Author's Note: Thank you all for the wonderful reviews – I am glad that you are enjoying reading my take on the development of these characters as much as I am writing about them. Looking forward to reading more feedback from this next installment! Also, this is a fairly short chapter, but I'm planning on finishing the next one and having it ready to post no later than tomorrow. Stay with me guys, we're about to take a few turns off script!
Also, I'd love to hear/see which songs you all would like to have included in the "soundtrack" for this story – feel free to post song suggestions in the comments as well.
Chapter Three
And I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't
So here's to drinks in the dark, at the end of my road
And I'm ready to suffer, and I'm ready to hope
It's a shot in the dark aimed right at my throat 'cause
Looking for heaven found the devil in me, looking for heaven found the devil in me
But what the hell, I'm gonna let it happen to me
"Shake it Out" Florence and the Machine
The next day, Olivia woke up feeling a little lighter. She couldn't deny that she still hurt, and she knew that it would take a while still for her to fully let go and move on from Fitz. The kind of love that they shared, so heartbreaking and painful in its intensity, did not just go away from one night of drinking and breaking things. Still, the experience had been cathartic, and she now felt ready to move on the path toward healing.
Olivia entered the office of Olivia Pope and Associates the next day looking more alive than she had in months, shocking everyone except Harrison, who beamed with pride at the sight of his boss's improved demeanor. The team gathered in the conference room and began working the case of the day, a (potentially)scandalous affair had been revealed between a United States Ambassador and the daughter of a foreign diplomat – a daughter who, by US standards, was underage. Of course, this put the Ambassador in a precarious position, as the young woman's family was now demanding that he wed her and take her into his family, after learning that she had become pregnant.
Olivia immediately shifted into high gear, instructing her team to do as much research as possible about how much of the Ambassador's relationship with the girl was public knowledge already. She also had a face to face chat with the Ambassador himself, who, although ashamed of the situation that he was now facing, held fast to the notion that he was in love with the young woman. He pointed out that, though she, at 17, was young by United States standards, he had not actually broken the laws of the governing country in which he resided at the time. Olivia chided the Ambassador for being so cavalier about the fiasco, and reminded him that, although he might not be judged in a court of law, the court of public opinion would skewer him for this without her being able to put it in the proper perspective. She lamented that "child brides" are about as popular with the American public as "men marrying their mistresses", and stated that he would do well to downplay the potentially criminal aspects of his relationship with the girl.
She decided on a plan of action that the couple would simply present themselves as a typical May-December romance, playing up the fact that they were in love and making no mention of the girl's true age. Olivia insisted that their best bet would be to make the girl appear as sophisticated and worldly as possible, and to cast her in a role that was wise beyond her years. This, she said, would allow the American public to get to know her as his wife first, before fully realizing that she is only 17.
The two participated in a private ceremony, blending elements of the traditions of both their cultures, before announcing to the world that they had wed. Once the public was introduced to the young woman, who really was unlike any American teenager that Olivia had ever met in terms of maturity and acceptance of responsibility, her age seemed to be almost a non-factor. Sure, there was some backlash from people who wished to paint the Ambassador as a "dirty old man robbing the cradle", but for the most part, America seemed to care very little about the age difference. It was refreshing to see two people overcome such adversity (albeit, most of their own making), and to be able to celebrate their love openly and freely with one another. It gave Olivia hope, not that she and Fitz would ever get back together, but that she would be able to find that love again one day.
As she got home that night, she was in what was arguably the best mood she'd found herself in in quite awhile. So, when the handsome man from the Pentagon whom she'd met days earlier called to ask her out (again), she finally felt that she was in a good enough place to say "yes". She agreed to meet Captain Jake Ballard for dinner and drinks the following evening, and went to bed feeling lighter than she had in months. She slept so soundly that night that she didn't notice the light ticking noise as the tiny camera on her bedside table zoomed in for closer surveillance.