"Ready to head out? I'll walk out with you."
"Not yet, I'm going to finish some of these then I'll head home."
After drawing up Fitz's divorce papers, Olivia returned to working at her desk fixing the files. Having only a little of the files finished back into place, she didn't want to come back and redo them tomorrow but at some point, would need to. Continuing on, she didn't bother to look up at him as she was too focused on the project in front of her.
"I'll stay and help you then. Just tell me what you need me to do."
"I'm covered here. Thank you though. You should probably go home and talk to a certain someone about a divorce, wouldn't you agree?"
"Probably, I just don't want to go home yet," he told her taking the seat in front of her desk.
"Okay, then what do you want to do?"
"Can we talk?"
Liv stopped and looked over at him from her computer. "All of this and you want to talk?" she motioned to the room full of documents.
"I don't want you going out with Jake," Fitz answered in a stern voice.
"I don't see how that's any of your business. And I am not 'going out' with Jake; I'm going to dinner with him."
"There's no difference there. I don't want you going to dinner with Jake and I don't want you staying late here or working from home after work anymore."
Stopping her typing she gave him her full attention. "What's going on? Are you not happy with my work? Are you looking to find someone else? Is this a wife thing? I need to know so I can figure out how to fix it."
"Liv, nothing is going on with me. I love your work; I love all the effort you put in. And it's not a Mellie thing. I just think that you need to slow down and take a break. My dad said you don't sleep, and you look exhausted. And you haven't had a full night's sleep in almost a week. Why don't you sleep?"
"Fine, here then, organize these by last name. That's how you can help," she handed him a stack of files across her desk.
"You're not dodging this, Liv. Maybe I can help you if you tell me what's wrong? Tell me why you don't sleep, and we could come up with something together. If you just need someone at home with you to get you to rest, then maybe I could come over then. Or we find you an aide of some sort. What do you need?"
"Fitz, right now, I need you to either organize those folders or go home. Believe me, I will sleep when I can. At this moment, I need to get these going."
Seeing that Liv was in a mood, Fitz didn't want to piss her off or get in her way. "Alright, I'll let security know that you are staying late. But I'm dead serious, Olivia, I want you to go home no later than nine. You need to at least relax at home. And I want at least a text from you when you leave here and when you get home."
"Don't you think…"
"I don't ask you for much, Liv."
Smirking, she couldn't fight the eye roll that followed. "Fine. I will text you when I leave. But I make no promises that it will be at nine."
"My phone is on me all night. Just let me know when you are leaving, please. See you tomorrow," he told her as he walked out the door.
While Olivia worked in her office, Fitz went home to deal with Mellie. Walking in the front door, he heard her yelling at someone and throwing things. Following the sounds to the living room, Mellie was having a bigger tantrum than she's thrown in years. Two men stood in the living room surrounding her while a woman sat on the couch watching her throw picture frames and vases to the floor.
"What the hell are you doing?" Fitz asked when he came in. Everyone turning to see him, Mellie ran over as if he was her protection.
"Fitz, thank God you're home! She took everything. And these two are trying to hurt me!"
"They are trying to save you, Mellie," Fitz told her pushing her off him. "You need help. Way more than I can give you. Your drinking is out of control. You destroyed Liv's office! And now I have to pay for it because of that. I will not be held responsible for your actions anymore."
"What are you saying?"
"I filed for divorce today. I can't take it anymore! Your drinking, your whining, your constant attitude. I'm done, Mellie. We are done."
Going upstairs to their room, Fitz went to the closet and started packing some clothes. He could hear Mellie screaming at him down the hall and shouting for the two men to get off her. He knew the therapist was with her and would talk her down as best she could. Jerry would only hire the best people. Packing all that he could in a couple suitcases, he headed out to the front door.
"Just wait until Jerry finds out about this!" was the last thing he heard her yell before closing the door behind him.
Driving to the hotel he had stayed at many times whenever they got into a fight, Fitz checked the clock seeing just before nine. He checked himself in and went to the room getting comfortable while he waited for a message from Liv.
"Heading home?" he sent her after 9:30.
Waiting for a reply as it got later, he tried at 10. "Go home, Olivia."
Again, he waited and still received nothing. At 10:30 he started getting frustrated with her. "Put it down and go home. NOW."
For another half hour, Fitz fought with himself to go to the office and drag her out. Maybe she's asleep and forgot. Calling security on the front desk, he asked Nick to go check and see if she was still there.
"Yes, sir, she's in her office. She didn't even notice me come in," Nick told him.
Thanking him, Fitz hung up. For a moment he thought about calling Jerry to go get her but decided against it; he'd talk with her tomorrow. All night he kept his phone by him in case she messaged him. Waking up every hour, Fitz checked his phone and still had no reply from her. At six, he couldn't take it anymore and got ready for work.
"Morning, Nick. When did Olivia leave?" Fitz asked walking into the building.
"Good morning, Mr. Grant. Ms. Pope is still in her office."
Getting up to his office, Fitz was ready to yell at her until he saw her asleep on the couch in his office. He stepped out into her office and hung up his coat, looking around the room to see how much she had done. Her desk was cleared and all the folders that scattered her office last night were neatly organized on her desk ready to be put away. How can she work that fast? How long did it take her to do this? Sitting at her desk, he looked through a couple files that he knew by heart, seeing everything was in there the way it always had been.
"Shit!"
Hearing her voice, Fitz stood up heading to the doorway. Sometime in the night, the glass had been replaced that separated their offices.
"Morning, Liv," Fitz called over to her as not to scare her. Seeing her sit up on the couch he moved closer in, standing behind the chair. "How'd you sleep?"
Putting her shoes back on, Liv looked up at him and smiled. "About as good as yours went," she laughed.
Looking down, Fitz hadn't noticed the shirt he had on was three buttons off where they should be. His hair uncombed and flying everywhere. "See what happens when I have to worry about you? Just be lucky I didn't have court this morning." Unbuttoning his shirt to fix it, he kept his eyes on her. "How long did you sleep?"
Stop staring at him. He's getting dressed, Olivia. Don't be a creep. "Uh, what time is it?" she asked trying to look anywhere but at him.
"6:40."
"Twenty minutes."
"I see. I also see you finished the files in there. What I didn't see was any sort of text or call from you telling me you were not going home. I asked you to do one thing, Olivia. Just ONE THING! Text me when you are leaving."
"And I didn't leave, so I didn't text."
"Don't be a smart ass with me. You haven't slept in days. You're running on six shots of espresso a day, probably even more. And you don't listen to a simple request."
"How'd it go telling your wife you want a divorce?"
Ignoring her question, Fitz finished his buttons and sat at his desk. "I have been worried sick all night about you. You could have at least a small amount of decency to let me know you weren't going home. Nick said you were working all night long."
"You had someone check up on me?" she nearly yelled at him.
"I considered calling my father."
"You're being unreasonable!"
"And you're being ridiculous! Learn to take better care of yourself, Olivia. You do not need to do everything yourself! Ask someone, ask me, for help."
"Are you trying to tell me I can't do my job?"
"Of course not, and you would know that if you weren't sleep deprived."
"Fitz, I am not in the mood to argue with you."
"Because you know I'm right."
"Because you obviously haven't had coffee yet and I will not deal with a stubborn jackass!"
"Watch yourself, Ms. Pope," Fitz stared up at her with narrow eyes.
Standing up straight, Liv fixed her skirt and looked away from him. "I'm going to go get us coffees and I will run over your day with you when I get back," Liv told him, trying to keep her voice even and not yell.
Running through his schedule with him, Olivia worked on her clients' needs for the morning. Not talking to Fitz for several hours, she kept at her desk focusing all her attention on her computer until she heard a knock on her door.
"Hey Liv, still on for dinner?" Jake stood across her desk and smiled at her waiting for her to give him attention.
Finishing her last sentence, she stopped and looked at him. "Tonight at 8. We're still on."
"Perfect," he winked and looked around her office. "When are they coming to remove the new wall decorations?"
"Tonight. I spent the night here working otherwise they would have done it last night."
"All night? Ouch, Fitz got you working that hard?"
Hearing Jake's voice, Fitz grew irritated and went to the doorway. "Something you need Ballard?" he snarked at him.
Turning to see him, Jake saw the hate in his eyes and smiled wider. "Just complimenting Liv on her new décor. Personally, I'm not fond of it."
"Well, I'm not fond of you keeping my busy assistant from her work."
"Easy, Fitz, I'm only confirming dinner tonight. Not trying to steal her away."
"Like you could," Fitz laughed at him.
Olivia looked between the two of them and shook her head. "Nothing is going to get done with you two standing here arguing about whatever it is you're arguing about. Now will you both excuse me and get out of my office?"
"Sure, sorry, Liv. See you tonight," Jake gave Fitz one last look and walked out closing the door behind him.
"I don't want you going out with him tonight."
"And I don't want to pay taxes, let's see who gets what they want first," she barked back at him.
"Olivia," he started.
"Fitzgerald. I am not your puppet. I will do what I want, and I want to go with him for dinner tonight. If you don't like it, that's too bad. Jake seems like a nice guy and we're going out for dinner. Get over it. Now get out so I can work."
