Even Lovers Drown CH 40

Jake hung up the phone, an odd expression playing over his face. He was pretty sure that Olivia Pope would say yes in the morning. From the look on her face, he was pretty sure of it.

And that wasn’t in his mind’s eye. A series of monitor screens were on the wall opposite him and all of them were focused on a different area of Olivia’s apartment. If he felt any qualms about watching a woman, he pushed them away.

He was just following orders. He was still following orders.

Olivia Pope had gotten herself declared a person of interest by the president of these United States.  That was enough to set his inner intel senses ringing. There was something there, whether to be warded against or safeguarded, he still didn’t know. That he didn’t know the particulars was not a problem for the moment. He understood need-to-know intelligence, so he couldn’t fault Fitz - not when he was the president - for not telling him everything, but he knew it anyway - there’s something more.

There was something in the president’s words, something in this situation, something more in this story, something more in her eyes - that told him so.

Just what exactly, he was suddenly determined to find out. He reached for the remote and clicked the images off. And sat there, thinking, into the late hours of the night.

//**//

The phone rang just as Olivia was getting out of the shower the next morning. Not that she expected to have actually slept in - it was barely after seven in the morning - but it would have been nice to have been able to pretend it was for a little while.

“We and your people need to meet.” It was Shireen Davis.

Olivia went into fixer mode. “I’ll be there within thirty minutes.” She wondered what had happened.

Across town, Jake was watching and wondering too.

//**//

They all arrived within ten minutes of one another. Shireen arrived with Quinn, who arrived with coffee.

They gathered around the conference table while Shireen tossed a flat velvet case onto the table.

It slid closest to Harrison, so he flicked the catch open. “Whoa.”

Abby lifted an eyebrow. “Sparkly. If it’s real.”

Huck made a gesture and Harrison slid it down to him. Huck picked the piece up. It was pretty unique; Olivia didn’t think she’d ever seen anything quite like it.

It was meant to seen. A spray of diamonds and palest topaz stones, fashioned to resemble a peacock feather. Huck was turning it in the sunlight and it splashed reflections into the room.

“It’s real.” Huck said, at last. Abby’s eyebrows lifted but said nothing. No one else even bothered to question him.

He put it back on the tray and pushed back.

Olivia turned back to Shireen. “This came this morning, I’m presuming?”

She nodded. “Along with an invitation to the State dinner this week.”

Shireen sank into a chair. “My mother had asked me to attend - Michael - that’s her husband - had plans to be out of town. Her invitation was sudden and unexpected, from what she said, so she asked me to go with her. I hadn’t decided. And then this came.”

Olivia was staring off into somewhere else. The others stood there, waiting.

“Olivia?” Harrison asked after a moment.

“I’m thinking.” she said. Her eyes remained far-away. Facts slid over one another in her mind, slipping and sliding, finding crevices and seeing if they fit. When they did, a hint of a possible pattern floated before her mind’s eye for just the merest second before they shifted, rearranged themselves on the landscapes of her mind, trying to find possibilities where they were none, probabilities where there were only possibilities.

“Go.” she said suddenly. Before anyone could ask what she meant, she explained. “Shireen, I want you to go to the reception. It could be that someone plans on making contact there - in which case, this situation may be bigger than we thought it was.”

“Huck -”

“I’m on it.” he replied. “I’ll get the guest list and see what information I can pull about who’s attending.”

“I’m not sure about this,” Shireen started.

“Not to worry.” Olivia told her. “See if you can get a plus-one from your mother. Tell her you’re bringing a date.”

As one, everyone turned to Huck, who instantly froze in place, eyes darting from Olivia to Shireen. Abby showed her amusement openly.

“Harrison - you’re the date.” Olivia said. A wash of relief crossed Huck’s face.

Olivia turned back to Shireen. “If your mother can’t get the ticket, let me know and I’ll see what strings I can pull.”

She paused, thinking. “Abby, Quinn - you have pictures of Shireen’s jewelry. I want you to hit some high end auction houses or whatever you can come up with. I want to find out why someone would go through the trouble of sending you these pieces and wanting you to wear them for this particular event.”

“A sick power play?” Abby suggested.

“Maybe - maybe not. We have to rule out all possibilities - as many as we can - before we can make any sort of educated guess. Abby, I’ll want you at that function as to serve as Harrison’s second set of eyes inside - we’ll work out the details later.”

She looked around. “All right people, we have the plan -let’s get moving on it.”

As everyone started to disperse, Olivia looked at Shireen. “Can I see you in my office for a moment?”

Once there, she waved Shireen to a seat while she started walking back and forth. “I need for you to be honest with me.”

“I am being honest with you.” Shireen said. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“People lie for a number of reasons, all of them good in their mind at the time. But lying to me makes my job harder; lying to me can make my job impossible. What aren’t you telling me, Shireen?”

The other woman shook her head. “I don't know. What is it you think I’m not telling you?”

Olivia stopped in front of her desk and leaned back against its edge. “Who’s your father?”

Shireen stiffened. “I don't see what that has to do with anything...”

“Who. Is. Your. Father?”

“Everyone knows my mother’s history - that she brought me up as a single mother.” Shireen said. Seeing Olivia’s expression, she reacted badly and snapped her answer at her. “It’s none of your business.”

“Why?”

Her hands gripped the armrests on her chair while her voice went low and angry. A little time passed before she was able to answer. Olivia said nothing, waiting.

“Because I don’t know.”

“You never asked your mother?”

She went silent again. Olivia watched as Shireen visibly forced herself to relax. She looked away from Olivia before she started talking.

“Of course I asked, when I was a little kid. But I learned pretty quickly that my momma didn’t like talking about him much and we were  pretty much ‘you and me against the world’ back then so I learned not to ask.”

She folded her hands together in her lap. “When I grew older - it just didn’t matter as much. Both of us were flying high. We were good - we were happy. My mother hadn’t had anyone serious in her life all while I was growing up. And then she met Michael. Do you know he pursued her for years  before she would even date him. Who was I to bring all of that back up, after all she’s given up for me?”

“Did it ever occur to you that if this is an outside of your job contacts, that it might be your father trying to reach you?”

Shireen’s eyes widened. “You mean the gifts, this invitation?...” her voice trailed off. “It never even occurred to me that my father was even alive...”

“What do you mean?” Olivia asked.

“It was one of the reasons why I stopped asking after I’d grown up a little. I’d heard a rumor - heard it from several sources - that my father might have been a photo journalist -Lewis Parks - that went missing and was presumed dead back in the days of revolutions in the middle east. He wasn’t world famous or anything, but he did have a name for himself in the field. I wouldn’t ask my mother about something so painful as that.”

Olivia stood there and thought for a minute more. “I apologize for pretty much accusing you of not being honest with me. I should have brought the matter up before - but you were so insistent that it was an in-house matter. Why?”

“It’s a very competitive space I work in. There are rivalries and sometimes cliques and sometimes out and out disagreements over protocols and policies. We all know it, we all deal with it. It’s very much an underground thing - and I won’t go into details, but I’d bet it’s just as convoluted as some of the issues you’ve had to deal with.”

She looked up at Olivia, allowing herself a small smile. “I’ve done my homework - you should ask Jake sometimes - you could two could probably swap war stories...”

Shireen’s fingers came up to cover her mouth as she realized what she had said. Her expression said clearly that it was obvious that she hadn’t meant to.

Olivia hadn’t missed it either. “Jake? - Why should I ask...Jake?”

Shireen looked reluctant to say, but it was too late. She smiled apologetically. “Well, not that I meant to blab it, but your name has come up once or twice in conversation. He mentioned something about meeting you at a wine shop? - but I haven’t told him anything about why I’m really here.”

Olivia wasn’t annoyed, she simply filed the information away for later study. She nodded absently for an answer, but her mind was on other matters. “This actually might work in our favor.”

“How so?” Shireen asked.

“I’m not sure yet.” Olivia answered, one finger tapping against her lips, eyes thoughtful. “I’ll let you know when I figure it all out.”