"Defiance sir?" Cyrus asked
"Yes, defiance."
"Well, what would you like to know?" Cyrus asked.
"I want to know who's idea it was, I want to know what part each of you played in it, I want to know how you managed to pull it off, and I want the truth Cy."
"Are you sure prepared to hear the answers to these questions, Mr. President." Cyrus needed to make sure.
"I am," Fitz said with a sigh
Cyrus took a deep breath and decided to tell him the truth once and for all.
"Okay, first and foremost I would like for you to know that Olivia didn't not participate in any way, shape or form. I should have told you earlier when I found that you thought she was involved but I didn't. We brought up the idea to her about a month before the election took place, she shut us down. She warned us not to do it, she said she would rather lose honorably than win like that. That she believed in you. She told us that if she even suspected us of doing anything shady, she would tell you," Cyrus stopped to look at Fitz and that point Fitz barely moved a muscle since Cyrus had began speaking.
Cyrus decided to continue.
"On the last run, Reston seemed to be pulling away from you, he had better numbers with women, Hollis suggested that he knew a way to fix the election through a company called Cytron that provided voting machines for the election. Hollis, Verna and myself, sat down and discussed how we would actually do it, the consequences and who we wanted to involve. We decided to include Mellie because she is your wife and a political animal, she wanted it more than you and we decided to include Olivia because, well she is Olivia. Mellie barely let us finish the sentence before she told us she was in and Olivia assumed we were crazy. A few days before the election Hollis paid a Cytron employee to install a bug to rig the votes, he had been developing into the voting machine. We decided that if you won, I would get to be chief of staff, Mellie would be first lady of course, Hollis would be owed a huge favor and would be awarded all the government contracts for oil, and Verna would become a supreme court justice," Cyrus stopped
"After the election, the employee Hollis paid to bug the machine started blackmailing him. Hollis blew up his office killing 12 people and tried to frame his girlfriend for the murder of those 12 people. I couldn't stand to see her go to jail for something she didn't do so I asked Olivia to protect her. Olivia gave her a new identity and gave her a job at her firm. The only thing Olivia knows about Quinn Perkin, yes that is now her name now , was that she needed protection. Sir, I can honestly say that is all I know about defiance. I am sorry for the part I played but I truly thought you were the best man for the job and seeing the great work you have been doing with the country for these last few months, I know I made the right decision."
Cyrus got up and started walk out of the oval.
"Cyrus," FItz called him barely raising his voice.
Honestly Fitz barely paid attention to anything Cyrus said after Olivia. He still couldn't wrap his head around the fact that Olivia wasn't involved. He felt sick. He had spent the last 7 months hating her for something she didn't do. Why would Berna lie about that.
"About 4 months ago, I told you I knew about defiance, I told you I knew about everyone's involvement including Liv's, why didn't you tell me I was wrong Cy."
Cyrus thought about it for a moment.
"Honestly, I was afraid of Liv's wrath, she still doesn't know, I'm guessing you didn't tell her because if she did, I would've had hell to pay. After you told me I planned to go see her and tell her what was going on, but I just couldn't tell her," Cyrus said with his head hanging low.
"Why did Verna lie to me?" Fitz asked.
"Because she a bitch," Cyrus retorted.
With that cyrus left.
FItz was in shock. He called Lauren and told her to cancel his day. Then he made his way over to the bar and took his first sip of scotch in 7 months.
He paced back and forth for hours drinking his scotch.
Within a few hours Fitz was completely drunk and belligerent and began throwing things in the oval office.
Tom heard all the commotion and decided to bring Fitz back to the residence. Fitz didn't resist. He went back tot the residence, he threw up most of the liquor and he went to bed.
Mellie had been out all day at the homeless shelter giving speeches on the importance of exercise. She was beyond annoyed. Once she got back to the white house, her little informers filled her in on the drama with Fitz earlier and she decided to go to the residence and figure out what was going on with him.
She reached the bedroom and found him asleep. She pondered whether or not she wanted to wake, but then decided to go for it.
She tapped him gently for a few seconds.
"Honey? Fitz, what's going on?" she said her voice full of faux concern.
Truth is, they barely spoke since baby Teddy's stillbirth. Mellie had been fully booked to give speeches and tours with pro women groups, pro life groups, pro mother groups, just about everyone wanted a piece of her and she was thrilled. She was so busy travelling she barely saw him and she didn't particularly mind. Fitz couldn't stand her because he knew the truth about baby teddy's death. Mellie forced the doctor to induce labor 3 weeks earlier than her due date and it had unforeseen complications that caused Teddy not to survive. He knew and he could barely look at her because of it, but he kept it to himself. He knew that in the future as horrible as it was on both their parts, he could use it against her. He had a sworn statement from the doctor saying it was true.
Fitz turned and say Mellie sitting beside him on the bed. He was instantly annoyed.
"What?" he spat.
Mellie shook it off and smiled.
"Honey, when I came back from my event, I heard you weren't feeling well so I decided to come check on you, Are you okay?" she reached over to touch his forehead with the back of her hand to check to see if he had a temperature, even though she knew he didn't.
"Do not touch me," Fitz said in a serious and low voice.
She decided to cut that act.
"Okay fine, you stink of liquor and I haven't seen you take a sip in almost 8 months, what's going on," she asked him as she fixed her hair.
He ignored her question and got up from off of the bed. He had been sleeping all day. He didn't feel as hungover as he thought he would because he threw up most of the scotch and vodka combo before he went to bed. He could function.
"Mellie get out," he yelled as he went into the bathroom and slammed the door.
She got up.
"Fine, I'll just find out from Cyrus." she stormed out of the bedroom.
Once Olivia was done walking ginger, she went back to her apartment. She took a quick shower again just to freshen up and then started getting dressed for the day.
She walked past her bed and started to pick up her outfit from last night that was laying there. There realized that she couldn't find her panites, but she didn't think much of it.
She threw them in the laundry and walked to her closet to pick out her outfit for the day.
She ended up decided on a pair for black skinny ankle pants she bought from theory, an ivory silk Armani Collection cami, a Max Mara Studio black cape blazer, a pair of black jimmy choo suede pointed toe pumps and her black givenchy antigona small bag.
She wore her hair in a messy updo with fly away curls dropping to the side of her face.
Her makeup was soft and natural.
She headed out to the office after telling Ginger goodbye.
On her way to work she called Jacob and told him the the appetizer last night made her sick and she went to the restroom to throw up. She told him she was so nauseous and barely remembered how she got home. He bought it and and suggested the go out another time, but not before he gave her an earful about what a jerk president Grant was for kicking everyone out of the restaurant.
She got to her office, Abby came in shortly after and closed the door.
"Liv, I've been calling you, what happened last night, did it work," Abby asked.
Oliva completely forgot that she called Abby last night. She did remember seeing her missed call but she forgot to call her back.
She had gotten extremely close with Abby over the past several months and she didn't want to start lying to her, but she also knew how judgy Abby could be and knew she would have a lot to say about the fact that she had sex with Fitz last night.
Olivia sighed.
"Abby don't kill me, okay," Olivia said unsure of how to go on.
Abby looked at her with a wrinkled forehead, urging her to go on.
"It didn't work, by the time I got out of the restroom, the restaurant was empty and it was just Fitz and his agents there, so I couldn't avoid him," Olivia said slowly.
"Oh my god Liv, what did you do?" Abby asked
"Well, I had left my purse at my table but he was sitting there. I tried to just take it and go but his agents wouldn't let me," Olivia paused, "Long story short Abby, I had sex with him, I'm sorry," Olivia blurted out.
Abby was shocked.
"Liv, how are you gonna get over him if you let him just keep walking in you're life and turning it upside down, you have to put your foot down," Abby said with her voice full of concern.
Abby sighed and then smiled.
"So, was it at least worth it?" Abby asked with one eyebrow raised.
"Abby!" Olivia gasped then laughed.
"Well," Abby said urging her to go on.
"It was amazing, I'm thinking about it right now," Olivia blushed.
"Ewwww," Abby teased.
"What, you asked," Olivia retorted.
They shared a few more laughs and then went back to work.
Cyrus decided it was finally time to pay Olivia a visit. He thought about whether or not he wanted to tell her at her office, but decided that might be the best place because she wouldn't be able to go off on him.
He arrived at her office, saw Abby.
"Hello red, where is your boss?"
"Is she expecting you mr. Beene?" she retorted.
"Don't be cute red," Cyrus said half annoyed.
"She's in her office, it's straight to the back," Abby pointed to Olivia's office.
Cyrus headed to the back.
He knocked on her door.
"Come in," she yelled without looking up from the paperwork she was reading.
"Hey Liv," Cyrus greeted.
She looked up. She was pretty surprised to see Cyrus in her office.
"Woah. Hey Cyrus, I didn't expect to see you here. Uhmm let me guess, whitehouse crisis so bad you couldn't call over the phone to talk about," she joked.
Cyrus took a moment to go over her appearance.
"No, that's not it, i just missed you that's all, got tired of talking to you over the phone. By the way I like you new look it's working for you," he said trying to flatter her.
"Are you sweet talking me old man?" she joked.
"Come Cy, sit, I know you and you didn't come see me at my office because you miss me, what's really going on?" she ask.
Cyrus took a deep breath.
"Liv I have something I need to come clean about," he said unsure of where to start.
She placed the paper she was reading on the desk to give Cyrus her full attention.
He began.
"Remember back on the campaign trail, when Verna, Hollis and I approached you about uhmm… the election?" Cyrus asked nervously.
"Cy you're gonna have to be more specific than that, I was the campaign manager, we talked about the election a lot." she said with a half smile.
"Yea, but that one specific time, we talked to you about our options when Fitz didn't seem like he was going to beat Reston," he said slowly.
Olivia remembered the conversation. Her whole demeanor changed. She sat up straight.
"What about it?" it asked bluntly, remembering how disgusted she was with them for even thinking that way.
"Well…" Cyrus trailed off.
"Well what?" she asked rudely.
"We did it.," Cyrus said with his head down.
Olivia had an idea of what he meant but she needed to hear him say it, she didn't want to assume anything but she was pissed.
"You are a very smart man Cyrus, talking to me in analogies and non specifics isn't going to.." He cut her off.
"We did it Liv, he rigged the election in Fitz's favor. We did it, me, Verna, Hollis and even Mellie. We planned the whole thing and went through with it," Cyrus was talking so fast he had to take a deep breath.
Olivia sat there looking at him. He couldn't read her expression.
He couldn't tell if she was angry, hurt, disgusted or sad. Her face looked like a mixture of all of them.
She sat there, she didn't say anything. Cyrus decided to continue.
"Fitz knows, he found about a few months ago."
He corrected himself.
"Well not a few months ago, it was a while ago... before Verna's funeral, when he went to visit her at the hospital. Olivia she told him you were involved. I'm sorry Liv, I knew that he thought you were involved and I didn't tell him you weren't."
When she heard that her head snapped up, it all began to click.
That was why Fitz was treating her that way. It was because he thought she was involved. Her eyes started to water, not because she was sad but because she was angry. She started to take slow deep breaths to calm herself. Cyrus sat looking at her trying to gauge what her reaction was going to be.
She got up and turned her back to Cyrus so she was facing the window. She looked out for a few seconds.
"Get ou," she said softly, she still had her back facing him.
"Liv," Cyrus pleaded.
"Get out. We are no longer friends," she said in a cold voice.
Cyrus obliged and left without another word.
Olivia started going over everything that transpired since Verna's funeral in her head.
The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. They way Fitz had been treating her, the fact that she thought Verna's was her friend and she threw her under the bus and the election rigging.
She couldn't understand why Verna would do that to her. She thought she was a good friend to Verna. After all, she visited her as much as she could while she was in chemo, she helped her hide that fact that she had chemo from everyone and she even knew about the affair with Fitz and never told anyone. She knew Verna could be cold, self serving and downright cruel, but she never thought Verna could do it to her.
The more she thought about everything, the more she felt herself shutting down. She needed to go home. She grabbed her bag and rushed out of the office. As she rushed out she could hear her team asking her what was going on but she didn't answer, she just kept going.
Once she got home, she dropped her bag to the floor and threw herself on the couch and start bawling. She stayed like that for sometime until she fell asleep. Ginger was excited to see her, as she always is, but she ignored because she was too upset to play with her.
A few hours later she woke up to Abby sitting on the couch beside her.
Abby had managed to convince her to give her a spare key to the apartment after she had locked herself up in her apartment for a week after Verna's funeral.
Abby had brought ice-cream, wine, chinese food, chips and popcorn. Olivia sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Abby I don't wanna.."
Abby cut her off.
"Liv, it's okay if you don't wanna talk about it. I brought all the good stuff so we can sit here and binge eat and watch old episodes of sex in the city. How does that sound?" Abby said cheerfully.
"It's sounds like a plan," Olivia said as she kicked off her heels and took off her blazer.
Time flew.
They were half way through a season. They finished the tub of ice cream, the chinese food and the popcorn. The wine was long gone and Abby snacked on chips. Olivia sat on the couch while Abby laid her head in Liv's lap and Ginger sat comfortably in between the two
They heard a knock on the door.
Abby sat up. She was about to get up and answer it, when liL grabbed her arm.
"Abby don't answer it, it's definitely one of two people and I don't want to speak to either of them," Olivia said quietly.
"Liv, you need to start telling these people off, you can't avoid them forever." Abby said as she got up and walked to the door.
"Abby no!" Liv mouthed to her as she walked over to the door.
Fitz knocked the door. He could hear the tv, so he knew she was home. He also knew that Cyrus made a visit to her office earlier thanks to Tom. So he knew she most likely knew about defiance by now.
He heard the door unlocked and began to mentally prepare himself for what was about to happen.
To his surprise Abby opened the door.
He was shocked. His mouth hung open.
A few seconds later Ginger ran out and started jumping at his feet, he picked her up.
"Hey girl, are you excited to see me," fFtz cooed as he petted her.
"That makes one of us," Abby snarked
"Hello Gabby," Fitz greeted.
By this time Olivia had made her behind the door standing beside Abby. Fitz couldn't see her.
"That's not my name," Abby barked.
"Oh my god Gabby who cares," Fitz sighed.
"Where's Olivia," Fitz asked.
"She 's asleep," Abby said matter of factly.
"You're lying Abby."
"I am not and even if I was lying and she's up, if she wanted to talk to you, she would be here instead of me," Abby said with attitude.
"What is your problem Gabby ?" Fitz was annoyed, he was anxious enough about talking to Olivia without Abby giving him a hard time.
"My problem is that the married president of the united states won't leave my bestfriend alone. Haven't you done enough, she deserves to be happy and she won't ever get to be happy as long as you keep coming into her life and screwing with her head. You are..."
He cut her off.
"Get out the way Gabby, I'm coming in to speak to Olivia."
"No you are not," Abby countered.
"If you do not move, I will have to ask one of my agents to move you. I will lock you outside in the hallway, while I talk to Olivia. Is that what you want?" Fitz asked seriously.
"You motherfucker…" Abby was about to start arguing but Olivia stopped her.
"Abby, it's okay, I'll talk to him."