A/N:

Chapter 24 ended with Olivia getting that letter in the mail following her anniversary party. Chapter 25 flashed back in time to 3 years earlier right after their rescue. This chapter continues exactly where 25 left off. At the time when I wrote ch 24, I was thinking of toying with the two timelines back and forth from one chapter to the next. But then, I realized that while this may be exciting at times, it could also lead to confusion as it takes away continuity in the story. In the long run, staying within the same timeline will make this fic easier to follow... not to mention easier to write (YAY!). As an added bonus, this will also allow me to keep this story going as long as y'all wanna keep on readin'.

This does not mean that I regret showing you that little sneak peek into the future. In fact, I do believe that the time jump in that chapter was the best thing I could have done ;)

Chapter 26

Later that day.

Olivia winced and cursed under her breath, as she parked Fitz's silver BMW at the nearest supermarket. She belatedly realized that she'd left the spare cell phone that Fitz had given her sitting on the long table by the front door.

She would just have to make this a quick trip.

At least she had had the presence of mind to tuck in the credit card Fitz had given in her in the front pocket of her jeans, otherwise she might have forgotten that too.

Before exiting the vehicle, she checked her reflection in the rear view mirror and froze. Even though her cheeks were naturally flushed giving her face rosy glow, she wished she had applied a bit of makeup or at least some lipstick. Moreover, she found herself second guessing her attire for the first time in months. The halter top she was wearing was far from a perfect fit and her jeans looked like they had seen better days.

She supposed that in a way she must be experiencing something akin to cultural shock. Back on the island, life had been so primitive, so focused on the basic necessities and survival. Needless to say, fashion had been the furthest thing from her mind. But now that she was back in the real world, she needed to get on with the program.

A thousand thoughts crossed her mind as she wandered the aisles. There were some calls she needed to make she realized, namely to her father, her friends and Jamie her assistant at her law firm.

Yet now here she was in front of the bread aisle, unable to choose from the over 20 varieties of sandwich bread. She briefly considered purchasing them all...except that it would have been utterly wasteful to buy more than what she would actually consume. Once, a long time ago, she had heard a speech from a missionary which she had completely forgotten until now. The missionary who had been deep in the jungles of Africa for 7 years related a similar experience. It seemed to make sense, except she'd only been away from home for a few weeks, not years.

Take it easy, give yourself a break! You'd only been back less than 48 hours, she reminded herself.

A quick glance at her watch revealed an hour had already passed.

Maybe Fitz had been trying to call her?

If she got lost, she realized, how would she get back? She didn't even have Fitz's number, for heaven's sake.

Just use the vehicle's navigation system, Olivia.

She could hardly recognize herself these days. What happened to ultra-organized on top of the world Olivia Pope?

She would just have to chalk it all up to those darn pregnancy hormones...and maybe jet lag to boot?

Her musings were suddenly interrupted by a female voice as she strolled by the dairy aisle. "Better stock up now, sale's good only till midnight." The woman was in her early thirties next to the dairy isle. She had a young toddler riding in the seat of her shopping cart and an infant car seat nestled in the basket covered by a large blanket.

"Oh, really? I don't shop here often. Is this for the yellow tag items only?" Olivia politely asked in a friendly tone.

"Yeah. There's a new sale every Tuesday," the woman answered while filling her basket with two dozen Greek yogurts, same flavor. "I just stopped by real quick to grab a few items while my oldest two are in ballet and soccer practice," she offered sort of apologetically.

Olivia cocked her head with increased interest, wanting to peer at the baby in the car seat. "Sounds like you've got your hands full. I'm Olivia by the way. How old is the little one?"

The woman introduced herself as Gina. She was quite pleased to see Olivia showing interest in her baby. "He's four months today," she said, lifting the blanket off so Olivia could take a look.

"He's adorable," Olivia cooed.

"You got any kids yourself?"

Olivia hesitated just for a moment. And then she thought, what the heck? "I got a three month old at home..." she smiled a little. She exaggerated Aaron's age a little... "I'm expecting... eight weeks now," she added on a happier note. This was the first time she openly told anyone about her pregnancy except for Fitz.

"WOW! So soon!" Gina's look of surprise lasted about two seconds. "Hey, you know...my cousin got pregnant with her second baby EXACTLY four weeks after delivery!" she grinned. "What's really amazing is that she thought it could never happen that soon!"

Olivia smiled sheepishly. Although she was shocked by Gina's statement, she managed to hide it well. It was obvious the woman liked to tell her cousin's story for shock value.

"That, THAT!" Gina's little girl pointed at the snack isle.

Gina handed her child a juice box which kept her happy for a little while. Then, somehow the conversation shifted to Gina's life story. "And now here I am...just got served with divorce papers!"

"Oh, sorry to hear," She said rather ruefully. In another life, she would have taken advantage of this opportunity to gain a new client. But what was she going to say? She considered it for a few moments. And then she let out of a laugh. This was just beyond hilarious. "Gina, normally I would be handing you my business card at this point of our conversation...cause you know, I happen to be a renowned divorce attorney... but guess what, I don't have my purse with me! It's down somewhere in the wreckage of the fuselage never to be found, remember? She laughed harder. "As a matter of fact, I don't even have a cell phone (or contact list) with me right now and I'm walking around in public in my lounge wear!"

xxx

While Olivia was gone, Fitz sat behind close doors at his desk in his study, making calls to some of his friends and business acquaintances. He repeated the story of his survival and rescue off the island so many times that he was starting to sound like a broken record even to himself.

Lastly, he spoke to to his right hand man Cyrus Beene, who had first started working for Jerry Grant II many years back as an accountant and whose talents had gradually stretched across the board. Indeed, over the years, Cyrus had become indispensable to the Grants as a jack of all related trades: financial consultant, private investigator and bookkeeper, all rolled into one.

"So, who's the lucky girl?" Cyrus asked loudly over the phone.

Fitz could clearly hear the smirk on the other end of the line and smiled back. "Her name is Olivia. She's a divorce lawyer." In a way, he felt like a young kid telling his best friend about a special one for the first time. "And just in case you're wondering...this is a serious relationship." He briefly considered telling Cyrus about Olivia's pregnancy but he wasn't in the mood for his friend's sneer comments.

"And you two met on the island?" Fitz could practically see Cyrus' cocky grin. "How romantic!" Cyrus scoffed. "What did you do all day, sit by the water all day applying suntan lotion on each other's backs...contemplating the sunset, and roasting marshmallows by nightfall?

"Actually,We spent most of our time singing Kumbaya AND doing trust falls," Fitz replied with a straight face, looking over the mountains of paperwork scattered across his desk.

"Look, Cy, I don't have a lot of time to chit chat. I need you to run a couple of background checks for me."

"I would love to, Fitz. Except I don't work for the Grants anymore," Cyrus said with increasing cockiness. "It just so happens that your father just fired me last week."

"Again?" Fitz rolled his eyes. In all the years that Fitz had known Cyrus, this was probably the up-tenth time that Big Jerry had let him go only to hire him again. Cyrus' highly opinionated ways had caused numerous strife between the two men. "Great, then! So you'll finally come and work for me once and for all, then!"

"And risk the wrath of the almighty new judge of the EPA?"

Aha. so his dad finally got the nomination as judge of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "So let me guess...to celebrate dad decided to let you go?"

Cyrus sighed. "One of these days I will quit and disappear for good like Puff the magic dragon, and not ever come back," he added even though they both knew it was an empty promise.

Fitz smirked. "Enough about my father. I want you to investigate someone. His name is Elijah Pope, Olivia's dad," Fitz said leaning his arms across his desk, his eyes staring off into the distance. "Olivia says he's the director of The Museum of Natural History in New York."

"Sure, I'm on it."

There was a long silence. Fitz heard rapid tapping of keyboard keys. He wondered how Olivia was doing. She'd been gone longer than an hour. I'll call her in a bit, he decided.

"Checking public records...no record of any Elijah Pope...although there is a Rowan Pope director of said museum."

"That's gotta be him. Thought he said his name was Elijah."

"You talked to this guy, you know him?...take a look at this...open up your e-mail...is this him?"

At once, Fitz opened the e-mail attachment."Yep, that's him..." he pursed his lips. "He's the one who facilitated our rescue off the island..." come to think of it, he was beyond curious as to how papa Pope managed to communicate with them... also what was his connection to the island.

"Hmm...that's a biggie" Cyrus replied in a tone that implied that his mind was racing ahead. "No public records under the name of Rowan Pope...no birth certificate, nothing."

Fitz set aside all the papers on his desk, ready to give this matter his full attention."Are you sure about this? Check again!" He demanded, rubbing his temple with just three fingers, preoccupied.

"I did!" Cyrus groaned, irritated that Fitz appeared to be questioning his judgement. "I double checked under both names! There is no birth certificate, no marriage certificate or divorce decrees."

Fitz rubbed his chin, leaning back in the reclining office chair. It seemed to him that papa Pope was at best a shady individual. Some things just didn't add up. Like for instance him telling Olivia that he was in Europe on a business trip. What kind of man be off on a business trip when his only daughter was scheduled to be coming home after she'd been missing for over two months?

Anyhow, Fitz was mostly interested in finding out if Elijah Pope had actually been on the island back in 1977. The book he'd found and the picture of him and Olivia's mother gave every indication that he'd been on the island. Still, there was also the possibility that someone else had gotten hold of the book and placed it there in the hatch for others to find. Yet, even in such case, that someone must have known the man or be associated with him or her in some way.

At this point in time, his plan was to keep this piece of information to himself and see what Cyrus discovered about this on his own.

"Although, " Cyrus spoke slowly. "I found voter registration records and real estate appraisals for Elijah Pope."

"But no birth certificate?" Fitz questioned out loud trying to wrap his head around this fact. He wondered if indeed papa pope was an American citizen.

"Perhaps he's not an American Citizen, Cyrus echoed.

Fitz smiled to himself. "Maybe there is a naturalization certificate somewhere.

"Ah. Well. Dealing with INS will take some time. Ill look more into it. Give me a couple of days and see what I can come up with," Cyrus stated matter of factly. "I will also look into his daughter."

No, not her. Fitz rubbed his temples more vigorously, his expression etched into a frown. He trusted Olivia wholeheartedly, what kind of message would that send to her f he went ahead and ordered a background investigation? "Umm...just focus on her dad, alright?"

"Uhuh, " Cyrus begrudgingly agreed. "What was the other background check about then?

"Her name was Claire Littleton, early twenties. Australian. She was one of the passengers on flight 815. "

"Was? I take it she's not one of the survivors?" Fitz heard Cyrus take a deep breath over the receiver. "By the way, Fitz...you still got to tell me the whole story of your rescue!"

"Not now..." Fitz quickly replied. "I'll tell you later in person. Right now I need you to check for next of kin, friends and boyfriends."

"So who's this girl?"

Fitz considered the question carefully.

"She had a baby on the island. She was friends with Olivia and then she went missing. We brought the child back home with us. Cyrus...are you still there? "

"Y-yes," Cyrus murmured slowly.

"Listen carefully. "We haven't decided yet what to do about the child, so not a word of this to anyone until we make a decision. Olivia wants to keep him...and if there is no relatives claiming him I frankly don't see why not."

There was a very long silence on the other line. Indeed, the silence was so long that Fitz started to wonder if Cyrus was still there but it was obvious he was still on the other line breathing. "Do you have any idea what You're saying...you can't just announce your decision to keep this child!" he scoffed. "Hello? " He let out a laugh. "In fact, it's not you're decision to make. For your information, orphans become wards of the state... or in this case, the Australian government has jurisdiction over this child..." he drew a sharp intake of breath. "Wait a minute...how about the child's father?"

Fitz shook his head, irritated. He didn't need the little lecture. In addition, Aaron's birth father did not even deserve to be considered the child's father, at least not as far as he was concerned. "According to Claire he wanted nothing to do with his child." Still, the reality was that the man still had his parental rights intact, unless he had signed away his rights.

"So you're prepared to do ANYTHING for this woman, for this girlfriend of yours? This...this Angelina Jolie wanna-be!"

"Cyrus!" Fitz shot back. "I don't hear any furious typing on that keyboard of yours!" He stared angrily at the receiver.

"I can already picture the headlines in the national tabloids a few years from now, " Cyrus continued with glee, too wrapped up in himself to care about Fitz's rebuff. "Son of EPA judge embarks on journey across the Atlantic to save the little children of the world -one child at a time-..." he clears his throat, "wait, wait! that's too long, " he pauses again. "How about this: Son of EPA judge adopts half a dozen orphan children from across the world. Complete with a snapshot of you and Olivia shaking hands with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt," he concluded with a well timed chuckle.

"Cyrus!" Fitz fumed. He didn't have the time for his friend's antics.

"Yeah, yeah, I know. We need something juicier...although think about it... just having Brangelina's picture on the front cover might just be enough to make you a national celebrity."

Fitz looked at time and shook his head in disbelief. Was it possible that two hours had gone by since Olivia had left for the store? "Cyrus, I don't have time for this. I need you to find everything there is to know about Claire Littleton and Elijah Pope pronto! Can you do that, please?" The 'please' part of the last statement sounded more like a command than a request.

"Hmm...yeah, give me a couple of days..."

"I don't have a couple of days!" Fitz snapped back impatiently. " I need this yesterday!" He promptly hang up the phone, not letting Cyrus have the last word on the matter. Then he immediately dialed Olivia's number (that is the phone number of the cell he'd given her earlier in the day) and the call went to voice-mail.

xxx

Olivia and Gina were now waiting in line at the cash register.

Noticing the ghostly expression on Olivia's face, Gina asked, "You all right?" in a high pitched tone, eyes wide and searching.

Olivia held her head with one hand, covering her mouth the other.

Something was wrong, very wrong.

A/N:

About season 4: (my new motto)

There's still hope! Make no mistake, Olitz is endgame!