Her mother opened the door. It was uncharacteristic; normally she would be in her study avoiding making contact with anyone. Olivia normally spent her energy trying to see the differences between herself in her mother, but after everything that happened she looked at the similarities everyone else saw. She saw her own eyes, sadder, or dimmer slightly off from her own but still they were nearly identical. They had the same full lips. Olivia always hated them until Fitz told her how enamored he is by them. If she was being honest they had the same determined walk as well. Her mother looked between Fitz and Olivia. He was leaning in towards her protectively. She took a deep breath.
"Olivia you shouldn't have brought him here. Your father won't be happy." Olivia immediately lost the warmth she felt looking at her mother and was reminded of her indifference.
"I need to talk to him. Besides you've never really cared what's pissed him off in the past." Fitz was a bit shocked by Olivia's tone. It was cutting. Icy.
"I'm trying to protect you both Olivia!" She said in a hushed whisper.
"The only people it need protection from are in this house. Not Fitz."
"I know that Olivia. That's why he shouldn't be here." Her mother shook her head at her child's thick headedness. It was her own trait and she despised seeing it in her eldest and youngest children. Maya knew her husband was ruthless. He would kill this boy if he thought it would serve his purpose. He nearly had already. She hadn't spent more than an hour in the company and Olivia and Fitz but she could see that this man loved her child and she knew Olivia was irrevocably irreparable in love with him. It was clear in the looks they exchanged. It was more than loving glances it was a conversation between partners. He stood to protect her but with pushing her behind him and making her small. She briefly hoped she would get to see more of their relationship but she knew she needed to keep her distance from her children to keep them safe from the monster that was her husband.
She had once admired his calculating brain and ambitious nature. When he was a grunt it was appealing and it made her fall in love with him. She knew it wasn't like what her child had found and she was grateful. What she had found had quickly evolved into a constant bargain and exchange. As soon as Eli gained power he turned into a monster she couldn't love anymore. Fitz would keep Olivia from becoming the monster that her father was. His love would ground her and keep her steady without making her weak.
The opposite had been true of Maya and Eli. His love made her soar but he made her feel weak like she needing protecting not because he loved her and wanted to keep her safe but because she couldn't do it herself. There was a huge difference between the two. One was out of love the other was control. Eli may have total control of her and her children but it wouldn't last much longer. Olivia would never now down to him. She won't give up her life and make her mother's mistakes. Her oldest children will take over the business but they have very little of their father in them. After a long pause where Olivia could tell her mother's mind was racing she finally stepped aside and let them in. They followed her into the foyer and she stopped.
"Olivia I'm just going to remind you what my mother always said. Always hold the ace for last. And I'll add my own little piece of wisdom don't give that man more information than he needs." Olivia was stunned into silence but she absorbed everything her mother had said. She nodded at her mother indicating she heard and listened to what she had to say. "He's in his office. Please come see me before you leave." With that she walked into the hallway towards her study leaving Olivia stunned and Fitz concerned.
She gave Fitz a look then headed off to her fathers office. She knocked and entered with Fitz following closely behind her. She stood in front of her father's desk waiting for him to look up.
"I'm surprised you're here. I figured you would have taken that boy and gone back to Providence to enjoy your last few months there." He didn't bother looking up as he spoke but Olivia could see his face. Just as she noticed a change in her mother's appearance the same occurred with her father. His glare was predatory not protective. His eyes were cold but crazed. He scared her a bit, but she wouldn't let it stop her.
"That's why I came here." He looked up. "I need to know why. Why let me leave in such a dramatic way only to force my hand to get me to come back. Why risk my life? To be able to do what I need to do I have to understand."
"I will not explain myself to you Olivia. You are my child. I made you therefore you answer to me. Not the other way around. You will come home. You will not ask questions. You will leave him behind and you will do as I say."
"What makes you think I will do that? Leave the life I made. Leave Fitz?"
"Because I'm not giving you a choice. This little aberration," he gestured to Fitz, "will end the same way it began."
"You know nothing about my relationship with Fitz. I love him." Fitz beamed with pride as she spoke to her father. Olivia knew that her father wouldn't care if she loved Fitz or not but his assumptions about them made her crazy. Her father got a crazy grin, he looked at Fitz and saw a smug arrogant man that hadn't worked for a damn thing in his life and if infuriated him.
"She doesn't love you. She loves what you represent. You are a door-marked exit. Because as long as she's with you she doesn't have to be the formidable Olivia Pope. I made her. I know everything and I'm right about this." It was Fitz turn to laugh at him. Any amount of respect he had for her father was gone along with the pretense of it. "She is the formidable beautiful strong and brilliant Olivia pope. My presence doesn't change that. So you're wrong with or without me she won't come back. Having her in my life is just a bonus." Her father's expression didn't change.
"You're both fools then. I expected better of you Olivia." She looked at her and she knew she was being dismissed. She didn't bother trying to get in the last word, she simply looked at Fitz and he knew it was time for them to go. It was time to talk to her mother.
Olivia managed to get out of the office and into the hallway before her lip started quivering and her eyes swelled. She walked down the hall and faced the wall forehead leaning into it. Fitz was so used to his strong brave Livvy it was devastating that this kept happening the longer they were here.
"Livvy look at me." She imperceptibly shook her head no. His voice got commanding, "Look at me!" She took a deep breath and turned around, but she didn't meet his eyes. For the first time in her life she was scared to death. Her whole world had been completely turned on its axis. With a new perspective on her father she was questioning every interaction with him and by extension her mother. How could her instincts been so off. Her gut, her damned gut that she always put so much faith in it, but it was worthless now.
"Do not let him get into your head Livvy. You know who you are, you know what we are to each other, and so do it." Neither of them saw her mother around the corner, but she spoke up when she got closer.
"He's right, Liv, don't ever question who you are. Not for him, not for anyone." Olivia stood in shock. She had Fitz arms wrapped around her and her mother of all people was trying to reassure her. She had barely had time to figure out what happened in the last two days, and every time she wrapped her head around one thing another came and made her feel like she was falling to tread water.
"Olivia will you come talk to me? Both of you if you want Liv." It was the first time in years her mother had called her Liv. Both her parents had said that we were to go by our given names, which made them take even greater joy in giving each other nicknames.
"Are you asking or summoning?" She shook her head exhausted at her relationship with her children.
"I am asking." Olivia gave her a nod of approval and she and Fitz followed Maya into her office on the other side of the house. Fitz had a somewhat optimistic look on his face, but Olivia refused to get her hopes up. Her parents wouldn't disappoint her anymore. She wouldn't allow it. They brought her into this world and provided for her, but giving them any more credit than that would be a lie. She tried for a half smile at Fitz, but it looked like more of a grimace. He linked their fingers together, but just barely as they crossed into her mother's study.