When Fitz and Olivia walked back into the apartment the next morning they found Huck and Michael still staring at the computers as if they'd never left. Claudia was dead to the world on the couch. Fitz and Olivia were still so wrapped in one another and the bliss from seeing the house together for the first time they barely noticed their family. Fitz walked into the kitchen to make coffee given the early hour and Olivia followed him with her arms barely able to wrap around his torso, refusing to let him out of her sight after their night together. While they waited for the coffee Olivia was perched on the counter with Fitz standing between her legs, they were whispering to each other as Fitz rubbed his hands up and down her thighs.
"You know people cook there right?" Claudia said walking into the kitchen grumpily when she realized the coffee wasn't ready yet. Olivia didn't bother to hop down, instead she wrapped her legs around Fitz's waist, prompting a low growl.
"You two are shameless." She continued as she saw the blissed out looks on their faces, she knew they must have enjoyed each other fully last night.
"Hey!" Olivia complained, Fitz laughed and looked at her,
"How's it feel to be on the receiving end of that one?" She squeezed him with her legs in return and ground herself into him, causing him to lose his balance and turn bright red.
"Evil." He muttered, escaping her grip to pour himself and Claudia coffee.
They spent the better part of the morning finishing getting everything packed, actually going to pick up the Jeep, and moving boxes in to the truck. They weren't really bring much with them, clothes, Olivia's books, but nothing they needed movers or a U-Haul for, mostly they were buying everything new and starting over.
Scarlett had laid claim on the room of her choosing and she and Olivia were planning on taking her to look at paint samples and decorations as soon as Cammie came to visit. For now the comforter and a few other things she picked out were going to be set up.
As the day went on Michael got more and more sullen. Every time he tried to make a plan or figure out their next step someone managed to interrupt him. Finally he gave him and decided it would be best to corner everyone after Scarlett went to bed, but he wasn't going to forget the real reason for them being there.
Finally the chance presented itself, Scarlett was sound asleep, everyone had managed a quick shower to cleanse themselves from the grime of the days work and were sitting around the table talking.
"Guys we really need to figure out a plan. We need to figure out who got in here and how. Huck has been looking over the street cams and can't find anything so we need to draw him out. We think he must be following you guys, obviously he knew how to get in and out and that you wouldn't notice the gun was missing. I think we should have Fitz and Olivia take off in his truck and a decoy Olivia take off in her car, than Claudia will trail one of you and I will trail the other, Huck will stay in the apartment in case they try to break in, Harrison I want you to stay at the house like you have been, make sure it hasn't been compromised."
"That's a fine plan accept who's going to be me? Abby may have joined the Gladiators, but she and I don't exactly look sisters, Claudia is way too tall, whoever it is would never fall for it." Everyone else exchanged a look, it was clear they knew something she didn't.
"You didn't…" Olivia asked, she was beyond angry, so far beyond her voice didn't raise.
"She had to come, there's no one at home to protect her." Huck told Olivia calmly, they all knew she would be angry, but there wasn't an easy alternative.
"Than why hide her from me? Why not bring her here, you left her in the hotel all day… no, you guys didn't bring her by because you know we are being watched, so this way they don't know that Cammie is here. No. I won't do it. You guys can risk her life. I won't."
"Livvie she knows what she's doing, she's not a little kid anymore." Fitz tried to reason with her, to her they were taking advantage of Cammie, but he knew better, able to think with a clear head.
"You.. You're not surprised, you knew!" Immediately all emotion left her face.
"Livvie…" She cut him off.
"No you don't get to call me that. I'm done. Do whatever you want, clearly I'm not allowed to be involved anyway, just let me know when you need me to fall in line." She left the table without looking back and headed to her room. Fitz followed her and tried to grab her, to apologize or talk sense into her he didn't know yet.
"No!" she hissed at him, still mindful that Scarlett was asleep down the hall. "Don't you dare touch me and act like you care about me, like you know me, if you did, you'd have told me, you'd never let them convince you this was a good idea. You've known about Scarlett less than a week, would you ever let her do something like this?" She didn't wait for him to respond before continuing. "No. I didn't think so, I've known that child all her life, all seventeen years. She's not an adult, she's a child, and I won't risk her, not for my own life." Exhausted she looked at him still with dead eyes, her mothers eyes he thought, "Just let me go."
"No." He meant it as a command but it came out pleading, "anything but that Livvie, please, you know what you mean to me."
"I don't, not right now." She told him as she slammed the door in his face.
When Olivia shut the door behind her Fitz was at a loss for what to do. The words you don't care about me rang in his head getting louder and louder with each passing second. He had to handle this. He had to fix this. His Livvie no longer looked or sounded like his Livvie anymore so he'd have to be the fixer. The first order of business was to make a plan he thought. A plan to fix his relationship, anything after that was secondary and more importantly Olivia needed to be a key player.
"We need you to do some investigating into where we can keep this guy once we get him Huck an abandoned building or something." Michael was listing the final elements of his plan as if nothing happened. Fitz got a glimpse of how Olivia felt and was sickened. This was his life. His and Olivia's and here they were at the table planning away without any interest in the people that actually were involved.
"I think you guys should go." Fitz spoke up, his voice neutral. Without looking up Michael answered him,
"She's just throwing a hissy fit, she will lock herself in her room, sulk, and listen to some punk music then be over it and on board by time we need her to get involved," he spoke almost callously shocking everyone at the table.
"Michael she's not a sixteen year old girl anymore that wants to run away from home. She's an adult, that wasn't a hissy fit, hat was, I don't know what that was but it felt like a part of her finally broke from all of this. She needs time." Fitz implored him.
"Unfortunately we don't have the luxury of time. What you all seem to be forgetting while you're running around buying houses and baby sitting so they can sneak off is that Olivia's life is in danger every day. We are all in danger every day. Olivia wants to forget her past and her upbringing, fine, great I'm sure we all wish we could forget growing up at the hand of Eli Pope, but forgetting that is going to get her killed. Olivia needs to jump on the train or it'll roll over her." Michael told Fitz with fire dancing in his eyes. He finally saw the mafia prince. Before he'd seen a big brother, a friend, but here it was. The child that had been reared in the image of Eli Pope.
"Michael were leaving now." Claudia finally spoke up, causing Michael to scoff at her.
"Man, you know Olivia if she isn't on board with the plan, there's usually a good reason, meaning it's a bad plan. We should give her a break. Come on let's get out of here for a while." Huck added and Michael gave him the same fire filled look he gave Fitz.
"Fine. I'll be at Abby's. Feel free to call me if someone gets shot." Before anyone could realize that he wasn't being glib he was out the door. Huck followed after him offering Fitz a nod, leaving him and Claudia at the table.
"God we are so foolish, and he's so damn pig headed!" Claudia said.
"We are, we love her, we want to protect her so we see Livvie or Olly and we forget that any time she walks into a room she's the smartest person in it. We all knew she wouldn't go along with the plan, but we went forward anyway knowing that Olivia's gut means more than anyone's knowledge or instinct. We are all very stupid to underestimate her, especially when we should all know better." Fitz said, his voice clearly reflecting how broken his felt in response to Olivia's brokenness. They truly were two parts of the same whole.
"I'm sorry we put you in the middle of this. I shouldn't have told you, than you'd be in there taking care of her and she wouldn't be alone." Claudia said as she ran a hand over her face.
"She's not alone. I will make sure she is never alone. She said I must not care about her to let this happen. But really the opposites true. I love her to my detriment. Knowing that she would never let someone else sacrifice their safety for her, I was willing to let you and Michael allow it because it would mean she's safe. Olivia is terrified of being selfish, of being your mother, but I'm selfish. We make each other selfish." He hung his head in shame.
"That's not true, you and Olivia are the least selfish people I know, you're human so do you have human faults, one of them being selfishness, obviously, but you guys love each other and will risk yourselves for each other and the people you love. Wanting to protect the people you love isn't selfish, it's brave."
"Liv doesn't see it that way. She sees it as me forgetting who she is."
"Go show her you know." Claudia told him giving his a final pat on the shoulder than getting up to embrace him before leaving the apartment.
He walked into the room after straightening up the kitchen and checking on Scarlett to find Olivia sitting up in bed with a book open on her lap. She was using a picture as a bookmark and was staring at that more than the words on the page. When he got closer he noticed it was a picture of him laughing in between her and Claudia who were both giving him kisses on either cheek with their eyes squeezed shut. They'd taken it at thanksgiving. Olivia loved it and had it made up the day after everyone left. There was another one in a frame ready to be placed on the mantel of the house.
"Liv?" He asked, figuring it was best to get an idea of where she was at in the Olivia Pope stages of anger. First the yelling, than the cold stares and her ignoring him, finally the sad eyes and lip quivers. He wasn't really sure where she was, but before he started talking he wanted to get an idea of how the night was going to go.
"What happened?" She said still staring at the picture as if she was searching it for the answer.
"I sent everyone home. They'll be back tomorrow, but for now it's just us." He told her slightly confused by her question.
"No I meant," she took a deep breath, "What happen to us. All of us. Harrison and Claudia... They broke up and she didn't even tell me. She told you though." She looked up waiting for him to correct her but he didn't. She nodded. "Abby and Michael." She shook her head, "Abby didn't have her gun with her today. Because she feels safe. She feels safe with a man who is becoming more and more like our father every day. She feels safe with a man who's the definition of a loose cannon. And I brought him into her life.
Huck. Huck isn't even standing up to Michael because he sees it too. That's why you went along with the plan. The only reason you thought it was okay was because you think Huck wouldn't jeopardize Cammie, but he will follow behind Michael like some deformed gladiator. And you and I..."
She finally looked away from the picture. "You were mine. My sanctuary away from all of this. You were my teammate outside of them and now you're keeping secrets and sharing confidences. It kills me that you and I aren't that kind of a team anymore, and I know I overreacted, but we used to be this single entity. Where you got me and I got you, but than everyone else got involved and somewhere along the way we lost that. I miss it. I wanted you to love my family and for them to love you. I just didn't think they would ever replace me as your best friend. And its selfish and gross… I just…"
Olivia finally stopped and pulled the covers away silently inviting him to sit with her in the bed.
"Olivia Pope you are my everything." She immediately scoffed at him.
"No not in the abstract you're everything way. In the way that you are everything to me. You're my best friend, my soul mate, my partner in crime, my lover, my teacher, you are all of these things and so much more. Claudia and I bond over you. Michael and I bond over you. Because we all love you. They're scared Livvie, you know that. They're far away and that life still manages to catch up to you. And Michael, is desperately trying to claw his way out to find a way for you to live your life and he's doing it the only way he knows how. Abby is instinctual and smart. If she feels safe with him there's a damn good reason. Huck, he's following Michael's lead because this isn't his game. He doesn't make the choices. He's a gladiator. He puts on his armor and he goes into battle, he doesn't chose his fights because he has you to do it for him. As far as Harrison and Claudia I noticed she was off because she wasn't picking on us and harassed her about it until she told me. You would have noticed if you weren't so busy trying to take care of Scarlett and me and everyone else. You can't be everything for everyone all the time. That's why we're a team. I can handle Claudia's relationship drama and you can make sure Scarlett eats more than fruit loops and captain crunch." His last sentence finally got a laugh out of Olivia and as she smiled she leaned into his chest automatically and he wrapped his arms around her without hesitation.
"You heard me talking to Claudia didn't you."
"Uhm no?" Olivia said trying to deflect. She had heard everything he said.
"Which is why I didn't get the typical Olivia Pope stages of rage?"
"Keep that up and it might come back to me."