Executive Orders

CH 56: Episode 15: Thoughts And Conversations

Jake gave Olivia an odd sort of look. "I'm on the clock, same as you."

She should have known the answer before the question left her lips. For whatever reason, Jake had been assigned to supervision over the mobile communication security hub that followed the president whenever he left DC.

He definitely had the clearance for it, but Olivia found it ...odd, even though she didn't know why she was thinking that way.

Of course, Jake left out the part where he'd pushed the narrative to Fitz that he wanted nothing more than to serve and protect and that currently in his opinion, this was the best way he could do it.

Were these his only reasons? Jake wasn't sure of that himself. He was sure that no one else really needed to know that either - or who it served more, the president or himself.

Right now, his life needed - something. Right now, he was following his instincts - that's what Jake reminded himself. And that's what any good servant of the republic would do, right? If serving the president allowed him to serve himself at the same time, there's nothing wrong with that, right?

Right.

Jake pulled himself back from his thoughts in time to notice the way Olivia was looking at him and decided that the last thing that he wanted was for her to start asking him any questions about his last-minute appointment, so he quickly changed the subject. "If you need to get off the clock, we've got an entire guest-house at our disposal. I can take care of anything you want, anything you need."

Harrison was there before Olivia could answer. "That's a real generous offer, but today that's my job, so thanks but no thanks - I've got this."

As if to underscore his words, he took Olivia's hand, resting it on his arm and then covering it with his own. Harrison didn't know why he was saying what he was saying - or why he was doing what he was doing, but logic be damned, his gut was telling him what to do. A hint of warning swirled around his senses; maybe someone was watching them, wondering about them. Something had put him on alert and he knew better than to argue with it.

He leaned closer so that only Olivia could hear him. "Talk about being on the clock..."

She picked up on both his gesture and briefly, his caution brushed against her senses, but Olivia was more focused on the work ahead of them at the moment. As if to remind her of the reason why they were here, she caught a glimpse of Colleen Cassidy from the corner of her eye.

The other woman saw Olivia at the same time; Colleen was with her father; she bent down to his wheelchair to point Olivia out to him, then turned back to Olivia and waved.

Seeing Colleen reminded Olivia of everything happening in the here and now. "Harrison's right. Maybe we'll talk later, Jake." She said just before turning away.

In keeping with their subterfuge, Harrison slid his arm around Olivia's waist. Neither of them saw the shadow in Jake's eyes as they walked away.

"You don't think you were a little abrupt just now?" he asked.

"What?" Olivia was startled out of her thoughts.

"Jake." Harrison gestured back towards where they'd been standing. "It seemed like he wanted to talk to you about something."

"I don't know what that might be, and whatever it was, it can most definitely wait. He said it himself, we're all here working."

"True." Harrison had to admit that she was right. Even so...

Olivia gave little thought to Jake's conversation; it hadn't been her intention to be rude or to brush him off - but he had to know that her mind was focused just as much on her job as he was on his. What was more important was her interaction with Colleen as she joined her and her father.

Patrick Connor Cassidy - also known as "PC" Cassidy - as much as for his initials as for the ground-breaking technology education advances that his companies had innovated - and that his daughter had built her own reputation and companies on.

The relationship between them was instantly recognizable after a few minutes of conversation. Colleen was a daddy's girl as rumors had said, but in this case it was her sharing the same sharp wit and easy laughter of her father, along with the true red hair of their Irish heritage.

The elder Cassidy sat easily in his wheelchair, the result of a car accident a decade earlier leaving him with painful muscle spasms in his legs. It had been an odd blessing in disguise, he'd often declared and explained to Olivia and Harrison after introductions were made, having guided his interests into technology that would serve him personally first and then grew his companies into the corporate giants that they were.

He also proved the point that the older a person got, the less inclined they became to holding back their opinions.

"Only Nat -" he said, referring to Nathaniel. "Only he would throw a barbecue in November. I wonder what machinations he's hiding in plain sight this time?"

Olivia and Harrison exchanged a quick and amused glance.

"Whatever it is, if he's going to try and reel my daughter into it, I wanted to make damned sure that I was here to hear it from the horse's ass." Patrick said.

"That's mouth, Dad - from the horse's mouth." Colleen said.

"I said what I said."

"Have you spoken with Nathaniel yet?" Olivia didn't bother to hide her smile. She'd love to have been a fly on the wall when that had happened.

"You mean did I run to bend the knee?" he snorted. "Not bloody likely. I'll be hearing what he has to say soon enough. There's too many lovely lasses around to be bothering myself at the moment. I know how Nat's mind works and he can't help himself. Those damned Leo's can't help themselves."

"You should know, Dad." Colleen said. She turned to Olivia. "Dad was born in August. Leo with Leo rising. Three weeks older than Uncle Nat and he never lets him forget it." She explained this to the group with a grin.

"Since your birthday is the same day as mine - I could say the same about you." He shot back.

"And I wouldn't deny it, Old Man. But I do it in a much more prettier package." She said.

"And a honeyed tongue." PC shot at her.

"What's the saying about catching more flies with honey than with vinegar?" She shot right back.

They all laughed.

A server came around with mugs of hot cider and Olivia waited until they had served them and left before she asked her question. "Uncle - Nat?"

"He's my god-father." Colleen explained. "There's quite a pack of us."

Patrick threw a pretend frown at his daughter. "There's no need to remind me of a mistake I made long ago." He pretended to look disgusted at himself, not caring that he fooled no one.

They were still laughing and talking when Fitz reappeared. Olivia was surprised to see Jocelyn Martin with him, the senior NSA Special Envoy of his senior staff, with him.

Olivia was happy enough to see the other woman - they'd worked together in the past, but she was surprised to see her because for the last few weeks, she'd been out of the country with her daughter. "I didn't know you were back in DC."

"That's because I haven't made it that far yet." Jocelyn explained with a laugh. "I was in between flights on my way home with Shireen when Nathaniel Caldwell contacted me. When he mentioned that he expected both you and the president, he knew that would be enough to get me to agree to his last-minute invite. Shireen decided to tag along - I hope that's okay."

"I don't see why it shouldn't be." Olivia said. For a moment, the idea of Shireen's presence set off no alarms. Her first thoughts were that Nathaniel Caldwell seemed to be pulling a lot of strings and she was trying to get ahead of him, wondering what his end-game truly was.

But then the last conversation she'd had with Harrison came swooping back into her thoughts; a glance at him told her that he was thinking the same. Jocelyn Martin's daughter was Shireen Davis - as in Jake's possibly, probably now ex-girlfriend.

That was a possible, probable unexpected complication that none of them needed.