A/N: So question, why are certain people upset about Shonda Rhimes "making Fitz into an asshole"? It's not like he was an individually existing person that she just came along and started controlling, manipulating and blackmailing to make him become an asshole. He is a fictional character that she conceived and he is what she wants him to be and therefore if you perceive him as an asshole, it's probably because he really is an asshole. This has always been Shonda's character, she didn't take this show and character over from someone else. Maybe it just means she's doing a really good job, since a lot of assholes are really good at hiding their assholishness until you are invested/tied up in them. The character of Fitz belongs to Shonda, the show Scandal belongs to her, therefore he is literally what she portrays him as. If in the finale he is revealed as a secret killer clown that used to be in the Ringling Brother's Circus, guess what, that means that's what he has always been whether you knew it or not. Accept it or write fanfiction and borrow the character and make him what you want him to be. I for one have a problem with combining the Olivia when she's with Fitz with the Olivia at any other time in my head as well. I just don't believe that one person could be that head strong and determined yet still fall for a trap that she knows isn't doing her not one bit of good. Do I complain that she is taking Olivia out of her character and making her look like a dumbass for still being affiliated with Fitz, No. Because even though I feel that way, I can never say that she is making Olivia into something that she is not because my mind did not give birth to that character, Shonda's did, and even though I can't seem to merge the two different Olivia's in my mind successfully I know that both of them are a part of the character that Shonda meant to portray and that in fictional land, head strong Olivia and foolhearted Olivia are one in the same. So again, if you perceive Fitz to be an asshole, that's because he is and if you don't like the way he is being written, that means you just need to come to terms with the fact that you don't like that character because whatever you don't like about the way he is being written is the essence of his little fictional self at his core.
"Hey Liv," Quinn said before immediately gasping. "Hey Baby." She immediately began moving to take the child from Olivia's arms as Adeline began smiling and kicking at seeing the grinning woman.
She hadn't really wanted to bring Adeline to the office with her, she really hadn't, but she had had no other choice. She had needed to come in and she had made the mistake of thinking that Jake would not be working during the day. The other option was to leave the baby with her next door neighbor for a few hours but the woman was out. Jake had offered to take her with him but she had declined, especially after he had updated her on the project he had been working on, freeing himself from B6-13 permanently. She had asked him how exactly he had planned on going about doing it and he had told her about the group of agents retired and still active that shared the same wishes as him. She had asked him what about their plan to take down B6-13, he had told her to let him know when they came up with something. He as well as his friends would be glad to help.
So Adeline was now at the office with her. She would lock the front office door behind her, just in case there was any surprise clients today, they would have to knock. That was the best she could do to shield her baby from her hazardous work environment for the time being. She left Adeline with Huck and went back down to her car to get the pack and play and travel crib as well as some other things she had brought in with her to keep the child entertained and not crying.
She had been there about an hour and half when she heard the first knock of the day. She had assumed it was Quinn since she had stepped out to go follow up a lead. Her pacing slowed considerably when she saw that the figure standing on the other side of the door was actually taller than the person she expected and that it was definitely a man. She could also see some other figures looming near-by. Her brows furrowed for a second before realization hit her. She took in a deep breath, preparing herself before opening the door.
He just stood there, looking at her. She rolled her eyes and looked off to the side before turning back to him.
"I thought you would let me know when you were back," he spoke.
"I'm not back," she told him. Well she was back part time.
He lifted his eyebrow, "It sure seems like you're back."
"Is there something I can help you with?" she asked him.
"Why have you been avoiding me?" he asked.
"I've been busy," she said a little offended. What did he think that she just sat around waiting for her Fitz signal to go off alerting her to the fact that he wanted to see and or hear from her. She had just had a baby a few months ago, her life had changed drastically. She had more than enough to worry about without adding to her plate actively trying to avoid him.
"Liv," she heard Huck's voice from behind her. She turned to look at her employee who was holding her daughter with two hands and away from his body as if she was going to explode at any minute. She then noticed the not so happy look on the child's face. "I think something's wrong with her."
She let out a sigh. She really needed to get Huck comfortable around younger kids, ones that couldn't play video games or talk. She knew from the time that the baby was probably hungry. She turned back to Fitz but saw that he had already made his way into her office, his eyes transfixed on her daughter who had just started to wail. She let out a frustrated sigh and walked back into the office space, taking the baby from Huck as she passed him. She didn't need to turn around to know that Fitz was following her. She stopped in their kitchen space to grab one of the bottles she had placed there when she had first gotten in this morning before going into her office.
Upon examining the baby further she realized that her diaper was soggy and decided to take care of that first before feeding her since the child had decided to hold off on her crying for the time being, probably because someone was actually holding her like a baby and not like she was a pile of barbed wire. She pulled the padded changing blanket from the bag and placed it on her coffee table before kneeling down in front of it and lying Adeline on top of it.
He watched her quietly as she went about changing the baby's diaper, methodically, as if she wasn't a first time mom. That was probably because you changed enough diapers during the first couple of months as a parent to the point where you could do it in your sleep, and sometimes, on some of the tougher nights, you did do it while you were technically asleep. He studied that baby a little longer. She looked like Olivia, but he could also pick out bits and pieces of the man he used to consider a friend at some point. He decided he should speak before his mind ran too far with that thought.
"Well," he started as he walked over to lean against her desk, still watching as she finished up the diaper change, "I never thought that I'd see this." He smiled, hoping for a positive interaction with her since he hadn't had one in a while.
"What do you want?" She asked him, not really in the mood for beating around the bush. She still had a lot of catching up to do and the fact that Adeline was going to be demanding her attention at unpredictable times during the day, she wasn't sure how much she was going to get done.
"Can't I just come to visit you?" he asked her.
"You can," she told him as she stood and picked up the baby, discarding the diaper in the waste bin. "It's just that you usually want something when you come by here or when you send Cyrus by, or when anyone from the white house really shows up on the door step of my office. So, what do you want?"
"I just wanted to see you," he told her. "Is that so hard to believe."
"Fitz," she tried, but he began talking again.
"Can I hold her?," he said just as she was about to pop the bottle in the baby's mouth.
"Uhm," she said before laughing nervously. She was going to come up with a reason why she didn't want him to hold her but before she could say anything, she felt her daughter being lifted out of her arms as the man took a seat beside her. Her hands momentarily followed the trajectory of her child, but caught herself from snatching her away from him.
"Um, be careful," she said as she fidgeted a little still fighting with herself to pull the baby away from him.
"Aww, I know how to handle a baby," he said smiling down at the baby as he took the bottle from her hands. "I've got kids of my own you know."
"Hmm," she returned, not really paying attention to him. She had never experienced this before, this was a first time feeling as a parent. Sure the only people that had been near the child other than her parents where her close friends she had known for years, but she still had never felt this strong a need to protect her baby, not even at the hospital. Well, maybe when she saw her father had magically appeared in her hospital room, but that was to be expected. She understood that. What she did not understand was why she was having these feelings with Fitz. This had been the man that she had actually planned on raising kids with, and even after she had found out about Adeline she had still not completely nixed the idea of having a life with him, but how was she supposed to do that when she was this nervous about him being around her baby.
"What's her name?" he asked, smiling down at the baby.
"Adeline," she told him, as she too smiled at the baby who wrapped her little hand around the finger she was offering her, continuing to suck at the bottle.
"That's a beautiful name," he said. "Little Adeline Pope."
"Ballard," she quickly corrected. He just looked at her with a look on his face, as if he was surprised and offended that he had made that correction in front of him. But she stood firm. "Her last name is Ballard." She confirmed, just in case he hadn't heard her before. She was not about to let anyone try to make her daughter into what they wanted her to be and she was not about to start the habit of teaching her to hide herself from people in order to please them. She had made the decision to place Adeline on her father's last name, and she didn't regret that. Her daughter's name was Adeline Ryan Ballard, and that's who she was. She wanted her to own and love herself, down to every last gene on every last chromosome.
He saw the resolution in her eyes, and immediately knew that this was one of those fights that he had better not challenge her own. Not just yet anyways.
"Okay, Little Adeline Ballard," he said before looking back to the baby. "You don't know how painful it was for me to say that kiddo," he finished before placing a kiss on the baby's forehead. "She's beautiful Liv."
Her response was only to fidget uncomfortably. He had been right. She had been somewhat avoiding him, and one of those reasons, she was coming to realize, was because she was not sure she was ready to introduce him into her daughter's life. The baby was none the wiser, but Olivia could feel that she herself was in downright Mommy panic mode. She felt like she was having a panic attack, but she didn't want to freak out because she didn't want to have to explain these feelings to Fitz. It didn't help that she looked up at that moment and saw Huck looking into her office with crazy eyes directed at the man holding her baby, he shared a look with her before continuing towards the front of the office. She knew what he was thinking, and that would be all she needed at that moment. Maybe that was the reason why she was so anxious, it had to be. She knew if Jake walked in, it would be a lot more to deal with. Not that he wouldn't have expected this, but they had had a somewhat open talk about this. She had promised him that she would not shut him out when it came to their daughter and how her own relationship with Fitz affected her. She had promised to let him know before she allowed Adeline anywhere near the man, but what she hadn't figured out was how she was going to go about doing that. She figured she had time, but apparently she had been wrong.
She continued to watch the man talk at her daughter who looked up at him as she continued to feed on the bottle he was giving her. The baby was fine for the time being, so she decided to try to calm herself a little. She had just run her hand through her hair and exhaled deeply when she heard a knock on the door. She looked up to see Huck standing there.
He opened the door and stuck his head in. "There's someone hear asking for you."
Her first thought was Jake, which caused her to panic a little but then she realized Huck wouldn't be announcing Jake. She felt some relief at the realization and as she saw the ridiculously hansom well-dressed man she had never seen before rounding the corner. She stood up, immediately going into business mode, believing him to be a client.
"Hello," he said as his pearly whites disappeared behind his teeth again. "I'm sorry," he said obviously believing he was interrupting something. He looked slightly confused for a while, maybe believing he was in the wrong place. "I was given this address by a friend," he said with a slight accent, eyeing the president of the United States holding the baby.
Whoever he was, he didn't seem to be too excited by seeing the POTUS there. "Well who is your friend and what do you need?" she asked him.
He smiled again. "You must be Olivia," he said extending his hand. "It is a pleasure to meet you." She shook his hand hesitantly and gave him a curious look. "I'm sorry, please forgive me. I haven't introduced myself. I'm Alexander Costa." The name still didn't seem to ring a bell with her. "Anna's friend."
"Oh," Olivia said finally catching on, "you're Him."
It was his turned to look confused but he smiled anyway, "I suppose so. I was supposed to meet her here. Is she around."
Olivia's eyes widened as she opened her mouth to speak after hearing the man's comment.
"You good?" it was Huck again. His boss seemed to have her hands full and he didn't want to walk away until he was sure she was okay.
Adeline took the opportunity to coo at this moment causing all of the adults to turn their attention towards her. Olivia saw that she had finished the bottle and was still wide awake, and from the way she was looking up into Fitz's face she was sure the little girl was ready for play time, and that meant she wasn't going to lay quietly in her bassinet while there were people in the room that should be paying attention to her.
"Actually," Olivia stated as she walked over to Fitz, seeing the opportunity to finally quell her anxiety without having to explain herself. She seized the baby from Fitz's arms and carried her over to Huck before handing her to him.
"What do you want me to do with her?" he asked her, looking like she had just told him that he was going to have to spend the rest of the day in a field of pastel flowers hiding Easter eggs dressed as the Easter bunny.
"I just need you to hold her for a few minutes while I straighten this out," she told him, still holding her baby midair as he had made no effort to take her.
"Liv, I don't know anything about taking care of babies," he told her.
The pretentious smile she had been wearing to make everyone in the room believe that she had had everything under control disappeared. Recently the job description of working in her office slash being her friend hand changed, and she needed Huck to get on board, quickly. And where the hell was Quinn? She at least still had some of her normal human interaction side still intact. "Sure you do," she told him. "Because you have a son, remember? You bought him here a little while back, I know because I was so shocked when I found him here."
"Yeah but you said," he tried to counter.
"Huck, take her," she told him, looking the man in the eye. "If you need anything, I'm right across the hall. I just need a few minutes."
He nodded before taking the baby from his bosses arms, and trying to pretend that he was holding Javi when he was a baby. Olivia watched as the baby rested her little chin on Huck's shoulder, smiling back at her as she caught a glimpse of her mother as she was carried out of the office. Okay, now that she had Adeline tucked away for the time being. It was time to get Fitz out of her office and back to the white house, break Alexander's heart, and then call Anna and let her have it for not telling this man that she was leaving and then sending him her way for her to deal with the consequences.
She turned around to see Alexander and Fitz shaking hands. "Hello Mr. President," Alexander stated. "It's nice to meet you. I've been meaning to make it to some of your events but I'm more of a hands on, in the trenches kinda guy. My partner is usually the one that handles all of that bureaucratic crap," the man said before catching himself. "Sorry, I guess I shouldn't have phrased it that way."
Olivia smile to herself, yeah, this was Anna's friend. Thankfully he seemed to be a little more apologetic about the way his lack of restraint may have come off to other people.
"Is there anything else I can help you with Mr. President," Olivia said walking back over to the two men. Fitz knew that the formality was his queue to exit unless he had some serious urgent business for her.
"No," he told her putting his hands in his pockets. "That'll be all for now Ms. Pope. But I would like you to stop by the white house if you get a chance later. There is some business I would like your advice on."
"I will be by later," she smiled at him. He nodded at her and Alexander before walking towards the door, brushing his hand against hers lightly as he passed her. The smile disappeared from her face as she hoped the other man in the room hadn't seen the gesture.
"Sorry to stop by unannounced. I know you're busy," the man started, calling her attention back to him, "but I was under the impression that Anna would be here."
Right, she still had to deal with that.
Thankfully, Alexander, or Alex as he had told her to call him, completely understood, being well aware of Anna and her issues and having suffered them on multiple occasions. She had apologized profusely on behalf of the woman, but he had told her not to worry and he knew it wasn't her fault. She still felt bad, so she decided to treat him to lunch, during which she talked and got to know him a little better and he actually seemed like a pretty nice guy. She had even let him hold Adeline, and she hadn't felt a bit anxious about it. A fact which she tried profusely to put out of her head. Ultimately she had ended up changing contact information with the man and they had said that they would hang out again since he would be in D.C. for a few weeks. She had even given him the keys to Anna's apartment, telling him to make himself at home and save himself the money on the hotel room. A fact which Anna would freak out about later, but whatever. She deserved it for pulling that stunt.
After lunch she had finally thought that she would be able to get some work done, but nope, there was a client there waiting on her. Thankfully, Quinn had decided to show up, so she was on in-office babysitting duties. But then Quinn and Huck had needed to get started on some research for their new case and she needed to go to the white house, so she picked up the phone to call Jake and thankfully he hadn't been in the middle of something dangerous so she was currently on her way to meet him at the address he had given her.
She stopped in front of the building, double checking the address. She looked inside and it looked like a gym. She walked in with the wrap carrier wrapped around her and Adeline safely secured against her chest, softly stroking the baby's head as she used her hand to give her a little support. She liked the wrap, especially since it was cold out. She felt like it helped her to keep the baby warmer. And clearly Adeline liked it too as she had taken the opportunity to fall asleep on their short walk over.
"May I help you," one of the men said walking over to her after seeing how she was looking around the gym. She seemed to be loss. She looked loss in her expensive coat, shoes, and expensive baby wrapper thing.
"I'm looking for Jake Ballard," she told him. "I'm supposed to be meeting him here." She finally looked at the man, giving up on her search for Jake for the time being.
"Yeah, he's in the back. Let me go get him," the man said as he walked off towards the back of the gym. She continued to look around, which seemed to be a boxing gym. It seemed like a really nice gym, but she wasn't sure she wanted to leave her kid there. Maybe she would just forgo her trip to the white house or see if Abby was able to keep Adeline. Damn it. She really needed to hire a sitter now that it seemed she was back at work full time.
Soon she saw Jake coming from the back of the gym with the guy that had gone to the back to get him and two women, one a sandy blonde and the other one a golden blonde. They all seemed to be discussing something amusing, the golden blonde pushing her body into his slightly causing both the men to laugh at whatever she had just said. He waved when he spotted her and a tight smile graced her lips. She was definitely not leaving her baby here if he wasn't going to be paying attention to her.
"Hey, what's up?" he asked seemingly a little winded as if the man had just interrupted a work out session. He sat his bag on the counter and began digging through it, pulling a royal blue baby sling from it. Olivia had tried to convince him to just share the wrap to which he had given her a look before replying, "No." And when she had tried to persuade him to get the lilac sling instead of royal blue one, he had accused her of being sexist and playing into gender roles, to which she had laughed knowing that the only reason he didn't want to share the sling was because it was too feminine.
"Hey," she said finally taking her eyes away from the hands-y blonde woman and looking up at him. "Are you sure this is okay? If you're preoccupied I don't want you to be distracted."
"Are you crazy?" he said helping her to lift Adeline from the wrap, and completely missing what she was referring to "she is the distraction. Look at this face."
She smiled as he immediately slipped into Daddy mode, kissing the baby's cheek causing her little hands to swat at the nuisance that was disturbing her sleep. And as if on queue. Sandy blonde came over to them.
"Oh my gosh," she said. "Is this your baby? Can I hold her?" Before either one of them could answer, the girl was taking Adeline from his arms.
Olivia's eyebrow's furrowed, and he didn't miss the way she shifted uncomfortably, seemingly readying herself to give the woman a talking to. Probably about how you shouldn't go around snatching people's babies who you didn't even know. But they were good people. They were his friends. He had met Danny back when he first joined the Navy and Sloan was his sister. They had both recently moved to DC. Danny to open his gym and Sloan just because she needed a change of scenery and her brother provided free boarding for the time being.
"Oh my god she is adorable," she said cuddling the baby to her chest and looking at Olivia. She must have read the unamused look on the woman's face as she quickly apologized.
"Oh, I'm sorry," she said. "Hi, I'm Sloan."
Olivia only nodded. But she still sensed the tension. The woman looked between them sensing she had done something wrong. She knew Jake, but clearly this was this little girl's mother and she too would feel some type of way if some crazy lady came up and started fawning over her baby the way she was.
"Is this okay?" she asked Jake.
"Uh, yeah," he said looking at Olivia, letting her know it was fine. "Sloan, this is Olivia. The mother of this adorable little girl you just abducted," he said lightening the mood a little.
She laughed and hit him in the chest with one hand holding on to Adeline with the other, "Shut up." She told him before rubbing Adeline's back with the hand she had just used to hit him with, "I'm so sorry," she apologized again. "I feel like an idiot. I feel like I should give her back." She handed the baby back to Jake. "I'm going to leave now, because you probably don't like me."
"No, it's fine," Olivia told her. "Well, now that I actually know your name." She didn't want it to be mistaken that she didn't like the way the woman had taken hold of her baby, but she was willing to be forgiving since she actually realized her mistake and seemed to be genuinely sorry about it.
The woman laughed again. "Well I'm going to leave, now that I've made an fool of myself. It was nice meeting you."
"You too," Olivia said as the woman hurried out of the front of the gym.
"Are you sure, you're okay watching her here," Olivia asked again, looking around at the busy gym.
"Naw," he replied as he began strapping Adeline into the sling. "I was just about to leave. You gonna be home late?" He asked grabbing his bag after making sure the baby was secured in the carrier.
"Hopefully not," she told him as they began walking out of the gym. "I just need to stop by the white house."
"You grabbing dinner on the way home or am I making it?" he asked her, he had made a vow to himself to make an effort to not react to her dealings with the white house.
"Oh, you're making it," she laughed. She had been pleasantly surprised to find out that he was actually a good cook, but she should have seen that coming as much as he tortured her about having food or not having food for that matter, in her apartment. Which she had done a better job with during her pregnancy and after, when realizing she couldn't survive on popcorn and wine alone while breastfeeding and after realizing that everyone around her could actually prepare a decent meal except for her. Even Huck, what the hell was that. Anna had tried to teach her somethings before she left, saying that she felt sorry for Adeline once she started eating solid foods being that her diet would consist of popcorn, burgers and fries, and watered down wine. She had rolled her eyes at the woman, but gladly accepted her help being that Adeline would actually one day start eating human food and she actually wanted to be able to provide a healthy and nutritious diet for her child when that time came. Not to mention she had actually gotten used to eating real solid food from all of the food groups. But for now, she was going to milk Jake's skills in the kitchen for what it was worth since his was currently better than hers.
A/N: Hopefully I can work an Abby/Charles chapter in here soon. I don't know if I wanted to do it as a flashback though or as a present thing or a combination, so I just have to figure that out. Anyways, read, review, let me know if their is something you guys wanna see happen in this story.