A/N: Alright, this Scandal hiatus is driving me insane. I'm starting to feel sorry for people I shouldn't feel sorry for. Like Tom. So there are a few songs out right now that reminds me of Olake, one being Cheerleader and the other being Mama by David Guetta and Nicki, especially the part when she's like "So baby when you need that, give me the word I'm no good, I'll be bad for my baby. Make sure that he's getting his share, make sure that his baby take care." Every time I hear that part I think about her having Tom shanked and I'm like she didn't have to snatch Tom up like that, lmao. She could've thought of another way to get Jake out of jail. Then I start laughing even harder. I liked Tom and I still do like him, but he wasn't as real as I thought he would be when crunch time came. He tried to sell Jake up the river so Liv had his ass shanked

Also a scandal related discussion I had with two friends, one not a Jalivia fan the other one is.I will be paraphrasing.

Non Jalivia friend: Like, I don't understand why ya'll like him Fitz came first. How could you not like Olivia with Fitz?

Me: Cause he kinda ain't shit.

Non Jalivia friend: But I mean he is still better than Jake. Fitz is just better over all.

Jalivia Friend: Let me put it this way. Would you rather bring the dude to the family gathering that's gonna yell out "yeah that's why I screwed her real good" if a family member starts questioning if he's good enough for you or would you rather bring the dude that's gonna be like, "but I love her. Com'on ya'll that has to count for something."

She got quiet then gonna look at me. I just did the Foxy head tilt. Then we went to get ice cream. Lol. I think we are slowly turning her team Jalivia. She know Fitz ain't shit, it just some people can't accept that they are wrong and that they've been duped when it comes to their opinion of a person. But that's okay, go down with that ship cause I plan on going down with mine.

Enjoy the next chapter.

He sighed as he stepped off of the elevator still rubbing his eyes. He really shouldn't have stayed out so late the night before, but he had. He had actually ended up having a little fun hanging out with his friends from the gym. It actually hadn't turned out to be one big mopefest, mostly because his friends didn't let him mope for too long. They were all half way drunk by the time he showed up so their sense of personal space and respecting his privacy and his wishes to not have too much fun were a little inhibited. He hadn't drank as much as them though, but he was still tired from staying out so late. Hopefully his daughter would go down for an early nap.

His hopes were slashed when Olivia opened the door holding the little girl. She saw him and a smile came to her face as she immediately starting kicking her feet and moving her arms around. He was tired but he couldn't help the smile that came to his face as he reached for the child to take her from her mother who was clearly in the middle of trying to get herself together to leave the house.

"Hi," Olivia greeted him.

"Hi," he greeted back bouncing the baby up and down in his arms. "Where's her things?" He instantly hated the way that rolled off of his tongue. It sounded like he was being short with her and wanted to get away from her, but it was just awkward. He honestly didn't know what he was supposed to say. 'How was your night?'

She gave him a once over, letting him know it did sound as dry as he thought it had, before replying quietly that she still had to finish getting her things together. She walked back into her apartment and he followed. "I thought you were going to stay here with her," she told him, trying to see if she could tease out of him if he planned on staying at her apartment anytime soon.

"Naw we'll go back to my place," he told her as he wiped the drool from the baby's mouth with the bib she had on. "You wanna hang out at Daddy's place?" The baby only smiled as she reached for his face.

Olivia looked on in silence clutching the stuffed rabbit in her hand. She wanted to say something, but saying something would mean that she would have to go through the discussion of her and Fitz and that was never an easy discussion to have especially with Jake. He looked up and caught her staring at him to which she responded by turning around and placing the stuffed animal into the bag that was on the couch, along with some other things she thought would be needed.

She finished packing the bag and picked it up. She turned around and lifted her arm towards him. He took a step forward and took it with his free hand. She then went to get the little coat and hat to put on the baby for the short trip to his apartment that she wanted to burn down though she had never even been there before.

"You want the stroller?" she asked him.

"No, I can carry her," he replied.

She finished buttoning up the coat and took a step back from him. "You want me to pick her up from your place or you gonna bring her back here?"

"I can bring her back. Just give me a call when you get home," he said.

"Jake," she said, growing tired of beating around the bush, "you do know that you can stay here?"

He gave her a sad smile. "Yeah, Liv. But I think I'm just going to stay at my place for a while."

"Why?" she asked growing angry. She wanted him there, she was letting him know that she wanted him there as best she could at the moment, and he was still declining.

He shrugged, trying to be calm but not too nonchalant about it. He must have failed because when he said, "I just think it would be better that way?"

She folded her arms and took a defensive stance, "Well I don't think that it is. I think you're being ridiculous."

He just stared at her for a moment. "How am I being ridiculous? Because when I come home at the end of the day I actually like to be able to come in side, sit on my couch, watch television and have a few beers without being harassed by some idiots in a suits because someone with boundary issues decided that they wanted to occupy a space that I usually call my own. No thanks, I like having a little bit more control over my life than that."

"That's not," she started but realized that was almost exactly what had happened. So she changed her tactics, "You could've called," she told him, "to let me know you were back. I would have told him to leave."

He gave her a look that said he either didn't believe her or that she actually had the ability to make him leave, which she took offense to both. "So you're going to leave just like that?"

"I'm not leaving," he told her. "I'm a block away."

"But you're not here," she told him.

"That's because," he was the first one to notice that they were starting raise their voices so he decided to reign it back in. "Look Olivia, clearly you need some time, some space to figure this out."

"Oh, so now you're going to tell me what's best for me?" she questioned him.

"No, that's not what I'm…," he stopped himself and redirected again. "I'm moving back into my apartment. I will be at you're beck and call wherever Adeline is concerned, but we can't keep doing this. I can't keep doing this. If you want to sit around waiting for someone who isn't available I can't stop you from doing that, and I do love you, but it's unfair of you to ask me to go through what you've gone through. If you cared about me even a little bit, you wouldn't want me to."

She could feel the tears in her eyes, and she was developing a painful lump in her throat remembering all the nights she had cried and worried herself to sleep over Fitz and their inability to be together. Lying in her bed alone while she pictured him warm and cuddled up next to Mellie. She also had not missed the subtle jab that people who cared about other people wouldn't ask them to sacrifice what Fitz had and was currently asking her to sacrifice. She didn't want to lose Jake either, she wanted him there with her, and the thought that she could lose what they had had forever was almost suffocating her.

She was too much inside of her own head to prevent her next thought from being voiced out loud. "What happens if I decide I want to be with you?" She even surprised herself when she heard it out loud but none the less it was out there now, and she wanted answers. She looked up at him and saw that he was still looking at her. Adeline was looking back and forth between them with an unsure look on her face.

He looked down at the floor, contemplating her words before looking back up at her. "I guess we'll see where we are if that happens. Hopefully we're both in a place where we're ready for each other," he finished sadly.

He wasn't going to lie to her. He wasn't going to go hop in bed with the first thing he saw but he also wasn't going to sit around waiting for her, because honestly he thought he would die waiting. He deserved to be happy too, but even more so his daughter deserved to have a happy father that was content with his life so he could focus on providing her with everything that she needed. He wouldn't lie to himself either, he wasn't in the place he would like to have been for Addie and neither for Olivia. Sure he could make it work but since it wasn't currently working, he would focus on getting where he wanted and needed to be in his life for his daughter. And if by some miracle Olivia found a way to break free of the life sucker that was Fitzgerald Grant III and decided that she wanted to be with him he would hope that he would be in a better place for it, but if in the meantime he met someone, he wouldn't push her away either.

He turned quietly and exited the apartment, leaving her standing there alone.

"See you Thursday Olivia," Erin said as she walked away from the storage area of the building. "Bye sweetie," she said smiling as she passed a finger in Adeline's little palm.

"Bye," Olivia smiled at her as she walked away.

She had just finished a Mommy and Me class with Adeline, but had to do a quick diaper change before heading out. She had initially joined the class after finding a brochure for the place at her pediatrician's office. She wasn't really interested at first but after reading and seeing that it was good for a babies social, mental development as well as every other development one would be able to think of, she decided it would be a good idea. Definitely better than only having her little girl come into contact with the people at the white house or the people that showed up in her office

She finished putting Adeline's little sweater on her and walked towards the counter to pay for the next month. She tried to go at least twice a week. She would have liked to go more but work got in the way and she often had to delay things to make the classes she did make.

"I'd like to pay for the month of April," she told the girl behind the counter, trying to keep a firm hold on the little girl and simultaneously dig through her bag for her wallet.

She was actually happy that she had joined the class. She found it a lot more useful than she thought it would for both her and Adeline. Not only did Adeline get to interact with other babies her age but there were also specific classes catered towards her age group that concentrated on everything from physical to mental development. And it was fun to see the different things that her baby was quickly learning to do, like when she first surprised herself by rolling over from her tummy onto her back. She had been trying to get to a toy she wanted and ended up scaring herself when she flipped all the way around and ended up looking at the ceiling, her eyes wide for a second before she realized she was okay. Now that was common. The little girl could roll both ways and the movement specialist even said that she would start scooting soon, which she didn't think she was ready for as she partially relied on her daughter's lack of physical ability to keep her out of harm's way. She found new ways to play with her baby, and actually felt like she was being a proactive mother and maximizing the tools at her disposal to better her baby's future. She had also met a few people she actually liked. People like whom she hadn't associated with in a while. People who were just living their lives with no life changing scandal threatening to destroy them at any moment or who were trying to prevent one of these scandals from destroying someone's life.

"That'll be one hundred dollars even," the girl said as Olivia opened her wallet to retrieve her credit card. Before she could find it the woman spoke again. "Ms. Pope?"

She looked up and was met by a familiar face. "Lauren?" The woman smiled letting her know she was correct and actually surprised that the woman had remembered her. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm getting my masters in child development," she said with a genuine smile on her face. She seemed happy, Olivia wasn't used to seeing her without a tense, stressed look on her face.

"I thought you were a political science major?" Olivia questioned as she adjusted Adeline on her hip.

"Yeah, I have a Ph.D in poly sci, but I double majored back in undergrad. I know, two completely different fields, but my initial plan was to get a foot in the door politically, become a senator or something and a huge advocate for education, child development and impoverished children. I'm a lot more competent and involved than anyone at the white house gave me credit for," she joked with a smile.

Olivia was still a little confused. She seemed so happy and bubbly. "What are you doing working here?"

"Well it turns out I was wrong about working at the white house as a stepping stone. I hated working there. I was miserable. So I decided to take a different route. I needed to internship somewhere to earn credits for my masters," she finished deciding to cut her story short.

"Hmm," Olivia said processing it all. She handed her card to the woman as she continued to stare at her. She knew Lauren, and she knew Lauren knew a lot of things. Now she also knew that Lauren enjoyed working with children. The idea slowly started coming together in her head.

The woman handed her back her card. "Hey cutie," she said to Adeline who was just staring at her. "You know I heard you were having a baby a while back, but I didn't believe it, but oh my gosh, she's so adorable." She rubbed her index finger in a gentle motion against Adeline's shoulder earning a toothless grin from the child.

"How much do you get paid here Lauren?" Olivia asked causing the woman to withdraw her hand from the child and a similar stressed look to come to her face as when she was working at the white house.

Olivia instantly caught herself. She knew she was going to have to sell this as the woman had insinuated that she currently wanted nothing to do with the white house or anyone she had met while working there. She wanted to hire Lauren to be Adeline's nanny. She was perfect for the job. She was interested in working with children, educated in child development, and Olivia already knew enough about her to start trusting her enough to leave Adeline alone with her. Not to mention she had worked a few years behind the walls of the white house and knew a lot of explosive stuff, and as far as Olivia knew, she had kept her mouth shut. Just the type of characteristic she was looking for in a nanny she would allow to hang around OPA.

"Excuse me?" Lauren asked, hearing the Olivia Pope voice turn on.

"I'm sorry," she instantly apologized. She smiled, and switched her tone and tactics. "I'm looking for a nanny for my daughter. I was just asking you how much you get paid so I could make sure the pay would be worth it."

"Miss Pope, not to be rude or anything, but I really don't think that," the woman tried.

"Look Lauren, you're back in school. I personally know how costly that can be. I also know how much I spend to attend the classes here and you can't be getting paid that much for working here. Is it even a paid internship?" she asked, but didn't allow her time to answer. "I also know how much money you were making at the white house, so I know that is a financial hit to go from there to here and then add on top of that the cost of school. I can only imagine. All I'm proposing is that I pay you more money than most students would even dream of to take care of an extremely adorable, sweet little girl and gain another accomplishment to add to your CV. You can even keep your job here."

She just looked at Lauren as she could tell when she was talking she had the woman interested. Lauren just continued to look back and forth between her and the baby. She couldn't decide if it was worth it to toss herself back into this chaos. She didn't know the paternity of Olivia's daughter, but she had a strong feeling about it.

"I don't know Ms. Pope," she said hesitantly. She wanted to take the job, she really wanted to. She knew the pay would be good, and God did she need it. Olivia also made a point about being able to add it to her CV. Hell she might even be able to gain some credit in school for it. "I'm not going to one day find myself in the middle of a news story about the white house and the affairs that go on there am I?" She was trying to be subtle, to not be offensive, but she needed to know what she was getting herself into.

Olivia squinted her eyes. Yes, she was a little offended, but she also knew that the woman had grounds on which to base her questioning. She had lied to herself many times about Lauren and other white house staff being oblivious to her affair with Fitz, but in the back of her mind she knew that the woman wasn't that dense.

She pulled out her phone and pulled up a picture of Jake and Adeline she had taken not too long ago. "This is my daughter's father," she said holding the phone up to the woman who looked at her for a second before turning her eyes to the screen. "See they have the same color eyes," she said in a snarky tone, trying to convince the woman that she wasn't lying to her but still being a little upset that the question had even come up, even if not directly. "So do you want the job or not," she said putting her phone down on the counter.

Lauren looked at Olivia before looking back at the baby who was quietly sucking on her pacifier. She did resemble the man in the picture some though she mostly like oped like her mother and there had been that story about her leaving the country for a while. She quickly did the math in her head. It could be possible that the woman was nowhere near the president when the child was conceived but she didn't know exactly how old the little girl was.

"Lauren, if I wanted someone to question the paternity of my child I would have gone to the media," she told her. "I can promise you this. If you are thrown into middle of a media whirlwind about anything to do with the white house, my daughter will not be the cause of it."

Lauren looked at the little girl one more time. "Okay," she said. "How much and what are the details?"

After she finished explaining everything to Lauren and promising her that they would work something out when she actually had to be in a class room or somewhere else where the baby couldn't be, which the girl assured her was rare given her topic of study, the woman accepted the job.

She then put the little hood on Adeline's head and proceeded to walk out of the building. She had only made it a few feet before she was stopped dead in her tracks. She could feel her heart rate and her breathing speed up.

"What do you want?" she asked him. The man only smiled at her. A smile which she had learned to hate because it never meant anything good for her. The smile scared the hell out of her, it was akin to Freddy Krueger waving his blade enhanced hand at her.

He gave her a look of disbelief and feigned surprise at her would be rudeness if it were anyone else. "I can't stop by to see my daughter and my granddaughter."

Olivia adjusted Adeline bringing her closer to her and turning her away from her father. "You were stalking me," she told him, "again."

"Noo," he said as if he wasn't a threat. "I just wanted to see you," he said as he reached his hand out to touch the baby.

She instinctively backed away from him and kept her eyes trained on him, looking for the first sign of heightened danger. Eli, not wanting to cause a scene in public, backed off. He just looked at her with a forced smile. "Why don't we go somewhere and have dinner?" he said. "That way we can catch up and I can spend time with my beautiful granddaughter."

He reached out his hand again, aiming for the baby. This time she knocked it away causing the smile to finally disappear from his face.

"I don't' think so, Dad," she said sarcastically. "You said that you were out of my life," she reminded him. "What happened?"

He just stared at her before taking a few steps closer and replying through clinched teeth, "Just know whatever it is that you are planning isn't going to go the way you think it will. You are going to get a whole lot of people killed Olivia, trying to play these games with me. I have told you to stay out of this. This is your last warning."

She looked him in the eye trying to appear unmoved by his words, but the truth was she was terrified. She didn't think that her father would physically harm her. He never had, even when she was a child. He had refused to spank her. When she was a little girl she had thought it was because that he had loved her so much he couldn't fathom striking his little girl, but she now knew it was because he would rather screw with her mind and cause more pain and anxiety than any spanking could. He took pride in it. And the thing that scared her most was not the fact that her father would physically harm her but that he would have her little girl taken away and she would go insane searching for her only to never see her again. But she was also angry. She was tired of him trying to control her life and the thought that he would one day try to do it to her child made her even angrier.

After he was finished sneering at her, he walked away without another word. She stood there for a few moments trying to calm herself down. She grabbed her phone and went to her contacts before picking a number and pressing the call button. She put the phone up to her ear and let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding when she finally heard his voice come over the speaker.

"Are you home?" she asked him.

"Yeah, why?" he asked.

"I was thinking Adeline and I could drop by there for a little bit instead of you coming over to my place."

She had made arrangements with Jake for him to stop by to see Adeline since he hadn't seen her all day, but she didn't want to head straight back to her apartment since her father had spooked her. She could steel feel her nerves on end, like she had woke from a horrible dream and couldn't shake the feeling that the danger was still there hidden somewhere in the dark.

"Uhh, yeah, sure," he replied. "Com'on over."

"Heey," Jake said throwing his hands in the air after opening the door. She figured the exaggerated hello was more for that baby who was now grinning at him and waving her little arm up and down than her. Not that they weren't on good terms. They were actually good. It had been a month since he moved out and though it had taken her a while to get used to the idea, she was starting to accept it.

She smiled as she allowed him to take the baby from her arms. She followed him into the living room and sat her bags down in the arm chair, taking off her coat and throwing it over the back of the chair.

"What have you been up to all day?" she asked him as she headed for the kitchen. He followed her.

He shrugged. "Not much," he told her. "What about you? You and David still trying to put that case together against your dad?"

"I don't know," she said going through the wines in his wine holder, trying to remain nonchalant at the mention of her father "you gonna testify?'

"If I think you put together a good case," he joked with her as he took a seat at the bar.

"You got the good stuff this time," she said as she turned around holding up one of the bottles, and wanting to deflect their conversation away from her father. She had come over to feel safe, not to stress out even more. "Glad to finally see you're catching on."

"How could I not?" he said. "I was stuck on an island for two months with an insane person who kept cancelling my beer orders just so she could force me to drink her choice of wine."

She laughed but didn't admit to it as she went through his drawers searching for the wine opener. They continued with their small talk and joking until Adeline was in need of a diaper change, to which Jake told her that she brought the funk in with her on purpose so it was her diaper to change. She asked him for wipes when she saw she had no more in her bag and he directed her towards the nursery.

He was about to follow her, just because he was happy to have her in his apartment for the second time ever since she seemed to be refusing to come there which was why he was surprised when she had called, but his phone chimed.

He picked it up and looked at it and saw that it was a message from Danny. He also saw that he had a missed text from Parker, a friend of his. She had texted to say that she was on her way over to drop off the jacket he had loaned her when they went out the other night. He was about to text her back telling her that he would get it later, but before he could he got a text saying that she was on her way up to his apartment. His initial reaction for the first second was to panic, but then he realized he had nothing to panic about. Although Olivia could be a little territorial even if it wasn't her territory. Bottom line the woman was a little demanding which was something he loved about her but also something they got into it about every now and then.

Soon there was a knock on the door. He sighed as he sat the phone down and walked over to the door. He opened it to reveal the smiling blond in her nurse's uniform.

"Hey," she said enthusiastically.

"Hey Parker," he said leaning down to hug her. "Com'on in." He could have just taken the jacket and closed the door on her but seeing as how the woman was still clutching the jacket to her and hadn't handed it to him yet, let him know that she expected to be invited inside.

Parker was a really nice person and they had met and Daniel's gym. She was a pediatric nurse, extremely nice and charming, a good sense of humor and he would be lying if he said he wasn't attracted to both her personality and physicality. He didn't have feelings for her, but he did enjoy spending time with her.

"Here's your coat," she said. "Sorry I meant to bring it back a few days ago, but I've been working late."

He was about to tell her that it was okay and that he had company, but before he could say anything, he heard Olivia coming towards them.

"How did you get this?" she said holding up an infant's dress she thought she had misplaced. "I've been looking all…," she stopped short when she saw the blond woman that she remembered seeing flirting with him at the gym a few months ago. What she didn't understand was why she was there.

A/N: Another note. I saw this lil boy get snatched up by his momma on the train and I couldn't help but to laugh because he was just so happy one second before and it brought me back to my childhood. You ever try to brace yourself against your mama and comply with her demand to come to her at the same time lmmfao. She pointed at him then made the come here gesture with that same finger. He had this look on his face like, he was confused. He knew what was about to happen in general but he didn't know how it was coming. So he scooting closer to her I guess trying not to give her too much access to himself, and he got his hand on his chest trying to brace for whatever about to come. So she grabs his shirt and he grab his shirt too and the whole time he looking her in the eyes like this heffa crazy, I don't know what she about to do to me, let me try to read her incase she snap forreal this time. LOL.

I know 2 back to back chapters. Now I have to go write like 17 chapters for my other story since Its getting more reviews and I feel bad about not updating for a while. Reviews welcomed and appreciated.