illegal substances, public indecency, and one charge of child neglect," Huck said placing each folder on the table.
"Would you care to discuss any of your past crimes, in a balance of fairness?" Olivia asked.
Discussion on Today's Hot Topic on rival network OHH the next day…
"Now, are we going to talk about that other show that is no more?"
"Wow, that just blew my mind – 'DC on Our Watch' being cancelled without warning."
"But you're not surprised, are you? Really?"
"No I can't say, I'm surprised. If you've got a show's that's been tanking in the ratings and a network that's been taking an axe to its regular programming since the start of the year, then it stands to reason that sooner rather than later, that show would get the chop."
"Yeah, but if it was just ratings, we wouldn't have the apology. And for folks who've been asleep while all this was going down, ZZZ network chief has issued a formal statement to Ms Olivia Pope and Mr Harrison Wright saying it was not the network's intent to slander Ms Pope's crisis management business or call into question Mr Harrison's reputation by highlighting a past mistake. If you want to read the apology, sorry statement, in it's entirety, you can find the link on our Facebook page to the Olivia Pope and Associates website."
"So when the hosts of DC On Our Watch were talking about getting an exclusive, what they really meant was, they were getting an exclusive into oblivion, I guess."
"You think they'll revamp the show and bring in new faces?"
"Watch this space, folks, watching this space. And RIP DC on Our Watch until then."
A/N: THANK YOU for the feedback – and for being patient with the Rowan/Felicia story line but that's the only way I could think of to get more personal factoids in that I'm learning thanks to America's Black History month (February).
So for a point of accuracy (that's not in my story) Marine One and Air Force One are only called that apparently, if the President is flying in those aircraft. Otherwise they're called by the craft/tail/whatever number. But that was just too hard for my brain to compute – it's a struggle to come up with words, now I have to do numbers too?!
The second thing is that I wanted to include a reference to Ann Lowe in this story, after reading about the dismissive way her work was regarded not only by Jackie Kennedy, but also the media. And this after the designer and her staff worked eight days straight to have 11 dresses ready on time, after water damage ruined the original dresses. That make-up work put Ms Lowe $2200 in loss, instead of the $700 profit she was expecting.
You can read more via Ann Lowe: Black Fashion Designer Who Created Jacqueline Kennedy's Wedding Dress (PHOTOS) - by Julee Wilson in Huffington Post on 02/05/2013; And Wedding dress of Jacqueline Bouvier in Wikipedia
And I decided that Hollis would target Harrison because he would be too closely connected to Quinn – so in the vaguest of terms, I mashed together what I felt must have gone down with Harrison, minus Adnan Salif (who?! Exactly!).
Articles that helped my confusion-keyed brain come up with all that : Insider Trading Shows Absurdity of Sentencing Guidelines - written by Walter Pavlo in Forbes on July 29, 2013 and SEC Rocked By Lurid Sex-and-Corruption Lawsuit written by Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone on Nov 19, 2012. I tells ya - there are scandals everywhere!
Sorry for the 60+ readers who've already this after I posted - but I've changed the brother from another mother reference Olivia made about Harrison during the DC on Our Watch interview to just 'Harrison' - the other was a line I intended to change but missed before posting!