Disclaimer: Shondaland/ABC owns these characters. But I've taken the Gladiator oath as a writer: #OLITZ4LIFE #JAMMMmmmmm #100%
Dead-Mellie and NO-Joke: Public Service Announcement for any accidental non-Olitz readers
"…Emotional scenes in Roswell, New Mexico this morning as President Grant walks into the arms of his tearful wife, Olivia Pope-Grant. The First Lady has been lobbying for the President's release since he was detained by the Federal Bureau of Investigations. The FBI took him into 'safe-keeping' they say, for a series of psychological evaluations ordered by Vice President Sally Langston…"
"…That's what 21 days in FBI lock-up looks like, folks, you go from being a candidate for GQ Man of the Year to Tom Hanks in 'Castaway'. All that's missing is the tan and loin cloth, but the beard and extreme diet are spot on. And they say this guy is crazy. Guess we need re-write the rules on that one, because in the last 21 days we sure saw crazy and it wasn't from the President being detained in Roswell, New Mexico…"
"…Well, we all saw what 21 days with a 'sane' Republican President can do to this country. Guess the Grant honeymoon hiatus will continue until the mess that's been made of our democracy gets a big clean-up. I'd personally like to send my thanks to our viewers in in the Middle East, South America and Eastern Europe, they have felt our pain and in the last 21 days we sure as heck know what theirs feels like…"
Cyrus switched off the television in the antechamber to the Oval Office, as he went around doing the 'Big Sally Spring-clean'. The thought widened his smile and put extra pep into his jaunty walk. He even exchanged greetings with the household staff returning from Vermont.
Yes, today was a good day. Sally Langston was out, and Fitzgerald Grant was coming home.
Olivia and Fitz hadn't spoken much after she'd burst into tears at the sight of him, and he'd walked into her open arms to hold her as if he would never let go.
Her tears had soaked the front of his shirt, and he'd breathed in the scent of her hair, fighting back his own tears, as people pushed into them, demanding comments from details of his ordeal to whether he would put Sally Langston on Death Row.
Fortunately, Tom, the other agents and Olivia's associates had been on hand to push the crowd back, allowing them to make it into the relative privacy of the waiting car, where Fitz had immediately called their children, with Olivia plastered to his side.
Now they were flying across the country in Air Force One; while the Associates flew back in the private jet that had been at Olivia's disposal, provided by one of her many clients, during the past 21 days.
Olivia stroked his beard with hands that hadn't stopped touching him.
"What do you think?" Fitz asked huskily, his gaze soft and never leaving her. "Do you think I should keep it?"
She smiled, sliding her arms around him, snuggling close. "I like it but I miss your face."
He chuckled, his breath feathering wisps of her hair. "That's a very diplomatic answer."
She smiled against his throat. "That's because I've been speaking diplomat ever since—!" Her voice broke and she burrowed into him, clutching him tightly.
He took a deep shuddering breath, crooning softly. "We're okay, Livvie. We're okay." He stroked her back. "I've been reading about you in the papers. Those newspapers you insisted I hold up to my face, to verify I was still alive like they do in hostage situations. What you did… everything you did… You were amazing, you are—"
She stopped his words with a fierce kiss. Then broke off, holding his lips at bay with her fingertips when he surged back for more.
"Why'd you stop?" he mumbled.
She looked at him sadly. "I can't jump your bones when you look like you've been on a hunger strike."
He kissed her fingertips. "I lost my appetite, missing you and the kids. Then again, I wasn't sure if they were drugging me through my food. It's easy to get paranoid in a situation like that."
She stroked his cheek. "Carlita gave me a few names. If you want to talk about what happened."
"Maybe. Yeah. Let me think about it. I'm sick of professional shrinks right now." When she tried to leave his lap, he held on tight, "Where are you going?"
"To find you something to eat."
"Don't move. I'm fine."
"Want to make a fuel stop for pizza?" she teased, settling back down. "Or a fly-by burger?"
"No," he chuckled, nuzzling her neck.
"What did you dream of having when you got out?" she murmured vaguely as he found the sweet spot below her ear.
That made him pause.
And the look on his face when he lifted his head to look at her, made her blush.
"Fitz…" A cheeky smile tugged at her lips before she ducked away laughing as he came for her mouth.
Rowan and Jerry saw the last of the protestors off the Vermont property with the Guilfords, Obeid Hussein, Secret Service agents and police who'd arrived to contain the situation.
Indoors, White House staff were organising the packing under the direction of Felicia and Carlita, while Sameera and Karen kept the children entertained and out of the way.
Once the family was flying back to Washington DC - after saying goodbye to Olivia's friends who were returning to their respective homes - Jerry turned to Rowan and said, "Do you think my dad is really okay after what the FBI did to him?"
"Only time will tell."
"What do you think they did to him?"
"I don't know. I've never been detained by the FBI."
"Yeah, but you're a lawyer. What do your clients tell you?"
"What my clients said – while I was a practising lawyer many, many years ago – is confidential."
"Jeez," Jerry shook his head, muttering under his breath. "Can't even lie in an emergency."
"You're a smart boy, Jerry. Even if I lied to you, you would know it wasn't true, so what's the point?"
"Jerry said they would have electrocuted Dad and waterboarded him," Karen sniffled, snuggling close to Felicia.
In the seat next to them, Marta got up quickly and shifted to a back row, carrying a sleeping Teddy with her.
"That's not true," Felicia reassured quickly.
"See Felicia knows how to lie."
"Jerry!" Rowan said sternly as Karen let out a wail. Then turning to Karen, he said less sternly. "Karen, you're father has not been tortured. He was taken by the FBI, not the CIA. Fitzgerald is safe and he's coming home. You'll see."
"Can Dad sue the FBI for keeping him locked up?" Jerry persisted.
"I'm sure there'll be a way, but if any judgement is made for compensation, that will be come out of taxpayer funds."
"Why can't it come out of FBI funds?"
"The FBI is a government organisation."
"Can't Dad sue the FBI director?"
"He could, but we'd need to look at what the FBI Director's personal assets are worth. Much easier to sue the government."
"But Dad is the government. I mean he's President. So he'll really be suing himself?"
"You have a good point."
"Can Dad waterboard and electrocute the FBI director?"
"Jerry!" Felicia hissed covering Karen's ears, then snapped at Rowan when he said, "Probably, but not at the same time. That would be murder."
In New York, Senator Lucas Zeke addressed the Occupy Wall Street protestors. "You hate I'm-a-need-a-bailout bankers?"
The crowd roared, "Yes!"
"You hate Big Business that takes your money in subsidies, pays you a beggar's wage while they make billion dollar profits and then hoards that money in the Cayman Islands so they don't have to pay tax?"
"YES!"
"You want government to stop being a friend to one per cent of rich folk like the Cosh brothers; you want them to start representing the people – the 99 per cent that is the rest of us?"
"YES!"
"And how you gonna achieve all that, blockading the streets of New York? You want to change the way this country works – you ain't going to do that by wishing someone will change it for you while you sit out here on your collective asses! You ain't going to do that by stopping tourists, residents and Manhattan shoppers from going about their business.
"You want people to listen to you – ask yourself who has your vote. Have we earned it? Have we earned the salaries that are paid by your tax dollars? Make us listen, hold us to account. This is a democracy, your voice is represented in Government, you need to make sure your tax dollars are representing the majority of tax payers, not the minority of self-interests."
Senator Zeke paused to gauge the mood of the crowd. They remained silent, shifting on their feet. Then someone shouted, "The Arab Spring worked! They got a change in government!"
"The people in the Middle East were protesting for democracy. Three years on, they are still protesting. We have a democratic system in place here in the United States – it's not perfect; it's subject to abuse; it's under constant attack from those in power, and those who want to be in power but we have a system.
"Now I ain't telling you folks what to do, you want to sit out here doing about as much good as praying for rain, wasting everyone's time, stopping Mom & Pop investors from getting their two cents worth, hey go right ahead. But if you want to change the way this country works, get out there and get involved in the democratic process. Get active in your own communities, in your schools, your offices, the offices of your elected officials. You voted for us! Make sure we're doing our jobs!"
News round-up on Comedy Central…
"…We've got The White House Car Chase 2 happening in Washington DC tonight. There's the Presidential limousine auditioning for the Indy 500 as it heads towards the Southwest Waterfront. The sole occupant this time appears to Mr Daniel Douglas Langston, in the driver's seat, escaping the tyranny of his wife and beard, the once President Sally Langston.
"Oh! And there it goes, folks! Right over the edge into the Potomac River! Man, they need new script writers at the White House, I saw that coming a mile away.
"The White House has issued a statement saying the drug-crazed Second Husband is missing, believed drowned. Yep, we've heard it all before.
"BTW, that's the second $300,000 car that's been dunked in the river with DC Police and emergency crew on hand to make the rescue. So what I want to know is, when did the White House start operating on a blockbuster budget, instead of crowd-sourced indie-movie funding?..."
The FBI director stared at the printout of the email on his desk, reading it for the third time that morning.
"My dear Olivia,
"Time to cut and run. As the song says, 'This town ain't big enough for the both of us'.
"I should stick around and help clean up the mess my dear wife has made of this great nation of ours but since I helped turn Sally into the crazy lady she is today, I feel my work is done.
"By now, you, and the rest of the country, would know that Sally has been spending my inheritance on finding a cure for my 'Godless' tendencies to love men. They'll be saying the woman has been funding a drug which increases psychopathy in the human mind. What you may not know is that Sally has been using me as a guinea pig for an unauthorised drug trial. And what she does not know is that I've been feeding her the same pills, ever since I found out about her involvement with Global Unity.
"Did the drug turn me crazy? Did the drug turn Sally crazy? I wouldn't say that. I'd say that it helps bring out the bad in all of us without any guilt. I want to make that clear— the drug enhances the evil in us, but it doesn't inject what isn't there – so when my wife sees a copy of this email, don't let her blame the drugs for what she has done. They are only partly to blame, a small part.
"As for our own very beautiful friendship, my dear, I'm hoping that you bear no ill will towards me for taking you night-swimming in the Potomac. If you hadn't panicked, you'd have known you were safe. I wasn't going to drown you. Not when I had a guy who was willing to pay me a princely sum to have you as his lover. But I'm not one to hold a grudge. Not when you've done a spectacular job of exposing my wife for the disaster she is.
Until we meet again,
Daniel Douglas-Langston'
The FBI deputy looked at his boss. "So the country went to hell and back because the husband gave the wife some gotdamn pills?"
The FBI director rubbed a hand over his face. "I don't even know where to begin with this."
"What are we going do?'
"Same thing we did with agent Mike's statement that he had to shoot a fellow agent for trying to drown the First Lady in the vice president's limousine after he refused an order to stop; in addition to the Report confirming that Mr Langston and his agent lover were running a prostitution ring within the Secret Service. Just bury everything. Bury them so deep, it'll be another couple of centuries before it surfaces."
"Unless Wikileaks already has a copy."
"Damnit!"
In the Oval Office, Sally Langston sat down heavily in one of the armchairs with the copy of the email in her hand.
"What are you going to do with this?" she asked Fitz, standing with his back to her as he stared unseeingly into the darkness of the Rose Garden.
He turned away from the window and walked back to the Resolute Desk. "What I'm going to do with the other documents and files your husband kindly provided my wife, keep it safe."
Sally sat back. "You cannot blame me for what happened, Fitzgerald. Daniel-Douglas drugged me. He has admitted as much."
"From what he says, he gave you a mood-enhancing drug and your mood was to destroy my family and the democratic processes in this country."
"I did what I did because you failed in your primary duty to protect the freedoms guaranteed by our Constitution, and because you were destroying the moral fabric of our society by marrying the woman who destroyed your marriage."
"Olivia didn't destroy my marriage. My marriage was dead, and Olivia made me realise it. I don't believe in the sanctity of marriage, Sally. As you do, to the point of staying married to a man who could never be attracted to you as a woman. I believe we should be true to ourselves and our feelings, and my feelings for Olivia have not changed from the day I met her. I love her. I wouldn't expect you to understand that, but I will insist that you respect our right to be happy."
Sally pursed her lips, glancing away. "I will of course, resign," she said tightly, after a long pause.
"I will expect it. But it is clear to me you have far greater support within the Republican Party for the values you hold dear, than the one that I do."
Sally's gaze narrowed. "What are you suggesting, Fitzgerald?"
A few days later, President Fitzgerald Grant III stood before the media, with his wife and children by his side.
"I am here to thank the American people for your support of my Presidency and my family during the extraordinary events of recent times. And I want to thank you all for the constructive and effective action you have taken to return this country to the traditions we uphold in democracy, freedom and justice.
"Further to this, I would urge all states and territories to sign up to the National Popular Vote bill. It is important to make our democracy as robust as it can be. To do otherwise, could bring us back to the nightmare scenes of our immediate past.
"I urge this as I feel Partisan Politics is doing us more harm than good. We are no longer a 'Government of the people, by the people, for the people' that Abraham Lincoln envisioned in his Gettysburg address more than 150 years ago. Today we are a bunch of career politicians, funded by the deep pockets of self-interested individuals and big business, to further the goals and gains of a few.
"I, for one, don't represent the One Per Cent. I represent you all, 100 per cent but I also stand for equity in opportunity and all the social factors that contribute to a level playing field, giving us all a chance to achieve the American Dream, whatever that dream may be.
"For some time now, it has been clear to me that there is a dissonance between my political ideals and those of the party I have represented my entire political career.
"In the past few weeks, it has also been clear to me that the Republican Party agrees with me. So I am here today to announce that I have resigned from the Republican Party. I will finish the remainder of my Presidential term in office as an independent. And I will contest the upcoming election in November as an Independent, with Senator Lucas Zeke of Georgia as my running mate.
"Mrs Sally Langston has resigned from her position as Vice President, and has now taken over as leader of the Republican Party…"
A/N: OMG how do people with Tumblr get ANYTHING DONE outside of Tumblr scrolling and reblogging – I HAVE LOST DAYS on it!
Anyway in researching my latest chapter about 'Improbable Events in American Politics' – I couldn't actually find anything on the ways a President could quit his party and remain President – i.e. is there some law, regulation that would prevent him from doing so? But I did read in Wikipedia that US President John Tyler was expelled from the Whig Party in 1841 and was in effect an independent President for the rest of his term. So I grabbed that tenuous factoid with both hands, feet and all my teeth – even though I realise several seachanges have occurred between 1841 and now.
In other things I've learnt as I write this series (i.e the mistakes I've made through my own ignorance) – is that the little old lady in Rhode island I wrote about some time back isn't going to get anyone excited because of the electoral college voting system used in the United States. Apparently the system ignores her vote because she doesn't live in a swing state (states where no one is sure if they'll vote Democrat or Republican at each election – whereas Rhode Island has voted for Democrats in the last 4 elections)
From my recent 'internet education' – it looks like the college system focuses only on swing states, whereas the popular vote in theory makes every vote count. Not that it would have made any difference to President Obama, who won both the popular vote and the electoral college vote, but it looks like there are moves to incorporate both to make the American vote more democratic. Because George W Bush who lost the popular vote became President thanks to the Supreme Court, and some states don't want another 'loser' as President.
BTW, DayDreamLover I know you were fond of Daniel Douglas, but hopefully you're not too sad about the 'good' evil-dude portrayal!
And thank you to everyone who has enjoyed the craziness of this story and the real life events (in other parts of the world) that were incorporated into the last chapter as well as the possible EU reactions to what happened. ;))))
References: (Please see Tumblr for actual links on Scandal-Maniac, BTW you don't need Tumblr to read the blog - I speak as an experienced Tumblr stalker who didn't have an account for years! Well actually two, since I discovered Tumblr after Scandal.
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articles/18980/popular-vote-2012-though-obama-won-the-popular-vote-lower-turnout-means-no-mandate
eric-black-ink/2012/10/10-reasons-why-electoral-college-problem
/justice/2014/03/26/3419339/new-york-legislature-backs-plan-to-effectively-abolish-the-electoral-college/