Olivia Pope = Liviana Bishop
Fitzgerald Grant III = Fitz Grant
Quinn Perkins = Twitchy
Huck = Spin
Stephen Finch = Fincher (already left story)
Harrison Wright = Harry Walker
Abby Whelan = Amber
Edison Davis = Lewis (died in Tombstone)
Jake Ballard = Jack Story
Fitzgerald "Big Jerry" Grant II = The General

A/N: I sincerely apologize for the lack of update. The season finale kind of sucked the energy out of me. Well, the show's the show. The fanfic is the fanfic. Let's get this thing rolling. Oh, and if you are enjoying this story, please review. I'd love to know what you are thinking. Feedback is the only pay I get for this.

Chapter 14: I'll Follow You Into the Dark

Love of mine, some day you will die
But I'll be close behind
I'll follow you into the dark
No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark – Ben Gibbard

"Trust me." They were simple words not to challenge if you want to remain polite. Normally, she'd smile and nod when someone would tell her that, never actually trusting anyone until she had some kind of undeniable proof.

She dealt with tangibles. Hard facts. She had her gut and she knew human nature. She knew that everyone was ultimately a selfish creature at heart and planned accordingly.

He held out her silk headscarf, a mischievous smile played across his lips. "You trust me, don't you?"

Did she? She really only knew him a short while. As a fixer, she knew what it looked like; a horny married politician and an employee that didn't know her boundaries carrying on a tawdry affair. But being in the middle of it, it felt completely different. From the moment she met him, she felt a connection and a level of comfort that he in no way earned.

She fought it. She had taken a long time to build the protective barriers around her heart. When they both realized their mutual attraction that first day until this very moment she felt him stripping away those obstacles.

It scared the hell out of her and excited her at the same time.

"I trust you." She felt another layer of protection slip away as she felt him secure the scarf around her eyes. She felt his lips caress her cheek in almost a chaste kiss before he suddenly jerked her hands in front of her and tied them together by a silky fabric that she could only assume was his tie. An impromptu bondage session at a random hotel room on the campaign trail didn't exactly lend itself to the usual gadgets. Not that she really knew what those were.

She wondered if he did. From their time together she suspected it had been awhile since he did anything this adventurous. It seemed like they each pushed each other to their limits. She gasped when he quickly flipped her on her stomach and felt her arms being stretched above her head and tied to the post. She felt the leather strap of his belt tighten around one of her ankles. When he secured it to the end of the bed, she felt a wave of anxiety wash over her.

As if he sensed her butterflies, he reached under her body and splayed his large hand across her stomach pulling her body against the length of him. His hot breath whispered in her ear, "Trust me." He nibbled on her lobe and slowly stroked the plain of her body until his index finger rested right above her slit. He teased around her ever dampening cleft, but avoided exploring her depths.

"Do you trust me?"

"I trust you," she moaned.

"Good." His voice seemed to drop even lower in his throat. She yelped as he gave her a quick, smart smack on her ass and felt the bed springs bounce as he jumped from the bed. She could hear her heart beating in her ears as she lay alone in the bed. For a moment she imagined what she looked like, naked in a prone position, tied to the bed. Just as she began to feel self-conscious and moved her free leg up to tuck under her body, she gasped as he grabbed her free ankle and jerked it back to the end of the bed. She felt a sleek fabric wrap around her ankle. Pantyhose? Another item of her clothing sacrificed on the altar of their love life.

He firmly tied her leg to the bed post and she could feel her muscles stretch out. The rough leather of his belt scrapped against her ankle as she tested her range of motion. He gently took one finger and traced it from her ankle to the back of her neck. He placed his hand there and gently massaged it.

He removed his touch and she let out a frustrated groan.

How selfish of him.

She shivered as the cool liquid touched the middle of her back. It smelled sweet and fruity. "What the hell is that?"

"Well, it's raspberry . . . um . . . oil."

She couldn't help it; she let out a big laugh that reverberated through her whole body. "Do you want us to smell like cobbler or something? Where did you get it?"

"Don't worry, I was careful," he said anticipating the fixer in her worrying about her candidate. "I don't know, I thought it would be sexy." She could hear his vulnerability and slight defensiveness. He then gave a short chuckle, "You know raspberry and choc . . ."

"Don't go there, Fitz. I'm not a food product." An awkward silence descended between them. Fitz held back, not sure how to proceed. Olivia bridged the distance. "However, I do love the taste of berries."

He said nothing, but she felt the bed shift as half lay beside her. She felt his index finger glide across her lips, the fragrant oil coating her lips. The deprivation of her sight seemed to have heightened her sense of smell. She licked her lips and drew his finger into her mouth. She sucked the oil off his finger and he stuck another finger between her warm, wet lips.. As she bobbed up and down imagining it was another part of his anatomy, she knew he was thinking the same thing as he muffled a strangled cry. She tried to reach out to him and felt the neck tie tighten around her wrists.

She had almost forgotten. She found herself struggling against the ties of her feet and felt a wave of anxiety wash over her. She released his fingers with a pop. "Hey, don't people usually have safe words for this kind of thing?"

"Are you feeling unsafe," he asked with a trace of concern in his voice.

She thought about it for a moment. She knew he would never deliberately hurt her. "No. I trust you."

He bit her shoulder and then licked the mark he left there. "Sweet baby," he murmured.

"What?" She only half heard him, concentrating on her own growing desire.

"Sweet baby," he whispered in her earlobe before he bit it. "It'll be our safe word, ok?"

"Umm, ok." she acknowledged. She again strained against her confines. She wanted to scratch her fingers down his back. She wanted to find his member and stroke it until he screamed. She wanted taste him in her mouth. She wanted to feel her nub of nerves explode as she rode above him. But she had given up control tonight. So she tried to relax and just be in that moment.

He rubbed the oil all over her body and followed that with nips and kisses. She never felt so sensual. She arched her back as he moved his deft fingers to the apex of her legs. She soon felt his lips and tongue join his fingers. He worked her clit and thrust in and out of her center until she reached the crescendo of her orgasm. She could feel her wrist and ankles burn and wondered what marks she would have to explain to the staff in the morning.

When she felt the oil drip down the crack of her buttocks, she almost used the safe word. She knew what Fitz wanted. She had only done it once before in college and it wasn't a pleasant experience. "Are you ok," he asked.

She almost said no. "I'm just not . . . not used to this. But I trust you."

He moved up her body and kissed the side of her neck. "I'm going to make you feel so good."

The slap he gave her ass stung a little, but it also stimulated a part of her she never fully acknowledged. This dance of pain and pleasure was new to her and she didn't think she could ever trust anyone else besides Fitz to be her partner in this. He took his time preparing her, making sure that she felt as good as possible. When he slowly entered her, she felt an ache that was not entirely due to the new position.

She needed him. All. Every part of him. She wanted to consume him, just as she felt her soul being consumed by him. She felt the fullness inside of her and it spread to every extremity. He pressed his whole body against her and stimulated her small button of nerves as he worked towards his climax. She felt the tie digging into her wrists with every thrust.

"I trust you," she called out again and again. Did he know that she was really saying I love you? She wanted to say those words, but she didn't trust herself to voice them.

She woke up with a start. She rubbed her wrists, still feeling the burn of the ties that had bound her for the past couple of days. He wasn't sleeping, she could tell. They had moved their activities from the bath to the bed and while they both should be exhausted by now, she suspected he couldn't turn his mind off. She lay on her side, turned away from him. She stroked the palm of her hand with her finger tips. Before the militia came he would hold her hand and press his body against hers to fall asleep. She wanted that again. And she felt like a fool to think that way.

Fitz lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. The faint light coming from underneath the hallway door provided the only illumination. He longed to wrap his arms around Liv, and even though they spent the night enjoying physical intimacy, the uncertainty between them remained. He longed to see that look of trust in her eyes again. It made him feel a kind of pride, that she had put her life in his hands. He felt capable and strong. For her. The shooting looks of betrayal in her eyes he'd experienced for the past couple of days cut him deeper than anything he'd ever known. He resolved to do something about it right then. "Liv, I'm getting you out tonight. This town is the perfect opportunity to escape. We can ride hard through the night before anyone is up."

She turned to him, barely making out his face in the dark. His eyes told her that he was serious, even though she didn't see how it was plausible. "In the darkness? In the rain? What about Spin and Twitchy?"

"We can try to get Twitchy, and I'm sure they'd bring Spin to Denver thinking he might have some information they needed." He hesitated a moment before he took her hand and held it against his chest. "I . . . I need you safe. Just let me get you out of here." He reached out and caressed her face.

Even now, she could feel herself getting lost in his eyes which seemed to shine in the dark. She could just run away with him, forget about the others. They could be a team. The thought appealed to her for a moment and then she remembered. She shook her head. "I'm not abandoning them. They came after me and didn't have to; I can't leave them behind. If we leave, we leave with them both. They trust me and I trust them."

Fitz felt the sting of the implication. He let out a frustrated sigh and reached over to turn the bed lamp on. When he sat up, she did as well. He turned to face her and placed both of his hands on her shoulders and noted the determination in her eyes. "Liv, this is no joke. The General is not some cuddly old man. He wants something from you and I don't know what it is. And he can be a pretty mean bastard if he doesn't get what he wants." He shuddered a little thinking of times he had been on the receiving end.

She shrugged off his hands and leaned back against the headboard, regarding the man next to her. "Do you always call your father the General?" Even though her own father could be a bastard she couldn't imagine calling him anything other than Dad.

"Yes, pretty much. My father may have been born before the Collapse, but he was raised by the old military. He believed in strict discipline and I honestly can't remember a time when I called him 'Dad' on a regular basis. My Mom acted as a buffer between us until she died when I was fifteen. Then I pretty much became one of the rank and file members of the militia." Fitz thought of the grueling training, of the small missions to put down civil unrest in outlying communities, of transporting and receiving fuel, of the boring duty of repairing and rebuilding the basic infrastructure of the Territories. The time he spent as a bounty hunter was the first taste of freedom he had ever known. He studied the woman next to him. What if he could share that life with her?

He reached out for her hand and brought it to his lips for a gentle kiss. "Let's leave now." He couldn't hide the urgency in his voice.

She saw the worry in his eyes and wondered again who exactly was this man beside her. Who was this man who she let into her bed? Who was this person who had gotten under her skin? "Why did you agree to find me for your father?"

He let out a deep sigh. "Like I said, my father told me that if I really wanted to leave the militia, to be free of his reach I had to find you. My father expected me to help him fulfill a new alliance and I . . . I just couldn't do what he asked me to. So finding you was the alternative." Fitz looked down at her hand which he still held. He marveled at how small it was in comparison to his own. "I thought it would be easy to exchange some stranger's freedom for mine. But after I met you, I knew that was impossible." The words were just on the tip of his tongue and he felt a kind of dread before he took the plunge. "Livvie, I've never felt this way before. It's like . . ." He struggled to find the right words as he traced the lines in her palm. "It's like I knew you before. The moment our hands touched I felt the connection, didn't you?" He gazed deeply into her eyes searching for the answer.

Liv could feel time slowing and could hear the loud beat of her heart thunder in her body. The overwhelming sense of déjà vu made her want to run. She looked towards the door and nearly jumped out of her skin when suddenly loud pounding came from the other side. The knock startled Fitz as well. "Who is it?"

A woman's voice called out, "Please open up! You have to come!" Fitz threw on his pants and opened up the door. The panic in the red-headed woman's voice matched her face.

"What's going on, Amber? Did something happen to Harry?"

"Not yet, he . . . he told me to get you. The man's going to kill them all. You have to help." She pulled at Fitz's arm urging him into the hallway. She wasn't making much sense to him but he turned to Liv who had thrown on some clothes as well, she picked up the knife from the nightstand and he grabbed his gun. Amber led them to the room that Spin and Twitchy were kept. They opened the door to utter chaos. The medic Artie hovered over Spin trying to stem the blood from fresh wounds. Two of Spin's fingers were broken and twisted.

Jack and Harry had their guns trained on each other. Harry stood between Jack and the woman hunched in the corner, rocking back and forth. Twitchy jerked her head up when she heard the others enter the room. Blood streamed down her cheek. Other men from the militia stood around, seemingly at a lost.

"What the hell is going on here, Jack?" Fitz's booming voice seemed to have shaken everyone in the room and grabbed their attention.

Except Jack didn't turn to greet him, refusing to take his eyes or his gun off of Harry. He pointed his finger at the man with a look of disgust. "This man here disobeyed a direct order, I should shoot him now."

Amber cried out in protest and moved towards Harry. Jack's men stopped her and grabbed her by the shoulders.

Harry steadied his gun on his superior officer and did not flinch. "Fitz, he was going to kill her! And for no good reason. I thought we were supposed to bring the prisoners back to Denver intact."

"You were supposed to follow my orders. You know the deal, you are in the General's Army," Jack spat back at the insubordinate solider.

The world had gone mad. "What were you doing with these prisoners, Jack? Why are they hurt?" Fitz couldn't hide the confusion in his voice.

"I was simply interrogating them. The General wants Liv Bishop for a reason, and I was determined to help him get as much information as possible from these prisoners."

"And this is how you do it? You torture them?" Liv joined Artie on the floor, trying to stop the blood from leaving Spin's body. She turned towards Jack, her lips curled with disdain. "Just what kind of barbarian are you?"

Jack met the fire in her eyes with his own, taking his eye off of Harry for the first time. "The kind that is sick of the lies. Never been to the Republic of Texas, right?" His voice dripped with sarcasm. "Well, Artie told me that the crazy girl mentioned you were from there. What are you, some kind of spy?"

"That's enough, Jack," Fitz bellowed. He could feel the blood rushing through him and he resisted the urge to attack the other man. This situation could turn deadly at any moment. He took a deep breath and tried to strike a tone of reason. "She's not a spy and we're not at war. Everyone just put down their weapons and calm down."

Jack waivered a moment, but then steadied his gun back on Harry. "Not a chance, Fitz. Not at war? Tell it to our people who have accidentally wandered over the Texas boarders and got shot for their efforts."

"They closed their borders years ago." Liv shook her head, she knew people on the outside had a certain envy of Texas because of its oil, but she never heard it rise to what Jack was saying. "They aren't your enemies just because they're protecting their energy supplies."

While Jack still held the gun on Harry, he turned his focus on Liv. "And what makes it 'their energy supplies?' This used to be one nation, didn't it? And a nation should share its resources." Some of the other militia in the room murmured their agreement.

Fitz felt the urge once again to rush Jack, but he knew there would be no going back if he did. "Jack, that nation has been gone since the Collapse over sixty years ago. We might have issues with Texas, but they are not our enemy."

Jack gave a bitter laugh. "Our people are dying, our fuel is dwindling and Texas hoards everything for itself. Your little girlfriend must have been doing quite a number on you if she was supposed to be your prisoner and now she's got you talking like that. You even untied her wrists, I see. Maybe this is the reason the General sent us after you in the first place, Fitz. You seemed to have forgotten where you've come from." Jack turned to his men. "The General gave us a job to do, and I expect you to do it. Hal, keep your eye on Fitz." Jack took his eyes off of Harry and once again examined the woman at the focal point of all the commotion. "Well, if her friends won't talk, maybe she will." Jack turned the gun on Liv with little thought.

Fitz felt a searing heat blaze through him as tackled Jack, all caution abandoned. He started to wrestle the gun away from Jack as the other militia stood around not quite sure whose side they should be taking. Amber took advantage of the confusion and lifted a gun off the nearest man, turning the gun on him. The white hot anger that coursed through Fitz almost blinded him. He and Jack tumbled over and over on the floor.

The shot that rang out pierced Liv's very soul. No, no, no! Not again. Please God, not again.

"Fitz," she screamed, rushing to his side. She pulled a groaning Jack off of Fitz. She patted down the chest of her lover, looking for his injury. "Are you ok? Please say you're ok!"

A huge smile spread across his face. She really does care about me.

"I'm ok." Fitz pulled her down by the neck and gave her a quick kiss before handing Liv his gun and grabbing Jack's. They both scrambled off the floor and joined Amber and Harry who aimed their weapons at the remaining militia in the room. "Look, we don't want any more trouble. We're just going to go. Put down your weapons and attend to Jack. Don't follow us, if you know what's good for you." The remaining militia, who still seemed confused as to where they should be getting their orders, complied with Fitz's demands.

"Twitchy, do you have Spin," Liv asked.

The young woman smeared blood on her face as she attempted to wipe away her tears. "I've got him." She quickly stuffed gauze in his opened wound and wrapped it up with a clean bandage. She grabbed the medic's bag and slung Spin's arm across her shoulder as she practically dragged him away.

Jack held the side of his torso, gritting his teeth through the pain, his eyes shooting daggers at the man who seemed to have been his rival for eternity. "You just made the worst mistake in your life, Fitz. Your old man will have you skinned. That is if we don't get you first."

Fitz stared at the golden boy, wondering if Jack would finally get his wish and replace him in his father's eyes. "I guess you'll have to catch us if you can," he taunted.

The rag-tag band of injured misfits quickly grabbed their belongings as they made their way out of the building. Liv turned to Fitz as they headed out into the cool blessed dark of night. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"No," Fitz answered honestly. "But trust me anyway."

Liv almost felt dizzy from the strong sense of déjà vu that washed over her again. "I trust you."