It was Saturday morning and Olivia, headphones in, was running at the park across the street from her condo. She was happy for the weekend. She was happy to be outdoors running with nothing but the sound of Stevie Wonder in her ears and the wind against her face. Running was one of her favorite things to do. It allowed her to clear her mind and just be one with nature.

Olivia ran five miles before she headed home. She was just about to get into the shower when her phone rang. She glanced at the caller id display. Rowan Pope flashed across the screen. Olivia had half the mind to ignore the call but knew that she would never hear the end of it if she did.

"Hello, grandfather," she said.

"Olivia. It's good to hear your voice seeing how I haven't heard from you since the merger," Rowan said his tone laced heavily with sarcasm.

Olivia inhaled deeply and tried to compose herself before answering. Her grandfather always had a way of getting under her skin. "I've been busy," she said careful to keep her tone even and light.

"Too busy to check in with the man who handed you a multi-million dollar company?"

Olivia rolled her eyes. It was just like him to throw the fact that he "gave her" his company in her face. "You didn't give me a company. We merged with FTG & Associates so technically…"

Rowan cut her off. "Technically my ass, Olivia. CP&A merged with FTG & Associates but functions as a completely separate entity - an entity that I put you in charge of. I expect nothing less than greatness from you now that your head of the company. You have a huge legacy you're in charge of. I won't see you ruin it."

Olivia cringed at the harshness of his words. Her entire life her grandfather had pushed her and he hadn't done it in the nicest of ways. He always seemed to lack that familial warmth one got from a family member who pushed them because they loved them and they wanted them to succeed. She was always left feeling like he pushed her so hard because he expected her to fail. What he was doing now was no different and Olivia was taken back to feeling like a child where she could only stand there and cower.

"What are you working on?" Rowan asked.

Olivia's voice was small and lacked confidence when she said, "We have the enhanced thermonuclear reactor. We're busy working on the launch for that."

"Is that all?" Rowan barked. "Olivia you and your team had that enhanced reactor built before the merger even happened. You should already be working on something new."

Olivia could practically feel his disappointment float through the phone and slap her across the face. She wanted to tell him no, that wasn't all. She wanted to tell him that her team was working on something so big that it would rock the entire science world but she didn't. The thermonuclear harness wasn't ready to be revealed to the world yet and there was no way that she was going to tell her grandfather about it until she was sure it was working.

"We have a few things in the works," Olivia said.

Rowan's heavy sigh of dissatisfaction carried through the phone. "You disappoint me, child." Rowan said then hung up.

Olivia stood rooted in place, phone in hand. She felt as if she had just been hit by a thousand bricks. Her eyes stung as she forced back the tears that threatened to fall. Nothing she ever did was good enough for him. All her life she had done things to please him. She went to the college and grad school he wanted. She majored in thermonuclear physics like he wanted and she went to work for his company right after graduation. Everything she did was to make him proud of her but so far nothing she had done was good enough. Olivia had no idea why she kept trying. She had no idea why what he thought of her still mattered to her after all these years – but it did.

Monday rolled around quickly and Olivia headed to the office early. She made her way to her office instead of the lab. She had decided to stop hiding from Fitz. Besides she felt she was pretty clear when they last spoke.

Olivia's main focus was getting the thermonuclear harness working. She sat at her desk reading over Huck's notes on the harness. The new wire should arrive tomorrow and she planned on being there when Huck ran the test. Even though Olivia had Harrison working on the launch of the enhanced thermonuclear reactor she knew that if they were able to get the harness working that would be their first launch of the merger not the enhanced reactor.

"Knock-knock."

Olivia looked up from the papers she was looking at to see Jake standing in her doorway. "Hello Jake," she said with a smile.

Jake walked into her office and sat down in one of the chairs in front of her desk. "It's good to see you back in the office," he said.

"What do you mean?"

"Well I haven't seen you in a while and I just assumed that you were out of the office for some reason."

Olivia was not about to tell Jake the real reason why he hadn't seen her. "Actually I was working from the lab with my team."

"Really?" Jake said.

Olivia nodded.

"How was that?"

"Good. It was nice being back in the lab with my team."

"So why are you back slumming it on the eighteenth floor?" Jake said with a smirk.

A flash of humor crossed Olivia's face. "Paperwork…budgets…you know – the life of an executive."

Jake leaned forward and looked knowingly at Olivia. "I do know and it'll turn you into a bore if you're not careful."

Olivia couldn't help but smile. Jake was like a breath of fresh air. He always managed to make her smile and as much as she would have liked to sit and chat with him she had work to do. "So I'm a little busy here. Did you need something, Jake?"

"Actually I was stopping by to see if I could take you to lunch?"

As much as she wanted to take him up on the offer she couldn't. She had a ton more of Huck's notes to go through. "Sorry, but I can't. Rain check?"

Olivia could see the disappointment register on Jake's face as he stood up.

"That's too bad. There's this really neat little Ethiopian restaurant that I wanted to take you to."

"Some other time?"

"I'm going to hold you to that," Jake said with a wink then turned and left.

Just outside the hall Fitz stood staring into Olivia's office. He was on his way back from a meeting and was passing by her office when he spotted Jake sitting comfortably in one of the chairs in front of her desk. They were talking and Olivia's face was relaxed and she was smiling. It was very different from her interactions with him where she was always wound tight and intense. Fitz shook his head as he continued on to his office. How was it that she could hang out with Jake but bolted the moment they came within five feet of each other? And what exactly was Jake doing sniffing around Olivia?

Just as Fitz reached his office he looked back towards Olivia's office and saw Jake emerge. Without a second thought Fitz did an about-face and headed towards Jake. Fitz caught up with him just as Jake stepped into his office.

"Jake," Fitz said as he followed Jake into this office.

Jake spun around a look of surprise on his face. "Fitz, what's up man?"

Fitz shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at the man that he had known for almost twenty years. They had been friends, if one could call what they had a friendship, for a long time. Jake wasn't just an all out bad guy he just had questionable motives when it came to women – especially women that Fitz was interested in. Fitz never really understood where the competition came from and frankly he didn't care. He was able to overlook all of the past women that Jake had interfered with but Olivia was different. The feelings Fitz had for her ran deep and he was not about to let Jake come between something he had yet to even build on.

Fitz refused to mince words so he got right to the point. "What's your deal with Olivia?"

Jake stared back at Fitz his face changing from surprise to cockiness. "What do you mean?" he asked feigning innocence.

"I mean what are you doing hanging around Olivia. What game are you playing at, Jake?

"There's no game, Fitz. And what I do with Olivia is none of your business."

"It is my business especially when you're well aware of my feelings for her."

Jake laughed, loud and obnoxiously. "Fitz, I don't recall us ever talking about your feelings for Olivia."

"Yeah well you know they're there. You knew it that night at the bar."

"Maybe I did," Jake said. "But just because you poke out your chest and try and lay claim doesn't mean that every other man is going to just back off."

Fitz was becoming increasingly annoyed with every word Jake said. "I'm only going to tell you this once. Stay away from her."

"Or what?" Jake taunted.

"Do I really need to answer that?" Fitz said and turned to leave. He stopped short at the door and turned back to face Jake. "Don't test me on this, Jake. Olivia is not some co-ed we're fighting over and we're not in college. You stay away from her," Fitz said his voice laced with an unspoken threat.

Jake said nothing but the look of disdain he wore said it all.

Tuesday had finally arrived and Olivia was anxiously waiting a phone call from Huck saying that the wire had come in. Restlessly she paced back and forth in her office. Finally her desk phone rang and she nearly tripped over her own feet as she raced to answer it.

"Liv," Huck said. "The wired just arrived. I'm about to install it."

"I'll be right there," Olivia said. She barely placed the phone back in the cradle before she was running out the door.

It took Huck less than twenty minutes to install the new wire. Abby, Huck and Olivia all waited nervously as Huck started the test.

Olivia's heart pounded at the wind-like sound the contraption made as it built momentum. The goal was to heat hydrogen atoms in excess of 180 million degrees Fahrenheit so that the atoms combined. It looked to be working as the liquid mercury in the thermometer was quickly stretching upwards towards the targeted degrees.

Olivia reached out and grabbed Huck's forearm and he turned to her. No words were spoken but their eyes locked and unspoken hope passed between them.

The thermometer reached 180 million degrees and Olivia, Huck and Abby all let out a squeal of excitement.

"Oh my god, Huck, you did it." Olivia said as she threw her arms around his neck.

Huck wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her tight.

Abby threw her arms around the both of them joining in on the hug.

They were so excited and caught up in the moment that they didn't notice the loud clicking sound coming from the harness until it was too late. Olivia turned just in time to see the side panel of the harness overheat and glow red. She ran and turned off the power before it melted.

Olivia turned back to Huck and Abby who were looking on with utter shock and disbelief.

"It's okay. Even the most brilliant scientist failed a thousand times before they got it right. And we will get this right. I know it."

Abby and Huck nodded but Olivia could see the defeat in their eyes.

Olivia was determined to stay positive even when her team couldn't. "Honestly, guys, we'll work through this and I'll be with you every step of the way."

"I'll start researching for a stronger metal type," Huck said.

"And I'll run some more tests on hydrogen atoms and different heating components," Abby added.

"Good. I'll keep going over our notes to see if there is anything we missed," Olivia said. "Let's regroup in a few days."

The next two weeks flew by. Olivia had spent most of her days and nights doing research. They hadn't yet figured out what was causing the harness to overheat. The contraption consumed Olivia's every thought. She needed the device to work. She needed to prove to her grandfather that she was worthy of his praise.

Olivia sat at her desk her head in her hands. Gently she rubbed at her temples in an effort to relieve some of the stress she was feeling. A slow burn began to spread over Olivia's body and her nerve-endings began to tingle. Olivia looked up to see Fitz standing in her doorway. She had only seen him in passing these last two weeks and the sight of him standing in her doorway leaning casually against the frame was a welcome sight. She needed to get her mind off the harness if only for a moment.

"Long day?" Fitz asked as he stepped into her office.

"You could say that."

"Anything I can do to help?"

Olivia would have loved to unleash her burden on him but she knew that she couldn't. She had to keep everything about the harness under wraps until it was fully functioning.

"Nothing I can't handle," she said.

Fitz studied Olivia as she sat behind her desk. There was a hard tension around her large brown eyes. She definitely looked troubled about something. "Are you sure that there's nothing I can do?"

"I'm sure," came Olivia's quick response.

"Well maybe tonight's event will help take your mind off things."

"Tonight's event?" Olivia asked a look of confusion on her face.

"The party to celebrate the merger. Surely you haven't forgotten."

Embarrassment colored Olivia's cheeks. She had been so preoccupied with getting the harness working that she completely forgot about the party.

"You did forget," Fitz said with a chuckle. He looked at his watch then back at Olivia. "Party starts at eight. You should probably get out of here."

"I think I will."

"I'll see you tonight," Fitz said then turned and left.

So this chapter was a bit long and a lot happened:

1. Granddaddy Rowan reappeared and he is a mean one. He's got a hold on Liv that I fear will end up doing a lot of damage

2. The harness still has some kinks that need to be worked out

3. We got to see Fitz and Jake face off

Anyway, I hope ya'll enjoyed the chapter. Leave reviews you know I love reading them. :)

XO