Disclaimer: Scandal belongs to Shonda Rhimes.
Author's note. Thanks for reading my little story and thanks for reviewing. I've a question, I can't hear what Fitz says to Mellie in the oval office when she tells him that she hasn't harmed/hurt his son: He says something like; I didn't… Do you know what he says?
Animelover6000: I too hope that Fitz and Liv will find a way to be together. Morning breath, I think you have to be in love to kiss someone in the morning before leaving the bed LOL.
Take It Easy On Me
Chapter 16
Back at Pope and Associates the team sat in the conference room when Olivia walked in.
"Huck, what did you find?"
Huck placed some pictures on the table, "these are the pictures the police took of the inside of the car on the night of the accident, there are fifteen empty beer bottles, too many for Sofie to drink alone. There is a male jacket in the back, just behind the driver's seat and a female cardigan in the passenger's seat. If you look closely at it, the position of the cardigan indicates that someone sat on it. The car was hitting the pole at high speed."
"Do you know who was in the car with her?"
"No, but the jacket is expensive."
"Abby?"
"Her teacher's are fond of her, she is a bright child who gets good grades. They say she seems sad and spent much of her time daydreaming, but the Principal explained in details that is was to be expected, moving to a new school and country is hard to adapt to. Sad, sad story."
"Have the teachers seem her with any friends?"
"Yes, another diplomat kid, Steffi Hempler. She is from Germany."
"Harrison and Quinn, her friends?"
"She doesn't have many friends, but we found two friends. Steffie Hempl left when she saw us, but Carrie Temple wanted to talk to us. She said that Sofie is a sweet girl, but she have changed in the last two months, spending more time with Steffie, and after what Carried has heard, some college boys." Harrison looked at Olivia.
"Do the college boys have names?" Olivia looked worried.
"Not so far." Quinn answered.
"This is not looking good. Do we know when Steffie Hempler moved to Washington?"
"Two years ago, before that her dad was stationed in London." Quinn looked at her notes, "she knows most of the diplomat children living here."
"Huck we need email and facebook information. Harrison and Abby find Steffie and talk to her. Quinn you're coming with me."
Olivia and Quinn parked outside the Embassy and walked to the residence entrance, Quinn turned her head around to look at it all and she looked impressed. This time it was Niels Skov who came down the stairs to greet them.
"Welcome back, Olivia. You wanted to talk to Sofie again?" Niels asked.
"Yes, I need to ask her a few questions. This is Quinn Perkins." The Ambassador shook hand with Quinn.
"My wife is taking our son to soccer practice."
He showed them into the same room they had used earlier this day, Sofie already sat at the table busy with her phone.
"Hallo Sofie, how are you?" Olivia asked in a neutral voice.
Sofie looked up with a scared look in her eyes, "fine thank you Ms Pope, how are you?"
"Fine, thank you. This is Quinn Perkins. I've some questions for you." Olivia watched how the girl's eyes flew to her dad and how she froze in the chair.
"Do you like to drive fast, Sofie?"
The girl shook her head, "no I just got my driver's license two months ago, in Denmark you've to be 18 to get your driver's license. I… I don't feel experienced enough to drive fast."
"The driver was breaking the speed limit when the car hit the pole." Olivia kept her eyes on the girl, who blushed and bowed her head.
"I.. I don't remember."
Olivia found a picture in her purse and placed it before Sofie, "this is a picture the police took of the inside of your car on the night of the accident, do you see the jacket?"The girl nodded. "Who does it belong to?"
The girl glanced quickly at the picture and bit her lower lip, "I don't know. Maybe it belongs to someone from my school"
"No one has asked for the jacket?" Olivia's focus stayed on the girl.
Again, Sofie blushed and bit her lip, and her eyes quickly flew to her dad, "no."
Olivia turned her attention to the Ambassador, "may we talk to Sofie alone?"
Niels looked nervous, and tried to catch his daughter's eyes without success, "do you think she hides anything?"
"Sometimes it's easier to talk to a young person when the parents are not around." Olivia smiled reassuringly.
"Are you ok with talking to Ms Pope alone, Sofie?" He asked his daughter, Sofie nodded and Niels Skov left the room.
"Sofie, the picture bears evidence that someone was with you in the car when it hit the pole, and this someone was most likely the chauffeur. Who does the jacket belongs to?"
The girl shook her head and bit her lip harder. "Sofie, please look at me." Olivia asked gently. Sofie raised her head and Olivia saw the tears in the girl's eyes.
"Who are you protecting?" Olivia reached for the girl's hand and patted it gently, the contact made the girl shiver from the emotions she held at bay. She just shook her head.
"I know this must be scary, and the guy is your friend, but a true friend would never leave you alone to take the blame. Are you in love with the guy?"
"I thought so. I had a boyfriend in Denmark, Marcus, but he's with Linea now." Now, the tears were running down the young face.
Olivia moved closer to Sofie and placed one arm around the girl's shoulder in a small hug. "It'll be all right, Sofie." She tried to calmed the girl, and finally when the tears slowed down, Olivia said, "we need to know the truth, because it's the right thing to do, but also because you dad might lose his job if you keep lieing."
Sofie looked at Olivia and took a quick breath, "Chang Huang..."
"He was driving the car when it hit the pole?" Olivia asked with a quick glance to Quinn, who took the cue and wrote the name down. Sofie looked at the table but nodded her head in a yes.
"Who is Chang?" Olivia kept her voice very soft, and stayed close to the young girl.
"He's son of the Chinese Ambassador. He's in college." Sofie bit her lip. "Do my parents need to know that Chang was in the car with me?"
Olivia smiled softly, Sofie was still a scared kid. "They do, you're still a minor. How old is Chang?"
Sofie looked nervous, "twenty."
Chang Huang was an adult and yet he had chosen to let a child take the blame for him, Olivia felt sorry for Sofie, and thought that the girl was too young to be forced to deal with deceiving boyfriends.
"Quinn please, go and find Mr. Skov."
A few minutes later, the Ambassador joined them again and after taking one look at his daughter, he walked directly to her and hugged her. "Everything will be ok sweetheart." He whispered along with a few strange sounding words.
"Dad, I didn't drive the car, Chang Huang did." Sofie sobbed into her dad's shoulder. "He's the Chinese Ambassador's son. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry." Sofie was crying harder and her dad hugged her tighter, his eyes found Olivia's. "Chang Huang is the Chinese Ambassador's sister's youngest son, he has a bad reputation."
Quinn and Olivia met Huck, Harrison and Abby in the conference room. Abby had already posted a picture of a young Chinese man on the glass wall. Chang had the looks of a male model and Olivia's eyes lingered for a moment on his face.
"Chang Huang drove the car into the pole. Sofie had four of the 12 beers in the car, and she is positive that Chang drank the rest. They had been to a make out spot but Sofie lost her nerves, and said no to him. Her no made Chang very angry and he broke up with her. He drove very aggressively on the way back to the Embassy" Olivia briefed the others.
"Chang lost his driver's license to speeding a year ago, he doesn't own a car. That explains why they were driving in Sofie's car. He is very fond of women and never keeps them for long. He has done some modeling jobs but always ends up arguing with everyone on the set. No one wants to work with him anymore. He rarely attends his classes." Huck stated.
"Steffie Hempler gave us his name too, but she knew he wasn't the Ambassador's son, a small detail that she forgot to mention to the Danish girl. Maybe because Steffie is busy dating the Ambassador's youngest son Michael, he has a very difficult Chinese name, but is called Michael here. Michael is nineteen and admires his cousin, sweet. The only loser in this is our Danish girl who got the bad guy and a girlfriend with a bad judgment." Abby sounded proud of her presentation.
"Chang will do jail time if he is found guilty of the fender-bender, and he will not be able to get a new visa. I think that's why he left the crime scene and wants Sofie to take the blame for the accident." Harrison added.
"We need more." Olivia stated.
When Olivia opened the door to her apartment, a nice smell of food embraced her and she saw the soft glow of candles radiating from her table. Only one person had the key to her apartment, and the bare thought of him made her smile with pure happiness.
She walked into the kitchen and found him searching the place for plates, "hmm, it smells good!" She said, and when hearing her voice he turned around. "It's Italian." They locked eyes and kept very still.
"This is a nice surprise to come home to."
"I assumed you gave me the key to use it." He smiled.
"I did, you can come and go as you please." She was serious, she hadn't lived with a man since Edison, but she wanted to share her life with Fitz and had nothing to hide.
"Good." He encircled her in his arms and bent down to kiss her, "you'll have to wait a little before you'll have the same privileges to my home. Just be patient."
They sat down and started on the food.
"Tough day?" Olivia watched him and saw how tired he looked.
"Just very tired of kind and well-meaning comments from senators and governments very time I meet them, I've to look and sound sad all the time, and I'm not sad." He smiled warmly to her, "I'm trying to have as many meetings with the committees and Representatives as possible, it's exhausting. But I'm not complaining."
"How are you welcomed?"
"Very well, actually. You did a good job. I met Senator Marvin today he was delighted, and promised me his support for the rest of my period."
"You made him a happy man it seems." Olivia smiled, he had made her a happy woman too.
"Always glad to serve the people." Fitz laughed and Olivia joined him.
"I didn't see Hal and Tom when I came home, where are they?"
"In the apartment opposite yours, the owner is on vacation for the next month and was more than happy to rent it out. They couldn't stay in the hallway each night, someone would ask questions."
"Good plan." Olivia didn't comment on his remark about staying here every night but she was pleased. Bit by bit he put her fears of being abandoned by him to rest.
"Is Thorngate still active?" She had almost forgotten to ask him. He gave her a serious glance, "it is but the commando rank has been changed, I've to approve all use of it. It won't be used on you or me anymore."
"Then it won't be a potential threat to you being here?"
"No, I took care of that. I'll not naively let Cyrus being in charge anymore, I've learned my lesson. We're not a dirty secret, Olivia."
The next morning Olivia walked briskly into the conference room, she had spent the night in Fitz's arms, at some point during the night she had woken up to find him watching her and for a time it had been all they had done, looking at each other. It was hard to believe that they finally had a future together.
"Huck, you found a surveillance camera on the corner of the street pointing directly to the pole Sofie's car hit?"
"Yes, it's arranged in a perfect angle and the quality of the recording is very clear, it's has an almost professional touch to it. I've never seen such good work come from an ordinary surveillance camera."
"Pretty boy is on the front cover, the camera do like him. I bet he's disappointed that the county pays nothing for using his headshots." Abby looked at the pictures Huck had from the car accident.
"It's easy to see that Chang leaves the car from the driver's seat and pull Sofie out from the passenger's seat. Here he helps her into the driver's seat and leaves. This is beautiful work done by the camera." Huck explained.
"Good job, Huck." Olivia was relieved the pictures would make it easier to help the young girl. "Who lives on that street?"
Huck looked up, "I wondered that too, it's not normal with a camera in this quality, I looked at the direction the camera is angled in and the range it covers. In the center of the area the camera covers is a house belonging to former Supreme Court Judge O'Connor."
"That's explains the camera." Olivia pointed out.
"I talked to Steffie Hempler, the little liar. First she denied knowing anything about Chang dating the other foreign girl, one should think they would stick together coming from neighbor countries, when I pressed her a little she admitted, she knew about the date. We have a pretty little dark eyed witness."
"Good job, Abby." Abby was good at sneaking up on people. "I think it's time to talk to Chang Huang." Olivia looked at his picture in deep thoughts.
An hour later Chang Huang arrived with his mother, an elegant woman and it was easy to see where Chang had inherited his good looks.
Harrison directed them into the conference room where Olivia and the rest of the team waited.
"Good day Mrs. Huang and Mr. Huang, please sit down." Olivia greeted them.
"Ms Pope, I've heard so much about you." Mrs. Huang acknowledged Olivia with regret in her voice. It was obvious that the Chinese woman knew who Olivia Pope was.
Olivia studied Chang, he was pretty in a very self absorbed way. He hardly looked at his mother when she spoke, and his eyes had briefly scanned Abby and Quinn, they had lingered longer on Olivia, a fact that didn't please her. He seemed to be one spoilt kid.
"Mr. Huang, you've been dating the Danish Ambassador's daughter Sofie?"
Chang looked bored, "yeah I saw her on occasions, pretty but too young."
"Why did you tell her you were the Chinese Ambassador's son?" Mrs. Huang's eyes flew to her son and she looked worried.
"I wanted to impress her, it wasn't a big deal. She relaxed a bit when I told her the little lie."
Olivia frowned, "it's your pick up line?"
Chang scowled like he didn't care, "it always works." His mother looked more and more concerned.
"Mr. Huang, was you on a date with Sofie last Thursday?"
"I might have, I don't remember it"
Olivia looked at Huck who placed the pictures on the table in front of Chang. "Will these photos rekindle your memory?" Olivia kept her eyes on the young man, and for the first time he fidgeted in his chair. His eyes flew from Olivia to his mother and back to the pictures.
Chang swallowed, "yes, I was on a date with Sofie last Thursday, it was our last date." He said in a less confident voice.
Mrs. Huang turned to her son and spoke very fast and angry in Chinese, Chang's face became hard as stone but he bowed his head in faked respect.
"It will look better on the judge if you turn yourself in, and it will make it easier for your lawyer to build a defense case." Harrison offered a piece of advice.
Chang looked contrite but not eager to cooperate. "We'll talk to my brother and then the police!" Mrs. Huang's statement had an effect on Chang and suddenly he looked scared. "We'll go now, good day Ms Pope."
"You've 6 hours." Olivia said.
Olivia walked into the now familiar representative room at the Danish Embassy, this time Mrs. Skov was holding her daughter's hand and Mr. Skov had an arm around his daughter.
"Ms Pope, you said on the phone that you had good news?" Hanne Skov smiled hopefully at her.
Smiling Olivia leaned forward and folded her hands on the table, "I've good news. It is lucky for you Sofie that Chang Huang lied about who he is, if he had been the son of the Chinese Ambassador he would be protected by Diplomatic immunity, like you are." Olivia found the picture of Chang leaving the driver's seat and showed it to Sofie.
"This picture shows us that Chang was driving when the car hit the pole. It was very lucky that Mr. Huang forgot his jacket in his hurry and drunkenness; it pointed us in the right direction. Both will be used as evidences in the case against Mr. Huang."
Mrs. Skov hugged her daughter with tears in her eyes, "Thank you, Ms Pope."
Sofie looked up with wet eyes and a small smile, "Thank you, Ms Pope. Thank you for pushing me to tell the truth."
"You're welcome, Sofie." Olivia smiled back.
"Has the young man turned himself in or do we report him to the police?" Mr. Skov asked.
"Chang Huang has 6 hours to turn himself in or we'll help him, we don't want him to leave the country, but if he does he'll never set foot on American soil again." Olivia thought he might, but then again he would also have the chance to leave the country between the arresting and the trial.
"Sofie has decided to give her stay in America another try, and I truly think it will work this time." Mrs. Skov looked convinced.