"You look terrible." she tried to joke, she was inspecting him from afar for any injuries.

"You do too, have you been crying? Your eyes look swollen."

"No I'm fine."

"I've been calling you?"

"Uh my phone died." she lied.

He got up from his desk and walked over to her.

"Olivia are you sure you're okay? Is this because of the attack, I'm fine, the media is blowing it way out of proportion."

"What happened?" her tone was sadder than she intended for it to be.

"He tackled me, we fell to the floor and then I pushed him off."

"Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm not a baby you know I can defend myself against one man even if he is an agent. If they all ganged up on me that's when I would get beat up." he chuckled.

Olivia started crying, she didn't mean to, it's just that she knew that there was possibility that most if not all of his agents were under Rowan's control and that if he gave to order they could actually gang together and attack Fitz.

"Livie what's wrong? Why are you crying? You know I hate to see you cry?" he pulled her into his chest and wrapped his arms around her tightly, she winced from the pain in her arm.

Her behavior was alarming Fitz to say the least, he saw her wince.

She took a deep breath, she knew the longer she was there the him, the harder it would be for her to do what she had to do. She pulled away from him.

"Are you ready to tell me what's got you so sad?" he asked gently.

Her eyes were fixed on the ground as she pulled both her engagement ring and her 'sweet baby' ring off her fingers.

Fitz realized what she doing but said nothing. She reached for his hand and placed both rings in his palm.

Fitz calmly waited for an explanation as he watched her take a deep breath.

"I can't do this any more, I can't marry you."

FItz could feel himself growing more and more irrational by the second but he tried his best to stay calm.

"Why not?"

That was the question Olivia had no answer for. She couldn't think of a reason why she didn't want to marry him but she knew she had to make something up and quick. She was silent for a while. Fitz walked over and leaned on the resolute desk, his back was turned to her.

"Why not?" Fitz asked again

"I just can't do it anymore Fitz."

"You not being able to do it anymore is not a reason. If you are going to leave me at least give me a reason as to why I'm not good enough for you anymore."

Olivia was a little flustered.

"I just don't want to be with you anymore."

"For the past few months I have done within my power to make you happy. I threaten and bribe my guards and my staff so that I can make my way to your apartment every night I'm in town because you told me you don't like sleeping alone. I love you unconditionally. I give you anything you ask for and more. I don't entertain other women. I've done right by you Olivia so if you want to leave me you're going to have to do better than that."

He turned around and faced her.

"I don't owe you an explanation."

"Yes you do." he voice was serious.

"After everything we've been through you owe me that."

Olivia's eyes filled with water again. She didn't know what to say except for one thing, one thing that would force him to let her go. When he told her it broke her heart and convinced her to leave him alone, if she did it she was sure it would do the same but she knew he would never forgive her.

"Olivia answer me!" he yelled.

"I don't love you anymore."

Neither of them spoke for a few moments. Fitz tried to digest what he had just heard. He tried to run through every moment they shared for the past 6 months to figure out when she stopped loving him.

"She must be lying" he thought "but why would she lie."

He snapped back to the present.

"When did you figure that out Olivia? 2 nights ago when I asked you marry me and you said yes or 6 months when you almost died for me?"

She didn't answer.

"I think it would be best if we stayed away from each other, I won't contact you and I hope you won't contact me either. It's just easier that way."

"Are you pregnant?"

"What?"

"The last time you did this, you were pregnant and that's why you left, is that what's happening right now?"

"I'm not pregnant"

"And Karen and Jerry?"

"I think it would be best if I stayed away from them as well."

Fitz walked over to Olivia, he cupped her face gently with his hand. She tried avoid his eyes.

"Look at me"

He could not bring himself to believe what she was saying was true.

Olivia looked up and met his gaze only for a moment and then looked away quickly.

Fitz kissed her lips softly and he felt hot tears on Olivia's cheek, he wiped them away gently.

"You don't love me anymore Livie?" his voice cracked with emotion.

"I do, I do love you but I can't do this anymore just please let me go." she cried.

"You're scared, you run when you're scared, what's got you so scared Olivia?"

"Fitz let me go."

"Olivia if you ask me to do this then we're done."

"Let me go Fitz."

He let his hands fall from her face, he turned his back to her and walked to the window. He didn't say another word, he just waited for her to leave.

Olivia turned around and headed to the door. She tried to keep the anxiety and tears at bay, she knew she needed to at least escape the walls of the white house before she had her meltdown.

Her two guards didn't follow her this time, she was sure Rowan told them not to. When she got back to the car, Jake sat in the driver's seat, staring at nothing in particular.

She couldn't stand him and she also didn't want him to see the fresh tears that were falling down her face. She dried them as she opened the door and let herself in the back seat.

Jake made his way the airport quickly. An unknown number kept calling her phone, she was sure it was Rowan so she didn't pick up.

Then he called Jake and Jake was more than happy to pass the phone back to her.

She held the phone to her ears but didn't say a word.

"Olivia I take it you did what you needed to do?"

She didn't answer.

"Olivia I don't have time for games answer me."

"Olivia!"

"Haven't you done enough, just leave me alone I did what you wanted, I'm doing what you want. Just leave me alone." She knew crying got you no points when it came to Rowan but she couldn't hold it back. She hang up the phone once she said what she had to and threw it back to the front seat not caring if it broke.

When she got through the airport and was on the small jet her father chartered, she finally began to feel the weight of all the events that took place.

The pilot came to the cabin to greet them.

"Good evening Ms. Pope, I am Captain Ross."

He stretched out his hand to shake her but she just stared at him. For all she knew he was an agent as well.

"When I spoke with Mr. Pope, I was told to take you anywhere you wished, where would that be?"

She pondered.

"Paris."

"Okay I will make the proper arrangements with air traffic, it shouldn't take long before we are on our way." He smiled pleasantly but Olivia didn't reciprocate.

She sat all the way in the back hoping Jake would get the message that she wanted to be as far away from him as possible and he did, he stayed at the front.

After about half hour the plane ascended in the air, as she was taking off her coat she felt something in her pocket. When she removed it she realized it was Ginger's collar.

She closed her eyes to try to fight away fresh tears but they came anyway. She couldn't understand how in less that 10 hours, her father managed to undo everything that was good about her life and everything that made her happy.

She clutched Ginger's collar close to her chest, she was her baby and the image of Rowan squeezing her neck, hearing Gingers loud whimpers and the look of heartbreak on Fitz's face when she gave him back the rings played on a constant loop in her head. She closed her eyes and tried to flush them out but there was no escaping her own mind. She tried to sleep but it wouldn't come so she spent the entire flight being tortured by her thoughts.

Fitz sat at the resolute desk. Gerry and Karen were on the way back to the white house from Mellie's. They were set to spend New year's day with him and then head back to school. They were to arrive in a few minutes and he really wasn't sure what he was going to tell them when they asked about Olivia. He was still in shock over their conversation and heartbreak didn't even begin to describe how he felt. He did everything we could to make her happy because he knew he never wanted to lose her but it ended up happening anyways. He'd been sitting at the desk since Olivia left, which was hours ago, he was lost in thought, trying to figure out where he went wrong with Olivia. He decided that he would hold off on telling Karen and Gerry about their breakup. He still had a lot of unanswered questions and he thought maybe he could go to her apartment later in the night and talk to her.

When Tom called and told him the kids were in the residence he made his way over there. He greeted them and kept the conversation short. They of course heard about the incident in the white house and were worried but he assured them that he was fine. They knew something was up with him but they figured it he must still be upset from the incident.

Once the kids were settled he went back to his room. He showered and got dressed and thought maybe he should call her before showing up. He sat for a long time with the phone in his hand thinking about whether or not he should call her. She made it pretty clear that she didn't want him contacting her and that was exactly what he was about to do. After wrestling with his conscience for almost an hour he decided not to visit her, instead he sat out on the balcony for most of the night unable to sleep.

When olivia landed in London it was early morning. From London they took a train to Brussels and from Brussels to Paris. She realized it was so that it would be harder to track her. They checked into a hotel, nothing too fancy with separate rooms. Olivia paid for her room with her own credit card, she was sure Jake must've paid for his with Rowan's money. Jake of course objected to separate rooms but she didn't care, she was irritated from lack of sleep and sad from lack of Fitz and all around hated her life. When she got to her room she locked herself in and thought a bath would calm her down. When she was finished showering she threw on Fitz's navy t shirt and some underwear and covered herself in the sheets. She let the tears flow freely since she was all alone, she cried until she drifted to sleep.

The next morning she found a new sense of resolve. She got her laptop and started apartment hunting, she didn't plan to stay at a hotel for however long Rowan planned on keeping her in France. She wanted to find a job, something simple that wouldn't stress her out.

She had been staying at the hotel for a few days, she had scheduled visits to all the apartments she found in the listings online and she had two job interviews schedule in the upcoming week. She hadn't left her room the entire time she was at the hotel and occasionally Jake would knock to make sure she was still at the hotel, she of course didn't answer.

She scheduled the apartment viewings for early morning hoping she could sneak out past Jake, she thought that while she was out she could also buy some appropriate clothes for the interviews she had coming up.

She readied herself and made sure she mapped out the direction so she couldn't get lost. She checked the peephole of her hotel door to see if he was in the hallway, she had restricted view but it didn't seem like anyone was in the hallway, after all it was 7:30 in the morning at a hotel, most people sleep in. she open the door and stepped out and the coast was clear. She had three apartments to view, the first was too far from the city and she almost got lost on her way there if not for the help of strangers. The second was perfect, it was across the street from a playground and even though it was in the city, it was in a more residential area. The third was in a high rise and smack in the middle of the hustle and bustle. As soon as she was done viewing the third apartment, she had decided that the second place was definitely the one and made arrangements to lease it as soon as possible. She stopped and grabbed lunch at a cafe and then made her way to the common shopping district. She had no intentions of buy anything high end , she didn't want to stand out or be noticed. She found the mall and stuck to stores like Topshop, Zara and even found a few other local stores that had decent things. She stopped at a phone store to get a new sim card for her phone. She team kept calling her but she wouldn't pick up, she planned to reach out them eventually but she needed to figure out a way to do it without Rowan or Jake finding out.

When she was done she hailed and cab back to the hotel. By the time the cab dropped her off and she entered the hotel, she realized a tall man was behind her a little too closely, she turned around and look up and it was Jake.

"You've been following me? Of course, because it's not like you have nothing better to do?" she scoffed.

Jake didn't respond.

She walked to the elevator and when it came she stepped in quickly, it was empty and Jake tried to follow behind her but she stopped him.

"It's full." and then she pressed the close door button to which the elevator door closed rather quickly.

She walked into her hotel room and dropped her bags, she showered quickly and called room service for dinner. When they dropped her food off, she placed on the nightstand and grabbed her laptop and began searching for any new video footage or article she could find on Fitz, it had become her nightly routine since she the second night she was there.

Back on New year's day Fitz decided he had to tell the kids about his breakup with Olivia. They had been asking about her all day and when he finally broke the news to them, they didn't exactly take it well. Karen blatantly accused Fitz of being the reason Olivia left them and took of to her room crying. Gerry on the other hand was quiet and offered support to his father but Fitz could see that he was sad by the news. Fitz tried to get her to talk to him but she wouldn't let him in. It was Gerry who had managed to convinced Karen to apologize for her behavior. When it was time for their dinner and all three of them sat at the table, Karen offered her apology.

"Daddy, I'm really sorry for what I said earlier, I didn't mean it."

"It's okay honey, I think we're all just upset right now."

He hated how badly they were talking the break up and he instantly regretted allowing them to get so close to Olivia.

"Why did you guys break up?" Gerry asked.

"I'm not sure." was the only answer Fitz could muster up.

Fitz needed to desperately change the subject, he was having a really hard time with the break up and talking to his kids about it wasn't exactly helping.

He brought up the news of their new school, he knew how much they wanted to go to school in D.C. he thought that would cheer them up. It didn't help much but it got Karen to change the subject for a few minutes. When dinner was finished Fitz had to take them to the airstrip. It was early afternoon, he had a very early dinner because he had to get the kids flown back to school before it was too late. The days since he'd thrown himself into work. With the new year came a new presidential campaign that he had to run without Olivia. The first thing he needed to do was find a campaign manager. Cyrus of course knew something was up between him and Olivia because he hadn't snuck out of the white house for almost a week. Cyrus being Cyrus confronted him about it, when he told Cyrus what was going on, Cyrus seemed more concerned about the fact that Olivia wouldn't be running the campaign and immediately tried to get Fitz to appoint him the campaign manager. Of course Fitz ignored him, he wasn't going down that road with Cyrus again.

Abby got frustrated. She and the team been trying to call and email Olivia for days and still no answer. She even showed up to her apartment just to see if she had been hiding out there. Huck had been doing his own search in regards to Olivia but she could get no answers out of him. It had been a week and she finally had enough, she decided to pay a visit to the white house to see if maybe Fitz knew what was going on. She thought maybe they had a fight or something and that was why Olivia made herself scarce. When Abby was at the gate she called his desk and Lauren put her through.

"Hello, Mr. President?"

"Gabby?"

"It's Abby and I'm outside the whitehouse, I need to talk to you can you ask the guard to let me in."

"Let me speak to Morris" Fitz sighed, "What could she possibly want to talk about." he thought.

Abby handed the phone to Morris.

"Good morning Morris, how are your wife and kids?"

"Ha .. Hi Mr. President, they are good." Morris stuttered.

"Good to hear. Morris can you give Ms. Whelan a pass into the white house."

"Absolutely Mr. President."

"Thank you Morris."

Fitz hung up.

When Abby walked in the Oval office Fitz was in the middle of signing documents.

She walked over to his desk.

"What can I do for you?" he still hadn't looked up at her.

"Do you know where Olivia is?"

"I do not."

"How is it that you don't know where you're fiancėe is?"

"Ex-fiancėe and you're supposed to be her best friend, shouldn't you know?"

"Of course?" Abby sighed.

"You and her had a fight and she took off. Now it makes sense. What did you do now?" Abby asked annoyed.

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me." Abby stood her ground.

"I didn't do anything. Olivia is the one who broke off the engagement."

"Please I don't believe that. I was the one who had to listen to her blather on about you for hours on the phone, she was happy she had no reason to break it off."

Fitz reached in his pocket and pull out both her rings and placed them on his desk for Abby to see.

"Olivia dumped me Abby, she gave me back both her rings and told me to leave her alone."

Abby gave him a perplexed look.

"That gold ring, she never takes it off." Abby pointed to the ring.

"If she never took it off it would be on her finger." Fitz was being snarky, the last thing he wanted to do was have a heart to heart with Abby about Olivia.

Abby rolled her eyes.

"She told me you gave her that ring and story behind it. She's had that ring for years and never took it off, not once. Not even when you were acting a fool, don't you think it's strange that she took it off now. On new year's eve she called us to the office and told us she was leaving town and wouldn't tell us where she was going or how long she would be gone. That was a week ago. She's not answering my calls, or texts or emails and she left me and Harrison in charge of O.P.A until she came back. Isn't that weird?" Abby pressed.

"It's not the first time she's left me Abby."

"Look, I know you're hurt. I've known Olivia for along time and she's nothing if not a martyr, self righteous, pain in the ass but I just have a bad feeling about her just talking off, me and team are doing things to find her on our end but it would really help if we had the president's help."

"The president can't help you."

"Fine, I'm not asking the president, I'm asking Fitz, the man who is hopelessly in love with my best friend to help me find her."

Fitz became somber.

"Do you know what it feels like Gabby? To propose to the woman you love and for her to accept only to tell you she doesn't want you two days later."

Abby saw his eyes become misty eyed.

"It hurts. And I can't do anything about it. I can't hop in a car and chase her, I can't go to a bar and have a drink and then hook up with some random stranger to get over her like what any regular guy would do. I can't do anything but sit here, confined in these walls for the better part of 12 hours a day and do the job that is mine to do."

Abby had never seen FItz that emotional before.

"I'm sorry for asking, you're right, it's not fair to you." Abby said apologetically.

"I know that I really messed up, the way I treated her, I was wrong. I tried to do right by her and make up for all the things I'd done in the past. I thought she forgave me."

Fitz was staring in space, deep in thought but then he snapped back to reality.

"Why did she leave me Abby? Did she tell you?"

The tears welled up in his eyes threatening to fall but never did.

"She only ever said good things about you, I swear, I don't know why she left."

Cyrus bursted in the room.

"Sir we have a meeting with the joint chiefs that starts in 3 minutes."

FItz straightened up and his demeanor changed. He was back to his presidential self.

He grabbed the documents he was signing and headed to the door.

"I'll see what I can do on my end Gabby."

Fitz held the door open for her.

"Thank you Mr. President." she said as she walked out.

Fitz and Cyrus walked swiftly to the meeting.

"Sir, what was that about?"

"Nothing, I just need a campaign manager and I think O.P.A. can help me find one." Fitz lied.

"Sir, I am perfectly capable of running your campaign.."

"No, we've already been through this Cyrus, it's a no."

"Fine." Cyrus relented.

It had been a week since Fitz promised to help search for Olivia to which the team was happy to hear the news when Abby told them.

Between working cases and searching for Olivia, their hands were full especially since most of the clients only cared for Olivia's advice and gave them a hard time when they found out Olivia would be absent for some time.

Abby decided to check if anything was new on Huck's end so she made her way to his office.

"Hey Huck, I just wanted to see if anything new came up for you?"

"No. "

"Damn it I was really hoping for some good news."

"That is good news."

"It is?"

"Well it's not good or bad. The only thing I know at this point is that Liv went to the airport based on her phone's GPS But then she lost signal. Since she was at the airport I tried to search flight manifest to find her but there is nothing."

"That's not good."

"It is good that means that someone deleted her records."

"I'm not seeing how any of this is good."

"It's not easy to delete flight manifests Abby, someone really powerful had to have done that; the president, head of NSA or CIA or anyone with really high security clearance. I won't be able to get the record but right now I am trying to hack footage from the airport, I could see what terminal she left at or if she took a private jet, I can see if she was with someone, I can see a lot of things if I get in but it'll take time."

"Huck that's great."

"I've also been trying to see if I can get a footprint from her. If she uses her cards or anything but nothings coming up, either she's not using them or someone is constantly deleting her trace. I'll have to try harder."

"You're doing great Huck." Abby congratulated.

Huck nodded in response.

Olivia finished both her interviews successfully. All she had to do was name drop Princeton University and even in France they were clamoring over her. She got offers for both jobs and decided to take the job that was closest to her apartment. Teaching was never something she thought about doing but it seemed like the right thing for her now, it was simple, unlike everything else in her life. She was to start her job as an english teacher to kindergartners at the prominent French private school. She was excited as she had never worked with children before, she'd been training at for a week and tomorrow was her first official day. She picked out a pale blue sweater and navy blue ankle pants with a pair of flats. It wasn't her usual power outfit and it was far more comfortable. She had moved into her apartment a few days prior and was surprised when Jake moved into the apartment next to hers but she didn't let that deter her. Her apartment was pretty bare, she didn't have any furniture except for what came with the apartment. She had set up the wifi in her apartment the first day because she needed it to Internet stalk Fitz, which she did for hours every night until she fell asleep.