Two weeks Later.
Olivia's phone rang.
She looked at the caller id and saw it was Cyrus. She had been avoiding him since Verna's funeral, he'd been calling her about twice a day since the funeral and she decided to finally answer him.
"Hello"
"Liv, where the hell have you been, I've been calling you for weeks. Are you still upset about Verna, I knew you two were close but not that close," Cyrus bellowed through the phone.
"Cy, calm down please. I've just been swamped with work and everything and it's just been really crazy with cases and.." Cyrus cut her off.
"You've never been too busy to hang with your old mentor, I'm not buying the excuses your selling Liv, what's really going on?" Cyrus asked.
Olivia pretended her phone was cutting off.
"I'm sorry Cy, I really can't hear you, can you hear me,….Cy… hello, then she hung up. She giggled because she knew he would be pissed, but she didn't care.
"Shit !" Cyrus cursed in the air. He had been calling so he could vent his Fitz frustrations. He didn't know what was going on but he definitely wasn't in the circle anymore. Fitz had him running around like a chicken with no head, doing errand boy tasks. For the past few weeks he hadn't been invited to any meetings and whenever he did show up Fitz would ask to speak whoever it was in private. Why was Fitz shutting him out was the million dollar question that Cyrus needed to know the answer to. For a brief moment Cyrus thought that fitz might know about defiance but he quickly dismissed it because he was sure that if Fitz knew he would have brought it up.
Cyrus decided it was time to confront Fitz, because he was the dragon that slayed monsters not the assistant that approved floral decorations for the rose garden. He thought it was outright disrespectful the way Fitz was treating him and it was about time he confronted him about it.
He decided to pay a visit to the oval office.
"Lauren is he free?"
"Yes Mr. Beene, he's free," Lauren replied.
Cyrus pushed the door open barely waiting for Lauren to answer.
"Good morning Mr. president."
"Good morning Vy, how are the floral decoration for the rose garden coming along, " Fitz said but he could barely hide the amusement in his voice.
"That's what I have to talk you about sir," Cyrus said evenly.
"What's wrong, are Japanese peonies not in season or something?" Fitz asked as looked down at the briefing packet he was reading.
"What's going on Fitz, that's not my job, my job is to slay dragons, fight the good fight and help you run this country, not worry about the rose garden, that's your wife's job!" Cyrus said raising his voice with a strain.
Fitz pondered about whether or not he really wanted to get into it with Cyrus, but then he thought that now was as good a time as any.
He dropped the packet on the desk and then dropped the pen.
He looked up. Giving Cyrus direct eye contact.
"Your job Cyrus, it whatever I say it is. I am your boss and if I need your job to be decorating flower arrangements, then that is what you will do. I don't not care whether you like it or not. I have a country to run and I have people I need to protect. So I'm sorry if you feel left out at the big boys table. I have more important things that need my attention," Fitz said this in a serious and commanding tone.
"No, that's not it, I've known you for a long time now, that's not your problem, you and Liv have been acting really weird since Verna's funeral, god bless her soul. It that what this is about, is it Olivia?"
Fitz was beyond annoyed. How dare he come in here and act clueless like he didn't steal an entire election just to get his ass into the Whitehouse and then try to bring up Olivia's name just to try and rattle him.
"This has nothing to do with her," Fitz said calmly.
"Then what is it?"
That was it. Fitz was pissed.
"Why, because I'm actually running the country on my own for once. There's something wrong. The country that the good American people elected me to run…"
He paused.
"Or did they? Did they elect me to run this country, Cyrus, or did you?" he asked. By now he was standing directly in front of Cyrus and he was seething.
"Sir, I'm afraid I don't know what your'e…" you could see the nerves on Cyrus' face as he was talking.
Fitz cut him off.
"I know Cyrus. You can stop lying, I know about your little scheme, I know about defiance, I know everything, you can cut the clueless act," Cyrus decided to walk over to the bar and pour himself some scotch. He hated scotch.
He let out a deep breath.
"How did you find out," Cyrus asked sounding defeated.
"After my birthday gala, I found out Verna's was sick so I went to visit her, I thought I could keep her company, make her feel better. Imagine my surprise when I show up and she tells me, that I am not the president of these United States. That you and Hollis and Olivia and Mellie rigged the voting machines in my favor in defiance county. That she had to meet with David Rosen to confess her sins because she didn't want to die with a guilty conscience for whatever reason."
Cyrus nearly spit his sip of scotch out when he heard Olivia's name.
Why would Verna's tell Fitz that Olivia was involved. Yea, sure they asked her, but she said no, that she didn't want to have anything to do with it. She warned them not to go ahead with it because it was cheating and she wanted to win clean or lose honorably and blah, blah, blah. Of course they still went ahead with it, they just told her they didn't.
"Cyrus?" Fitz snapped him back to reality.
"Sir."
"Is that all you have to say, is 'sir', after what I just accused you of," Fitz said angrily.
"Sir, I, we uhm I…"
"Get Out Cyrus!" Fitz said harshly.
Cyrus got up and left without saying another word.
Fitz was annoyed. He wasn't surprised that Cyrus, Hollis and Mellie were involved, Cyrus and Mellie were political animals, monsters even. Hollis was just a dumb hick who would do anything he thought benefitted him, so of course he went along with it. If Fitz was being honest with himself he wasn't really that upset with them anymore. Other than feeling like an idiot for finding out the way Verna told him, but there was nothing he could really do about it. Verna got what she deserved, he watched her suffocate slowly and he didn't even feel remorse because it was either that or watch Olivia get thrown in jail for god knows how long after Verna ratted them out to the David Rosen. He wondered briefly if Olivia would forgive him for killing Verna, then he thought she would probably forgive him just about as much as he would forgive her for defiance and then he quickly put that thought to rest. He promised himself he wouldn't think about her. In fact he had been on a pretty rigid workout schedule with the White House fitness trainer to burn of all the extra energy he had. He started a routine, he would wake up early for his briefing, then he would run for 30 mins to and hour depending on the schedule for the day (he hated running). He would keep himself busy during the day between meetings and councils and all his presidential duties , then he would workout for a couples hours in the evening before bed. He perfected this routine in the last couple of weeks. It had been convenient to say the least. He also took up boxing, just to get rid of pent up anger and frustration. He managed to avoid Mellie and all her drama, he managed to keep his mind off Olivia (as much as possible) and he managed to drastically change his physique in the past couples weeks. He was toner and building muscle mass by the minute. He thought that things weren't going that bad considering the circumstances.
Cyrus stood on the hallway speechless. He was never one to hold his tongue but he honestly did not know what to say to fitz. Especially after he thought Olivia was involved, he didn't know exactly how to mention to him that she wasn't.
Cyrus thought about packing his office because maybe Fitz would fire him, but then he thought that if Fitz planned on firing him, he would have done it already.
He started walking to his office. He couldn't help but wonder why Verna would lie and say Olivia was involved but then he remembered that she was always an evil bitch who probably just wanted to throw Olivia under the bus for the hell of it. To think that Olivia was always so kind to Verna's just to be repaid like that. He needed to see Olivia, she was the only person he could hope to talk to. He sure didn't want to talk to Mellie, she has been running rampant in the white house yelling and carrying on for the past few days and has been blaming it on her hormones. He also certainly couldn't speak to Hollis, he was just a dumb hick, he wouldn't help him solve any real problems.
He decided to stay at the Whitehouse and finish his work and hideout in his office, till he could go a see Olivia at her apartment that night. He tried to figure out how he would tell her that they went ahead and rigged the election even though she warned them not to and worse that Fitz found out. He went over every possible scenario of her reaction in his head and decided against going to visit her. He knew she would be heartbroken if she found out what they did.
Cyrus decided to play it cool and just do what Fitz told him, keep a low profile until he figured out how get back into Fitz good graces.
2 Months later.
Mellie had given birth to a stillborn baby boy. They were going to name him Theodore "Teddy" Grant. Fitz took it pretty badly, he blamed himself because when he found out that Mellie had finally gotten pregnant he wished that it was Olivia who was pregnant instead. They mourned the loss of their baby. Of course mellie milked it for all the political capital it was worth and her approval numbers were high eighties because most of course America rallied behind their poor first lady who lost her child. Fitz resented her for it.
4 Months Later.
Fitz was on fire, he had been passing bills and signing laws left and right. His biggest project happened to be his universal healthcare bill, that he had been trying to collect votes for. His biggest obstacle was Rhode Island senator Jacob Shaw who was lobbying left and right, to undermine his bill and diminish the votes in order to pass it. Cyrus was back in his good graces and he had him hounding senators and getting votes like a maniac.
Olivia had been doing well, her business was booming, everyone who was anyone wanted to book O.P.A. It had been a pretty easy day when senator Shaw, walked in the office. Olivia was in her office when Abby paged her to come to the front because she had a guest. She walked out to see Jacob in the office, she was a bit surprised.
"Hi senator Shaw, what can I do for you today?" she said pleasantly.
Senator Shaw always admired olivia pope's beauty, but this time it was different. It was like she was a whole new person, he could hardly recognize her. Her hair was very long and it had wavy curls with a middle part and it was tucked behind her ears. Her makeup was soft and natural.
She was wearing a white fitted dress that fit her like a hug. She paired it with a white structured blazer that had gold buttons and she wore a pair of grey suede Jimmy choo pointed toe pumps. She looked like a supermodel. She was dramatically skinnier and more toned than the last time he saw her. She had been swimming excessively and joined a yoga class so a nights she would be too tired to lay awake and think about Fitz.
"Ahem, uhm, Ms. Po, Ms. Pope, ahem. I UHmm…" his breath caught in his throat.
She stood there wondering why he was so flustered it hadn't dawned on her that she was the reason why. It seemed that everyone noticed how exceptionally beautiful she was, except for her.
He had never been one to get tongue tied around women but she was taking his darn breath away.
Harrison could see that Jacob was flustered and couldn't help but chuckle, because he knew exactly why. He had the same reaction when she returned from her trip to New York.
"Sorry Ms. Pope, would it be okay if I spoke to you in your office?" Jacob finally composed himself enough to speak a complete sentence.
"Sure senator, right this way," she motioned for him to follow her.
They got seated in her office. He couldn't take his eyes off of her.
She felt flattered but also uncomfortable.
"So senator, why did you come here today?"
"Honestly, I wanted to see if you could help me lobby against president grant's universal health care bill, that will come to a vote in the next couple of weeks."
Olivia was about to speak but he cut her off.
"But now that I'm here it seems silly and I would rather ask you out on a date?"
"A date?"
"Yes being that I haven't been your client in 6 months, there is no conflict of interest or ethics violations, is there?"
"I'm sorry, once a client, always a client."
"Okay think about it this was, I never got to thank you for saving my ass with the whole tape thing, can I take you out to a thank you dinner, it would really love it if you said yes," He pleaded.
Olivia pondered for a few seconds. The truth is that she had been asked out on more dates in the past six months than she had been in her entire life, but she just didn't think she was ready to take that step after Fitz as yet. But it had been 7 months and it was time to move on.
Senator shaw was very handsome and tall, he was no Fitz, but he was very attractive.
She decided to give it a shot.
"One thank you dinner and that's it," she said with the slightest blush.
"One thank you dinner and that's it," he agreed even though he definitely hoped there would be many more.
"So how does tonight at 7pm at that new French restaurant downtown sound?" he asked politely.
She grabbed her calendar on her iphone and checked.
"Tonight at 7 sounds great," She smiled.
With that Jacob smiled and left.
It was about 4pm, she could be finished with work by 5 and then take about an hour and a half to get ready.
Abby walked in the office.
"Ooooohhh what do we have here, are you blushing?" abby gushed
"Details, Olivia, I want details?"
"Nothing huge Abbs, he just wanted to take me to dinner to thank me for helping with his sex tape drama earlier this year," Olivia tried to play it off like she wasn't excited.
Abby saw right through her.
"Bullshit Liv, he likes you, I knew it since last time we worked with him, he was flirting with you left, right and center."
They both laughed. Then they continued chatting about Olivia's upcoming date.
Olivia left the office around 5:30, so she rushed home as fast as she could to get ready.
She decided to wear a fitted black spaghetti strap cocktail dress that was mid thigh and paired it with a long black duster satin coat and a pair of black Christian Louboutin so Kate suede pumps and her chanel quilted back. She wore her stick straight and finished her look with a matte red lip and she also wore a diamond choker necklace.
She arrived at the restaurant at 7:15pm, she saw Jacob at his table. She made her way over to him. He got up and pulled out her chair and seemed content to stand there until she took her seat. She finally reached their table, she reached out her hand to shake his but instead she reached and gave her a kiss on the cheek, she was pleasantly surprised.
"Sorry, I'm not usually late but as soon as you left the day just became crazy," she said with a cheerfully.
"You're forgiven, you look so beautiful, I would have waited hours for you to show up and it would have been worth it," His eyes would not leave hers. She started to blush, she loved how much attention he was giving her and how he couldn't keep his eyes off of her, that was usually Fitz's thing.
They ordered from the menu and engaged in small chat while their food was being prepared.
Meanwhile Fitz was doing a press tour, visiting local businesses every week to push his new local business tax cut agenda. He so happened to choose the French restaurant downtown because he heard Cyrus gushing about how great the food and atmosphere was.
The secret service had done a sweep of the restaurant a few hours prior. Fitz was outside waiting for the last sweep just to make sure everything was secure.
Olivia noticed a group of men all dress in black take positions all over the restaurant and she thought it was odd. She ended not paying much attention to it because she was having such a good time conversing with Jacob.
Fitz finally got the go ahead from tom to enter the restaurant, not a lot of press was outside because they tried to keep it under wraps as much as possible because they knew that press would find out anyways, they would just catch him when he was leaving. They wanted it to seem surreptitious, though it wasn't, they were counting on the press to catch him there sooner or later, it was the whole purpose.
He walked into the restaurant, to say they patrons were stunned was an understatement. They started cheering and applauding Fitz, he smiled and waved and made his way over to his booth.
Olivia was so deep in conversation that she only looked up when she heard cheering, she thought it was odd to have cheering after all they were at a restaurant, not a sports bar.
She turned her head to see if some sort of celebrity had entered the restaurant and at that exact moment her eyes met a pair of steel blue daggers across the room.
Her stomach dropped. She looked away as quickly as she could.
She started fidget.
At that same moment Jacob realized that Fitz was there as well. Jacob looked annoyed.
"Showing up here for some stupid photo op can you believe it," Jacob said bitterly.
He noticed Olivia's change of behavior.
"Are you alright, did I say something, I'm sorry I know you worked with him it's just.."
Olivia cut him off.
" I have to use the ladies room," she said as she got up quickly.
She made sure that she avoided his gaze at all cost. She could feel him staring at her. His blue eyes piercing her skin. She had to get out of there. She finally made it to the bathroom and took a deep breath, she felt like she was having an anxiety attack. Her palms were sweating, her heart was racing and she was out of breath. She just tried to take slow deep breath and compose herself.
Fitz sat in his booth trying to calm himself down. His heart was racing and it wasn't from excitement, it was from anger. Why the hell did she have to be here and why was she here with senator Shaw of all the men in the world, she had to be here with him the same night I decided to come here. The one senator who was giving him the hardest time to pass his healthcare law. As angry as he was he was in partial shock from seeing how drastically different Olivia looked. She looked flawless. He had never seen her look like that before. He had always thought she was the most beautiful woman in the world but now…he didn't even know what to think. She had long hair, where did she even get long hair from he thought to himself, for as long as he knew her, her hair never passed her shoulders. She was wearing red lipstick on her beautiful soft lips, as long as I've known she never worn lipstick for me, but she wore it for him, he thought. She had on that skimpy dress that looked absolutely gorgeous on her. I've never seen Olivia wear anything that shorter than knee lenght in public, ever. Fitz saw her get up and head to the restroom. He was tempted to walk right in there behind her but there were too many people watching.
He decided that there was no way Olivia was leaving with Senator Shaw that night. Just the thought of them walking out together ignited a fire inside him, he had never felt before. He had to think quick. He called Tom over and told him to figure out how to get everyone out of here and quick.
Olivia was in the bathroom panicking. She decided to call Abby.
Abby picked up after 2 rings.
"Hey Liv, hoes the date going?"
"Fitz is here!" Olivia said, out of breath.
"What, why the hell is here there?" Abby said angrily.
"I have no clue he just walked right in here, I'm freaking out Abby, I can't face him," she was about to start crying.
"Okay Liv, here calm down, here's what you do, wait where are you right now?"
"In the bathroom."
"Okay great, walk right out, go to Jacob and tell him you don't feel well and you want to go for a night cap. Then head straight through the door, he will follow you," Abby instructed.
"Okay, straight through the door," Olivia repeated while taking deep slow breaths.
She hung up.
Meanwhile...Fitz instructed Hal to go and keep guard at the women's restroom door.
Tom instructed to the restaurant staff, that because of security protocols he needed everyone to exist in an orderly fashion. He also promised them that the president would be picking up the tab for all the guest.
Within about 4 minutes everyone from the restaurant had been cleared including Jacob who kept insisting that his date was in the restroom and he need to wait for her, but his plea fell on deaf ears.
Olivia took a deep breath and open the door, there was a gentleman at the door, she bumped into him.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly.
She looked up just to realize it was Hal. He was just standing there, like he was guarding the door.
She walked past him and back out to the restaurant just to find it was completely empty.
Her mouth dropped open but she quickly caught herself.
All she saw was fitz sitting at her table. There was no Jacob, there were no staff. Just Fitz and his agents.
He looked pissed but in a smug sort of way.
She was trying to decide if she should just try and make it to the door but her bag was still on her chair.
She walked slowly over to her table. She picked up her bag and she turned to walk away but suddenly Tom appeared in front of her.
"Ms. Pope please have a seat," he gestured to her chair.
"You can't do this," Olivia said just above a whisper.
"Ms. pope... please," he gestured to the seat again.
Fitz still hadn't said a word.
I took a deep breath and sat down.