Chapter 25
She still hadn't awakened. They wouldn't let him ride in the back with her. He started to just pull out his gun and insist but Olivia wouldn't want him to do that. So he now sat in the front of an ambulance as they sped through traffic with Olivia in the back. She was still breathing and her heart rate had been very fast before they asked him to stand down. They asked if she used drugs, she didn't. They had checked her just as he had and they had found the hematoma in the back of her head. She wasn't bleeding though. Was she assaulted before she got into the elevator? What was going on? She had called and wanted him at the office ASAP, something was going on. What was going to be his next move? He needed to call HIM!
He could marginally see in the rear of the ambulance and he saw oxygen on her face. There was a bag of fluids hanging above her head. There was a collar around her neck. The medic in the back was on the phone. Somehow Olivia had been hurt and he to find out how it had happened. If there was foul play he would find out.
Olivia had been trying to get on with her life since the latest break-up with HIM. She was absolutely devastated that they were apart. He had listened to her talk and cry about it. Olivia Pope didn't cry, but he had about HIM. She loved HIM. But she was afraid the President's crazy wife was going to out them and ruin the President. So she had ended it and she was a walking piece of misery. He had tried to help her as best he could but he wasn't the President.
Olivia was trying to drown her sorrow by hitting the DC nightlife circuit. She was looking for someone to help her forget she still loved HIM. He knew it wasn't going to happen. Olivia was deeply in love with the man and she never stopped loving HIM. He had warned her that the DC nightlife was over the top. He had even offered to hit the nightspots with her. She wouldn't even consider it. She didn't need a chaperone she had said. He and Olivia were friends, good friends. She had shared with him a lot about her life including the fact that she had been in a relationship with the President of the United States up until six months ago. Abby was actually Olivia best friend but she hadn't told her because of three facts, the man was married with children, he was the leader of the free world, and they had promised they would never mess with married men. She didn't want Abby to know she had broken the promise.
They were now at the hospital and they were rolling her in. He had told them he was her brother so they had asked him to register her as they whisked her into the ED. Before going inside Huck had walked over to the side of the hospital and he opened Olivia purse. He knew he would find it in there, the "Fitz Phone" as she called it. She had shown it to Huck when she first told him about them. She was happy and wistful then. She was very much in love with the man then and she still was.
Which was now making Huck shake his head, why were we at this place? Olivia had no business out at night on the streets of Washington, DC looking for a replacement for someone she loved. She was never going to find what she sought. He knew that from experience. He had debated whether or not to call HIM. He had no choice, the man needed to know she was here and what Olivia had been up to, and he needed to stop it!
He answered the phone on the first ring. He kept the thing in his pocket all day and he held it in his hand at night as he slept. She would call him eventually he had known that but he had hurt everyday that she hadn't called. "Livvie, you called. It doesn't matter why you decided to call. We will work this out. Listen to me! You have to stop letting Mellie do this to us. It is manipulation Olivia. She can't get to me so she targets you because she knows what a gentle soul you are. I love you Livvie, please…."
Huck should have stopped him as soon as he had spoken but he wanted to make absolutely sure it was indeed the President. Huck took a deep breath and he spoke. "Mr. President this is not Olivia, this is Huck."
It took a minute for it to sink in. That wasn't Olivia voice. It was man speaking to him. Had he said this is Huck? He searched his brain, Huck? Huck was Olivia's friend and co-worker from her office. He was her IT specialist. Why was he on Olivia's phone?
"Huck why are you calling me on Olivia's phone? Is she alright?"
Huck didn't know how to play games, right away he said, "No Mr. President she is not. Olivia has been hurt. She is unconscious and she has just arrived at John Hopkins. I am about to register her. She has some type of head injury. I don't know what happened to her Sir. I called 911 as soon as I found her. She had called me and asked me to meet her at the office."
The President's mind was already working, he didn't hesitate as he spoke, "Huck listen to me. Register her as anyone but Olivia Pope. In fact register her as Allyson Blue. I will handle this from here. Stay close to her Huck, I am on my way."
The President made two phone calls. He had given very specific orders and he was insistent that they be carried out ASAP. He called Tom and told to him have one car only ready to move in ten minutes or less. No motorcade. There was an emergency! Throw the Presidential protocol out the window for the time being. Olivia was hurt and he didn't want to turn this into a goddamned spectacle! He needed to get to the hospital.
Meanwhile at the Emergency Department the call had come in there was a patient that had just arrived at the hospital and the Special Component Protocol (SCP) had been enacted. This patient, one Allyson Blue had been placed into this protocol and from this point would receive special consideration. The patient was some hobnob in intelligence, possibly an American spy. The patient was to be moved immediately to a secure area. From this minute on she was to be seen by only military personnel trained to execute the SCP and therefore had been approved to treat her.
The physician in charge of the Emergency Department was a military man himself and he knew the drill. He had briefly seen the patient and had ordered appropriate treatment based on what he knew which was very little. The vital signs of the patient had been stable when she arrived. He had done a thorough exam and had drawn blood for testing and had ex-rays done. The medics had already tested her blood glucose levels in the field and they were normal. She had received Narcan in the field also and she was still unconscious. This wasn't an overdose.
He relayed the information he had to the team that seemed to come out of nowhere to take over this case. He had to assume these people were always out there lurking in the shadows. They were here in his ED in a matter of minutes. He had barely finished his patient assessment and begun treatment before the ED was basically taken over. The patient whoever she was now gone. She had been whisked out of here by people in appropriate hospital garb and with appropriate paraphernalia, but she had also been surrounded by a lot of men dressed in black suits. He entered the patient chart number he had been working on less than ten minutes ago out of curiosity and he wasn't at all surprised when all that appeared on the screen was "THESE FILES ARE NOW CLASSIFIED." For him that signified it was a wrap. He moved on to his next patient.
Huck was advised as he sat out in the waiting room of the ED that someone would be down to escort him to where his sister was shortly. She had been moved. Huck stood up and started pacing the floor. What was going on? Where had they moved her to? He started to call the President back but he thought better of it. He would give them exactly ten minutes to tell him something before he started to hurt people.
The President had arrived at the hospital and was immediately taken to the area of the hospital when he would've gone to if he himself had been injured. He had the power to do what he had done so he had exercised the good sense to have her taken to a place where he would have control. And he wanted to be able to see her without a hassle. At this point he didn't even care if everything came out. He was done with all this pain he had been in. When Olivia came out of this they were going to sit down and talk and put them back together again. Mellie and her shit were done too. If she so much as looked at Olivia sideways he wasn't sure what he may do!
Fitz asked for the doctor right away he wanted to know what was going on. Had they made any determinations about what was wrong with her? He needed some answers. The doctor in charge came up to the President and shook his hand. The man could tell this wasn't the time to say I voted for you and I really admire you. The President was a man who was freaked out at the moment, high anxiety was written all over his face. "How is she? What is wrong with her?"
"Sir the patient has a head injury. She was sent out for a CT scan not too long ago. I expect she is back in her room by now. Also there should be an interpretation of that scan shortly. An ex-ray was done in the ED but it was basically inconclusive. There was a hematoma with a great deal of swelling located in the area where the occipital bones connect." The doctor took the time to point to the area about which he had spoken. "At the moment I am classifying this as a mild to moderate head injury simply because the patient is still unconscious and that isn't a good thing. We don't know how she was injured which is problematic. That being said because the patient's vital signs have remained stable I am optimistic that the patient will awakened and tell us what happened. I am betting this is at best a concussion and the patient is just taking longer than usual to wake up."
"Excuse me doctor but please don't bet or do a lot of assuming with this patient. She is to receive the best treatment this government has to offer. I won't accept anything less." The President took a deep breath and ran his fingers through his hair. He read the name tag on the doctor's lapel. "Dr. Wagner is there some place we can talk privately?"
"Of course, please follow me Sir."
"Dr. Wagner I will be blunt. Your patient is very important to me. I need her well, I need her healed, and I need her awake and talking. I can't listen to vagueness when it comes to her. I can't! I need you to be honest with me. I need her returned to me whole. If she doesn't…."
Dr. Wagner heard it then the crack in the President's voice, he saw the tremor in his hands, and most telling were glassiness of his eyes, the man was holding back tears. What in the hell was going on? Who was that woman? Whoever she was the President of the United States had a great affinity for her. He was hurting because she was hurt. It was as if she were a loved one. He had been a doctor for more than a minute. The President loved this woman and the woman was definitely not his wife. He moved closer to the President and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sir I can't guarantee a certain outcome, I can't do that. I need more facts, I need definitive information from the tests I have ordered and I need the patient to wake up. It is important that she awakens. But I can promise you this I will do everything in my power to see that she is returned to you."
"Please help her. There is nothing else for me to say. I love her. I have since the first day I saw her and I will not deny that today. I won't stand on the sidelines and say I am just a concerned friend, I am more than that. I am the man that loves her more than anything. Where is she? I need to see her."
"As I said she should be back from CT by now. Come with me. Mr. President. She will receive the best treatment possible I will see to it personally, don't worry. I appreciate your candor Sir. You need not say anything else. I can assure that you can expect a high degree of discretion from me and the rest of the staff assigned to this case."
"Thank-you doctor, please take me to her."
They entered the room and Fitz let out the breath he was holding. She just looked like she was just sleeping. She looked so tiny in that big bed, but she did at least look normal to him. He went up to her and took her hand and entwined with his own. "Livvie please wake up and talk to me. I'm here you are not alone. I love you Olivia please come back to me."
Dr. Wagner was mesmerized by what he was seeing but he wasn't surprised. The world of politics was just like all others he assumed. However he was not going to judge the President, not at all. He would treat this woman to the best of his ability and as for the rest that was the President's business. In order to be part of this team you had to sign away your life basically. And certainly you didn't discuss what happened inside these walls. There was Secret Service all over the place. To be certain when he first received the page he had thought the patient was the President himself. Only after he got here was he told it was an undercover operative, which was a fancy word for spy. For some reason he didn't believe the woman currently listed as Allyson Blue was a spy. And the President had just called her Livvie. One thing was for sure whoever she was she was important to the President. He quietly backed out of the room.
He sat there with her for about twenty minutes before he remembered Huck. He went to the door and signaled for Tom and asked him to find Huck and bring him to this room. He went back to his place beside her and holding her hand.
Huck was sitting in this little room about to lose it. They had taken him from the ED waiting room to this place and they still had told him nothing. Someone had better come through that door soon or he was going to blow. Where was Olivia and was she alright? Right at that moment Tom steps through the door and says, "Will you come with me Mr. Huck? The President wishes to see you."
"Is he with Olivia?"
"I think so, please come with me sir."
Huck left the room with what was obviously a Secret Service Agent. He rushed into the room and the President was just sitting there watching her breathe. He hadn't even noticed Huck come into the room. The agent had said, "Mr. President Mr. Huck is here."
Huck walked over to the bed and said, "She still hasn't come around? What are they saying Mr. President, what is wrong with Olivia?"
Fitz got up and walked over to Huck. He would ask the questions? "What happened Huck? What in the hell happened?"
"She called me and asked me to meet her at the office. She didn't say why but she did say it was very important. I heard her come in and then I heard her fall. There is evidence that she may have vomited before she fell. There is nothing in that foyer based on where she fell that would have made that injury to her head. There was a cut back there. Did they see it? Her hair was hiding it but it is there. Something hit her head hard enough to cut it. There was alcohol on her breath, but she was breathing and she had a strong pulse. I called 911 right away. I knew you would want her here so I insisted they bring her here. Is she going to be alright?"
"I don't know Huck, the doctor wasn't encouraging but he wasn't discouraging. He is waiting for some definitive test results to come in. Huck I know Olivia talks to you. Was she working on a case and maybe got in trouble? The doctor needs to know what happened. We need to find where she was when she was injured, if what happened to her was an accident or was it intentional? If it was intentional someone will pay I guarantee that. Do you have any idea where she was?"
Huck started looking around, he was looking any place but at the President. He wasn't saying anything. Olivia had told him what she was doing in confidence. She didn't want HIM to know what she had been doing. She was just trying to see if she could go on without him. She was beginning to see that she couldn't. She wasn't the type to just sleep with people she didn't love and she loved HIM still. She had told Huck so. She was sorry she had ever left him. But was it his place to tell the President? He looked at Olivia lying there so vulnerable and helpless. He believed someone had hurt her. He had to tell the President what she had been doing.
"Mr. President Olivia has been going out on the town sir. She has been searching for someone to, to, to…"
"To what Huck? Searching for someone to do what?"
He had to tell him so he did. He told him that Olivia had been crying about him for almost six months and she had decided she wasn't going to do it anymore. She had been searching for someone to replace him sort of. She was trying to see if she could respond to someone other than him. She was barhopping and clubbing. He tried to get her to let him go with her but she wouldn't hear of it. He should have followed her anyway but she is so independent. He knew she would figure it out on her own eventually that looking for a replacement was not what she wanted. She had wanted what she already had, the President. Huck could see the President was getting angry. He had turned a mottled angry pink and red.
Fitz wanted to scream to the heavens. Olivia was out on the streets of Washington, DC looking for a man. He looked back at the bed and this woman that he loved more than anything and he wanted to weep. Mellie had done this. Her stunt at the cabin had driven Olivia to this madness and now she had been hurt by it. For the love of God wake Olivia and tell me what happened to you. If someone had touched her, he swore that soon they will have breathed their last breath on this earth. He would personally see to it. He had wanted to rail at Huck he wanted to slap him silly for allowing her to do something so foolish. Of course he knew he couldn't really stop her, Olivia was a grown woman. However no matter what she had said, she should never have been out there alone looking for a man. To do what?
He went over to the bed and picked up her hand again and entwined with his. "Livvie, Sweet Baby, don't you realize that what is between us can't be replicated. Oh Livvie, we had to stop this. We love each other so why do we do this? I sat waiting for you to call when I should have just come to you and talked it out. I won't make that mistake again. Open your eyes sweetheart. Wake up Olivia."
"Huck I know what you do Olivia has told me about you too. I want you to take her phone and see who she has been talking to; there may be clues if she had been seeing someone. Also if you know where she has been going there will be surveillance tapes. Ferret them out. I don't believe this is an accident. I feel something about this. It is connected to this barhopping. Go right now and start looking. I would prefer you do this initial research rather than my having to turn it over to one of the governmental agencies. My actions tonight may yet get me in serious trouble, but I don't give a damn. I would do it over again!"
"Mr. President maybe I shouldn't leave her. I believe someone hurt her too. Your people took my weapon but I could still protect her."
"Huck I'm not leaving her for any reason until she awakens. I will protect her. I promise you nothing else will happen to Olivia tonight." He reached out and brushed her hair back from her face. He bent down and lightly touched her lips. "Wake up Olivia."
"Okay Mr. President I will go but I love her too, not the same way you love her, but I do love her. Please take care of her. When I find out what we want to know I will let you know. And you Mr. President you will let me know if there are any changes in Olivia's status."
"I will Huck. And thank-you for calling me." The President stood up and extended his hand.
Olivia could hear his voice. She knew it was Fitz. He was somewhere out there but for some reason she couldn't speak back to him. She couldn't see him either. But she could hear his voice. How she had missed his voice. "Fitz. Fitz where are you? Fitz."
He had been shaking Huck's hand when he heard it. Olivia had called out to him. He had heard it as clear as day. He rushed back to her bedside and took her hand again. "Livvie I am right here, open your eyes sweetheart, open your eyes and talk to me."
She hadn't opened her eyes, she wasn't moving, and she didn't appear to be awake. But she was there in that body and she was trying to wake-up. He looked back at Huck. "I thought I heard something. You go on Huck. I promise you I have no intention of leaving her." He didn't feel like explaining to Huck that they could actually communicate with each other on another plane. It was too complicated. He started speaking to Olivia to let her know he was indeed with her.
Not long after Huck had left Dr. Wagner came in. He told Fitz he had good news. There was no bleeding inside of the patient's head. All of that swelling in the back of her head was due to the hematoma outside of the skull. In fact that swelling was starting to reduce. The fact that she wasn't awake he didn't like, however because he had no reason to believe this was a true traumatic brain injury he was expecting his patient to wake up any minute. There was no medical reason why she wouldn't. No doubt she was concussed but she should be waking up. He would stake his professional reputation on it. And if he were wrong, he was afraid the President would have his head. So the woman needed to open her eyes and talk to the man.
"I am monitoring her Mr. President if I should see any significant changes in her status I will let you know but she is going to wake up soon believe me! In references to her fall did her brother give you any indication as to how it happened? If you believe him, I believe him Mr. President. Her injury could be consistent with a fall."
Huck had told him that he told the doctor that he believed she had tripped and fell in the foyer of her office. "I believe him doctor. He wouldn't lie." He wasn't going to bring up the telepathy between him and Olivia if he didn't have to. He did say, "I think she knows I am here doctor so I don't intend to leave her side. I want to be here when she wakes up.
"You stay with her as long as you like Mr. President. If she awakens I will know."
The President continued his vigil. He wouldn't leave her side.
Meanwhile Jake Ballesston had returned home. He was still on edge about what had happened at his home earlier with "Carolyn" and his romp with Wendy had done nothing to lower his anxiety. He thought a bout of sex could somehow help him put his mind at ease. Olivia Pope had an accident and hit her head. She was unconscious and she had awakened and she didn't remember anything. She seemed okay. He was safe for the moment, but what if she remembered in the future. He knew anything was possible with this thing. However there was no sign that the police had been to his place. Jake had placed the tape in his secret cache. He was afraid to go to her apartment right now and remove his devices. He was going to coast along for a few days and see what would happen. He had checked his video feed of Olivia's place and she wasn't at home. She had said she wanted to go home. Had she called her doctor and they had advised she be seen some place. She could have decided to go to a friend. She could have gone to the office. There was any number of reasons for her absence from her place. He knew Olivia burnt the midnight oil at her office and some nights she actually spent the night there. He wasn't going to panic. He would behave normally until he heard from her or the police showed up at his door. He cleaned up the glass, wine, and blood from the floor and table and he had gone to bed!
Huck had gone straight to the office and begun digging. This was important. He had to get this done for Olivia. If someone had harmed her the perpetrator was in for a surprise. Huck was going to crucify them. He immediately started in on the phone. He decided to start by tracing her calls just for the last forty-eight hours. He would be looking for patterns or repeated calls to the same number. One thing was for certain he would determine who Olivia had been talking to. He was going to be thorough. He would work on the phone connections until he could get to the places Olivia had been frequenting and get footage of what had gone on there. She had spoken of two places she had gone to regularly. That was where he would start.
Meanwhile the President had not closed his eyes; they had been trained on Olivia. She had started to stir. He had been talking to her nonstop. He told her how much he loved her. He talked of the things they would do once she was well. He assured her there was nothing in this world that would make him stop loving her. All he wanted her to do was open her eyes and talk to him. At some point she had gripped his hand he had felt it. He knew she was responding to him being there.
Her eyes started to blink and flutter. Her breathing rate seemed to increase. Olivia was trying to open her eyes. Why in the world was this so hard? She wanted to open her eyes and see Fitz. He was with her wherever she was but she couldn't open her eyes. She was holding his hand, she knew it was his. She was holding it tightly. He was calling her name asking her to come back to him. Where had she been? "Fitz where are we? Where are you?"
"I am right here Olivia open eyes. I am right here!"
Her eyes finally opened and she saw him standing right beside her. He was real. He was with her. Everything was going to be alright. Fitz was here. She looked around and she assumed she was in a hospital. She remembered she had fallen in her office. She was remembering it all, all that she had done.
She remembered what she had done last night. She remembered how she had flirted and pressed her body into that man. She remembered how she had let him fondle her breasts and put his fingers inside her. She was so ashamed. She had gone to his home with the intent to let him fuck her. She thought she wanted it but it wasn't what she wanted she was going to go home. She had come to her senses at last she was going to go home and call Fitz the man she loved. She had thought to use the television as a diversionary tactic to get out of there and then she had seen the video of herself, the invasion of her privacy. The man had been looking at her in her most private moments and using her in a pornographic way. He was a vile pervert and she had let him make a fool of her.
She finally looked directly at Fitzgerald Grant III, the President of the United States. She didn't want to face him and tell him what she had done. It was so stupid and ridiculous. Tears were running from her eyes. How could she tell him what she had done? Would she truly forgive her? Would he even want her?
The President hadn't said anything yet. He too had tears streaming from his eyes. "Livvie," he said as he bent down and pulled tightly against him. "You came back to me. Don't be afraid Olivia. I am here and I love you more than anything you could imagine. There is nothing in this world Olivia that you can't tell me, nothing. Trust me and believe in me Olivia. There is no reason to seek forgiveness from me. I am yours to command you know that don't you?"
She looked into his eyes this man that she had turned her back on six months ago. She saw love looking back at her and she hoped he saw the same in her eyes. He had heard her. "I do know that. I have been such a fool. We have been apart all these months because of me. And now I am lying in a hospital bed because I wouldn't listen to my heart. I am so sorry Fitz. I have never stopped loving you I hope you know that. I have to tell you what I have done and I pray you will still feel the same way about me after you hear it!
Again he entwined his hand with hers and said, "Talk to me Olivia."