A week later…
Fitz left Olivia's apartment at 7 in the morning. It's was the latest, he'd ever left before. It was a Saturday morning and he arrived just in time for he and Gerry's Saturday morning run. They'd began their weekly run since Gerry began playing football in middle school. Fitz hated running but Gerry loved it so he compromised.
He changed into sweats and a t-shirt and met Gerry in his room.
"Morning Ger. You ready?"
"Yeah dad, I'm just grabbing my running shoes."
"Okay, I'm gonna grab a bottle of water from the kitchen, you want one?"
"Yea and then I'll meet you down there."
"Alright."
Fitz left for the kitchen to get the waters. Gerry met him shortly after.
"You ready old man?"
"I'm young at heart."
Gerry laughed.
"Keep up dad," he said as he jogged out of the kitchen and onto the trail.
They jogged lightly down the path.
"So what going on with you?" Fitz asked.
"Uhm there's this girl at school I like," he said awkwardly.
"Really? Tell me about her? Are you gonna ask her out on a date?"
"Dude, calm down. She doesn't even know I like her yet. I haven't told her."
Fitz chuckled.
"Why not?"
"I'm afraid."
"Don't be. You don't have to profess your feelings for her, not at first. Ask her out on a date, something simple like going to see a movie, she won't say no just make sure she doesn't have a boyfriend."
"How are you so sure she won't say no?"
"Look at you, you're almost as good looking as me, how can she turn that down?"
Gerry slapped his arm.
"DAD," he scolded.
"I'm kidding. Maybe…"
Gerry laughed.
"Okay, I'll take your advice and ask her out."
"Great. What's her name?"
"Kenna. She's so pretty dad, you should see her and she on the cheerleading squad and she gets straight A's."
"Pretty and smart, that's good but is she kind?"
"She is. She really is great dad."
"Then go for it."
"Okay on Monday I'll ask her out."
"Don't forget to bring your Grant charm, ladies can't resist that."
"Mom can, she hates you," Gerry teased.
"She sure does but it wasn't always that way. My Grant charm wore off."
Gerry laughed.
"Oh yea and dad, I've been having some weird headaches for the past few days."
Fitz stopped running.
"Are they bad?"
"No not really just annoying."
"When did it start?"
"A couple days ago."
"I think we should get it checked out."
"I don't think they're that serious."
"Yeah but I want to be sure."
Then Fitz had an idea.
"Why don't I have Olivia come and take a little at you."
"Olivia your hot doctor Olivia?"
"She's not my doctor anymore but yes."
"Are you sure she'll check me out?"
"Yeah, I'll ask her."
"Okay great. When do you think she can come?"
"She should be able to come today. She's in town and she leaves for a surgery in Florida on Wednesday, so it's better to get it done today."
Fitz accidentally revealed a little too much I and realized after.
"You and her keep in touch?"
"Yeah, we're friends."
"Oh okay that's cool, you need friends," Gerry teased.
The ran for a little while longer and then Gerry started the conversation again.
"Dad, remember my football game on Tuesday. You can't miss it. It's the first football game of the season."
"Only death will keep me away from your game on Tuesday."
Gerry laughed.
"Great, I'm so excited. My coach is making me start the game."
"Congrats but I'm not surprised, you've always been great at football. What position are you playing quarterback or wide receiver?"
"Since, I'm a sophomore, the couch is starting me as wide receiver, they already have a senior quarterback."
"Okay, well you'll be quarterback soon enough."
"Thanks dad."
Gerry paused.
"Dad can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what is it?"
"I heard mom telling uncle Cyrus that you asked her for a divorce. Is that true?"
Fitz stopped jogging and tried to catch his breath.
"I did."
"When were you gonna tell me?"
"When your mom signed."
"Oh okay."
"How do you feel about it?"
"Honestly, I'm okay with it. You two need to be apart although I really want to stay at the White House with you."
"Are you kidding me? Of course you're staying with me."
Gerry chuckled.
"Great."
The jogged for a few more minutes before the were back at the rose garden. They headed to the residence together and then went their separate ways to shower and freshen up. Once Fitz was out the shower, he called Olivia. He knew she was off today so she would be available. She picked up on the second ring.
"Hello tight buns."
"Tight buns?"
"Yes, last night when I was feeling you up, I discovered that you have a great, firm ass so from now on I'll call you tight buns."
Fitz laughed.
"That sounds reasonable."
"I'm nothing if not reasonable."
"I'm glad you said that because I need a favor."
"What do you need?"
"Gerry told me he'd been having some mild headaches. I was hoping that you check him out."
"Are you kidding, me of course,"
"Thank you, I'll send Tom for you."
"When?"
"In an hour maybe?"
"Okay, that sounds good, I'm gonna go get ready."
"Okay babe, I'll talk to you later."
Fitz hung up. He went to the oval to get some work done. He sent Tom to pick Olivia up a short while after and once she was on her way, he called Gerry to his office. Gerry showed up with a bunch of folders.
"What's all of that?"
"Homework, I figured I could sit in here with you while I do it."
"Pull up a chair buddy."
"Dad, come on, enough with the buddy, I'm not a baby," Gerry whined.
"I'm always gonna call you that, get over it," Fitz said with a chuckle.
Twenty minutes later, Mellie walked in.
"Fitz we need to talk,"
She didn't know that Gerry was there.
"Gerry, what are you doing here?"
"I'm hanging with dad."
"Can you give us a minute so your father and I can talk."
Gerry looked at Fitz.
"Mellie we were in the middle of something, I'll talk to you later okay," he made sure his voice was pleasant. He didn't want to argue with Mellie and he was getting a little anxious because Olivia would be there any minute.
"No, I want to talk to you know. This divorce thing has gone to far, having your lawyer calling and harassing me? Are you serious?"
"Mellie. Not. Now."
There was a knock on the door.
"Come in."
Olivia and Tom walked in.
"Livie, thank you for coming."
Mellie was confused.
"Olivia Pope? What are you doing here?"
"If you talked with Gerry at all you'd know he's been having headaches. I asked Olivia to examine him."
Gerry walked over to Olivia and shook her hand.
"Thanks for agreeing to see me."
Olivia smiled at Gerry.
"No, it's no problem at all."
Mellie looked over to Fitz, who was absently smiling at Olivia. It burned her to her core, the way Fitz looked at Olivia. He had so much love in his eyes. She was disgusted and immediately she began to connect the dots. She had no affection for him but Olivia was a very beautiful woman and whether or not she loved Fitz, her ego couldn't take watching him look at her like that. She felt like the outsider in their triage and they also seemed to be waiting for her to leave. So she decided to stay and meddle.
"So Olivia, how have things been since I last saw you?"
"They've been great Mellie, I can't complain."
"It's Mrs. Grant," Mellie corrected.
"And I'm Dr. Pope but I figured since no one was using titles…"
Olivia walked to Gerry.
"Can you have a seat Gerry, so I can take a look at what's going on?"
Gerry sat on the chair.
At this point, Fitz was giving Mellie the death stare waiting for her to leave.
"So Dr. Pope, I'm grateful you were able to come on such short notice," Mellie began.
"I wonder what Fitz had to do to you to get you to come here so quickly," Mellie worded her sentence purposely to see if she could get a reaction from Olivia to confirm her suspicions.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Grant but if the conversation could wait, I'm trying to examine your son," Olivia said without looking up at Mellie.
Fitz walked over to Mellie.
"That's enough, get out," he whispered so Olivia and Gerry couldn't hear.
"This conversation is not over," she said through clenched teeth and then stormed out.
He turned around and walked over to Gerry and Olivia.
"I'm sorry about that."
Olivia pulled her stethoscope out of her bag and checked Gerry's heart and lungs.
"Don't worry about," she said casually.
She used two fingers and pressed at different point on and around Gerry's skull, feeling for any swelling.
"Any pain?"
"No?"
"Did you hit your head at any point?"
"I never hit my head but I got tackled pretty hard a two days ago, now that I think about it, my headaches started after that."
"One a scale of 1-10, how is the pain."
"It's not really painful, I would say 3, it's more annoying than it is painful."
"When was your last headache?"
"Yesterday around noon."
She pulled out her flashlight and flashed them in his eyes to check his response.
"Okay got it, you have a mild concussion."
"I do?"
"Yep."
"But I didn't hit my head."
"Yes but there was still trauma to your brain."
"How?"
"The brain is a very soft organ and it's surrounded by spinal fluid. When you got tackled, the impact of the tackle shook you up, it just slight bruising, nothing to worry about."
"So I can play my game on Tuesday?"
"Yes, you can just make sure your getting plenty of rest at night okay."
"You got it doc."
Gerry gave her a fist pump which caused Olivia to laugh.
"I don't think the headache will come back but if it does, call me."
She handed him her card.
"Thanks Dr. Pope."
"Friends call me Olivia."
She gave him a wink.
"Thank you Olivia."
Gerry was grinning from ear to ear. Fitz had been watching them silently interact the entire time and he was smiling too.
"Thanks Liv."
She stood up straight.
"No problem."
Gerry turned and began doing his homework again.
"What are you guys up too?"
"I'm reviewing propositions," Fitz said.
"I'm doing homework and it's kicking my ass."
"What are you worked my on?"
"It's a bunch of random questions my math professor gave me. Three really complex math problems, whoever gets all three correct gets an A on homework for the rest of the marking period."
"What are the problems?"
"The first is Carbon dating and Radioactive isotopes and figuring out their half lives. I'm trying to find the date of fossil using carbon-14. The fossil has 35% carbon-14 compared to the original sample. I need to figure out how old the fossil is."
"Well, carbon-14 has a half life of 5730, so that means that the fossil is 8680 years old."
"Woah, how did you get that?"
"Well, when you substitute (t) which is the variable for carbon-14 to the half power times the total of the logarithm function times 35% divided by (-0.693) you get 8680. I can write it down if you'd like."
"Please do. How are you doing that without a calculator?"
She smiled.
"Because I'm a total geek, that's why."
He gave her a sheet of paper and she wrote the problem for him and explained it again and he understood.
"Wow do you think maybe you can help me with the rest," Gerry asked hopefully.
"Of course."
Gerry jumped up.
"I'll get you a chair."
He ran over to grab her a chair and sat it next to his.
"Okay, next I need to find the time it would take to travel from Copenhagen to Tegucigalpa if traveling at the speed of light?"
Olivia smiled.
"Okay, light travels at 299,792,458 meters per second. Let's do some math…"
Fitz had long lost understanding of what Olivia was saying. Olivia quickly helped Gerry with at his math problems. Once they were done, Gerry packed up his math folder.
"Hey uhm Olivia, do you know German? I have homework from German class."
"I'm fluent in German, I can help."
Mellie stormed back to the residence. She was seething. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed big Gerry. He didn't pick up but she knew he was coming by later so she decided to wait. Instead she called Cyrus and set up a meeting with him so that when Gerry came, she could speak to them both.
Back in the Oval Office, Olivia and Gerry finished up with the assignments and then Fitz and Gerry walked her back to the car so Tom could drop her home.
Once they began walking back to the oval, Gerry decided to ask all the questions that were running through his mind during his encounter with Olivia.
"So dad, you and Olivia are friends?"
"Yeah."
"Just friends?"
Fitz turned to look at him.
"Why do you ask?"
"Dad, I saw the way you looked at her. You were looking at her like you loved her."
Fitz wasn't sure what to say so he didn't say anything. They got back to the Oval Office and Gerry asked again.
"Do you love her dad?"
"I do."
Gerry was silent for a while. Fitz wondered if he did the right thing by being honest with Gerry.
"I don't blame you. She's smart, pretty and nice and well you deserve to be happy plus you're getting a divorce soon right."
"Olivia and I aren't together though, we're just friends and I think it's important that you know that."
Gerry laughed.
"Oh please dad, I know you and Olivia get your freak on," Gerry teased.
"Gerry!" Fitz tried to scold him but he ended up laughing.
"Dad, you gave me the birds and bees talk years ago plus I've had sex ed, I know where babies come from."
"This conversation is over."
"Dude come on, tell me about Livie?" Gerry teased.
Fitz grabbed him and gave him a noogie.
"Dad stop, ahh come on. Quit it, I'll shut up," Gerry begged.
Fitz let him go.
"Don't you ever forget who's boss around here," Fitz said as he laughed.
"I'll get you back dad."
Meanwhile Mellie sat in Cyrus' office waiting for Gerry to show up. Cyrus was annoyed that she insisted on not telling him what was going on until big Gerry came. They waited impatiently for about 15 minutes before Big Gerry showed up.
"This better be good Mellie?" Gerry said as he walked in.
"I think Fitz and the doctor are together," she announced.
Immediately Cyrus rolled his eyes.
"What doctor?"
"Olivia Pope, the doctor we forced to say and take care of him."
"Why do you think that?"
"She was here today examining Gerry. You should have seen the way he was looking at her."
"Where's your proof?" Gerry asked.
"He was looking at her?" Cyrus said incredulously.
"It was the way he was looking at her, trust me she's the reason he wants a divorce."
"She's young and hot and he looked at her, he probably wants to screw her, hell, I'd screw her but you've got to be an idiot if you think him looking at her proves anything."
"Gerry, she could be your grandchild, you pervert."
"Careful Mellie," he warned.
Mellie sighed.
"He's been sleeping out. He slept out three night for the past week and even more nights before that."
"Where does he go?" Cyrus asked.
"I don't know but-"
"See Mellie there's the problem, you don't know anything. You are speculating, when you have proof, then we can talk until then, don't call me."
"I'm telling you, he brought up this whole divorce thing after he came from the hospital, it has to be her."
"Goodbye Mellie," Cyrus said dismissively.
Gerry turned his heel and walked out, Mellie followed.
Later in the night, Fitz made his way over to Olivia's once again. In the week past, he'd only been there three times because he had to go out of town to deal with a crisis in Boston. He knocked the door and waited for her to open it. She had the widest smile on her face when she opened the door.
"What's gotten into you smiley?"
"What? Can't I just be happy to see you," she said coyly.
He took off his shoes at his usual spot and headed to the couch.
She sat beside him.
"So Gerry's really cool."
Fitz chuckled.
"He's a great kid and since you decided to go all Einstein and help him with his homework, he won't shut up about you."
Olivia smiled.
"I'm glad I could help,"
He gave her a peck on the lips and she smiled.
"So what was up with Mellie earlier?" She asked.
Fitz was about to answer when her phone rang.
"One sec."
She looked at the caller Id and it was Harrison so she picked up.
"Harry what's going on?"
"Uhm I kinda wanted to tell you something…"
"What?"
"Don't get mad okay."
"Why would I get mad?"
"Abby's seeing Paul again."
"WHAT?"
"Yeah, I popped by your apartment earlier and he was there. She's saying that he apologized and she's going to give him a second chance, I didn't even know they were that serious to begin with, I thought they were just hooking up and it went south."
"Unbelievable."
"Yeah, she begged me not to tell you but I had to because I think you should talk to her, I don't trust that he won't hurt her again."
Olivia took a deep breath.
"I'm gonna call her right now."
"Okay."
She hung up and dialed Abby right away. Fitz sat quietly, a little fascinated by what was going on. He'd never seen her angry before and he was eager to see her in action.
The phone almost went to voicemail before she picked up. Olivia didn't give her a chance to say anything.
"Abby please don't tell me you have a wanted man in my apartment," she said angrily through the phone.
"Liv he apologized."
"Abigail, he punched you in your face and stole a necklace worth millions of dollars from me. By inviting him back into my apartment after what he did you're basically saying fuck me in a roundabout way."
"I'm sorry if you feel that way but he's changed."
"Abigail, get him out of my apartment right now. I feel like it's disrespectful as fuck that you even brought him back there in the first place, I don't have rules Abby, you can do whatever you want, what's mine is yours, you know that but I also expect you to be considerate."
"I'm sorry, I won't bring him back here."
"Okay, I'll talk to you tomorrow."
Olivia hung up.
"What happened?" Fitz asked.
"Abby brought that asshole back to my apartment. I can't believe her."
"Yeah that's very risky."
She sat back on the couch.
"I'm sorry I got so angry."
"No, it's okay, if that was you being angry then I have nothing to worry about when it's time for you to be angry at me, that was pretty calm."
Olivia chuckled.
"Compared to your tantrums you mean?"
"Hey, I thought you said those were sexy."
"They are," she said with an eyebrow wiggle.
Fitz stood up.
"I have to use the bathroom."
He walked off.
"Do not leave the seat up, I will disembowel you."
"I leave the seat up one time and you won't shut up about it," he said with a chuckle.
The moment Fitz stepped into the bathroom, the pain began. She covered her ears and closed her eyes. She got so dizzy, she stumbled off the couch and fell to the floor.
When Fitz came out the bathroom, he didn't see her on the couch.
"Liv?"
He walked over to the couch and saw her curled up on the floor, whimpering softly. In a panic, he dropped to the floor beside her, he'd never experienced one of her episodes before so it was a total shock to him but after he initially froze, he remembered what she told him to do if she ever had an attack when he was around. He got up quickly and grabbed the small pail near her bed and brought it over to her, then he quickly turned off all the lights and then planted himself right beside her. He didn't say anything, he just held her and rubbed her back, he wasn't sure what other way he could help. Dizziness surrounded Olivia and she could feel dinner coming back up. She opened her eyes and looked around for the pail and luckily it was right in front of her. She grabbed it and regurgitated all the contents of her stomach into the pan. Her gags and coughs filled the room. She felt conscious about him being right there.
"Get out of here Fitz, I don't want you to see me like this!" she begged, then the ringing in her ears began.
Fitz didn't move, he just held her. When she was finished throwing up, he moved the pan.
The pain was so bad that she let out a loud scream. Which was unusual for her, she mostly tried to keep quiet during her headaches but they had been getting worse. The sound of her scream pierced her ears like a bullet and then she immediately lost consciousness.
Fitz was so frightened that he didn't move. He didn't know if he should call an ambulance for her, based on what she had told him before, that seemed to be normal but it didn't look normal.
"Livie?" He said softly.
She didn't move. He got up quickly and went to call Tom. Tom ran into the room in seconds.
"Sir? Is everything alright?"
Tom heard Olivia's scream, he thought that maybe they were fooling around. So he didn't disturb them.
"Tom, call the ambulance, she lost consciousness."
Then Fitz saw Olivia's phone and had an idea.
"Tom wait."
He took her phone and tried to open it but it was password protected. He tried her work phone and it wasn't. He went through the call log and found Abby's number. He figured since they had lived together for so long, she must know what to do. She picked up on the first ring.
"Liv, I kicked him out."
"This is not Olivia."
"Who is this?"
"It's Keith."
Olivia had told him all about his nickname she used with Abby. Abby thought the voice sounded vaguely familiar, like the voice of a celebrity that you never heard personally, but you could recognize it anywhere.
"Hi Keith, why are you using Olivia's work phone."
"Olivia had an episode and passed out, she said it was normal but it doesn't look normal, should I call an ambulance."
"Where is she right now?"
"She's passed out on the floor, I didn't move her."
"Don't worry, it's normal, just move her to the bed and make sure she's comfortable, she probably won't wake up till morning but she'll be fine."
The fact that they thought it was normal made Fitz uneasy, there was nothing normal about what he just saw.
"Alright, I will."
He hung up and picked her up and brought her to her bed. He covered her with the blanket and then left her to rest.
Tom stood silently watching.
"It's okay Tom. False alarm."
"Is she going to be okay?" Tom asked.
"I think so."
Tom nodded and close the door behind him as he walked out.
He kissed her forehead.
"I love you."
It felt good to say, he just wished he would have the courage to say it when she was awake.
He cleaned up the room and then sat beside her on the bed. He couldn't hope to sleep after what he just saw, he was still pretty shocked. He sat up watching her sleep for hours until sunlight began to peak through the windows and even then, she didn't wake for hours after. It was almost 9am when she finally shifted a few times then woke up.
She stretched lazily and then turned to see him.
"Woah, what time it is?"
"It's almost 9."
"Oh my god, what are you still doing here?"
"What do you mean, you had a headache last night, I was freaking out."
"I'm sorry you had to see that, I didn't mean to freak you out."
"Don't be, seriously, it's okay, I'm just worried about you."
"I'm okay, it's normal."
"There was nothing normal about what happened to you last night. You looked like you were having a brain aneurysm."
"This is why I didn't want you to see, I didn't want to scare you."
He pulled her into his arms and held unto her tightly.
"What the hell was up with you trying to kick me out anyways."
She smiled.
"I'm not going anywhere Livie. Got it? "
"Got it."