Fitz, with his hands in his pocket, walking through the White House hallway all gloomy and sad, saw Abby entering her office, and got confused. He was aware Abby was with Olivia but the procedure couldn't be over so soon. He thought maybe Abby had something important to do and would be going back to support Olivia. He tried to walk passed Abby's office, but his curiosity got the best of him. He went in and asked the interns to leave.
"Abby, I thought you were with Olivia?" Fitz asked calmly.
"Yes Sir, I was." Abby answered.
Fitz was waiting for Abby to give him something more than 'I was.' Abby also was waiting for Fitz to ask her what he was dying to ask. They were both silent, staring at each other. Abby was somehow happy with the level of uneasiness Fitz seemed to be going through, since most of the time, she was the one who was always unease when they were together.
"Abby!" Fitz called out, waiting for more information.
"Mr. President." Abby answered, still not giving him the information he desperately needed.
Fitz, with his stomach in knot, thinking the worst could have happened 'but Abby seemed fine' he thought. He tried a direct question. "Is Olivia OK? Is the procedure she was doing over already? How is she doing?" Wanting a better respond from Abby but scared not to get any bad news, he waited patiently for Abby's reply.
"She's doing fine, Sir." Abby answered but didn't go further whether Olivia went through with the procedure or not.
Fitz sensed he wouldn't get much from Abby. He was about to leave Abby's office when Abby said, "She didn't go through with it Sir."
Fitz didn't get Abby, well he did, but he wasn't sure whether he heard her correctly "What did you say?" Fitz turned around to face her.
"Olivia didn't go through with the procedure." Abby answered boldly, feeling all supreme to be the bearer of good news.
Fitz was shock. "She didn't? Oh my God, thank you God" Fitz nearly broke down in tears in front of Abby. "Are you serious?" He asked again to be sure he wasn't over reacting over nothing.
"Yes Sir. She didn't." Abby answered and smiled at him.
Fitz was about to reach out and hugged Abby, but thought it might be a little awkward for her. "Where is she? I want to see her." He then remembered the fight they had in which he blamed Olivia for Jerry's death, and asked Abby, "is she still mad at me?"
"Are you still mad at her, Sir?" Abby, feeling all bold asked, but added the Sir to be respectful.
"Well, I'm not, but I was, but not anymore. Did she tell you what I said to her? I said something I shouldn't have. Where is she right now?" Fitz was fill with so many emotion, happiness, fear and anxiety, all at the same time.
"I really don't know Sir, you'll have to call her to find out" Abby replied, not sure of the particular question she was answering, since Fitz asked too many in a row.
"Should I give her some time before I call?" Fitz asked Abby again. "I think I should give her some time before I call," he answered his own question. "Wait, is she gonna resent me for keeping the baby? Did you talk to her about this?" Fitz, somehow interrogating Abby.
Abby couldn't keep up with Fitz's questioning, she felt like they were in a racing match. "I don't know Sir, I'm sure she kept it because it's the right thing to do." Abby answered, hoping the questions would stop coming.
Oh no, but Fitz wasn't done with his questions just yet. "Where do we go from here?" He asked again, walking back and forth in Abby's office, talking about him and Olivia. Knowing the question wasn't for Abby, he gave his own suggestion, "I think she'll want to travel somewhere and come back after she has given birth, but what about her job?" He asked. He was going a little insane with too much excitement. "I really need to talk to her right now, where is she again?" Fitz asked again, searching for his phone in his pocket to call Olivia. He then remembered he threw it against the wall before Mellie walked in. "Mellie, Mellie, Mellie. Oh boy, this is not going to be good. Mellie promised to have a one on one chat with Kimberly Mitchell at 6:00 pm and I didn't stop her, thinking there was no point, but now Olivia didn't…." Fitz turned around to walk out of Abby's office to get his answer on Olivia's where about. But an intern came rushing in, and told Abby to put on the Television. When Abby did, Mellie was having an interview with Kimberly Mitchell and she was almost in tears. Fitz couldn't move. Abby asked the intern to get out.
"Senator Grant I know….." Kimberly Mitchell, trying to construct a sentence
Mellie cut her off. "No, I'm not a Grant anymore. I just signed my divorce papers today," Mellie said sadly.
"What prompt you to do so, when you were willing to work things out with the President?" Kimberly Mitchell asked.
Mellie took out her handkerchief and wiped out an invisible tears. "My little and only alive son Teddy, he walked in on his father and Olivia Pope yesterday, and his little heart couldn't take daddy kissing another woman. I had to explain to him that daddy and mommy are no longer together. I decided to just sign the papers in order not to confuse the little innocent child."
"Did you say Olivia Pope?" Kimberly Michelle asked Mellie.
"Yes Kimberly, Olivia Pope. I guess those rumors were true after all. My daughter Karen once told me she thinks something is going on with his father and Olivia but I didn't listen. My staffs has been telling me how Olivia has been flirting with my husband when I wasn't around, but I told them Olivia is a friend, she wouldn't do such a thing, and they were just overacting. I guess my husb…. ex-husband, the President fell for her eventually. I mean look at Olivia, which man can resist her. And I don't blame my husband, hell I'm straight but I can tell you I can fall for her too if put in my husband's position, oh sorry about that, I keep calling him husband. I guess the saying old habits die hard is true."
Fitz was watching the interview with anger boiling inside of him. "She's heartless, why should she lie about the kids or even bring them into this? To make the world hate Olivia I guess." Fitz said, adding, "she's blaming the affair solely on Olivia. This is not going to be good for Olivia. Where is Olivia? Abby."
"Sir, I'm sure Olivia can handle herself." Abby answered, very certain Olivia has something up her sleeves too.
"Senator Gran…. Eh Melody. Are you saying if Teddy didn't walk in on Olivia and your ex-husband the President, you would've been willing to make things work with him?" Kimberly Mitchell asked, being sympathetic to Mellie.
Mellie bowed down her head and was silent for some time, trying to bring forward some tears. She then carried her head up with tears filled eyes and looked at the camera "Yes Kimberly, yes. It's not easy to let 20 plus years of marriage go down in flames without much of a fight. I was suspicious a woman is involve in all this, but I didn't know it could be Olivia Pope."
"How long do you think the affair has been going on?"
"I'm sure is just recently. Although I think the flirting has been going on for some time now." Mellie replied.
As Mellie's interview ended, Abby and Fitz were brainstorming on how to deal with the press when another intern walked in and told them Olivia was in another channel with Diane Sawyer. When they changed the channel, Fitz could see Olivia looked a little scared, though trying to suppress it. He could always tell when she was nervous. Abby and Fitz didn't really know what to expect from Olivia.
"She told you about this?" Fitz to Abby.
"Not really Sir, she just said something about how it was going to be a tough week for me." Abby replied.
"So, Olivia, we've just heard the ex-wife of the President side of the story. What do you have to say about this?" Diane Sawyer asked Olivia.
Olivia felt so good with Diane Sawyer referring to Mellie as the ex-wife of the President . He's really a free man now, Olivia thought. "First of all I'd like to tell the world, yes, I had an affair with the President…..
"Had? C'mon Olivia. This is the time to just come clean" Fitz shouted at the TV.
…..and the former First Lady was very aware of it. She's not just finding out right now, and no, Teddy didn't walked in on us yesterday or any other day because I haven't seen or spoken to the President for days now….
"I miss you so much Olivia, and I'm sorry for what I said to you about Jerry." Fitz said to the Television. Abby couldn't help but to smile.
…The affair started when I joined President Grant primary race. And I take full blame for the relationship because I knew his marriage was on rocky grounds. But I couldn't stop myself. I'm not going to sugarcoat anything here. I fell for him hard. I tried to fight the attraction from the beginning…
"We both did Olivia. We tried" Fitz said quietly with arm crossed, watching has his life takes a new turn.
… and I tried to walkaway back then when I realized I was attracted to him, but they needed me badly in order to win. The truth of the matter is, both Mellie and Governor Grant were miserable and hated each other with fierce passion, and still do. I tried to make their marriage work for the politic, but fell for him in the process instead,…
"We were meant to be Olivia." Fitz said out loud. Abby looked at him and smiled again.
…they didn't even want to be in the same room together back then, talk less of talking to each other. From all indications, they were just trying to tolerate each other before I joined the Grant campaign. And since they both wanted the White House at all cost. I told them they can't win if they don't look like couples in love. I promised them I will make the world believe in their love, which I did a terrific job by the way, because it got them the white house, twice. As you can remember at that time, every Journalist was talking about how dead their marriage looked and to tell you the truth, their marriage was completely dead. They didn't even lived together at the time, but because of photo ops which I arranged made it looked like they did. And it was during this process of working on their relationship that things got really serious between Governor Grant and myself. We both tried to stay away from each other, but circumstances beyond our control kept bringing us back together. When they got to the White House, I resigned as Press Secretary because I was trying to give him the chance to make his marriage work…
The memory of Fitz's state of mind after Olivia quit her job as Press Secretary resurfaced in his head. "You left me in the cold with just a letter, without even saying good bye Olivia. And I'm ashamed of what I did afterward" Fitz said and fought back tears.
Abby has never been given the privilege to the history of their relationship. She was learning a lot from Olivia's interview and Fitz side commentary, and she now felt bad for ever judging them. So this is how Amanda Tanner came into the picture, Abby thought.
….The audio sex tape of the President that came up during his first term which the first lady said she was the one on the tape and not Amanda Tanner, was actually me on it. The President and I were willing to take the blame for it, but the first lady refused saying she was going to be disgraced. And since as I didn't want to destroy the President legacy, I came up with a plan for them to get pregnant, so it could take the country's attention from the Billy Chambers' accusation."
"So, What about Jenny Locket? Were you and the President still together then? Did the President cheated on you his mistress too, with Jenny Locket? Because he did confessed of having a sexual relationship with her after the then First Lady aired on national television he has been cheating on her. Was your affair with the President still going on back then?" Diane Sawyer needed details.
"Jenny Locket didn't have any sexual relationship with the president. The President was getting serious with me. He started talking about a divorce. Mellie said she can't stop being first lady until his Presidency was spent. She went to national television to tell the world the President has been cheating on her because she wanted to beat the President to his divorce talk to the nation first, but she refused to name me as the mistress or sidepiece, or whatever name people prefer…
Fitz ran his hands through his face to the back of his head at this point "Olivia don't call yourself the sidepiece. I hate that word" Fitz said and sat down on a chair, "This is going to be hard on her career. I know I'm going to see what she was afraid of ever since." Fitz added sadly.
…Both the President and I were willing to go public with the relationship. But the then First lady and his former chief of staff Cyrus Bean didn't want that. So they choose to release a tape of Jenny crushing on the President and also a source at the white house, by the way Cyrus Bean was that source, confirming a relationship between the President and Jenny Locket, and thereby making it hard for us to come forward, because it would seem like the President unzip his pant for anything with a pause, which wouldn't be good for him."
Diane Sawyer thought, Caitlyn Jenner interview be dame, this is going to be the highlight of my career. So she wasn't leaving any stone unturned. "But what about the book Jenny Locket released, taking about the President…. forgive me to use the word to describe the President… 'banquette'?"
"Actually Mellie was the one who paid Jenny Locket to accept the relationship with the President in the first place. As you can remember I was actually working with Jenny to clear her name, but after she met with Mellie, she decided her life has already been ruined and it will be profitable for her to get something out of it anyways. She released the book because she wanted more money from the then First Lady and it was also campaign period, with opponents looking for loopholes."
"Let's continue with Melody" Diane Sawyer said. "She didn't really have any little love for her husband, like at all?"
Olivia thought this would be a good time to expose Mellie and Andrews' affair too. "Well, she once told me it was time for her to take her husband back, after the Amanda Tanner situation, I did my best to stay away from them so they could try and work things out. But after a while she started an affair too, with the then Vice President Andrew. It's funny she talked about Teddy walking in on us. Her daughter Karen….. Olivia paused.
Fitz got alerted with Olivia mentioning Karen's name. "Olivia, please don't." Fitz begged Olivia through the screen not to mention Karen walking in on Mellie and Andrew knowing it would be devastating for Karen.
… is very fun of me. She's a bright and intelligent girl, and none of the kids has ever walked in on us before" Olivia said instead, knowing it won't be nice to bring the kid into this.
Fitz smiled and said "Thank you," to Olivia through the screen.
"The First Lady had an affair with vice President Andrew?" Diane Sawyer asked, shocked, it was getting too juicy for her.
"Yes she did, but I won't go into details about it, any question about her affair should be reserved for her"
"Miss Pope, what do you want to achieve in all this?"
"I'm tired of living with this lie, and I'm not playing the victim here. I was very aware in what I was doing. But if Senator Melody want to tell lies about me. I can't seat quiet and fold my arms.
"Miss Pope, are you still in love with the President. Is the relationship with the president still going on like what Mellie said?"
Fitz and Abby were diligently waiting for Olivia's answer. They could see Olivia wasn't expecting that question, and she was now trying to think of something. Abby was whispering to herself "please say yes, please say yes." Fitz on the other hand turned away from the television, closed his eyes, saying within him "Olivia save us from this secrecy, please set us free to the world."
Olivia's eyes were filled with tears, she looked at Diane Sawyer and said. "Yes, I am still in love with him."
Cyrus who was also watching the interview too felt like he was having another heart attack. He threw the bottle of scotch he was holding against the wall.
Abby and Fitz shouted "YES" in union as if Olivia just did a touched down. But they later on noticed Olivia didn't answer if the relationship was still going on.
Diane Sawyer seemed to have read their mind and repeated the question to Olivia. "You didn't answer whether the relationship is still going on."
Olivia thought for a while whether she should make Abby and Fitz's job explaining the affair to the press easy, but decided to let them sweat it too. "Right now, I really don't know. It's somehow complicated to answer that." She said.
"C'mon Olivia." Abby and Fitz shouted in union.
"If that is complicated to answer, what about this one. Do you think the President was in love with you or still in love with you" Diane Sawyer asked.
"Of course." Fitz said out loud proudly and boldly which made Abby chuckled. Fitz was smiling from ear to ear waiting for Olivia's answer. He has no doubt Olivia was very aware how much he loved her.
"Honestly, right now, I have no idea if he does or ever did" Olivia answered.
"C'mon Olivia" Abby and Fitz shouted again. They both noticed they've been shouting 'C'mon Olivia' in union for some time now. They looked at each other and smiled at the realization.
"What do you mean you have no idea?" Diane asked.
"Had it been you asked me this question some time back, I would've jump up for joy or even climbed on this coach like Tom Cruise did on Oprah. But if I think about it deeply now, I'm not sure if he ever loved me or was just using me to fill the void his wife created," Olivia said.
Abby threw both hands up in frustration. "No, she won't make my job easy. The press is going to kill me with questions now."
Fitz smiled, saying "No, she won't make our job easy, else she wouldn't be Olivia Pope, but that's a smart move on her part. I should be the one to tell the world I love her, and not her saying she knows I love her. If she did, she'll take all the blame for the divorce" Fitz added. Abby shook her head, understanding how wise Olivia's respond was.
"What now Miss Pope?" Diane Sawyer asked.
"I know my life is forever altered with this confession. And I accept the backlash and the consequences this is going to cost me. But I'm happy to be living in my truth."
XXX
Fitz went quickly to the Oval office, searching for the signed divorce paper Mellie gave him which he scattered all over the place, but couldn't find it.
"Charlotte get in here" Fitz shouted.
"Yes, Sir?" Charlotte answered.
"Where are the papers that were scattered in here?"
"I don't know Sir."
"What do you mean you don't know? Are you kidding me?"
"Sir…Sir…."
"Sir…. Sir… what? Go and ask the security to release footage in here f...….
Ethan walked in with the papers "Sir, these are the papers."
"And why are you with it? Never mind, you guys should leave my office, now." Fitz shouted at them. He took the papers went through it and saw everything was OK. He smiled, saying, "Olivia, there's nothing stopping us now." He missed Olivia so much already, he couldn't wait to have her on his arms. The images of their last interaction came into his head. He saw Olivia's face crying and out of breathe when he accused her of Jerry's dead, and felt really bad about it. "I should've said I was sorry and not let you walked out like that, no matter how mad I was." He took a phone, dialing Olivia's number.
XXX
Olivia was in her office alone. She has asked the rest of her crew to go home, saying they shouldn't worry about her. She was very aware reporters were all over the place, and was just waiting for a better chance so she could leave. She got a call from Abby.
"I'm not sure if he ever loved me or was just using me to fill the void his wife created?" Abby repeated Olivia's words in a question. "Really? Must you make my job difficult? Why didn't you just say you guys are in love with each other and make things easy for once?" Abby asked.
"What will be the fun in that?" Olivia answered.
"He's dying to talk to you, answer his dame call Olivia."
"He said he's done chasing after me. So I don't know why he's calling me."
"So, you want to make him sweat it out a little eh?"
"Just a little, I'll call him soon. And why are you worried about him and not about me. I'm the one clients are calling to fired."
"What? Are you serious?"
"Yep."
"What are you going to do?"
"One day at a time. I have this little person inside of me, I take solace in this. By the way thanks for all your complaining and stuff. It all helped in my decision to keep it."
"So, if it's a girl, are you going to name her Abby?"
Olivia laughed and asked her to get off her line.
XXX
Charlie went to see Cyrus. "Chief you won't believe what I have for you."
"What?" Cyrus asked Charlie, not in the mood for guessing games.
"Olivia Pope is pregnant for the President. And guess what, the President was involved in an illegal business, I'm talking about impeachment kind of stuff and shit. Have you heard of fetus transplant?" Charlie said and gave Cyrus some files.
"Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. If you weren't straight and a criminal I would've kissed you."
"But chief, you're some kind of a criminal too." Charlie insinuated.
"True, but you're still straight."
"Roger that." Charlie said and left
XXX
Fitz has given up trying to reach Olivia. She was refusing to answer his calls. He said to himself, "when she is ready she'd get to me." He was deep in sleep when he got a familiar scent and a soft hand around him. He thought he was dreaming. When he turned around, he saw Olivia on his bed and was overwhelmed "Livvie, thank you. I'm so sorry blaming you for Jerry…." Olivia closed his mouth with her finger, "don't say anything. Just hold me please."
