Author´s note:

Aaand on we go. Once more, thanks for all the kind words and reviews and those who just read and enjoy. :)

ShaunV76: Yes, yes, she did, without intending even though that´s what she came for, didn´t she? I doubt Mellie will like how this played out. :)

Umusarah: Well, maybe I didn´t manage to bring this across properly. My idea was that Fitz, hurt by the day´s events, is clinging desperately to his own pride here. Mellie´s supposed betrayal is not what hurts him, he merely needs something to restore his pride and catching them together would do that, would give him some (admittedly childish) satisfaction. Fitz is not always the most reasonable of people either and I guessed that in this situation, Mellie running off was just the straw that broke the camel´s back.

Najee79: Well thanks. :) As I said, writing Mellie was fun in a way, because she is such a Machiavellian character IMO and yes, she needs a moment like this maybe, butI am not yet sure whether that would be her character…she´s more the kind of person that if she loses her pride, she´ll go down with flying colours…

Rachgreengeller: hehe, yes, indeed. ;) Thanks and here you go. :)

Jennkyle: Yes, I wanted to highlight that, because the show never really focused on the kids and I thought it would be worth reminding people that Karen is still there, probably having a terrible time dealing with all this. Thanks for the review. :)

Marilyn Prescott: Thanks so much for your kind words and it´s great to see I managed to keep you on the edge of the seat so far. Hope you´ll keep enjoying it. :)

Guest: Stubbornness. He says "wife" to make a point. The man is fighting for his pride and standing here, it´s the subtle things that bring this across. And I am not sure whether you were the same person reviewing last time, but whether or not I get rid of Mellie is up to me for this story. Thanks for reading and reviewing. :)

LoreneMichelle41: That´s exactly what I wanted to bring across with Mellie´s point of view, that she is absolutely ignorant of others there, in the end she is one of the most powerhungry characters in the entire show which in my opinion makes her extremely unlikable. Well well, stuff might be hitting the fan indeed. Thanks for the review.

Chapter 14 – Approaching, reproaching

"We should remain in the car, Sir."

Tom tossed a glance into the rear view mirror, meeting the president´s eyes straight on. The man looked different in his grey sweater and baseball cap. He had seen him like this before, usually when working out, even though not when, like here, cruising through the night on some stupid mission to follow a possibly unfaithful wife. Tom knew he was not exactly acting according to Secret Service protocol. POTUS was not to be let off the grounds like a teenage boy on a rampage, there were security measures to be followed. But then again, he guessed that injecting the president´s son with something that would kill him or reporting whatever went on in and out of the Oval Office during his presence to Command did not exactly go well with said protocol either. Thus, what he was doing, ushering the president out of the White House surely broke a few rules. But Tom Larsen had been answering to a new master for a while and that master was not the head of the Secret Service…

"That´s out of question." his boss replied, voice dense, authoritarian. "My wife found a way to get in here, undetected because if not the media would already be here which they are not. She can´t be alone. Contact the agent who´s with her. I´m sure you can figure something out."

"Yes, Sir."

He tapped his ear piece, knowing precisely who the agent was that the First Lady would trust with standing guard while she was frolicking around with the upcoming Veep. These people, he thought, were just batshit crazy.

"Mike."

"Tom?"

"I need your location, Mike."

"I´m off the premises, there isn´t anything more I can say. It´s a covet mission."

"I disagree." Tom said. "I´m with POTUS. We´re in front of the hotel. How did you get in? Unseen."

There was a pause. No doubt the younger agent was considering whether he was in a situation to rebuke his superior, coming to the conclusion he should but could not.

"There is a service entrance on the back, door is open, leads up to a fire escape where you can get into the second floor undetected."

"Mike? I need the room."

Another pause. There was no doubt to Tom as to what was going through Michael´s head right now. The pause told him enough, it was all the confirmation he had needed if he had ever doubted his instincts. The younger man was standing in front of some hotel door, wishing he was elsewhere, knowing full well what was going on inside.

"There is none." Tom raised his eyes, but kept silent, knowing the president, even though he could not here what the other agent was saying, could of course hear his every word and he didn´t like it when the president was fully informed these days. "We are on our way back already."

If that was a tete a tete, it was a short one, Tom thought sarcastically. He scowled, thoughts racing through his mind. "What about the VP, Mike?"

"At his home, I guess? What´s going on there, Tom?"

"All right, thanks." Again, aware that any sign of bewilderment could give away that they were on a wrong trail, Tom ended the connection, knowing the other agent would be confused, but that was worth it. Another thought had entered his mind. What if the president had had it wrong all night? If it wasn´t the Veep that his wife had been looking for here? Tom narrowed his eyes slightly, regarding the hotel´s front. The coast was clear, at least with regards to the Misses. But…maybe…

It had been just a few hours earlier that he had received a call from Command. The operative: stay put, but if there is any sign of Olivia Pope, report back immediately. Whatever that meant didn´t matter to Tom, he was just following orders, but it was always nice to be able to give Command what he wanted. And it looked like the First Lady had just made his day…Once more he met the eyes of his boss. "Well?"

"She´s upstairs. Keep your head low." He drove around the building, heading for a small parking lot, undoubtedly usually used by delivery. "We´ll be taking the entrance at the back."

There was some risk that this was a dead end, that the First Lady had been looking for someone entirely off his radar, but he was willing to take the risk. Mike had sounded awkward and that was likely to mean one thing… that the First Lady had been seeking out Olivia Poke and that she was still staying in this hotel.

These two, Tom thought, the president and Command´s daughter, were a mess and after tonight he wasn´t so sure that if POTUS had known who was inside the hotel he would have kept pursuing. Thus he had to lie, pretend that the president´s suspicion might be right, but a little lie would probably take him to the young woman and however things went, there would be a few seconds for sure where she could be bugged … Christmas might be coming early this year. Agent Tom Larsen suppressed a smug smile.

OOOOO

This time, the door did bang.

"What the hell is going on here, Liv? What did she want here?" There was this tone in Abby´s voice, this don´t-you-dare-bullshit-me which Olivia could so very well understand but which she wished she didn´t get this very moment. She needed a friend, desperately, maybe mostly because she was wondering whether she even deserved friends who would come to her with wine and snacks after she had run out on them. But then again, why did she always have to justify everything? In front of everyone? She was an adult, she was old enough to make her own decisions. She spun around, meeting the glare of her redheaded friend. There wasn´t just anger in Abby´s eyes, there was also concern. Worry, that emotion that Abby tended to disguise in a temper.

"Abby, I´m fine, this is…"

"…private?"

"It´s difficult."

Her friend made an exasperated motion with her hands. "When isn´t it? I mean…the stuff we have been through together and then you suddenly come back and hide in some hotel and then the First Lady comes tapping on the door and the whole hotel can hear you yelling at each other like a couple of cats and…" She suddenly paused in her frantic monologue. "…It´s him, isn´t it?"

"Abs…"

"It´s all about him! I mean…you two…still…again? Liv!"

"Abby…" But there was no way to easily interrupt her friend when she was in such a mood.

Surprisingly, Abby´s expression changed from anger to fear. "Liv are you being threatened?"

"What?"

"That´s why she was here, wasn´t it?" She opened her mouth, closed it, dramatically. "That´s why you left. They made you. This is… You help them win the election and then they kick you out like a used, old shoe. And now that you dared come back she tracks you down and… Seriously, Liv I…"

"Abby!" Now her voice was so loud that it broke through the other woman´s barrier. Abby froze, stared. "I did it." Olivia´s voice was barely a whisper. "I…I left. There was…nobody threatening me or making me. I left, because it was my own decision, because…" She paused. No, her friend didn't deserve to be part of this mess, but then again she deserved at least a little bit of peace of mind. "…I was…I was just tired of messing up people´s lives, Abby. I was…tired of everything around me being nothing but a mess. Many bad things wouldn´t have happened if it wasn´t for me."

Maybe a little part of her had hoped for understanding, for a hug, right now. But it didn´t come. Not this time. Instead, Abby´s features change ones more and now she looked…hurt.

"Yes." Abby finally said, her voice low. "Many things would not have happened without you. I for one would probably still be the jam making, ever shushing wife of an abusive husband. And that´s just me. I think everyone in your circle of…friends has a similar story where you made all the difference. For good. But you just decided to walk out on us, Liv…"

"Abby, please…"

But Abby held up her hand. "No." she said, shaking her head and moving towards the door. "Liv, maybe you need some time for yourself, to see why you are really here again and…maybe you´ll remember there are friends who are there for you. You know where to find us…"

And for the second time in less than half an hour, Abby walked out of the hotel room, but this time, even though the door didn´t slam, it hurt all the more.

With a heavy sigh Olivia sat back on the bed she had been sitting on earlier, propping her elbows on her knees, burying her fingers in her hair and allowing herself a few deep sighs. She wanted to cry, wished she could because right there, that moment she realized she had hardly ever felt so alone. She had not expected her return to go over smoothly but so far everything had turned out a dead end.

She needed rest, her usually strong voice of sanity told her. Rest to rationally, calmly thing of ways how to…how to make amends with all the people she had hurt. Something that felt like it couldn´t wait and that she knew had to wait another night and that would keep her up, tormenting her, reminding her that by leaving she had just made things worse…Where to even start? Where to start piecing together a life when that life was a mess that she had herself crashed into a thousand splinters?

Air…she needed air. All of a sudden, the hotel room felt restricting, small, even though it wasn´t, really. The evening had progressed considerably, turning into night slowly, even though she had no idea of the precise time. Nine? Maybe ten? She knew she would have to live with the torment of the coming night before she could go out, talk to people, best starting with her friends at (probably formerly) OPA and then, when she had talked some sense with them and because she needed time to figure out how to face him: Fitz. Oh how she missed Fitz. And how she had hurt him. She knew she had. She knew him too well to make any illusions over that.

But no matter how bad the night would be, she needed fresh air first. Just once around the hotel, for pacing inside the room would be impossible to stand. And so she grabbed her coat and it felt like she was running again even though that flight only went from bed to hotel door and then she was through.

Heading out, she revised her idea on the current time. It was probably a little later already, because the corridor was quiet, there was no chatter to be heard from adjacent rooms, the guests seemed for the most part to have gone in for the night. Somewhere she heard a television, probably set to the news channel, but the corridor itself was empty, emphasizing the not too modern but clean carpet and wallpapers that she thought were just a little out of style. She locked her door and turned right, towards where she knew the elevators were, her step hurried, running, running again but knowing there was nowhere she could run but outside. And then she turned the corner that she knew led to the elevator and all of a sudden the corridor was no longer empty. She stopped in her tracks immediately, felt her mouth drop open, her heart beating painfully against her chest after missing a beat or two when she saw him.

He might have fooled whatever hotel personnel he had sneaked past, but he´d never fool her. She knew his stride too well. He had seen her, she knew, as he, too, stopped, frozen in place, his eyes under the cap looking sunken and pained and darkening a little more when he saw her. It hurt her to know the reasoning for that pain that had been added today, was her.

"F…Fitz?"