I'm glad you liked the last chapter. I'm still high from the last Scandal episode! This story is slowly coming to an end; I can't believe it. I've been done writing for over a week now and I miss it already. I hope you enjoy this chapter. As always, thank you for reading and reviewing!
Olivia's first instinct was to hand Teddy off to his father and leave to avoid a confrontation. The little boy, however, had turned into her body and was playing idly with her watch. He seemed completely content in her arms. Fitz looked annoyed at being interrupted, but she knew him well enough to also recognize how much he tensed up immediately.
"Olivia, how very nice to see you again.", Mellie spoke again.
She was smiling but her words almost sounded like a hiss. Olivia cursed herself inwardly for coming here in the first place, because she had known that this was a possibility and she realized now that she really wasn't ready to face an angry wife and mother.
"Mellie…", Fitz warned. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to see my son, Fitzgerald."
"Spare me.", he snorted. "You have never picked him up from our playtime here. I either take him back to his nursery, or the nanny comes to pick him up. So please spare us from your games and tell me why you're really here."
"Maybe I should go.", Olivia mumbled, stroking Teddy's back gently .
The baby had lifted his head to stare at Fitz, not used to hearing his father speak in such a harsh tone. One hand was fisted into the fabric of Olivia's shirt, and he was gnawing heartily on the other one. Fitz looked weary and angry, but he never removed his arm from around her, almost as if he was trying to remind her that he was on her side and that she had nothing to fear. Truth be told, Olivia wasn't afraid. However, she felt incredibly uneasy with Mellie regarding them coldly while she was practically snuggling with the woman's son and husband, on the floor of the Oval Office no less. She felt like she had no right to interfere with a family's life the way she had been doing lately.
"Stay, won't you? You're looking awfully cozy and I would hate to interrupt your little moment here. I see my son has taken to you too."
Olivia turned to Fitz and smiled at him sadly.
"I'm going to leave. I don't want a fight, especially with Teddy here."
Fitz and Mellie both watched as Olivia gave the baby a quick squeeze and then released him into his father's waiting arms. She stood, squeezed Fitz's shoulder and made her way towards the office door. When she passed the First Lady, Olivia stopped.
"You have an amazing son, Mellie.", she said, leaving the Oval Office and making her way out of the White House without looking back.
That night, Fitz called to apologize for Mellie's behavior, but Olivia stopped him. As much as she had hated being put into that situation, she couldn't bring herself to be mad at the First Lady. Had she been in her place, Olivia would have been hurt, upset, and most definitely mad, so she had to stop Fitz – and herself – from blaming the awkwardness of that moment on Mellie alone. She was happy to have met Teddy, and only wished she would have had a little more time with him and Fitz. The little boy had stolen Olivia's heart in a way only babies could, and it made her feel a little more secure and ready to have him in her life.
When Olivia finally returned to work, she was amazed at how much she had truly missed the intensity and the craziness that came with her profession. Her and her team spent a few days on their first case since Olivia's accident, and it was hectic, and busy, and so wonderfully familiar. When she returned home every night, Fitz called her and they shared over the phone what their busy schedules wouldn't allow them to share face-to-face. There was still a sense of hesitance between them after the Mellie-incident, mainly because Fitz felt the need to apologize to Olivia repeatedly. He was afraid that their run-in with his angry wife would change Olivia's opinion, maybe make her question her decision to be with him. She smiled and held the phone away from her face so Fitz wouldn't hear her giggle at his huffs and sighs, because he sounded like a petulant child, not like a world leader.
"Somebody's at the door. I have to go, Fitz."
"It's almost ten. Who comes to see you this late at night?", he asked, mainly because he didn't want to be done talking to Olivia.
"Apparently you are not the only one that can pop in for late night visits.", Olivia laughed. "I'll talk to you tomorrow, okay?"
"Alright.", Fitz sighed. "I love you."
"I love you, too. Goodnight."
Olivia hung up and tossed the phone onto the couch, walking to her front door with quick steps. She peeked through the peephole and almost stepped away from the door instinctively. Out of all the people she could have imagined at her door, this one was not on the list by any means. Taking a deep breath, Olivia opened the door to a perfectly styled, smiling Mellie Grant.
"Good, you are home. I was worried for a second.", Mellie greeted, eyeing Olivia expectantly.
With a sigh, Olivia stepped out of the way to let the First Lady into her home. Her Secret Service detail remained in the hallway, and it reminded Olivia of the times Fitz had come to see her at her apartment. She closed the door and turned to face Mellie, who had taken the time to give Olivia's home a once-over. It seemed almost surreal to have her standing there after everything her and Fitz had shared on the very same couch Mellie was now seating herself on.
"You don't mind, do you?", she smiled, straightening her skirt out in the process.
"Not at all.", Olivia replied.
She briefly considered offering her a drink but she didn't want to make Mellie feel too welcome, because she wasn't. Olivia took a seat as well, looking at Mellie and hoping she would simply come out and say what she had come to say.
"I'm sure you can guess why I am here."
"I'd rather not.", Olivia answered, because she was not going to play this game.
"I believe it is time for you to have a talk with my husband and remind him that he does not want a divorce. I assume you know of his plans."
"I do, but there is nothing I can or want to do about it, Mellie. Fitz makes his own decisions."
"That's the problem.", Mellie replied snippily. "Every time he does make a decision all by himself, we end up with these kinds of situations."
It made Olivia angry to hear this woman talk about Fitz that way, because he was very much able to make his own decision. She wondered if this was part of the reason that their marriage had fallen apart long before Olivia ever came along. Mellie was ambitious and power-hungry, and she wanted to be the one to make decisions. Olivia could understand that, because she was ambitious herself, and she wanted to achieve the things she set her mind to. What she couldn't understand, however, was Mellie's ruthlessness towards her own husband.
"I can't help you, Mellie."
"Listen, Olivia, I know you have this… this spell over him, but you need to let him go so he can get his head straight and be President."
"He is President and I think he is doing a fantastic job.", Olivia argued.
"Of course you do. What happens the next time you two have a fight, or when he decides to sleep with some other girl, or when he turns to alcohol again?", Mellie asked. "You need to end this now."
"Listen, Mellie.", Olivia warned, all pretense of friendliness gone. "I know he is your husband, and I know you have the right to be angry with me and with him, but I do not take orders from you. If he wants to divorce you, I won't stop him."
"You must love this. Campaign fixer turned mistress turned wannabe girlfriend. Only you won't be, don't you realize that? Even if, for some miraculous reason, Fitz would win re-election as a divorced man, he'd never be able to date you publicly. You will never be more than a dirty secret, Olivia."
The words stung, because Mellie had managed to manifest all of Olivia's fears in a few sentences. Olivia knew at this point, her eyes were giving her away, and the tiny, malicious smirk on the First Lady's face only confirmed that.
"That's not something you care about, Mellie, is it? You don't care about me or Fitz. You care about yourself and how a divorce would alter your political future."
"Of course I care about my own future!", Mellie answered instantly. "Don't you care about what happens to this presidency? After everything we have all put into it? You and me and Cyrus and Verna, bless her soul."
Olivia refrained from commenting on the latter, although the mention of her name was a nasty reminder of what she'd done and how she had paid for her actions.
"I care about this presidency. But I care about the President more.", Olivia admitted. "I don't know why you came here, because I can't help you."
"You are an intelligent woman, Olivia, and I've always liked that about you. But when it comes to my husband, you don't use all that intelligence and common sense you have. If he divorces me, he will destroy everything all of us worked for, and at the end of the day, it still won't change anything about that relationship you two think you can have. Don't you want more out of life, Olivia? Don't you think you need to let him go and stop chasing after him like a love-sick teenager? I would have thought that you were better than that."
Olivia stared into the cold eyes of the First Lady and let her words set in. She wondered if this was something Fitz was forced to put up with every day – the attitude and the air of arrogance that surrounded Mellie. Fitz did not hate his wife, but Olivia often felt like there was a nearly all-consuming resentment there that reached much deeper than the election rigging.
"What about you, Mellie?", Olivia asked quietly. "Don't you want more out of life than a husband that doesn't love you? Aren't you better than that?"
Olivia could pinpoint the exact moment when Mellie's self-confidence and arrogance disappeared. She suddenly looked defeated. With a nod that Olivia couldn't quite interpret, the First Lady stood up and left the apartment without looking back.