A/N: This chapter has 1976 words. 1976. Get it? xD Sorry, I had to. Keep up with the reviews! I had the most reviews on 33, which I absolutely adored. I love reading about what y'all think, and I love suggestions as well! Thank you so much! You're all in for a major surprise in this chapter!

"Son, I want to take you to dinner." Big Jerry told his son, who was sitting on the couch, reading a book. "Get up and let's go."

Fitz just sighed, not asking any questions as he got up from the couch, going down the hall and into his bedroom to get ready. It was odd enough that his father was in Boston, in his apartment, and even more awkward that he wanted to take Fitz out to dinner. He had to want something. He said that he was in town on business, but as a Senator from California, he had no business in the entire state of Massachusetts, much less in Boston.

He walked back out after about ten minutes in a white collared shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans. "Ready?" Jerry asked and Fitz nodded as the two of them walked out of the house and out to Jerry's car. When they walked into the tavern, Frank's Tavern, Jerry told the hostess who he was, and she led them back to a table, where a young woman with dark brown hair was sitting in a booth with a man. Jerry introduced the man as an old college buddy of his, Jim Wyatt, and introduced the woman, one of Jim's clerks that he had just happened to bring along, as Melody Young.

Fitz and Jerry sat down, Fitz across from Melody, and Jerry across from Jim. The two older men talked, and Melody just listened, a little too shy to want to say anything at all, especially to the attractive man across from her. Eventually, the two older men got up and went to the bar, leaving Fitz and Melody by themselves.

"So…Melody." Fitz said, looking up at the woman in front of him.

"Call me Mellie. So, Fitzgerald…Tell me a little about yourself."

"Call me Fitz-"

The night went on. Mellie was bright, and she was charming. And the two of them hit it off. It was a while before Fitz had realized what really went on that night, before he realized that it wasn't a coincidence that Mellie had been there that night. It was planned, it was set up. Big Jerry had paid for Mellie. He had struck a deal with Jim and he sold Mellie to Jerry. It was just shy of prostitution, the only difference being that he hadn't paid for a woman to have sex with, he had paid for the woman in her entirety.

He had this thing about breeding. Big Jerry had this thing about breeding, breeding like people were discussing racehorses instead of women. Which was ridiculous, because his father worked the docks his whole life. But, they say there's no snob bigger than new money, and the Grant's money stank of new. But Mellie's blood was blue, Mayflower blue, D.A.R. blue. Sure, there was some slave trading in her background, her granddaddy ran liquor. But old money meant something to Big Jerry.

Mellie was a thoroughbred racehorse. You can play the majors, and there she was. It wasn't even a blind date. It was a merger. They sold her to him. They made a deal, and they shook hands. Fitz often wonders, did she know what was happening? Was he the only one naive enough to think that her being there was a coincidence? It didn't matter. Big Jerry got what he paid for. Scheme worked like gangbusters.

"He's hated me ever since he was a kid." Big Jerry mumbled as he poured himself a drink. "I'm a decent father! My father used to beat me. I don't beat him. I'm a decent father, right?" He questioned as he handed Mellie a glass.

Mellie nodded, taking the tumbler from him and nodding. "Yes, you are."

"Boys, you do…You do what's best for them, and they don't appreciate it. Yeah, sure, I slept around a bit. I like pretty girls. But his mother never knew. Before she died, she didn't know. And he holds it against me, Saint Fitz."

"Well, whatever it is you're fighting about now, I'm sure we can find a way to make it right. We have to, if we want to get this campaign to happen." Mellie told him, trying to hint that they needed to get along if Fitz ever wanted any chance at becoming governor.

"I'm gonna tell you something that fewer than 20 people in this world are aware of. Do you remember Global World flight 5-2-2?"

Mellie nodded. "Of course. What a tragedy."

"Yeah, Fitz shot it down." Jerry told her simply as he took a sip of his drink.

"I…Flight 5-2-2?"

Big Jerry nodded. "Mm-hmm."

"Fitz was in the Gulf." Mellie argued with him.

"No, he wasn't. We had rock-solid intel. There was a…a dirty bomb on board, and he was off the coast of Iceland. He got his orders, and he shot it down."

"There were hundreds of people on that plane."

"Did they all die?" Jerry asked rhetorically. "Yeah, they did. But, hell, they would have died anyway, if that plane had reached its target. It could have taken out half of London. Could have started World War III."

Mellie was completely and utterly shocked. "They said there was a mechanical failure."

"Well, that was a little exercise in C.Y.A." Big Jerry chuckled as he sat down next to Mellie. "Cover your ass. You think the United States government could shoot down a commercial airline and just say, "Oh, sorry for the collateral damage. Sorry that we killed grandma twenty five minutes early"?" Mellie put her face in her hands as he spoke. "No, even if Hitler himself was on board, the lawsuits would have dragged out for centuries. And don't even get me started on the internationals." She stared in front of her, pinching her nose slightly and listening to what her father in law had to say. ""Mechanical failure", that's what you call it. And you know what it means, unless you're naive." He sighed. "You know, that boy's never been grateful one day in his life for what he's got, what he's been given. He's just too sensitive. He's got too many feelings. And that's why he will never win."

He looked at Mellie for a moment. "Good God, you're a beautiful woman." He whispered, and Mellie sighed.

"Jerry." Mellie warned him, watching as he placed his hand on her knee. "Okay, I don't think-"

"Oh, shh, shh, shh…" He whispered as she struggled to remove his hand, and he fought back to keep it there.

"Stop! Jerry, stop!" Mellie yelled as Jerry put his hands on her, and she fought to push him away from her.

He pulled her to him, her fists on his chest as he looked into her eyes. "Do you really want me to stop? Hmm? Hmm?"

Jerry smiled at her and leaned in toward her, kissing her neck, ignoring the gasps coming from his daughter-in-law's mouth. "No! Stop!" He pushed her down onto the couch, climbing on top of her. She pushed him away, managing to get him off of her, but only for a second. "Stop! Aah! Aah!" Big Jerry pushed her back down, wasting no time as one hand pulled her closer to him, and the other hand wandered down to forcefully pull her dress up. "No! No! No!" Mellie screamed as Jerry grunted, quickly trying to undo his belt. "Uhh! Uhh!"

Mellie whimpered, going completely blank as Jerry continued on. Her mouth dropped and she stared at the ceiling, waiting for it to be over, waiting for him to finish what he was doing. Fighting wasn't worth it. He wasn't going to stop.

Mellie walked into her and Fitz's bedroom, trying to be as quiet as possible as she set her shoes down next to the door. She just had to make it through the room and to the bathroom. She just had to do that so that she could take a shower and wash him off of her. "Mels? Where you been?"

Damnit. "Uh I was talking to my father on the phone…" She told him, her voice breaking slightly.

Fitz sat up and looked at her. "In Asheville?"

Mellie nodded, looking the other way. She refused to look at him. "Yeah, he was up late. He wanted to say "hey" to his baby girl."

"Well, come to bed."

"I really just want to take a shower first." Please let her take a shower. She wanted nothing more than to wash Fitz's father off of her.

"No, come here." Fitz told her, trying to get her to come lay next to him.

"No, I really need…" She argued.

"No, come here." He said, pulling her down onto the bed and into his arms as she walked over to him. He kissed her cheek and she just laid there, in shock. "We should just go home tomorrow. Screw the governor's mansion. Let's just…Go home." He couldn't see her face. She could make any facial expression she wanted, she just had to maintain her body language. She had to keep still so that he couldn't make out that anything was wrong. She could make any face, she could do anything with her face since he couldn't see it. But everything else, she had to keep in control.

"Yeah, let's do that." Mellie told him, keeping her response short so that her voice didn't break.

"Just once…Just once I wish my father would apologize and be on my side. Just once. If he did that…If he just admitted," She was trying so hard not to cry, to keep her breathing steady. It was difficult, but she was managing it. "I think I'd make a hell of a governor."

"Yeah, you would." Fitz smiled to himself and kissed her temple, not noticing how absolutely broken his wife truly was.

"A mother is standing on the sidewalk, choking. She's, uh, swallowed a penny accidentally, and it's lodged in her throat. A man in a suit comes by, gives her the Heimlich, and out pops the penny. Well, the the woman says, "Gosh darn, I can't thank you enough." And the guy in the suit said, "Oh, oh no, I'm not a doctor. I'm from the I.R.S.", and he snatched the penny and he ran off."

"Governor? Fitz, you all right?" Olivia asks as she walks up to Fitz, who looks extremely upset.

"My father had a heart attack and died 20 minutes ago." He says in the most monotone voice.

Olivia walked up to Fitz, who was standing in the back yard, chopping wood with an axe. "It was a very nice funeral." She says to break the ice. "I liked what you said about your father."

Fitz stayed focused on the wood. "It was a lie. The story about the dog he got me for my 10th birthday, I made it up. 'Cause you can't get up at your father's funeral and tell the story about how you sat outside his office door on your 10th birthday and listened to him bang his secretary." He grunted as he chopped another piece. "I'm not sad. I'm relieved. I'm free."

He's sitting in his office, writing something on a file that Cyrus had brought in a few hours before. He hears the door open, but doesn't look up. It takes a second before someone speaks. "Son." Fitz hears, but he's pretty sure he's dreaming. He knows that voice, he knows who's behind that voice. But there's no way that that man is in his office. That man is dead, he died 12 days before the election, before he was elected president. He had a heart attack and he died. There's no way in hell that that man is standing in his office. But when he looks up, he knows that he couldn't be more than wrong.

"Dad."