Even after they've all retreated back to the study and the talk turned to more serious matters, that good feeling inside Olivia didn't go away. If anything, as they walked as a group into the other room and they remained side by side, she felt the connection between them stronger than ever.
As everyone took the same seats they had before, with Olivia taking hers at the end of the sofa closest to Fitz, their eyes met briefly, reinforcing her sense of contentment and completion. He smiled and an entire conversation passed between them in it before they turned their attention back to the rest of the room.
It was amazing, almost incredible, this sensation of being so wired into each other's psyche that they were practically ending one another's sentences; whatever Fitz proposes, Olivia has the hard facts and data to back him up, the information coming to her seamlessly and almost without any effort at all. Wherever she has a new thought or opinion to offer, Fitz agrees and commends her and then goes on to elaborate and expand on her words.
They're a team in the best sense of the word.
There's conversation about Annarosa's arrival and the mechanical failure that had delayed her. That raises matters of concern for her security as they move forward. It was quickly agreed that having her stay with Peter in the capitol would more than likely bring more attention to her that none of them would necessarily want at the moment, while her staying here with Will and Grace and Nathaniel here in North Carolina placed her too far away from the center of power to be of any true use.
Jocelyn offered an invitation for Annarosa to stay with her and her husband. "She could be either an intern or an exchange student. I have the means to establish her in either role."
"South America isn't your usual sphere of influence." Nathaniel pointed out. "That might be noticed."
"It can be …handled." Jocelyn said. "Isn't this one of the reasons why we're here to begin with?"
"That's something we can decide on later." Jocelyn's words jogged a thought in Fitz's mind. "Let's be clear as to one of the reasons Annarosa is here but that we haven't really discussed."
Fitz wondered again if anyone else had picked up on the general's Old World act of showing his trust by sending a blood relative to them. Her age only underscored the gesture, and while it worried him on some level, it also made Fitz admire the man for his act.
Fitz turned to the young woman. "You're an envoy for the education project that your uncle is eager for but you're also his unofficial diplomatic back channel should anything - be it the education summit or anything else - run into any difficulties or obstruction, am I right?"
"Excuse me, Mr. President, but I think I have an idea." Before Annarosa could answer, Susan surprised everyone by speaking up and if the expression on her face was anything to go by, she was surprising herself at the same time. "If the point is to have Ms. Ramos' other duties that you're speaking of other than the education project go under the radar while she's in DC, then why not have her shadow intern out of my office?"
Feeling the weight of everyone's eyes on her, Susan words came out in a rush. "Everyone knows about the Caldwell's big bash - and thank you, because Casey is having the best time -" she said to Nathaniel before rushing on, " …everything Director Davis said could still work, she could still have Annarosa as a guest, but we could keep the focus on the education project by having Annarosa shadow intern out of my office while I propose this bill that I've been working on…"
"The sister-city project exchange initiative -" Will said. It was obvious that he already knew about it as he went on to explain about the school project happening between two smaller cities in both North Carolina and Virginia. Susan had been drafting a bill that could benefit both school systems - and, with a little tweaking, the larger education summit, although she hadn't thought of it being so far-reaching. "We were only thinking in terms of inter-state communications, but if we were to take it internationally…"
"You've been working on a bill?" Peter smile was a twisted thing at its edges. "Haven't you been the busiest little bee?"
"Behave, Peter." Olivia scolded him. She was used to his sarcasm, but Susan wasn't and she suddenly felt the need to defend the other woman.
Peter shrugged but backed down, turning his attention back to Will. "You knew about this, little brother?"
Before Will could reply, Susan spoke up again. "Your brother and I have had conversations, but no, I hadn't told anyone about it in any kind of detail, because I wanted this to be mine."
It was her turn to look around the room and she did it fiercely. "But I'm thinking now if we were to go internationally, all of this could play out as if this had been some long-term plan all along. This way Ms. Ramos would come under our combined protective details - and I can tell that's important to you." She said this last sentence directly to Nathaniel.
"It's important to all of us, Susan." Fitz spoke slowly, thinking all about it aloud. "Your proposal has a lot of good ideas in it. Most of all, I like the idea of offering a work-study project on democracy itself."
"I'd like to point out one other thing, Mr. President - it works especially well in our favor because I'm considered harmless by most of Congress anyway, aren't I?" Susan said.
No one spoke for a moment, because there was nothing else to say and no one wanted to lie to Susan's face.
"That's only because those that make that mistake of not getting to know you." Olivia was the one who spoke up first. She smiled at Susan. "Secret weapons don't look like secret weapons - and that's when they work best. I think that you're ours."
"Olivia's right." Fitz said. "And we intend to use you to the best of your ability and they will never even see you coming. Our gain is definitely their loss - and won't that be fun?"
Susan smiled at him. "Yes, sir - I think it could be."
"It will be, so thank you for the idea." Fitz said. "When all is said and done, no one will think that you're 'harmless' any more, I can promise you that."
Fitz glanced at Annarosa, who had been quiet all this time as the conversation swirled around her. He watched her expression change as she felt his attention settle onto her. "Here we are, discussing your life without getting your opinion, Ms. Ramos. What do you think of all of this so far?"
"You are offering me - and my people - a great deal of access to the inner workings of your government. How is it that you offer so much trust so easily?" Despite her doubt, his words had obviously had an effect on her.
"Isn't trust what all of this is about?" Fitz lifted his hand in a gesture that included them all. "Trust is something that goes both ways and that's why we're all here."
Annarosa looked at Nathaniel and Fitz could see an unspoken question in her eyes.
The older man returned her look gravely for a moment before he answered it. "The president is right, 'Rosa. Your uncle and I decided on this gamble a long time ago to reach out to this administration. That means we were also prepared to gamble on trusting them as well. Surely he discussed this with you?"
"He did." Annarosa admitted.
"And he trusted you to make the right decisions once you were here, true?"
She nodded.
"So the choice is yours. Here we have a path to move forward, but the choice is yours if we choose it - or not. We trust them - or we do not. And if you feel that we cannot - that we should not - then we will not."
She stared at him, obviously shocked at the choice Nathaniel was offering her publicly. "Uncle…?" her half-whisper was questioning.
Nathaniel shook his head. "This is your life, nina. The choice is yours. The general and I both agreed on this from the beginning."
"But it this isn't about just my life. You know that - we all know that. There's history that - " Annarosa's voice broke off and her gaze traveled around the room, studying each one of them in their turn before landing back on Fitz.
Fitz was sure that he wasn't the only one who got the impression that she'd changed her mind about whatever it was that she was about to say. That had to be okay, he told himself. He tried to put all the empathy he could into his expression. This had to be hard for her.
He watched as she swallowed nervously, trying to keep the stammer from her voice - and failing, just a little. "I-I won't lie and say that I have no doubts - and I don't know most of you at, in spite of everything you all are saying. But when I think about everything that is at stake, everything that my uncles are taking a gamble on - I would be a fool not to take the chance being offered."
"Thank you." He was still being reminded of Karen and finding himself grateful that she would never have such a burden placed on her shoulders. It made him want to reassure this young woman as much as he could, but as she said herself - she didn't know them know him - so for now, his thanks will have to do.
He could feel Olivia's gaze on him and it warmed his heart to know that he could count on her at least to understand. "Ms. Ramos, I hope that you and I - all of us - can move forward from here into a more positive place."
This exchange among them all seemed to have solved a number of things and once they are past this hurdle, every other issues seemed to just fall into place.
Of course there were several other concerns that needed to be addressed, but with the initial questions settled, Fitz's thoughts were hopeful that this new alliance was ready to move forward.
They are all agreed that they can expect unexpected developments that will possibly throw any number of wrenches into whatever plans they might have, that their opponents will be many and they will be formidable, but at the same time, there was an unspoken confidence among them that working together, they are in a strong enough position that they will find a way to anticipate the worse that their nay-sayers will attempt to throw at them and even more importantly, in the end they will persevere - because democracy itself must.
All of this had taken less time than any of them would have thought; when they ended their meeting, Fitz found himself surprised to find that it was only early afternoon when they called an end to their talks.
They walked out onto the veranda as a group; Annarosa left them almost immediately, no doubt having many things to think about. Fitz watched as Susan, Gayle and Will excused themselves and headed towards the stables, while Nathaniel and PC Carter had stayed behind to have a conversation of their own, with Colleen doing the same, to 'referee the inevitable fray' as she put it. Peter had also elected to stay behind, leaving Olivia, Fitz, Jocelyn and Harrison on the veranda.
Fitz saw that they were all waiting to follow his lead. "So, where are we, people?"
"I think that we're in a very good place." Olivia said.
Fitz nodded and turned to Jocelyn. "That was a very generous offer that you made to Annarosa."
"Maybe, but Susan did it better." Jocelyn said.
"I won't say better - but she did do us a great service by giving us - me - a different viewpoint to take into consideration." Fitz said. "She's definitely given me many things to think about."
He looked around their little group. "Does anyone else have any thoughts on the matter?"
Fitz purposefully turned his gaze onto Harrison last; he'd been mostly quiet up until now, but if Olivia had invited him into their conversation, then she had to have had a good reason for it.
What would Harrison be thinking? He knows his job is to back Olivia's play, but what's his own judgment on everything that's just gone down? As a man of color, his perception should be something different from Fitz's
He would accept Annarosa's wariness as something based in good reason [because of race] and he should say so.
"Are you asking for my opinion, Mr. President?" Harrison said.
When Fitz nodded, Harrison took a deep breath before he continued. "Then let me state for the record that Annarosa Ramos and the emerging nation of San Collondias has every reason to be very careful, very cautious, of accepting the offer we're making."
Olivia and Jocelyn looked as though they might both speak up, but Fitz waved them into silence. "How so?"
"She said it, sir - or at least she started to. I'm not the only one who caught that, am I?"
When no one answered, Harrison continued. "I don't have to tell anybody that the United States has never had a clean track record of the recognition of equality in the Americas. Instead it's has a long, dark history of interference and exploitation in pursuit of the interests of this country - especially against people of color - which was not necessarily what was best for anyone else. It was called manifest dynasty at the time, but that has always been a myth of power and privilege."
Fitz forced himself to acknowledge the truth in Harrison's words; it was a point of privilege that hadn't really crystallized in his mind until he'd heard it being said, first by Annarosa and now being underscored by the young Black man standing in front of him. It was a thing that was so easily pushed aside.
He nodded in agreement. "I can appreciate what you're saying. Whatever it meant in the past, however it was shamefully used to promote a definitely self-centered agenda, manifest destiny no longer is applicable in the here and now - it's also part of what needs to change not only in how our country deals with its neighbors, but how we're perceived as we're doing it."
It's one more reason why I want to make sure that I'm doing what we do for all the right reasons."
"If this all works out in the way that we've planned, I think that's something we won't have to worry about." Olivia said.
Jocelyn nodded in agreement.
"Then we're in agreement." A sense of satisfaction filled Fitz as he looked at each of them. His gaze fell lastly on Harrison. "Thank you for what you had to say."
Harrison's smile was bright. "Just doing my job, Mr. President."
Fitz offered him his handshake."And doing it well."
Harrison took Fitz's hand. "What can I say, I've been trained by the best."
Fitz allowed himself a smile in Olivia's direction. "I don't doubt it."