Olivia was quite exhausted when she landed in Ethiopia. If they had been able to take a straight flight from Mogadishu to Addis Ababa they could been in Ethiopia in less than two hours but they had to take a flight from Mogadishu to Djibouti then from Djibouti to Addis Ababa and that took almost a day because of layovers. Then they drove 10 hours into rural Ethiopia to Nala, the village they would be stationed for the next week.
This time, instead of living with the villagers, they set up tents at an open lot in the village. The only convenient thing about that particular village was the fact the she had cell reception. Once they had camp set up, they immediately went to work, giving vaccinations and basic care to children. There were a few pregnant women who needed prenatals and others who just needed first aid, regardless, they took care of as much people as they could.
Later that night, Olivia sat in her tent and dialed Fitz, it was mid afternoon his time and she hoped he was free to talk.
"Olivia Carolyn Pope?"
"In the flesh, well, no, not yet, not till France."
Fitz chuckled.
"What are you doing?"
"I am on air force 1, I was just in New York at the UN headquarters now I'm heading back to D.C. what are you doing?"
"I'm laying in my tent."
"Did you just say 'tent'?"
"Yes, I just had to bathe with a bucket of water and a candle and now I'm laying in my tent in the middle of the village. Life is great, what I wouldn't give for a five guys double cheeseburger with extra bacon right now."
"It's funny you mention burgers because I just had one and boy was it good."
"Fitz, don't-"
"It was a double cheeseburger on a potato bun, mozzarella cheese melted down the sides, tomatoes, lettuce, onions and bacon, I can't forget to mention bacon."
"Fitz, how dare you tease me like that."
"There was so much grease, it was beautiful…"
"Fitz, I'm hanging up."
"No, no, don't hang up, I'll stop," he said as he laughed.
"Oh god, I can practically taste that burger now, why would you do that Fitz?"
"I'm sorry, you brought it up,"
Olivia was silent for a while and then she began again.
"Were there fries?"
Fitz laughed uncontrollably.
"Yes, seasoned fries; they were crunchy and hot."
He heard her gasp on the other end of the line.
"Were they salted?"
"Yes."
They both broke out laughing.
"Sir we have the defense secretary on the phone for you," Tom said as he walk over to Fitz with the phone in hand.
"Sorry, Liv, I have to go."
"No, it's okay. I'll talk to you same time tomorrow?"
"Yep, same time."
She hung up and fell asleep shortly after.
The next morning, she woke up early and met with the other doctors and staff in the middle of the camp. She brushed her teeth and freshened up, then they gathered and drank the soup that a few of the village women prepared for breakfast. Olivia and Abby joined Siobhan, Caleb and a few others in the community center where they had set up medical supplies to finish providing vaccinations and other services. In the middle of all the excitement, a pregnant mother's water broke. Olivia and Siobhan ran over to her and helped her lay on the bed. Olivia asked her a few question in her native tongue and then translated for Siobhan. They attended to her and waited for hours as the contractions came closer and closer together. When she was fully dilated, they began delivery.
"Bare down and push!" Olivia said in arabic.
Olivia held her hand tightly and pulled her hair from her face and encouraged her to push. Siobhan was down by her legs waiting for the arrival of the baby. It took almost an hour for the baby to come and the mother got ripped in the process but Siobhan sewed her up quickly while Olivia took care of the baby boy that was delivered. He was slightly underweight for a full term baby but he was healthy nonetheless.
It was dark out by the time they had finished fully taking care of the mom and her baby. They went back to their camp and began preparing for bed after a long day. Once she was all cleaned up from her day and ate dinner, she sat inside her tent with her little electric lamp and dialed Fitz.
"Hey Liv."
"Hey, I am calling you at a bad time?"
"I'm never too busy for you."
"Are you sweet talking me mister?"
"Yes, I'm trying to be on my best behavior before France."
"Why?"
"Because there won't be any sweet talking once I have you there."
"I'm so excited, I want you to do dirty things to me. Things so dirty that if people found out they'd have you impeached."
"I'll take that as a challenge."
She chuckled.
"Mhm and in return I'd do equally disgusting things to you."
"Really, you don't seem like the freaky type," he goaded.
"Oh please Fitz, I'll do things to you that will blow your mind and make you never want to let me go."
He chuckled.
"I don't want to let you go right now."
She smiled.
"Well good, you're smart."
"Upon occasion, yes."
"Guess what I did today?"
"What?"
"I delivered a baby today. A baby boy."
"You did?"
"Yes, it took the entire day but I did it, I mean, not all by myself, Siobhan helped me. We were a team."
"Is that the first baby you've ever delivered?"
"No, when we come over here, we're practically every doctor rolled into one, today I was an ob/gyn, who knows what I'll be tomorrow."
"Well, I'm very proud of you, I can't stress that enough."
"Thank you, I'm proud of you too, it's true that I am way more awesome than you but being president isn't too shabby I suppose."
"I'm the most powerful man in the world, I'd say that's a little better than not too shabby," he joked.
"Way to toot your own horn Fitz, that's very modest of you."
"Modesty isn't my strong suit and by the way before I forget, why haven't you been sending me pictures?"
"I haven't been doing anything outrageously exciting, I didn't think you'd want to see me taking picture with a bunch of kids all the time."
"No, I want to see it, I'll take whatever you give me."
She chuckled.
"No, seriously Liv, I will."
"How's Gerry, I still can't believe he got up on stage with you."
"He's doing his own thing. He's crazy about Kenna."
"Is she a nice girl?"
"She is, she's always really nervous when she has to speak to me so we haven't exactly conversed much but yea, she's nice."
"I miss you, I don't think you understand just how much I miss you, it's the first time I've been out on a mission and wanted to go home. I blame you."
"Then come home."
She smiled.
"You really are never going to stop trying to get me back home are you?"
"Nope, not until you're at D.C. international airport."
"Wouldn't it be funny if when we met in Paris you threw me in air force 1 and took be back to Washington?"
"What's funny is that I've actually thought about that?"
"You wouldn't?" she said as she chuckled.
"I would. I might."
"I'd cut you."
"Yeah okay," he said sarcastically.
"No seriously, I'm horrible, I do horrible things."
"Like…"
"Whenever I'm in the elevator and I see someone running to catch it, I press the close button."
"Seriously?" He said as he laughed.
"Yes seriously and I tell them to run and act like I'm pressing the open button but I'm not. I laugh when people trip, especially old people in the snow, that's the funniest thing in the world to me as long as they aren't badly hurt."
"You are an asshole."
She laughed and rolled onto her stomach. She was about to say something to Fitz when she heard rapid gunshots, he heard it too.
"Olivia what was that?"
The sound of the gunfire stopped.
"I don't know it sounds like gunshots?"
She sat up in her tent. She heard the rapid succession of gunfire begin again and then she heard screaming.
"Oh my god Fitz-"
"Olivia what's happening?"
She turned around and flicked off her battery operated lamp. The gunshots continued to ring out, she heard screaming and wailing.
"I-I don't know, I hear gunshots and screaming. Fitz I'm scared."
Fitz stood up in the oval.
"Where are you now?"
"I'm in my tent?"
"Is there any light inside your tent, turn it off."
"I just did."
The sound of the gunfire multiplied, she could hear the the heavy thud of boots running outside her tent, she heard children crying and screaming, woman and men wailing.
"Olivia it's important that you keep me on the line."
"Okay," she whispered.
"Tom I need you now?" Fitz called.
Tom ran in right away.
"I need all my defense secretaries and security in the situation room now or on the phone, where ever you can get them and call the U.S. military base in Ethiopia, like right now."
"Olivia what's the name of the village?"
"Nala."
"Tom, I need apache's in the air now, there is a fire fight in the Nala village, I need guys on the ground there now."
"Yes sir."
"Lauren; call Cyrus!" he screamed.
"Liv are you still there?"
"Yeah,"
"Hold on, I'm trying to get a team there as fast as I can."
"Okay."
"Is there anywhere you can hide, a forest close by maybe?"
"They're right outside, I can hear them, the forest is too far from my tent, they would see me."
"Can you tell how many men there are?"
"I'm not sure but I hear about 5 separate machine guns being fired at the same time, I can also hear handguns, I can't tell how many though."
Then Olivia remembered Abby.
"Oh my god Abby. I have to find Abby."
"Olivia do not come out of your tent to go find Abby!"
"Fitz that's my best friend, I have to make sure she's okay."
"Olivia, you don't know if Abby is safe somewhere, do not go looking for her!" He ordered.
"Oh my god I can't believe this is happening," she said in a panic.
"Ms. Pope run!" her guard screamed from outside the tent.
As soon as he screamed she heard a single gunshot.
"Oh my god-"
"Olivia what's going on?" Fitz screamed.
Cyrus ran into the room simultaneously.
"Fitz what's going on?"
Fitz didn't answer.
"Olivia can you answer me?" Fitz said softly.
"Fitz I think-"
A man poked his head in her tent and grabbed her leg and pulled her out. She couldn't exactly see his face since her only source of light was the camp fire that was 20 feet away and the moonlight.
She screamed mid sentence.
"LET ME GO!"
"Olivia?" Fitz screamed.
He heard another rapid round of gunfire.
"Let her go!"
Fitz could hear one of her guards scream and then there was gunfire again. Olivia screamed again. He had no idea what was going on, all he could hear was the sound of Olivia screaming then he heard a thud.
The phone fell from Olivia's hand into the dirt and then everything sounded far away.
The man who grabbed Olivia was fully militarized, in a camo suit with a bullet proof vest and belt of bullets slung across his body. He wore a black balaclava, black gloves and black boots. He covered her mouth to get her to stop screaming and dragged her across the stone ground to the campfire.
The other men were rounding up all the doctors by the campfire. As the masked man pulled Olivia over to the other doctors, she could see Abby. She was kneeling beside Siobhan and the other female doctors. All the men doctors laid dead on the ground beside them including Caleb, a good friend of Olivia's. The man shoved Olivia to the ground beside Abby and Siobhan.
"Liv?" Abby called.
"Quiet!" the man commanded. He seemed to be the leader. He was huge, he was at least 6'6, very muscular and rigid with his posture.
He stood in front of the group of 7 women and pulled a picture out of his pocket and then looked at Olivia.
"Take this one, kill everyone else." he said as he pointed to Olivia.
She grabbed on to Abby, who was crying and shaking.
"No! Please don't kill her!" she screamed.
The man yanked Olivia off of Abby all the while Olivia tried to fighting him off but it was no use.
"Please don't kill her. You don't have to. Please." Olivia stood strong as she spoke to him.
The man chuckled.
"Okay fine, take the redhead, we might have some use for her."
One of the other men grabbed Abby and pulled her up. Olivia looked at Siobhan and the other doctors who were kneeling on the ground sobbing.
"Please, you don't have to kill them."
"We don't but we are going to kill them to make a point."
He paused.
"Let's make this interesting, I'll give you a choice: 5 doctors or the redhead? Choose. I'll leave the 5 doctors and kill the redhead or I'll kill the redhead and leave the 5 doctors, your choice."
"I'm not doing that!"
"Choose; it's either gonna be the 5 doctors or the redhead and if you don't choose then I'll just kill them all."
Olivia looked at Abby, who was crying uncontrollably then she looked at the 5 doctors, all of whom she considered friends but Abby wasn't her friend, she was a family. She knew she'd never forgive herself for her decision but she also couldn't lose Abby, so she chose,
"Abby,"
The man laughed.
"Their blood is on your hands, I gave you a choice, remember that."
She turned her face as the men aimed their gun at the doctors. She couldn't look. Some of the women began praying and other just like Siobhan just wept and screamed Olivia's name.
"OLIVIA PLEASE!" Siobhan screamed.
"Olivia I have a baby, please. Liv." Simone, another doctor begged.
They were each shot execution style. As soon as the last body hit the floor, the men pulled Olivia and Abby up and dragged them through the village to their car.
"Why are you doing this?" Olivia screamed.
As they pulled her she saw all the dead bodies scattered on the ground. Bodies of men, women and children, no one was spared. She was still in shock as the shoved her into the jeep. Abby was taken to another jeep. The moment the car pulled off, she felt a sharp pain against her skull and then everything went black.
Fitz sat in the situation room. He was still on the line, hoping that Olivia would pick up the phone and tell him she was okay. It had been 40 minutes since he heard the last gunshot through the phone, after that he heard nothing. He waited as the apache helicopters he ordered landed. They had an open line to the chief officer that was leading the force into the village.
"I want to see and hear everything that's going down there," Fitz ordered.
His defense secretary nodded. "Gentlemen make sure you maintain audio and visual," he spoke to the screen.
"Yes sir." The chief officer replied.
When the helicopter landed in the middle of the village the soldiers descended on high alert. One soldier wore a camera band on his head that transmitted visual back to the situation room. It was night time in Ethiopia, so the camera showed through night vision. Fitz watched the screen as the soldiers looked around.
"It's quiet sir."
He could see the local people running from the soldiers as they moved swiftly to find the doctors. One of the soldiers stopped one of the running villagers.
"Doctors, where are the doctors?" He asked.
The village man seemed to only understand the word doctor and pointed in the direction of the camp. As the soldier walked, Fitz could see dead villagers scattered on the floor and women, men and children crying over their loved ones. As they neared the camp Fitz saw a bunch of bodies spread out on the ground by a campfire. The soldier stood directly in front of the bodies and looked down. Fitz and everyone in the room saw the single bullet wounds to their heads. They were all dead.
"Sir, they were all shot at point blank range," the soldier said.
Fitz stood up and search the screen frantically for Olivia but he didn't see her.
"Christ! They butchered them," Cyrus called out at the sight of all the dead bodies.
The soldier moved from the bodies and walked further and Fitz saw both guards he hired to protect Olivia lying dead on the ground 15 feet apart from each other. He watched as the soldier checked tent by tent and found no one.
"Clear," he said as he walked away from the tents.
They gathered all the bodies of the doctors in the center of the camp.
"Your order sir?" the captain asked.
"I need everyone accounted for. I don't see Olivia pope, she was apart of the group. Find her now."
"Yes sir," the captain replied.
Fitz turned to Cyrus.
"I need a list of everyone that's missing and everyone that is dead."
Then he turned and faced his joint chiefs and his defense secretary.
"I need you to figure out what the hell happened over there," he ordered.
"Yes Mr. President."
He turned around and headed back to Oval Office, he felt nauseous. He paced frantically as he tried to reign in his emotions and process what was going on.
Cyrus walked into the oval a few seconds later.
"Fitz, calm down and take a breath."
"How Cy? How? How can I be calm. I don't know where she is. I don't know if she's alive."
Fitz voice broke as he uttered the last word.
"She's not dead, if she was dead she would've been with the other doctors, maybe she got away, the forest was close by, maybe she escaped."
"Oh god what am I gonna do?" Fitz mumbled to himself in panic.
His head was spinning and his heart felt as if it was going to burst out of his chest.
Cyrus watched Fitz in shock, he'd never seen him lose his cool like that before.
"Fitz, we'll find her. I promise, I'll order more soldiers on the ground to search the woods and we'll get a translator to talk to the villagers to see what they know. Stay here and just calm down, we'll find her okay."
Fitz took a deep breath but he didn't respond. Cyrus took that as his que to go. As he neared the door, Fitz spoke.
"Cyrus, she can't die. I can't lose her, I know you may not like her, I know I've only known her for 3 months but I can not lose her."
"I'll do everything possible to find Olivia Pope and bring her back to you but I need you to stay calm and just give me some time to find her. Take a minute, calm down and then come back to the situation room so we can figure this out."
Fitz nodded.
"Okay."
Once Cyrus walked out he called Lauren into the office.
"Lauren?"
As soon as she heard Fitz calling she sprinted into the office.
"Mr. President?"
Fitz still had his back turned to her.
"I need you to go and get my father from the residence and bring him here."
"Uh okay sir, I'll do that right now."
Lauren ran out nervously and summoned Big Gerry to the Oval Office.
When Gerry walked in the office, Fitz was standing by the window, looking outside.
"Fitz, why is your secretary summoning me."
"I'm going to ask you this once."
"What?"
"Did you have anything to do with that happen to Olivia tonight?"
"Olivia? What happened to her?"
"Her village was attacked. Whoever attacked the village killed all the doctors but I can't find her."
"I swear, I don't know anything about this. Why would you even think I would do this."
"Because I know you. Because ever since you stood exactly where you are standing right now and gave me your bullshit fatherly love speech, I've been suspicious of you."
"I didn't do this."
Fitz turned around and faced him.
"I am going to scour the entire continent of Africa until I find her, and if I find out that you had anything to do with this- I'm coming for you because no one is going to stand in the way of me and Olivia being together, not this presidency, not you and not whoever it is that attacked her village."
He paused and turned back to face the window.
"We're done here, you can go."