John was called away on a case, so there would be no overly dramatic displays of affection in front of Zoe at the firm of Crestlow, Crane and Coltaire.   Olivia had only met one partner, Charles Coltaire, who according to gossip,  was some kind of relative of the Queen--supposedly.

Since John could not be with her to announce that they would be arriving at Zoe and her father’s get together tonight, as a couple,  Olivia figured she would have to give  Zoe the ‘bad news’. It was her hope that just seeing them together would put her on edge, thus  ruining her father’s night!

But Olivia was the one that received the surprise,  when she glanced through Zoe’s office window and saw she was talking with someone she had  once been familiar with--intimately---Marshal Stacker Pentecost of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps.   What the hell was he doing here? And better yet, why was he in Zoe’s office?

Olivia didn’t even bother to knock. She just opened Zoe’s door and walked in coolly. Zoe looked over and smiled!

“Olivia!  Stacker was just telling me that the two of you used to date!  I think that is just odd!”  Zoe exclaimed,  her eyes roaming over Stacker, who was in uniform.

“Why?”  Olivia asked, now folding her arms.  Zoe looked at her as if she were crazy!

“Surely you see the resemblance? Stacker is John, my soon to be ex husband’s, distant cousin.  Like a second, right?”

“Yes.” Stacker said, now boldly staring at Olivia.  “We don’t get on that well.”

“Well if you ask me,  John has always been a bit jealous of you. I mean you’re both about protecting people but what your cousin does...well...consumes him.” Zoe said, almost sadly. It was something Olivia briefly noticed before turning her attention to Stacker.

“Stacker. Nice to see you again.” she said without feeling. He was the last person she needed to be looking at this morning!  And hell no,  she did not think he looked like John Luther! What the hell was wrong with Zoe?  Was she half blind?

“I am here to deliver your new car.  Your father was informed of your little mishap this morning.”  Stacker said pointedly.

“Wow! You sounded like ‘Mr. Belvedere’ there, just now.  Are you still butlering for my father?” Olivia asked snidely.

“Olivia!” Zoe admonished. She was well aware that Eli and Olivia did not get along.   But Eli was trying.  He thought that working here and being out of the states,  would give her a much needed break away from the heartbreak of what was going on with her former boyfriend,  Edison Davis.  

Zoe was aware of who he was and his rising star in the states.  Eli said he had been in a horrible car accident and after, Olivia and him and broken up for some unknown reason.  He decided to take her out of that setting and get her mind focused on some area of her career.

And yet Olivia seemed unwilling to give an inch. She was just barely polite to Eli when the three of them were together. There were times when Zoe wondered if there was much more to the troubled father/daughter relationship than her new boyfriend was voicing? Maybe it had something to do with Eli’s late wife’s death so many years ago?

Well, she knew none of it could be Stacker’s fault!  It was so funny.  John,  the few times he had been in a room with his second cousin, had displayed the same hostile manner towards Stacker. Zoe had always found him to be quite charming.

“It’s alright, Zoe.  Eli just wanted to make sure Olivia could safely get home. You know, luv,”  Stacker said, now addressing Olivia, “that neighborhood you were in is crime ridden.  What were you doing in the area?”

Olivia just stared him down. He knew she had been there to visit John. Then again, he had always been her father’s toady.  And he had used her to climb up the career ladder.  What the hell did a ‘Marshall Defense Corp’ person do anyway?  She’d never heard of such a title. Probably some stupid one her father made up for him.

Seeing that she was not going to answer,  Stacker turned to Zoe.

“Luckily,  she was in John’s neighborhood. He is the one that filed the police report.”

Zoe looked at Olivia with surprise.

“John filed the report?”

“Yes,”  Olivia said blithely,  “we’ve been seeing one another and I stopped by to see him this morning.”

Zoe, who had been sitting on the edge of her desk,  slowly stood up to full height.

“What did you say?”

“John. And. I. Have. Been. Seeing. One. Another.” Olivia said slowly and rudely. “We’re coming to the party together tonight.  I hope you don’t mind, Zoe? Stacker, now that you’ve inserted yourself in my business--probably on my father’s orders, I hope you don’t mind either?”

Two quick knocks and Zoe’s secretary peeked in and told her about an important call.  Olivia turned and walked out of Zoe’s office and to her much smaller one, slamming the door.  She then pulled out her phone and began to search for a nice tux rental place...

Stacker entered her office and slammed the door behind him! Olivia rolled her eyes and put away her phone.

“What?” she asked.

“First of all, your plans with Luther are over.  I know that you have reluctantly pulled him into a scheme to pretend to be involved.  But what you are holding over his head,  is no longer on the table.”

“i don’t know what you mean? Now if you would please leave...”

“You don’t think your father knew that Luther was in his car waiting to kill him? He could lose his badge. He probably bloody well will one day. He’s always been a careless sort.  But to hurt Zoe that way is just unconscionable.  Whatever problems you have with Eli are between the two of you!”

“No they’re not. Not anymore.  Zoe is planning on leaving John and marrying my father. That’s not only a stupid idea, it’s also a death wish.”

Stacker closed the distance between them and reached down to grip her hips within his large hands, linking them around her narrow waist.

“I heard everything this morning.  EVERYTHING!” Stacker said pointedly. Olivia’s expression darkened.

“You bugged John’s flat?”

“He tried to kill your father.”

“Take your hands off of me and leave.  Oh and I’m telling John!”

Stacker’s hands tightened around her waist.

“Tell him whatever you like.  If you were wise, you’d tell him to stop looking in to your father’s past and background. We both know it will not end well for him.”

“Or Zoe!” Olivia snapped, wrenching out of his hold.  “John loves her! And Zoe wouldn’t want anything to do with my father if she knew how horrible he was!”

“There are things that have to be done to keep nations safe, Olivia! And none of them have anything to do with you! You still have not learned to not take everything your father does, and does not do for you, personally, hey?”

“Bye!”  Olivia answered.

“Olivia, I....”

“Blah, blah...blah.  Yap, yap, yap! Goodbye! Get out!”  Olivia now huffed. Stacker turned and left her office, just as she listened to a message John had left for her on her phone.

He would not be needing a tux. He was on a case and would not be able to accompany her this evening.  Olivia just shook her head. There was no point in her  going then either. She had enough work to do here that would keep her busy, long past working hours.   Still, she thought him a fool.  Despite her persuasive methods earlier,  John Luther was not convinced  that her way was the right way.

Olivia was not going to badger him about it anymore.  If he lost Zoe and she ended up dead, at least she had tried to warn him.  She put away her phone and walked around to her desk to sit down.

Zoe, at this point in her relationship with Eli,  did not especially like meeting with John.  It was sneaky and deceitful.

But John had insisted on meeting at the townhouse that she still lived in, after she had asked him to leave. She found her husband standing on the porch since she had had the locks changed.

“What is this all about? What is it you couldn’t tell me over the phone?”  Zoe asked tiredly. 

“Can’t you guess?  Zoe, I am scared to death for you! We need to go inside and talk about Eli.”

“Oh my God, John! Stop! What ‘evidence’ do you have now that he is ‘much more than a museum curator’? Whatever it is, it’s hogwash!”

“Can we talk inside?” John asked calmly.  It didn’t look as if passerby's were noticing their heated conversation,  but that could change the longer they spoke. And the longer Zoe insisted on being so stubborn.

“Fine.”  Zoe sighed and walked up the steps past him to unlock the front door. They both stepped inside,  with John closing the door behind him.

“I would ask you to sit down, but I doubt this will take long.”  

“Because you’ve already decided to not believe me? Bloody hell, Zoe, what has happened to us? This man comes out of nowhere and now I’m not worth a tinker’s damn, am I?”

“What is it?  What new rubbish have you heard about Eli?”  Zoe asked crossly.

“Fine.  I’ll just come out with it:  we took a report from a young woman that went to a rather murderous dinner party. Meaning she was the only left alive after it was over. It took place on the estate of one ‘Damascus Bainbridge’.  When I looked into this Bainbridge, I found he went by another name--Elijah Pope.”

“Was Eli there at this ‘murderous dinner party’?”  Zoe asked sarcastically,  moving her fingers in quotes.

“It was HIS estate!”

“Meaning no?”

“Meaning how could a dinner party take place on one of his properties and he not know about it? I can’t go into anymore about it...”

“Oh of course you can’t.”

“What is wrong with you? Your attitude is more than about my accusing the man you’re sleeping with of murder!”  John yelled.

“Olivia says that the two of you are dating?  By dating does that mean fucking too?  Why did her car get vandalized in your neighborhood?” Zoe asked, her manner clearly hostile and...jealous?

John could not help but hold out a bit of hope at what he was hearing in her voice.  It bothered her. The idea of him and Olivia together.  Maybe Miss Pope had a point.

“She stopped by this morning, yes.” was all John wanted to say.  He was not about to admit to shagging her senseless.  Or he assumed he had. Olivia had not said.

“You bloody...” Zoe hissed.  “You can’t just leave me out of your darkness, can you? You have your work! That’s all you’ve ever wanted! That’s all you ever brought home to me!  I find something new and beautiful and you have ensured a way to stay in my new life for good!  How could you use Olivia like that?”

“I’m using her?!” John scoffed.

“Look, stay away from her.  She said the two of you were coming to the party Eli and I are throwing tonight.   Break it off.  It will only upset Eli.”

John said nothing more. He turned and walked out of his former home,  more convinced that he should have listened to Olivia. Clearly she had told Zoe about the two of them before she received his message.  He pulled out his phone and hit her number to call her back and change his mind.  Yes, he needed the tux. And yes,  he was on board with their plan.

But his call went to voicemail.

John’s call went to voicemail because Olivia wasn’t in the mood to answer it.  It was now lunch time and she walked through the underground parking garage to find her car.  Stacker had left the keys with Zoe’s secretary, along with a description of the new vehicle.

She spotted it and began to walk towards it,  when a limo quietly drove up next  to her and stopped. A chauffeur got out and tipped his hat to her.

“Pardon me, Miss, but Marshal Pentecost has something he wants to say to you.”

“Is it an apology?” Olivia asked wryly. The chauffeur shrugged and got back in to the car, closing the door.  Olivia sighed heavily and walked back towards end of the limo. The window came down and she bent down to look in...

Stacker Pentecost was sitting in the backseat, naked, his muscular length erect and waiting for her.

“No!”  Olivia screamed as the door opened and she was pulled inside of the vehicle!  The window was raised, then,  a few moments later,  it  lowered and Olivia Pope’s dress was tossed out and the limo itself sped off, exiting the structure.