"I'm sorry… I don't—When was the last time you spoke to your father?" asked Olivia, slightly confused.

"I'd say a little over three months ago, on the phone," said Karen, calmly.

"Three months? Oh my… I'm sorry. He should of… We should of talked to you in person."

"Oh please, Olivia, I have known about you and my dad since… forever."

"What?" asked Olivia, taken back.

"I mean, I never knew, but… I knew, see?" asked Karen with a slight smile.

"I'm afraid… I don't know what you mean."

"Well, nobody ever told me full on that my dad was having an affair with Olivia Pope, but well, the way he looked at you… Me and my brother speculated about it for years. Gerry was actually the one who first noticed it."

"Noticed… what, exactly?" Olivia said faintly.

"Look, my parents' marriage was dead before you came along. You and I both know it. But I remember when I first met you, it was when Gerry and I had come onto the campaign trail for the beginning of our summer break. He was different. My dad, I mean. The last time we had seen him, like spent time with him, was spring break. But you hadn't joined yet the team yet. And it was the usual depressing boringness. But that time… He was… happy. For the first time in so long. And the campaign was kinda fun, because he was happy. He was in a good mood all the time and we actually felt like we had a dad in the longest time. And he wasn't winning, so Gerry and I, didn't understand at all why he was in such a good mood all the time. But in that week and a half that we saw you with him… we could eventually tell," said Karen, looking at Olivia. Olivia sat back in her seat, and stared at Karen for a long time. The last time she had seen her was right after Gerry had just died, and Karen was a mess; Olivia had stop a sex tape of Karen from being released. Karen had changed a lot. The death of her brother was less prominent. She spoke of him with ease, and there wasn't so much sadness and loss in her eyes.

"What can I help you with, Karen?" asked Olivia softly.

"Look, it's not one of your normal Olivia Pope cases. I just wanted to talk. I've been having some trouble at school, you know, ever since the news came out about you and my dad, and I was wondering if, you know, you could give me some advice?" Karen looked awkward for the first time since Olivia had walked into her office.

"I'm not so sure I understand what your asking, Karen."

"I'm having a lot of problems. All the friends I've ever made at my boarding school were just friends with me for the fame, and then with Gerry died I got even more fake friends, but it was weird because they all really distanced themselves and now they all make fun of me… I don't have anybody, and you seem like somebody that I could talk to, and I wold be able to know that what I said could stay between us. Not that I have anything important to say, but…" Karen seemed to shrink down. "I just need to have a friend, Olivia."

"Karen, I… well this was much better than I was expecting. I thought you hated me, frankly," Liv said with a shaky laugh.

"I know why you would think that, but I don't hate you. You saved my dad. I've already lost my brother and if it weren't for you I would've lost my dad too. Don't get me wrong, my dad is not a good father, at all. And how you guys were together was wrong. But he loves you, that I know. And I also know that he loves me. He's still always been there for me when I needed it most. Thank you for that."

"Look, I think that we should start off as non-friends. I… I don't have too many friends either, but I'd like know you better, and we'll see about the friend title." Olivia sighed and then said, "I don't have any cases that need me at the office right now. Will you, um, can I take you out to lunch? There's a really good place that has a good veggie burger, I hear," Olivia said with a smile.

"How'd you know that I was a vegetarian?"

"Lucky guess. Is that a yes?"

Karen smiled for the first time in a while. "It's a yes."

"Quinn, I need you and Marcus to look up everything you can on what is happening with my father and Jake right now, see if anybody has heard anything. Huck, you're hacking. I don't care what you're hacking into, as long as it has some relevance. We're not taking any new clients in right now until we know what they are planning, and who exactly is after them. I want answers when I get back, people!" Olivia grabbed her coat. "We can go around the back, that's where my car is parked," she said to Karen, who nodded and slipped her jacket on. "I'll be back in a few hours."

"You're job looks, like, really cool," said Karen as they got on to the back elevator. Olivia laughed.

"I like it, too."

"So what exactly do you do?"

"I'm technically a political fixer, so I manage the media around politicians and handle their problems outside of the courthouse," explained Olivia.

"So what case was that about?"

"Oh, that wasn't one of my cases. It was… Something else," said Olivia, guarded.

"If you don't mind me asking… you mentioned your father?"

"Let's just say that you and I both haven't had the best fathers, although I can assure you that yours is much better than mine," said Liv with a forced smile. Karen nodded, taking a mental note to stay away from that touchy subject. They went down the elevator and around the back to the parking lot where Liv's black SUV was parked. Olivia had shocked herself. She had never fully even talked about her father to someone without really getting to know them, but she had then and there answered this girl and she barley knew's question completely truthfully. It was surprising how open she was letting herself be with Fitz's daughter, and she didn't understand it at all.

Karen sat in the front seat of Olivia's car and right away turned on the radio. "I hope you don't mind," said Karen. Olivia shook her head, not caring. It was completely weird, but also interesting, to interact with a teenager, something she never did.

"By any chance does your dad know that your here, or not in boarding school?"

"Nope, and you're not going to tell him, right? My secret service, they haven't told anyone," Karen said, pointing to the back car that was also parked in the lot.

"Absolutely not," Liv said, and they started driving.

TWO HOURS LATER

Abby, Cyrus, Liz, the Vice President, and Fitz were sitting in a conference room, watching the news. They were waiting to see if there would be any coverage on the recent Senate meeting when the news took a complete different turn.

"And images are just coming out of what looks like to be Karen Grant, our President's daughter, and Olivia Pope, our President's girlfriend, having a girls day out, pictures of them having lunch and going to the mall being taken just one hour ago, and I'm being told that they are still together in the D.C. mall," the reporter stated, pictures of Liv and Karen laughing and having lunch together. Next images of Karen and Liv shopping in high end stores with reporters being held off by their secret service.

"What?!" said Fitz, jumping up.

"Sir, I have no idea—" Cyrus started.

"I need you to tell me how exactly Karen left her school without me being notified and why the hell she and Liv are together!" yelled Fitz.

"Well, I have a meeting…" started Susan.

"And…" said Liz, searching for an excuse to leave.

"She and I are going to brief Madame Vice President on her points and debate areas," said Abby quickly, wanting to call Liv to see what was going on. Fitz didn't seem to hear, so the three left hurriedly to hear Fitz yelling at Cyrus to figure their next issue out. As soon as Abby got back to her office she closed the door and called Liv.

"Hold on, I have to take this one… No! Stop it, it's my best friend. No, go to the bathroom, I'll wait out here… Go!" said Liv with a laugh. "Sorry, hey Abby, what's up," Olivia said, unnaturally casual.

"What's up? What's up? Since when have I been replaced by Karen Grant?"Abby demanded. Olivia laughed.

"Calm down. She came back from boarding school early to talk with me and we're having a day together. What's the big deal?" asked Liv innocently.

"The big deal is that I just barley escaped my boss, who happens to be POTUS and you're ex, ordering me to go on a witch hunt for you two! He's pissed, Liv. Where the hell is this coming from?"

"Look, she was lonely, she needed someone to talk to, and frankly I needed someone to talk to too."

"You can talk to me, Liv. You know, you're best friend?" Abby sighed. "Does she know that you and him aren't exactly on speaking terms?"

"Yes, for your information, she does, and I think that made her trust me more. I don't need your criticism here."

"Jesus Christ, Olivia. You're playing dangerous cards right now."

"The cards are in my hand. I'm fine. Don't tell me what to do, don't let him tell me what to do. I honestly have no idea why I didn't talk with her earlier with Fitz. He completely ignores her, do you realize that? At least he's not as bad as Mellie, though."

"Look, as much as I would love to gossip about Fitz's daughter, I have more important things to do. All I'm saying, Liv, is that you may not care, but this one is his daughter. If you try and use her to your advantage in any way..."

"Wow, that one was low Abby. As shocking as this may seem, it's nice to get a third opinion around her. Karen's a good kid. And she lost her brother, her only friend. After everything that's happened, the least I could do was take her out to lunch. And besides, he's never happy about anything I do. Why do you think he forced me into the White House to monitor my every move? He doesn't trust me."

"Well, if you keep pulling stunts like this I'm going to take his side on this one," warned Abby.

"Excuse me? Take his side? Abby what is - Look, Karen's coming back. We'll continue this later," said Olivia, angrily hanging up on Abby.

"Somebody's angry," said Karen, giving Olivia a raised-eyebrow look.

"Abby's mad at me," said Olivia. Karen looked at her, silently wondering why. "She kinda works for the White House," said Olivia, explaining

"What?" said Karen, laughing. "Let me get this straight. You come clean to the world about your affair with the President of the United States of America, you break up with my dad but don't come clean about that part, my parents are divorced and not talking and you helped my mom a couple weeks ago with her filibuster instead of being with my dad, and speaking of fathers your dad is doing something bad that we don't talk about, and now your best friend works at the White House?"

"Yep, and I haven't told you half of it. I can't actually, the rest of my problems are probably illegal to talk about," said Liv seriously. Karen burst out laughing.

"What?!"

"You play a good game, Olivia. Dangerous, but a good one," she said still laughing. Olivia started to smile at the sight of a teenage girl getting amusement out of her messed up life. Olivia started to chuckle, and then the two of them burst out laughing. That was the best picture the media got all day; the two women laughing their heads off together.