Disclaimer: The characters in this story belong to ABC Disney, Shonda Rhimes and the TV show Scandal. All credit to them.
A/N: This is a little short but I wanted to put something out there. Enjoy..
It was Tuesday night and Eli had invited Fitz to have dinner with them at one of their favorite restaurants after the game since he missed his opportunity to have dinner the previous week. It was unexpected and Fitz wanted to say no because he wanted more time, well more than a 30 minute buffer time to prepare for his first dinner with her father. When he looked over to Olivia when he was about to decline but he could see the hope in her eyes that he would say yes and come to dinner with them so he said yes.
There was casual conversation about his childhood and his mother and father all throughout dinner and everything seemed to be going great. They moved onto dessert and the conversation had somehow landed on college.
"So Fitz, have you thought about where you want to go to school?" Rowan asked as he took a bite out of his dessert.
Fitz nodded as he swallowed a piece of chocolate cake that he had stolen off of Olivia's plate before answering, "I have been thinking of a few schools but I guess my top 3 schools are Arizona, Berkeley, and Florida."
"Are you picking these schools because of weather or their standing in the NCAA?"
"Honestly, a little bit of both. I was born and raised here Coach, I don't think I could handle the cold weather on the east coast for four years or however many years I plan on being there." Fitz chuckled, "I am thinking about Stanford too since Liv has decided to go there next year.." Fitz trailed off when he felt Olivia squeezing his hand trying to get his attention.
"She what?!" Rowan exclaimed in shock.
"Eli." Maya warned.
"No Maya, I want to know why Fitz thinks Olivia is going to Stanford." Rowan said as he glared at Olivia. "Olivia, where are you going to school in the fall?"
"Harvard, Sir." Olivia said as she looked at her dessert, refusing to make eye contact.
"Are you sure Olivia? I would hate for Fitz to have the wrong information." Rowan asked in a condescending tone.
"Dad, I mentioned Stanford one time in casual conversation and Fitz must have gotten the information mixed up. It's not a big deal, can we move on?"
Dinner had been going great up until this moment and she hated having this spotlight on her. Who was she kidding though, did she really think that she would be able to sneak this past her parents? She wasn't mad at Fitz but she was annoyed at the situation. She thought she would have more time before bringing this up to her parents and this definitely wasn't how she wanted to end the first dinner the four of them had ever had out together. Just get through this dinner with out conflict, she reminder herself, she would convince them about Stanford later.
"It is a big deal, your mother and I both went to Harvard, your grandparents went to Harvard, and you too will go to Harvard. That is your family's legacy and will uphold that legacy, is there any confusion on that?"
"No Sir." Olivia grumbled out as she stirred the ice cream in her bowl suddenly not hungry any more, maybe this was going to take a little more than just convincing.
Fitz was a little stunned by the dressing down that her father had just given her. Sure he had over heard it from outside of the Coaches office but to see it in person was a different story. Everything up to this point had been going great, maybe he just needed to shift the focus back to him and off of Olivia and maybe even learn a little more about the coach that he didn't already know.
"That's my fault Coach, I must have heard her wrong." He moved his arm around the back of her chair and kissed the side of her head. "Right, Liv?"
Olivia looked at him and gave him an apologetic smile before nodding. "That's right."
"Ok, then let's move on to something else." Maya said trying to clear the tension. "Fitz, are you planning on finishing school or going Pro after your first year?"
"You know I can't say that I am one hundred percent sure. If they hadn't changed the rules to where you had to go to college for a year first before being eligible for the NBA draft I would definitely be heading there instead of school. On the other side of the coin, I want to have a solid education under my belt in case anything happens to me and I am unable to play. Right now I am just seeing how it plays out."
"I never wanted Livia to end up with a baller because I know how the players can be especially on the road." Eli said giving him a look.
Fitz straightened up in his chair and looked Eli square in the eyes, "I would never do anything to hurt or jeopordize my relationship with Liv, you have my word on that."
"There's something about you Grant that makes me trust you when you say that, please don't make regret trusting you with my daughter."
"You won't regret it Coach. Now, lets talk about you. How did you get started into coaching?"
"Are you sure about this? I don't know if we should be doing this without them." Jake said as he opened the door for Abby.
"We can handle this and we don't need permission to help out our best friends." She grabbed the folder she had off the seat in the car and slipped her hand in his pulling him towards the restaurant.
"Hey, sorry we are late but we hit a little traffic on the way." Abby lied as she sat down, flashing Mellie a fake smile.
"It's ok, I thought that may be the case." Mellie said behind a fake smile of her own as she stood to greet them.
"You know Jake, Fitz' cousin, don't you?"
"Yes, nice to see you again Jake. I hate to be blunt, but what exactly are we doing here Abby? We don't run in the same circles and I accepted this ludicrous invite merely out of curiosity, so if you could get on with it." Mellie said impatiently.
"Straight to the chase huh? You never were a bullshitter but you were always little slow. I am here about your little plan to break up Olivia and Fitz." Mellie gave her a shocked and offended expression. "Like I said, you were always a little slow to catch on but you know damn well what I am talking about. No need to play possum now."
"You're right, I do know what you are talking about but I don't see what that has to do with dinner tonight. What did you come here to beg me to leave your little friends alone, to not make their lives miserable?" Mellie chuckled.
Abby smiles sweetly at her, "Actually, I came to inform you that you and your little friends will leave Olivia and Fitz alone or I will destroy that pretty little image of yours with no hesitation." Abby slid the folder across the table to Meliie and watched as her expression turned from smug to on the verge of tears in a matter of seconds. "You see Mellie, this is where you and me differ. You want to be a mean girl and have your little cliques but I am an even bigger mean girl and a better bitch than you are."
"W-where..did you get these?" Mellie stammered out as she looked at the pictures in horror.
"There are plenty more where that came from and don't tell me you thought you could sneak around with the french teacher and no one would notice? On your knees in the classroom, tsk, tsk, tsk. If you are going to be a hoe Mellie at least be more classy about it." Abby stood but leaned in close to Mellies face as she spoke, "If you or your little minions even think of coming after my girl and her relationship I will bury you so deep that it will be two decades before you are even clear to come up for air. Got it?"
Mellie nodded and Abby and Jake left the table as quickly as they had arrived.
"Abby, what the? How in the?" Jake asked confused when they got in the car. He was pleasantly shocked at how badass she was and he now knew that he would never want to be on her bad side.
"I know a guy." She said smiling as they headed to her house. "Most of the time it's not what you know but who you know and what they know."
"I believe it." Jake said still in awe of her. "You have no idea how turned on I am right now Abbs."
"Mmm..you like that huh Jacob?" Abby said in a low seductive voice, and he nodded. "Then lets hurry home then so that we can take care of that." Although she and Jake hadn't had sex yet they had gone pretty far, the adrenaline rush that she was feeling from this whole thing had her ready to do more.
Jake smirked and sped up a little more to get them home sooner.
"Well this was a great dinner but it is getting late and I'm sure you two," Maya said looking between Eli and Fitz, who had been talking basketball for the last 30 minutes, "Can finish talking shop some other time."
"The boss has spoken." Eli said with a laugh. "Great game again Grant and good luck on that college search. Do you mind dropping Olivia off? Maya and I are going to make a quick detour before heading home."
"It is no problem Sir."
They said their goodbyes and headed to Fitz' car. He held the door open for Olivia and leaned into the car to give her a kiss before walking to the other side. Fitz held her hand as he drove. He wanted to bring up the college discussion but he didn't know how or even if he should. He decide to make casual conversation instead.
"So.."
"So, what?" She asks looking over at him.
"So..that went well. I think your father likes me." He said smiling. "He actually gave me a chance and it didn't go so bad. He and I are like best buds now." Fitz said excitedly.
"I know..I am proud of you Fitz, you had a great game and you handled yourself against my father. Thank you." She brought his hand to her mouth and kissed it softly.
"No, thank you for sticking with me to allow us to get to this place. I feel so relieved now that the first dinner with your father is over."
"You and me both." She said quietly as she turned again to look out of the window.
"What?" He asked rubbing his thumb along the back of her hand. "I'm sorry I let it slip about Stanford."
"Fitz.." She sighed, not wanting to get back on the subject of the college. "You don't have to be sorry, I should have asked you to keep it between us until I had a chance to talk to him but I honestly forgot all about that conversation, must have been the medicine. Plus you had no idea about my dad and his overbearing opinions on how I should live my life."
"I know it seems like he was being overbearing but I think he is just trying to keep your family heritage and legacy alive." Fitz stated simply.
"Oh please Fitz, I get that you think you hit it off big with my father but you do not know him, you don't know how he has been my whole life. So please spare me the whole legacy and heritage bullshit, I know him and I know it is about control for him." She scoffed at him.
"Olivia, I didn't mean..I was only saying.." He placed the car in park in front of her house and ran his hand through his hair as he tried to gather his thoughts. "I wasn't trying to imply that I knew your father more than you did."
"What were you trying to imply then?"
This is not how he pictured the end of their dinner date or the end of their evening. He had somehow talked himself into a corned and it was hell trying to get out of it. He just wanted to rewind the last few minutes of their discussion and pretend like it never happened, too bad this was real life and it didn't exactly work like that.
"Liv, I'm sorry but I don't want to fight with you. I was wrong to weigh in on what I thought about your father because it is none of my business. I do think we need to discuss colleges soon because I need to sign a letter of intent to somewhere by next week." He turned to her and placed her hands in his. "None of my school choices are close to Harvard Livvie.."
"I know.." She replied sadly.
"Promise me that we will make this work, that we will always work."
Olivia was looking into his eyes searching for the words to say, she knew what he wanted to hear but was that what was true to the situation? They were young, he had NBA dreams, she had goals, her parents had expectations and these things all seemed to be heading in opposite directions. Could this really work beyond puppy love? She didn't know, she couldn't be sure but wasn't that what love was? Taking a chance in the unknown for the possibility of something great?
"I promise." She said exhaling, "I love you babe, we will find a way to make this work." She rubbed her hands up the sleeves of his shirt stopping when she reached his shoulders and pulling him closer to her.
Fitz didn't know why he expected her to say no, to say that it was impossible. Maybe it was all of the moments in his life that had led up to this one, the abandonment, the disappointment, the almost acceptance that he would be alone forever but then there was her and she had come out of nowhere to become his light. She made everything better, brighter and no matter what he had to sacrifice for her he would. He would do what he had to to make sure that she knew that she was all he needed to get through anything that came up in his life and he would continue to fight to be the only thing that she needed. He leaned in to give her a kiss when there was a knock on the window.
"Don't even think about it Grant!" Eli yelled from outside of the window. "Olivia time to go."
"He is such a hater." Olivia whined as she dropped her hands from Fitz' shoulders and grabbed her bag off of the floor.
Fitz jumped out of the car and ran to around to her side to open the door for her. She climbed out but he remained right in from of her giving her little room to move from between him and the car. "What are you doing Fitz?"
"I know you didn't think that I was going to leave here without a kiss from my love did you?" He lifted her chin and gave her the sweetest kiss before pulling back, licking his lips in the process. "Good night Livvie."
She smiled and bit her bottom lip, "Mmhmm…Good night Fitzy." She scooted past him and let out a loud laugh when he slapped her ass as she walked by.
"Love you!" He yelled after her, he blew her a kiss as he leaned back onto his car watching her walk to her door.
She caught the imaginary kiss and tucked it inside her pocket before yelling, "I love you too babe."
A/N: Abby and Jake shut Mellie down, well for now lol This was a short little sound bite but I wanted to get this out there and ask a question. I have seen a few reviews mentioning Olitz breaking up in the time jump then working their way back to each other. The time jump will be from Jan to Sept to them in their first semester in college. Do y'all want to see them break up or stay together? I'm fine to go either way, I will go with the majority. Let me know what you want. Still a few ch. from the jump but that kind of dictates how I write the next few...Up next, the Homecoming dance. Thanks for reading..Til next time.