AN: Here's chapter 8, again sorry for taking so long to update, I swear I'm doing my best. Things seem to be going slow, but they have to be extra careful when it comes to command; he was way too many allies that could make things bad for the good guys even if he was killed, so they have to make sure they get them all. I decided to call the plan Operation down with Command, which is what ODC is short for. Fitz won't be able to keep his cool about Olivia leaving for too much longer and it will cause troble, what do you guys think he will do? Anyway, enjoy :)
After a week, Jerry was getting a lot better, he hadn't gained weight yet, but he didn't feel sick when he moved anymore, and his incontinence was starting to go away. Olivia had been feeding him toast, oatmeal, yogurt and soup the entire week; she gave him small pieces of chicken, but that was about it. He wanted to stuff his face on other stuff like cheeseburgers and pizza, but he knew it was a bad idea. On the first day she only gave him the yogurt and some toast for breakfast and he was kinda mad, until a little while later when it came out the same way it went in; he realized he had to take it easy. Jerry's digestive system was having a tough time adjusting, so he was taking vitamins to help his health, he had to keep the dairy consumption low the first couple of days, but then he started keeping food in for longer. Olivia told him that he would start drinking nutritional shakes once he was more stable, to help his weight and his health in general, he had lost count of all the pills he had to take, there were antibiotics, the vitamins, and the ones to protect his stomach from the strain of the antibiotics, it was a mess but things were finally starting to get better.
Olivia walked into his room early in the morning to help him get to the living room so they could eat, but when she walked in he was already getting up.
"What are you doing" she rushed to him.
"Im getting up from bed, I'm ok" he told her.
She looked at him apprehensively, she was just worried he could fall, or put to much strain on his arm veins if he made too much effort, or that he could relapse and get all weak again. He saw the fear in her eyes and sat back on the bed.
"Liv please, I feel a lot better, and you need to take a breath, you don't even sleep cause you have to help me every time I get up, even to get a glass of water or go pee. I have to start moving on my own so you can rest a little, it won't do us any good if you get sick, we would be in big trouble" he tried to convince her.
"I just want you to recover without issues, there is no rush, and I am in great shape, you have to take your time" Olivia replied.
"Yes but also I have to start doing things so my body gets the hang of it" Olivia looked at him with the same expression on her face, she didn't seem to be changing her mind. "What if you just let me go to the bathroom all by myself and then you can help me to the living room" Jerry said on his last attempt to get some control on his life.
"Fine, I'll wait for you outside of the bathroom… and let you walk there" she conceded.
Jerry smiled at her and got up from the bed again he walked slowly to the bathroom and came out a few minutes later, she helped him get to the living room and they sat on the couch. They had all their meals there because Huck didn't buy a dining set, and she didn't want him sitting on the kitchen island, since the stools were high and she was afraid he could loose his balance and fall.
"Since you have gotten a lot better I figured you could eat something a bit tastier this morning, so I'm making scrambled eggs" She said smiling.
"With bacon?" he asked hopefully
"No, sorry, no bacon yet"
"Maybe some butter with my toast?" he tried again.
"Hmm, I don't think so, maybe tomorrow, lets see how it goes with the eggs"
Jerry was disappointed, but at least he got a tomorrow on the butter, it was better than nothing. He understood why she was doing it, but it was still hard.
They both enjoyed their breakfast and talked about meaningless things, they had been watching a lot of television together so they chatted about the shows. Jerry hadn't asked to talk about Olivia and Fitz' relationship, or how operation down with command was going, he was mainly trying to get the most of the situation.
Fitz was pacing in the oval impatiently, his divorce would be final in about a week so it was time to announce it, he was going on a press conference soon, Olivia's team was there and it was all set. He mainly felt nervous because their time to sort out operation down with command was running out; after his divorce was final they only needed to be there for a month tops to monitor his situation with the public, but after that people would be getting over it already and they kept going everyday to the white house for so many hours, command could get suspicious. Fitz felt like they were getting nowhere, despite all their work. They had developed a system in which they talked about ODC on divorce and public image code while trading info on paper only; the cameras were not sharp enough so anyone could read what was on the paper and they were careful to slip them between polls and articles. Command asked Tom for footage and saw nothing worth his attention so he disposed of them without a second look; after a few days of boring shots he started asking Tom for less tapes, and not everyday, just to keep an eye on the guy, since he considered there was no threat. Huck already had a neat list of people who needed to be taken down, but they needed to wait, once they started arresting or terminating people, their timer would start running out on the command bomb, they had to plan out every detail so he wouldn't have time to get away.
Cyrus had been shocked when Fitz confronted him about the bomb, and told him about ODC, he was scared, but realized Fitz was not backing down and that it needed to be done, after all it was because of b613 that he lost James. He was on board with everything and even helped Fitz with explaining the whole situation to Olivia's team. That morning Cyrus walked into the oval and found Fitz pacing like a mad man.
"Sir, are you ok?" he asked
"Just nervous about telling everyone about the divorce" Fits replied. Cyrus knew it was not the divorce what was upsetting him, but with the cameras, he just went with it.
"Don't worry sir, everything will be fixed soon" Fitz knew Cyrus wasn't talking about his divorce. It was funny how they had reached such a deep level of understanding and communication in the last few days. He nodded to Cyrus.
"Well sir, your soon to be ex-wife is ready, we better get going, you are going live soon" Cyrus told Fitz, and walked to the door.
Olivia and Jerry were done eating and stayed in the living room to watch some tv. She turned it on, and it was on the news channel, she was about to change it when she heard "Coming right up, the President of the United States live from the White House". They looked at each other with matching puzzled expressions. The tv host said that the president had some big announcement he wanted to make so they were cutting to a live feed. The anchor came on and said they were waiting for him to come out.
"Anytime now the President will come out and we will finally find out what is this all about" The anchor spoke. A couple of minutes later the president was announced and the camera focused on the spot he would take. He came out, and right behind him Mellie walked in. The room was silent, Fitz cleared his throat, he looked at Mellie and then he started talking.
"Good morning fellow americans, it is with a heavy heart that we announce, the first lady and I are getting a divorce, now before anything else, you should all know that this will not affect my job in any way. I am still the same man you voted for and I will keep doing what is best for this country" Fitz spoke with determination
"As most of you know, we have had some problems in the past and we did our best to sort them out, but we came to the realization that it was best for us to part ways." Mellie added.
"We decided what was best for us and our family, we will always care for each other and have each other's back, but we can't stay married without risking hurting each other or doing something we could regret." Fitz spoke again
"We would really appreciate for all of you to respect our decision, and refrain from attacking us or saying anything that could hurt our children. This is a private family matter and we would like to keep it that way" Mellie continued.
"Thank you all for coming and for listening to us, have a good day" With that Fitz finished the conference and left the room. The press was dumbfounded, they wanted to ask so many questions, but he oft before they could. The different anchors went back to the studio to discuss the news further.
Olivia and Jerry sat there in the same state of shock as the journalists in the White House. Neither on them said anything for several minutes. Olivia muted the television and just sat there trying to process what had just happened.
"Well it was about time" It was Jerry who broke the silence
Fitz and Mellie went to meet the gladiators after their announcement. They were all in a conference room watching. They were already working on gathering intel of peoples opinion on the matter when Fitz, Mellie, and Cyrus walked in. Mellie hadn't really participation in any of it before, but after making it public they needed to do interviews so she had to work with them too, just be there sometimes, if she was with them all the time, they wouldn't be able to work on ODC.
"So, how did we do?" Fitz walked to his chair and took a sit. Mellie sat at the opposite end of the table.
"I think it went good, you guys seemed to be a united front even facing separation, I'm glad it was decided the using of a plural pronoun when starting all your sentences, makes it easier for the public to digest it" Abby answered him.
"How are those polls looking?" Cyrus asked.
"They are not looking so great, but I'm sure we can turn it around with the interviews, and turning focus on your job and your parenting" It was Quinn who answered that one, she was in charge of the polls, and the social media was being watched by Huck, as long as he wasn't needed elsewhere.
"Social media has very hmm… different opinions" Huck started "Some people say it was about time she left you, considering your… adultery issue, some others say they don't care as long as you do your job, the are also some saying you are a total… butthole, for leaving your wife after she had the kindness to forgive you, and there are also many people saying that sometimes when couples have issues, the loss of a child can draw the last straw on an already fragile relationship" he finished talking and pit his face down again to his computer screen.
"So are they like justifying our divorce with my son's death" Fitz voiced incredulous.
"Yeah I kinda saw that one coming, we gotta be really careful on how we handle that, we don't want people thinking this is just some crisis that will go away, and that after you go through with it they still hope to see you back together" Abby said.
"I was hoping we wouldn't have to go there anymore" Fitz said, sadness clear in his voice. "It's bad enough I won the election because of it"
They were all silent in the room, all of them knew it was true what Fitz had just said, but they didn't expect him to mention it and in such a blunt way. Cyrus decided to take the reigns on that one.
"Sir, that is why you guys need to clear this is something that was coming before you lost your son, so they stop using it as a reason for everything" Fitz turned to look at Cyrus with pain written all over his face, talking about the death of his son was almost unbearable for him, he felt like he was reliving it every time it was mentioned. Mellie simply sat with her head down, waiting for interactions, discussing Jerry's death wasn't easy for her either, and it made the guilt even worse when people treated her like the poor loving mother who lost her child, when really she had been such a bad mother to him.
They worked on the divorce issue until they gave Mellie what she needed so she could leave. Fitz wanted to leave too, he felt like crap, but the command thing was way too important so he pushed through it, getting Olivia back was the only thing that kept him going most of the time, not even getting justice for Jerry, he simply thought that getting command wouldn't bring his son back, but her, it was possible.
Olivia was brought out of her shock after Jerry's words on his parents divorce. She nearly laughed at his reaction. He just told her after, that he never understood how stayed together when it was clear that not only they didn't love each other, but they didn't even like each other. Olivia was relieved to see how he took it, she was fighting it for Jerry's sake, but she just wanted to be happy about it. She couldn't help thinking that if things got fixed, they could finally be together.
"You are being awfully quiet Liv, what do think about all this" Jerry inquired, and just as if had read her mind he continued "You know, it's fine if you are happy about it, it's not like I don't know about you guys, and you did say you love him"
"I do love him Jerry, with all of my heart" She said after a long sigh "But I don't know what gonna happen, even if they manage to get my dad"
"I really hope they do, it's not that I don't you, but I'm not looking forward to living with you for the rest of my life" He chuckled.
"I understand" she said smiling at him "Let's say my dad is no longer a problem and all this comes out, do you think your dad will forgive me for what I put him through?" She voiced with concern.
"But you saved me" Jerry told her.
"Yeah, but he doesn't know that, you didn't see him, he is suffering so much, I just feel he is going to resent me for potting behind his back and causing him so much pain" She said in the verge of tears.
"Look, my dad is a smart guy, I'm sure he will see the big picture, but even if he doesn't at first, he will come around, he will realize you did what you thought was best, and what matters is that I'm alive" Jerry tried to console her. She looked at him like she didn't really believe it, a few tears were already coming down her cheeks. Jerry reached for her hand.
"It will be ok, I'll even put a good word for you, I won't even tell him you tied me up" he said with a smirk. That actually made Olivia smile. "And I'm sure he loves you just as much as you love him"
Jerry didn't know much about his fathers relationship with Olivia, he still needed to have that conversation with her, but he knew they loved each other, Fitz had told him that after their barely saved interview, and he also told Jerry he'd tell him the whole truth some other time, but he would have to hear it from Liv.
AN2: I just realized that considering the timing of the season finale, which is when I'm putting the story, it was almost time for summer vacation so I guess it's a good thing Karen didn't change schools after her incident ;). Anyway, I guess it was not necessary for her to go back to school after moving to the White House since she basically would only go for like 3 weeks and missed days on grieving and being sick, but what's done it's done, so she'll just be on vacation now and we'll see how Fitz deals with that.
