Chapter 05
"I'm not sure that's a wise idea, Mr. President." Sally said. "It's not as though she's a member of your regular senior policy staff. I find it highly irregular that your press-secretary would be allowed to sit in on a policy meeting."
"A policy meeting? Is that what this is?" Fitz asked her. He shook his head. "I thought that this was an informal meeting that you just happened to drop in on?"
Garner had picked up on Fitz's displeasure, he flashed a look of dislike at the vice-president, then turned his attention back to Fitz. "I'm sure the vice-president was just looking out for your best interests, sir. As Communications Director, surely Ms. Pope doesn't concern herself with matters such as this -"
"You must have forgotten how she ran my election campaign - successfully, I might add."
"I'd think that Cyrus might have something to say about that." Sally said.
His manners went out the window as Fitz cut her off. "He'd be the first one to tell you how much he valued Olivia's advice - enough to coax one of the best and brightest of his former students away from an extremely well-paying job to come work for us and that the smartest thing he ever did was to bring her on-board."
He turned back to Olivia. "Please, join us and explain just what it is we've been working on."
"If you insist, Mr. President." Olivia crossed the room and handed Fitz a stack of folders. While he began to sort through them, she remained at his side as she turned to face the others.
"At the president's request, I've had my staff conducting research through several media environments across the country, from think tanks to colleges, local and national polls, and from PTA meetings to town halls across the country -"
She exchanged a glance with Fitz. They hid it well from the others, but there was no doubt that they were both enjoying this.
Olivia continued "- "Grant For The People" has always been more than a slogan. It's been a clear signal on how he meant to govern and he's done his best to do exactly that. It's why he continues to enjoy his grass-root level appeal across party lines.
"It's been an on-going project of the president that he keep these lines of communication open and his intent to be prepared for any contingency - up to and including anticipating any shifts in the judicial make up of our country on the highest levels."
Garner had enough honesty - or otherwise he'd just been too surprised to hide it for a moment to look confused. How was it that he'd heard nothing about the president's studies? Why hadn't he been briefed? He was beginning to feel more than a little foolish - here he was having barged into the Oval Office with what was supposed to have been wise advice for the president, to be the bringer of information that supposedly only he and a few others knew and for which the president was to have been grateful to receive. That was supposed to have endeared himself to the Oval - only now to learn that he'd hadn't needed his help. He was starting to feel embarrassed and a flush of barely controlled embarrassment threatened to overcome him.
He tried not to look at the vice-president, but he could feel the waves of righteous anger rolling off of her; she was obviously even less pleased with the president's Communications Director than he was. Don't shoot the messenger, he thought. Especially if they were as pretty as this one was.
While Grant had kept several of his former campaign staff around - their loyalty had become something of a legend and obviously it went both ways, he couldn't blame the president for keeping this particular campaigner around closer than most after the battle had been won. Brains and beauty in one petite package. She was worth it for the eye candy alone.
He forced himself to focus on what Grant was saying as a familiar name caught his attention.
"Nathaniel Caldwell - his name has actually come up in several reports." Fitz said. He knew as well as they did that Caldwell had changed his political affiliation a little more than a month ago.
"You can understand why the party no longer considers him a viable political option." Garner said. He needed to find a new direction for his plans.
Sally spoke up as well. "Considering his betrayal, I can hardly understand why his name is on any list of yours, Mr. President."
"His changing his affiliation from Republican to Independent is hardly a betrayal, Sally." Fitz felt an irrational need to prick Sally's self-righteous ego. It was very unpresidential, he told himself - but he indulged himself in it anyway. "Not to the county, anyway. Our freedom to choose our beliefs - our political as well as our religious ones - is one of the things that makes America great and the envy of the world."
He turned to Garner. "Don't you agree?"
Olivia had been quiet until now. Maybe it was because of her affinity for Peter Caldwell but she felt a sudden and irrational need to come to his father's defense, even though she knew she really didn't know the other man well at all.
"I would think that his current affiliation would have nothing to do with Judge Caldwell's qualifications." She said quietly.
Sally turned a frosty glare on her. "It's well known that you claim to be apolitical, Ms. Pope. Perhaps that's why you can't understand how others more - shall we say - patriotic - would view the matter."
"Shall we - not?" Olivia returned her cool look with one of her own. "Allow me to respectfully agree to disagree with you, Madame Vice-President - for several reasons."
Fitz recognized what was coming and sat back to enjoy the show.
"One - I do not claim to be apolitical, it's my belief -
"Two - the reason that I'm apolitical is because both parties have enough flaws in their ideology that I've never been able to throw my whole-hearted support behind either one and the president has been well aware of my views from the very beginning. However, this president is one I can serve wholeheartedly without any reservation on my part.
"And three - and as the president just pointed out - that's my right and it doesn't make me any less patriotic than you. Besides, my patriotism is not on trial here - or is it?"
"Of course it isn't." Fitz interrupted. "I'm sure the vice-president didn't intend for her words to come out the way they sounded at all, did she?"
Sally felt the glacial reaction underlying his words. Like it or not, the last thing she wanted - or needed - was an open conflict with the president - especially in front of an audience. But her being forced to retreat before this much younger - and no doubt less wiser - woman infuriated her. She didn't care how much others praised Olivia Pope, even if they rose to the gates of heaven itself, all Sally saw was a woman of dubious loyalties. Intelligent and useful perhaps, but never one to be fully trusted.
"Of course not," Sally said. "That was never my intention."
Olivia heard the stiffness in Sally's words and knew that they were forced, but she didn't care. She nodded, accepting the false apology before she continued. "I do share the president's opinion. Judge Caldwell was first a respected prosecutor and then a popular public defender. I would think that would make him almost ideal for a Supreme Court candidacy."
"And if it comes to that, I'm sure we'll all give him the consideration he's due." Garner was smart enough to know when he'd gone far enough for the day. It wouldn't do to antagonize Grant, not with re-election season right around the corner. They had to think of the down-ballot affect. He hoped Sally Langston was wise enough to remember that, but he wasn't sure she had.
"All I was trying to point out was that Judge Caldwell seems to have picked up a few radical ideas - that may or may not benefit the party." Sally didn't try to hide the disapproval in her voice; she might be momentarily muted on the matter of her opinions concerning Caldwell, but she'd speak the truth as best she could and let the devil have the rest. "But then again, Mr. President, you've had quite a few of those yourself - for example, a sitting president seeking a divorce? Don't you think that the position requires someone who would balance that out?"
He'd been wondering how long it would take Sally to offer her opinion on his marriage - not that he didn't know what she thought. Fitz grinned at her openly. "I'd like to think that my "radical ideas' played a part in what got me elected, and I hope that it will carry me forward into my second term. I'd think that there's enough balance in the party the way it stands right now. After all, I have you as my vice-president, don't I?
It was clear from the look that crossed Sally's face that she couldn't make up her mind as to whether his words had meant to be a compliment - or an insult.
"What the country needs, sir - is a sense of a strong moral stability."Momentarily checked, Sally took a moment before pressing on. "A sense of parental maturity, of knowing that to spare the rod is to spoil the child."
Fitz looked up from the paperwork in his hands, his voice went quiet, but the warning in it was clear. "There's discipline and then there's abuse - and the line is very, very easily blurred."
Before she could find an answer for that, Fitz was standing up, a movement and the words that followed made it clear that it was a dismissal. "This has been a very enlightening conversation. And while I do appreciate the words the both of you have offered, it's just as important that I take into account just what it is the people of our great nation want and expect from all of us."
Garner stood quickly, thanking the president for his time. Sally was a bit slower but she followed his lead.
When the door closed behind them, Fitz raised his hand as though her were going to slam it down on the desk, but at the last moment, he let it come down and rest gently.
"You're angry." Olivia watched him, her concern showing clearly in her eyes.
"I'm irritated. Neither one of them are worth my anger." Fitz said. Even as he said the words, his hands tightened into fists, making him appear the liar. "And don't think I didn't see the way that bastard was looking at you."
He was surprised when Olivia laughed. She moved to stand before him. "He's not the first, Fitz. He probably won't be the last - but like I told Harrison, I'm a one man woman."
"You told Harrison?" His irritation vanished and his insides lit up as though the sun had come from behind a bank of storm clouds. It's a small thing, he knows it, but at the same time, it's the world. "When was this?"
"It doesn't matter; the subject just happened to come up a few days ago." She admitted. Olivia felt her face flush with a little embarrassment. It was silly, the rush of happiness that came out of nowhere all over again as she recalled her conversation with Harrison. She felt light-headed and almost dizzy, Olivia wanted to laugh at herself, she was like a teenager dealing with her first crush.
Fitz smiled down at her, feeling a little of her joy. He reached out and pulled Olivia into his arms. When she leans into him, the explosion of joy in his gut made him silly with happiness, like he's the class president and the head cheerleader just agreed to be his girl. He smiled to himself at the thought. It might be silly, but that didn't make it any less true.
He wraps his arms around her a little tighter, letting her warmth and presence in his arms ground him. When he pulls back a little, just enough so that he can look into her face, Fitz sees her smiling up at him with knowing eyes.
"Hi." She breathes the word into the space between them.
"Hi." He breathes her in.
His hands move up of their own will to cup her face, thumbs tracing their way over her cheekbones, marveling all over again at the strength that lay beneath her seeming fragility. Then his mouth was brushing against hers, her lips were parting under his and the kiss they shared was soft and sweet. And everything.
a/n: this chapter is an example of what happens when the characters start speaking up for themselves. Sometimes it doesn't matter what I might have planned , or what I've previously outlined, once the characters start talking, all bets are off. Dialogue changes everything, and it's one of my favorite things. I planned the meeting, but once I let Sally be Sally, well there was no way that Olivia wasn't going to be Olivia and the minute the vice-president said what she said, Olivia was quick to run a quick countdown to let her know what's what - and that's something I didn't plan, it just happens. So, how did I do?