Hey guys, thank you to those who wished my a happy birthday last week, I had a great day with friends and family.
Fitz sat on the sofa in the Oval, he was trying to read over a bill they were hoping to get on to the floor of the senate, the optimal word being 'trying'. But all though his best efforts, his thoughts kept being on his wife, which was strange because it was very rare that his mind even wandered over to that part of his life.
It was only after his fifth attempt at reading the same page that he realised that he had to do something to change that. Putting the stack of papers down, he left his office and made his way down the hall to the First Lady's office. Fitz didn't bother checking in with her secretary on whether she was in there, had visitors, was busy, or not. He didn't care.
Fitz opened the door, read the room and saw it was just his wife sitting behind her desk on her tablet. "Sign the papers," he said not bothering with pleasantries. "Now."
"N-no," she stuttered, not expecting to see her husband.
"It's been over a week, your time and everything I'm offering you is running out. You sign the papers now, or I start to control the narrative. I leak the news of the divorce, and that pity party you were planning the networks to throw you goes away. Now I've won all the elections I want to, public perception isn't the top of my priorities. And I think you can guess what my top priority is," Fitz demanded, standing strong like he always should have.
"You leak the divorce, I'll leak Olivia," Mellie countered, if there was one thing she knew about this whole ordeal was that Olivia did not want the pregnancy leaked, and Fitz would do anything to appease Liv.
"You could do that," Fitz said taking a seat on the couch. "You'd be doing me a favour, really. But you already know we can refute it, and you calling us out with no evidence would look weak on your part," he said not caring if what he was saying was the truth or not. Staying quiet wasn't the necessity it was a few weeks ago. And now he relished for it all to be out in the open, even though he knew they were all safer keeping it hidden.
"Now what would Olivia say about that? I'm actually surprised she's not in here with you. The two of you are always tag-teaming these moments," she said in disgust.
"I think she would agree that getting your signature on those papers is the most important thing," he replied and leaned forward. "Now, this is where I would usually ask what you want. But frankly I'm sick of waiting for that answer. So this is my offer. If you sign right now, I'll give you the Santa Barbra ranch, a substantial settlement and first choice of holidays with the kids, and on top of that we let you sign off of the story we feed to the news," he continued trying to find anything enticing to feed her.
"And if I don't sign?" Mellie asked.
"We've already gone over that," Fitz replied sitting back and smirked knowing he had backed her into a corner.
…
Olivia's phone rang as she sat in the sofa with Abby, seeing the words 'White House' jump up and down on her screen. "I need to take this," she said and Abby nodded and left her boss be. "Hi," she answered.
"You'll never guess what I'm holding in my hands right now," Fitz said passing on a greeting.
"What?" Liv asked not bothering to guess, knowing that coming up with the correct answer could take all day.
"Divorce papers. Signed by both parties," Fitz replied as if it wasn't a huge deal.
"What?" Liv said again because she mostly couldn't believe she heard him correctly. "She signed?" she questioned in disbelief, her eyes almost coming out at the sockets. "When? How?"
"It was something you said last night," Fitz began.
"Something I said?" Liv queried, for what she remembered aside for the discussion about the crib she didn't say all that much, especially something that would be enough to convince Mellie on finally putting a pen to those papers.
"That she was my wife," he stated, though he wasn't sure that would remind her, she was falling asleep when she did. "Which means she's my problem, I should be the one to handle it, and I shouldn't be looking to you for solutions. Which I am sorry for," Fitz apologised.
"It's okay. We're a team," she replied not sure why he felt the need to apologise, he hadn't done anything wrong. "So, how did you do it?"
"Went to her, told her she had taken too long, and what we were offering her had passed its expiry date. Gave her a new one time deal. It's not important the how. It's important on what we do now, moving forward," he explained.
"First we need to work out how we will release the news of the divorce, and what the circumstances are pertaining to the separation. Then slowly we are seen more publicly, until the inauguration where before the end of January we come out publically. Obviously more details and planning are needed. But once we see how the public perceives the divorce we can really start to plan," Liv said thinking through what needed to happen before the baby came.
"Do you want to come to the White House so we can work out what to do and when to do it?" Fitz asked knowing she not only had the best strategic mind of anyone he knew, but because she was also the person he trusted most in the world.
Olivia looked to her wrist for the time. "I have a meeting in about a half an hour, so I'll come by after that," she answered.
"I'll see you then," Fitz said, today had turned into a much better day than he was expecting. Not only did he get to wake up at Olivia's, and get Mellie to sign the papers, but now he got to see Liv again and finally discuss what has been years in the making. The publicity of his broken marriage.
"Fitz," Liv said before he could disconnect. "I'm really proud of you."
I'm back to uni this week and one of my classes is a creative writing class (where I'll have to use my own characters and such) so I dont know how much time I'll have for ffn, so I might miss a weekend update here or there when it comes to having assignments due. Hope i dont miss too many, but just in case i do, I'm super sorry.
I do hope you enjoyed.
Please Review :D