2 Weeks later.
It was the day of Olivia's lecture.
She sat in the green room behind the stage waiting for the one of the administrative assistants to call her once all the students were seated and it was time to begin the lecture.
It had been over three weeks since her and Fitz made their relationship public and it had been something of a whirlwind experience since then, luckily it was a good one. She couldn't complain, he'd promise to wine and dine her and he'd been doing so in spectacular fashion. The press was still crazy but she'd been learning to deal with it even though she tried to stay out of public as much as possible. Things were going great and she was extremely busy with preparing to take over the lab and moving all the equipment from New York while also preparing for the state dinner with the Monegasque monarchy; on top of that Fitz's birthday was coming up along with their one year anniversary which he conveniently planned to overlap with his vacation.
"Dr. Pope, it's time," said the assistant who walked quickly into the room.
Olivia snapped out of her thought train and grabbed her papers and followed behind the woman to the stage. Before she made her walk on the stage, she stopped to take a breath behind the curtain and peek out at the audience. She thought it would've been a small group of students but the auditorium was packed. She tried not to panic and as she looked out she saw Gerry sitting at the front row and smiled and took another breath then she walked out to the stage on she heard the school administrator announce her name.
There was a round of applause as she walked across and she waved and smiled as she saw the flash of cameras go off. The setup of the stage was informal, there was a huge projection screen behind her for images and notes from her PowerPoint, there was a stool, a dry erase board, mic stand and a wooden desk. She took the mic from the stand and began.
"Wow," she said as she looked out to the audience, "you guys look good."
She heard a chorus of chuckles in response and smiled.
"The reason I'm here today is to pass on a bit of knowledge that I've...acquired over the years in hopes that it will help you in your own studies, research and later on - your careers and I also hope that I do not bore you death while I attempt to do so."
The audience chuckled.
"Wow, this is going pretty good," she said in what seem like a thought to herself.
They laughed again.
"I guess I'll start by telling you guys a little about myself, I actually wanted to hear from you guys because I thought there would only be like 5 people here but there are so many of you I'm afraid by we're finished we'd be out of time, thank you for that by the way, thank you all for coming."
The audience applauded.
"So let's see, I'm 31 years old, for any of you that don't know, I'm a savant, it's affliction that I've had since I was born, and I say affliction because in my case my savant syndrome causes me to suffer from terribly painful migraines, most of the times they're so bad that I lose consciousness but my savant syndrome has also allowed me to remember anything I've ever seen, heard, said, felt, tasted, thought, smelt, it allows me to do really large and complex calculations in my head, it also allows me to measure distances and angles without any measurement instruments and a couple other things but uhm I tell you this because for most of my childhood, being a savant was the worst thing that ever happened to me, I absolutely hated it, I just wanted to be normal. I was always in schools with kids older than me that I couldn't relate to and on top of that I had dyslexia so everything I read looked like coptic which funny enough helped me actually learn coptic."
They chuckled. She walked slowly back and forth as she spoke.
"But, I tell you this because the reason I got interested in science, well medical science specifically, was because I wanted to cure myself of the migraines that I suffered from. Every doctor I saw told me that they had no idea what was wrong with me and so I decided that I'd figure it out myself, I actually haven't done that as yet because it's quite complicated to examine your own brain but on my expedition to cure myself I came across something pretty close to magic and that is the stem cell. I say it's close to magic because I think most biological questions can be answered with stem cells or at least better understood by the study of it, from the ability to regenerate which is what my research and medical procedure is based on, to cloning which is far more complexed and deals with the programming of stem cells, to differentiation, the possibilities are endless..."
As Olivia spoke Gerry sat in the front row taking notes, as most of the audience did. The more she spoke, the more he found himself becoming intrigued by what she said and the more he wanted to know.
Olivia talked about stem cells for a while and then she explained how she came up with her procedure and the science behind it and before she knew it, time was up. The assistant had told her there would be a few questions, when she wasn't public with Fitz it seem exciting, now it was terrifying. She hoped that no one would ask her anything uncomfortable. The students with questions lined up at a mic going down the aisle, there weren't many which told her that they must've did a draw or something.
The first student was a tiny Asian girl with glasses, who seem to be around 18.
"Hi, my name is Mako, I'm going to attend NYU in the fall pre-med, my question to you is do you think stem cell could possibly cure cancer?"
Olivia smiled.
"Thank you Mako and congrats on getting into NYU. Now to your question, theoretically speaking the stem cell would need to be programmed to act as already matured cells in the body and the problem with that is, stem cells are little shapeshifters, if you inject them into the body hoping they'll become a B cell to fight a cancer like.. let's say leukemia, it's very likely they might shift into the cancer cells itself, if we have the right technology we can turn the stem cell into a formidable antibody fighting army but we don't so I'll say it's tentative whether stem cells can cure cancer but for what it's worth, I actually think nanotechnology is how we are going to end up curing the different forms of cancer that exist.""
"Have you studied nanotechnology?" she asked.
"I have, it's complex and very advanced but that's why I think it could be the answer."
"Thank you," she said with a smile.
Another girl walked up.
"I read online somewhere that you used to help nasa calculate the distance between stars and other Galaxies, is that true and if so, did you ever go to the international space station and did they ever let you name a star?"
Olivia smiled.
"Yes, I did name 1 star, it's called Amora, it's 2.564 parsecs away and it's in the supernova phase, I never got to go to the international space station though, which sucks."
They laughed as a young guy walked up.
"Are you working on anything new, any new research?"
"I'm sort of in the period where I'm preparing to do that, but I haven't decided what exactly that new endeavor would be."
Another gentleman walked up.
"What is the first thing you remember?"
Olivia chuckled.
"I remember taking my first breath moments after being born, it hurt."
The audience laughed.
"When you said and you could do a couple other things in regards to your savant syndrome, what are those things and also does your dyslexia still affect you and if so how?"
"No, my dyslexia hasn't affected me for many years, actually the last time I had an issue with it was when I was 9 years old and to answer your other question, my savant syndrome for some reason has made me pretty good at drawing, sculpting, just little things, tactile, cognitive or otherwise have been enhanced, for example, I was born left handed but I learned to write with my right hand, which isn't exactly spectacular, many people can do that but once I learn to write with my right hand I realized that I had the ability to write with both left and right at the same time which is a godsend when I'm writing complex algorithms."
The assistants let two more guests to mic and cut off everyone else.
"What's your advice to girls trying to follow your footsteps especially since we don't have a memory like yours?" one girl asked.
"My advice is to believe in yourself and your ideas and fight for them no matter what, it doesn't matter how big or how small, be passionate, hard work beats talent so as long as you're willing to do the work, there is no limit on how far you can go."
The girl smiled and stepped aside so the second student could ask a question.
"Do you know why you are able to remember everything?"
Olivia pondered for a second wondering how to make it as simple as possible so she didn't confuse them.
"Uhm, well a normal brain registers a memory in a three step process right so first it encodes, consolidates and then retrieves. You can't retrieve a memory if your brain didn't encode it. In order for your brain to encode a memory, your neurons (nerve cells in the brain) need to open a synaptic channel in order to talk to other neurons and they only do that if whatever event or action on the outside is strong enough to stimulate several of the same neurons to send the same message saying that whatever is happening outside of the body is important enough to be remembered. In my case, my brain doesn't perform a three step process to store a memory. I don't need several neurons sending the same message in order from my brain to deem something important enough to be remembered, it registers every spec of stimuli it gets from the outside, every detail, every attribute; it keeps it just as is, uncorrupted and unprocessed and it sends it to the medial temporal lobe which in my case acts as a random access memory drift, making all my memories easily retrievable in their purest form."
The student stood looking at her wide eyed.
"Wow. Do you think that one day it might overload and you'll just lose your memory completely and you won't be able to remember anything at all?"
Olivia chuckled.
"I hope not, I wouldn't want to end up like Dory from Finding Nemo, but the brain is spectacular, the more you take in, the more your brain expands."
The audience chuckled and the assistant ushered him back to his seat so Olivia took that as the cue that they were finished.
"Wow I guess we're finished, thank you guys for having me."
She waved and waited as they gave her a round of applause then she grabbed her paperwork from the desk and then headed back to the green room, Gerry met her in the room shortly after.
"How was it, did I bore you to death?" She asked.
"No, it was great," he said as he gave her a high five, "like I had no idea it was so complex but it's complex in a weird way that makes you want to know more."
"Thanks and I'm working on my lab in D.C., by the time you come back for school, it should be up and running and you can come and look around and see what I'm cooking up."
"Really, you know what would be even better?"
"What?"
"I could be your apprentice, I could work with you after school or on the weekends."
Olivia was surprised, pleasantly.
"What about football?"
"I love football and I'll always love it but dad was right, I can't risk another back injury and every time I see a football that's all I can think about."
"Wow Gerry, I'm really excited now but I implore you to think about it over the summer and make sure this is what you want, of course you can change your mind once you start but I want to make sure that this is what you love."
Gerry smiled.
"Of course and I'll also talk to mom and dad about it."
"Of course," Olivia said with a smile.
They chatted for awhile until it was time for them to leave, Gerry and his agents headed back to California and Olivia headed to D.C.
The later in the afternoon, when she landed after her hour and a half long flight, she headed straight to the whitehouse for her lunch date with Fitz.
When she walked into the Oval Office Fitz was on a call, so she gave him a peck on the cheek and then went to sit on the couch until he finished. As she waited Cyrus trotted into the office with a stack of papers in hand.
"Hi Olivia, you're just the person I wanted to talk to."
"Me, why?"
"Well-" before Cyrus could finish Fitz was off his call.
"Cy, what's up."
He got up from his seat and walked over to the couch and gave Olivia a kiss and took a seat beside her.
"You're wearing a suit today, you look sharp, I like it."
"Yeah well you know I like to change it up," she said with a smile.
"Gerry called and told me about the lecture, he loved it and he wants to your apprentice, that's a surprise."
"I'm surprised Mellie let him come."
"She didn't know, she thought he was coming to see me so I'm sure she's gonna be pissed."
Olivia chuckled.
Cyrus cleared his throat, feeling completely ignored.
"As I was saying Liv, I needed to talk to you."
"Sure, what's up?" She asked with a smile.
"We need to talk about your image."
"My image?"
"Yeah, we need to change your image, you're too sexy and the pictures floating around of you in bathing suits and kissing guys at the club aren't helping, especially not with the evangelicals in our base, the guys might like you cause you're hot but the women, not so much-"
Olivia cut him off.
"There was one picture of me kissing one guy and that is Elliot, my gay best friend and it was his birthday party and it was only a peck on the lips."
"Regardless, we did a focus group on you, they see you as the young hot girlfriend, that's the narrative now and we need to change that. You have substance, they like that you're smart but they say your sexuality distracts from that. I heard highlights of your lecture today and it was brilliant, especially the bit about little girls following in your footsteps, the press is eating it up."
"Mhmm," was all Olivia said.
"We need to change your wardrobe, more wholesome and First Lady like and we can probably stage a few events where attend church with Fitz, it's a no-no when it comes to atheism you know the base is not having that, not in the white house-"
"Because you and Fitz are so christian," she said sarcastically.
"It doesn't matter what we are, all that matters it what they think. Also stay away from publicly stating your opinion on political issues," Cyrus looked down at his notes and continued, "what else is there, let's see, uhm, apart from the clothes, the politics, the religion, that's it for now, we can work on that and anything else comes up, we'll handle it accordingly. Oh and also the car, you can't drive it anymore, that's a $250,000 sports car, it's way too flashy."
Olivia smiled.
"That's a great plan," said Olivia.
Fitz was surprised she'd agree with that, he surely didn't.
"But we have a problem and by we, I mean you," she added.
"What's my problem?" Cyrus asked.
"Your problem is that I like who I am, I actually love who I am, I like what I do and how I do it, I like the way I dress, I like my values so I'm certainly not going to change them or pretend they're different for your base. I don't wanna be anyone else but exactly who I am right now so I'm not gonna change for a bunch people that I don't know and probably will never meet, I am a private citizen and I can do whatever the fuck I want."
Fitz was smiling from ear to ear.
Cyrus sighed.
"You need to do this for Fitz, I know it's sexist and unfair but I just want to make you more relatable and likable to our base-"
"It's funny that somehow you think that's gonna make me do it, Fitz knows exactly who I was before we made our relationship public."
"Liv I'm not saying change everything, just a few minor adjustments."
"If the roles were reversed, would you ask Fitz to change his appearance?"
"Fitz doesn't have pictures of him floating around the internet in string bikinis on the beach and I know it's sexist, I don't like it but.."
"How about I just change the color of my skin, I'm sure all the problems your base has with me will disappear and you change your sexual orientation Cyrus all their problems with you will disappear as well. You can't please everyone Cy, so just give it a rest."
"I think you have your answer Cy," Fitz said.
Olivia laughed and took her blazer off, she was more than happy to end the conversation.
"Do you wanna have lunch with us?" she said, changing the subject.
Cyrus; realizing he lost this battle, took a seat on the couch. Apart of him liked the fact that she wanted to stay true to herself and not change her appearance but the political half was annoyed. He knew he'd lost the battle and needed to go back to the drawing board but for now he was going to give it a rest, Fitz didn't have to start campaigning for another few months. She had an infectious personality, she was like Fitz in many ways, charming and magnetic and he started brainstorming ways he could use that to win over voters.
"So, how's the dinner coming along?" She asked
"Good-"
One of the aides burst into the room.
"Sir Sally Langston just announced that she's running for president!"
"What!" screamed Fitz.
"She's at a campaign rally in Georgia, she just announced it sir, what should we do?"
Cyrus jumped up.
"Please tell me you're joking Melissa, please tell me this is all one big joke, I do not need this right now, I have high blood pressure do you want to be responsible for killing me."
"She's live in cnn right now, the press is requesting a statement sir."
"Leave us," Fitz ordered.
"Yes sir."
Fitz got up and walked over to his desk and picked up his phone and dialed Lauren.
"Lauren, put me through to Billy Chambers."
Olivia watched as Cyrus paced angrily back and forth, Fitz seemed very calm considering what was going on.
Someone else knocked on the door.
"Your lunch sir."
Olivia walked quickly to the door and collected the food and placed it on the coffee table.
"Hey Billy, quick question, I know you guys have been busy but did you and your boss' resignation letters get lost in the mail, it could just be me or a mix up on my end but I haven't received them as yet."
Cyrus ran over to Fitz and put the phone on speaker.
"No sir, she is still your Vice President sir," Billy said through the phone.
Fitz cleared his throat.
"Come again?"
"I said, she still plans on fulfilling her duties as Vice President sir."
Fitz was dangerously seriously for a minute and then burst into laughter. He laughed so hard that tears came to his eyes.
"Billy I want you and your boss' resignation on my desk by the time I digest my lunch you stupid ungrateful son of a bitch."
"Sir, Madam Vice President Langston-"
Fitz hung up as Billy was speaking and walked over to the couch and took a seat by Olivia.
Cyrus paced with his hands on his head.
"What's our next move, Sally is going steal the conservatives right out from under us."
Fitz was quiet for a while, he was thinking.
"Cyrus I need you to amend my reelection paperwork, put me in as an independent."
"What?"
"You heard me, I'm guessing Sally is going to try to run as an independent in order to make it to the general because she certainly won't be able to beat me in the primaries, she might be able to peel off right wing conservatives but she won't get moderate republicans and she certainly won't get moderate democrats, force her to run as a republican which boxes her into a corner with the conservatives, while I run as an independent and I'll keep my moderate republican votes, independent votes and steal votes from the democrats like we did in 08."
Cyrus was quiet for a while.
"That's fucking brilliant," he ran out the door, "Ethan," he called as he ran.
Fitz leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. Olivia had never seen his that angry before, his hands were balled in fist and she could feel the tension in his body.
"Uhm, do you want me to go?"
"Of course not, just need a minute."
She rested her hand on his knee and sat with him quietly.
When she saw him loosen up, she chuckled.
"The good thing is that you didn't like her anyways right?"
"That's the good thing, the bad thing is that I need a new vp."
"Can I suggest a candidate..."