"Fitzgerald, it's good to finally catch up with you. If it was up to me, we'd have met up much sooner to-"
"It is up to you Dad."
His father frowned and hesitated from his work, eyeing his son and sending him warnings with his glare.
Fitz rubbed the back of his neck as he sat down on the Oval couches, admitting defeat.
"But I know you're busy."
"Comes with the job son." Gerry threw his pen aside and stood, walking over and sitting across from his son. Even in the low evening lighting he could notice the greying of his father's hair and the wrinkles that seemed to winds and spread under his eyes. The title was a heavy load to bear and it terrified him that maybe one day his son could be noticing the same indents in his own face as he brushed him aside over his work and his women. He smiled as he tried to push the thoughts out of his mind. His mother had always told him that he would be his own man, in small moments he could hear her voice like a heartbeat that carried him through storms.
Fitz nodded and sat back, hands in his lap as he waited for his father to get to the point.
"How are your grades?" He began, Fitz was tempted to scoff but he knew the limits of this man in front of him, all politics and no heart. If he wasn't careful the library would be snatched away from under him and he'd never get to see her again. Their banter rolled around in his head like a record, as did the sound of her laugh and the memory of her sly smile. She was incredible and brilliant, she was rays of sunlight peaking through his cloudy life and he always found his lips spreading into a grin when he saw her.
"They're fine." He kept his voice even and the President raised an eyebrow.
"Fine?"
"Top of my class, look, is there anything you wanted?" It frankly didn't matter to him that his father now had the time, because he didn't. He couldn't care less. He knew where he fell on the list of priorities and it felt unfair and misleading. He didn't want hope from him. Hope was for the future, for summer holidays and libraries and Olivia. His father didn't qualify for hope.
"Fitzgerald, that's no way to speak to your father."
"I apologise Mr. President, Sir. Please continue." He had to swallow the taste of bitterness that drowned his mouth but it was worth it for his privileges, he could last a few more minutes as the price of his saviour.
Gerry nodded, as a military man it was crucial that his family fall in line and it was time Fitz knew that. He would obey and if it took a few visits to a seemingly pointless building to prove that he held the upper hand, then that was fine, for now.
"You know you are crucial to my image, we have to stand united for the American people as a figurehead for families across the nation." Fitz nodded, a sinking feeling in his stomach as his father continued, "We've had focus groups hone in on my family values contribution and it seems like all that standing in the background you're doing isn't cutting it."
Fitz held his tongue and gritted his teeth. His father never understood empathy, he was born cold and hardened to emotions. Nobody could deny it got things done, the man was unstoppable, it was just at the cost of his family. Even when his wife died he cut the ties quickly and spun his grief into elevated poll numbers and photo ops, something Fitz would never forgive him for.
"And your solution is?"
"Well, I was thinking I'd start sending you to school."
His jaw dropped, his eyes wide, "Are you serious?"
"I know we've had you under the thumb of the best tutors in the country but I'm thinking we'll start this on a trial basis and if it goes well then next month we'll set up a special with Kimberly Mitchell, they'll have a crew follow you round for a week, talk to your friends, show what life is like day to day. The whole point is to showcase our normality as a family, that we are 'men of the people' so to speak. It'll ensure my image as the loving father."
Fitz held back a roll of his eyes and instead focused on the flipping in his stomach, he knew now was the moment to act, but he knew he had to hold in everything in order to win.
He seemed to let the idea swim around in his head for long enough to seem as if it disagreed with his morals. He titled his head from side to side and grimaced.
"I don't know, Dad."
Gerry sighed, "Your not making this easy son."
He appeared to stumble over and idea as and he hesitated again for a moment, it was all about disguising the hook and Gerry couldn't know that he had now floated the possibility of hope in front of him.
"If I agree, there'll be conditions."
"Go on." The President could bargain well, he knew that at the end of the day it was about making ends meet and he would give his son some fluff if it kept him in office.
"I get an extra afternoon at the library each week."
"You'll get another hour but that's it. And if it effects your grades, consider the privilege wiped."
"Fine. And, I get to pick the school."
"Absolutely not."
"Sir-"
"Fitz, if you had your way you'd be slumming it at some state school in the middle of nowhere. We have highly trained professionals who will source out the best places to achieve our ideal image."
"But all that is pointless if I don't actually go."
The President sat back and scoffed, "I taught you well, I'll give you that."
"How about a compromise? You give me a list of local D.C schools and I'll pick from there."
"Alright. Jesus, maybe there is some politician in you after all."
"I hope not." He mumbled under his breath as he left the room.
XxXxXx
It was a lazy afternoon. The kind where the sun peaked through the blinds and cast stunning patterns along the floor. He remembered when he was little and his mother would lay beside him in the haze of Summer and tell him about her childhood on her father's ranch. He missed her, yet he knew she was always with him, he would often close his eyes to see her smile and hear her beautiful fully rounded laugh. She walked beside him with every step.
He walked along the shelves, down the long hallway until he saw her, hunched and crouched near the of the isle, face buried in a book.
He smiled, it was strange how she felt so familiar to him and how he somehow knew that this was her routine, that on any number of days when he wasn't expected, he could find her curled up just as she was.
"Hi"
She turned and smiled slyly, closing her book and extending herself our so her legs stretched in front of her, she gestured to the space next to her, "Care to join me?"
He sat swiftly and their closeness soon became apparent, before he could say anything he found himself looking to her lap where the book rested, eyeing the hardback.
"Bit taboo, isn't it? How old are you again?" He remarked, slightly comically as his eyes again brushed over a weathered copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover.
"Old enough to understand the nature of Lawrence's writing. Maybe it's just a bit too hot for you?" She raised her eyebrow at him and he shrugged.
"I was born in California, I like it hot." He hadn't meant it to sound as it did and for a moment he considered instantly retracting his words but he noticed how her eyes seemed to trace and touch his lips as if she wanted their connection with her own. But the moment was broken before it began and she pulled away slightly and smiled, returning her eyes to the novel.
"So I take it you've read this then?"
"I passed it off as educational reading to my tutors but I don't think they'd bothered to actually read it, I was 14 and it blew my mind, I'd never thought about sex in the ways he describes."
"You were 14, you weren't supposed to!" She laughed and he joined her for a moment.
"So what do you think of him?"
She looked to the ceiling as she formulated her opinions, "He's like Dickens but without the pessimism. He's a bit like Wilde without the humour in the ways he discusses society, calling it 'ridiculous' but it's more of an observation than a judgement."
"Your a Lit major?" He joked and again their laughed ran through the halls.
"I didn't expect to see you today." She said shyly, as if the statement also contained the joy she felt at his presence.
"Did you miss me?" He said, more seriously than he should have and it took him a moment to build up his courage to lookout he for an answer, terrified he'd see uncertainty. Instead he found affection and warmth as she nodded and again began staring at her book.
"I don't have many friends."
"Me neither."
And it suddenly became very apparent to them how alone they were in this building, having the typical crowd gone for the day and without the intrusion of anyone, it was their bubble of friendship and it hadn't existed anywhere else, he was nervous it wouldn't survive.
"What school do you go to?" He blurted out and she titled her head to the side in questioning.
"Surely you have armies of researches, waiting to hand you any information you want?"
"Yes, but I'd like to be normal with you and ask like a normal friend from a normal world."
She shook her head with a smug grin on her face, "Nope, I'm going to make you work for it."
He grinned too and sighed mockingly, "Maybe its just not worth it…"
She stood and looked down at him, "Oh I guarantee you, it will be."
She spoke the words with hints of her feelings, in that beautiful hopeful and small way she always did when she was with him, never confirming anything but always there testing the waters.
His smile turned to one of bewitchment as he gazed into her eyes, he had no idea what he'd done to deserve her in his life but he thanked whatever it was everyday and he would wait and work as long as he had to if that's what it took to gain her trust.
"Then I'd better get started."
And they both blushed slightly at his words before she turned and hurried off, leaving him a small giddy school boy, planning his next move.
A/N: Let me know your thoughts and feelings! Thanks again for all the beautiful comments and supports in all its forms. Where do Olitz go from here? How will school effect their relationship? We'll see all that next chapter! Whose perspective next? I really liked Fitz, I think I might switch between both next time but let me know what you think! Lots of love and support for all you guys! xx Sam