Downfall

Everytime

"What the fuck is your problem?" Fitz yanked the phone back from his ear; his eardrums ringing at Chloe's loud outburst. He knew he shouldn't have answered his phone the moment he saw her number.

"I have my reasons, Chloe."

"She has given her all to your campaign and we both know she was the best damn thing that ever happened to it."

"I don't want her turning into –"

"You didn't even give her a chance to defend herself! Stop being a condescending asshole and go look at the rest of your team for answers. Oh, and when you do realize just how much you have fucked up, remember that Olivia isn't going to come crawling back – or even walking back – as easily as you'd wish." The line went silent at the end of that outburst. Fitz sighed, rubbing his forehead. Chloe was hot tempered, but that...that was over the top. A light rapping sound drew his attention to the door.

"Have you seen Olivia?" Toby poked his head through the door, looking around the office as if expecting her to pop up out of nowhere.

"She's..." Fitz paused. They were one month out from the election. He couldn't announce that he had fired his campaign manager without all but saying that he was giving up on his campaign. He would loose every last lead that Olivia had managed to scrape together for him. He didn't want to see her become what Mellie and Cyrus had become – cold, calculating, heartless individuals, but he didn't want all of her work to go down the drain for nothing, either. "She's not feeling well. Won't be in today."

"Well that's great. I need her to help find the leak."

"Leak?" Fitz tilted his head. Toby was good at his job; excellent at his job, but he always talked in riddles. Riddles that only Olivia seemed capable of deciphering. Now that she wasn't here to do that, it fell upon Fitz to complete that task.

"Someone made a copy of that file and handed it over to the media. Haven't you seen the news this morning?"

"What do you mean they made a copy?"

"Olivia gave Cyrus our only copy of the file yesterday and when he brought it to me and tried to get me to release it, I locked it in my desk like Olivia asked me. She didn't want it released unless I got confirmation from you that we were going ahead with the release. Yet somehow the media has that file – meaning that some time yesterday before I received it, someone had to have made a copy...or broke into my desk."

The gears practically started turning in Fitz's head – if Olivia had told Toby to put that file under lock and key unless given permission to release it...then how had it been released? And by whom? He glanced at his phone, the sudden urge to take a hammer to the slim device flashing in his mind as he thought of the long, heated conversation he would have to have with Chloe later. She was going to kill him.

"Did Cyrus make a copy?" He had a feeling that the answer was no. If it had been Cyrus, Toby would have lead with that rather than asking for help in finding the culprit.

"No one used the copier yesterday and he handed that file to me literally within minutes of Olivia giving it to him. He didn't have time to copy it."

"Then how the hell was it released, Toby?"

"That's what I'm trying to figure out," he tossed his hands in the air, "This would be a lot easier if Olivia were here."

"Well she's not, so you have me to deal with."

"Oh the joys," Toby murmured, heading toward the door, "I'm going to go see what I can dig up."

Fitz sat at his desk, tapping a pen against the wooden top. Olivia hadn't released that file...he'd like to say that knowing that put his mind at ease, but it didn't. He had screwed up and he knew it. He would be lucky if she ever spoke to him again – or willingly took her position back. He had been so hasty to act – the desire to protect her from becoming the type of person that he had seen politics turn Cyrus and Mellie into causing him to forget that Olivia wasn't like them. He had wanted to protect her. And he failed.