Executive Orders

CH 13 | Episode 04: Innervisions

Just as she'd promised, Olivia stopped by Cyrus' office before she left the White House.

He started to stand as she entered, but Olivia waved to him to stay in his seat. As he resettled himself, he gestured for her to do the same, but Olivia shook her head, murmuring a polite refusal. That should have been his first clue.

As she sat her coat and bag down, Cyrus did have the foresight to study her carefully from head to toe, looking for anything that might give him a clue on how to proceed. He knew that the excuse he'd given to bring her to his office earlier had been a weak one and more than likely both Olivia and Fitz had seen right through it.

"Just was it that you wanted to see me about, Cy?" She asked as she turned to face him.

"Is that job offer still open?" He tried for a joke.

The briefest of smiles crossed her face, but then her expression shifted. Cyrus knew that she was allowing him to see exactly what she was thinking, that he was many things: dragon-slayer, gate-keeper, master politician and manipulator and on occasion, political monster - and he knew she was wondering which role he was playing right now.

"Like I said in the Oval, it was just a germ of an idea." Cyrus began. ""Just laying out some very preliminary ground-work. What would you think about you and I teaming up and dropping in on a few of our friends and frenenemies unannounced over on the Hill - just to see which way the wind was blowing now that Fitz's suddenly soon to be single and possibly ready to mingle status has now hit the airways."

"And this was something you wanted to discuss with me away from Fitz?" Her eyes were studying him just as carefully as he'd studied her a few minutes earlier. "Why?"

"Because Sally isn't the only one who's not particularly happy with the idea of a divorcing Republican First Family - and I didn't want to bring that up with Fitz in the moment." Cyrus paused as though he were choosing his words carefully. "I'm not a total monster, despite all the rumors to the contrary."

Olivia walked over to his window and looked out, but didn't answer him.

Her silence gave him the push to continue. "As you can guess, as soon as either one of us meet with anyone, the word will be out, so - one: I wanted your input if you thought it would do any good to exploit this at this time, and two: if you did, who should be at the top of the list."

In another moment of being honest with himself, Cyrus could see that this was a viable idea even as the words left his lips, even as he acknowledged that his idea had only been a cover. He also reminded himself that the best lies were sown with a kernel of truth.

Cyrus didn't want to do this, he didn't like the necessity of lying to either Olivia or Fitz, but there were priorities - and there were priorities - and he'd be lying to himself if he didn't admit that theirs might be different from his.

But someone had to think of not only the present-time optics, but the effect of the down-ballot repercussions, not just in DC but from coast to coast. Others would be, whether they turned out to be the White House's direct opposition or others looking out for their own self-interests.

This wasn't personal, Cyrus told himself. It was just politics. "Do you think your people could do a little extracurricular research on them. I'd use my own people, but that might give the matter more importance than it needs to be right now -" He stopped talking as Olivia turned back towards him.

Although the following silence stretched out between them for one very long minute, it only took a moment for Cyrus to see what was in her eyes.

She knew.

"Well done, Cy." Olivia said quietly. "It's a good idea - and if I didn't know better, I might have even believed that this is why you wanted to see me."

He was smart enough not to answer, not to insult Olivia's intelligence with another lie.

She walked back towards him, stopping at a small side table that held a crystal carafe of water and several glasses. She poured herself a drink and took a sip before turning back to him with a sigh.

"You do know that Fitz and I are somewhat aware of how your mind works, don't you?" Her words were not really a question and Cyrus' answer was a careful lifting of his eyebrows.

Olivia read his unspoken reply. "You serve the office of the presidency and the republic just as faithfully as you serve Fitz - in fact I think that sometimes, it's toss-up as to which is your priority from day to day."

"Some might call that a good thing, a patriotic and faithful thing." She settled herself directly in front of him. "But they don't know the real you. I think that you may the only one who does - and I say that because I also wonder if even you know yourself."

"I think that's a question that we all face, don't you?" Cyrus had allowed her to get out what she had to say, but he had his own agenda fully uppermost in his mind. Priorities.

"Touche." Olivia set her hands on his desk and leaning forward to look directly into his eyes. "That's true enough. But we're talking about you right now. I know that I would never dare to presume to know the real you and I very much doubt that Fitz would either."

"You mean you and he haven't discussed me?" His smile held a slight hint of a bitter chill in it.

"Endlessly." Olivia's smile reflected his. "Sadly, I doubt that James knows the real you either - "But we both know that you will do everything in your power to make sure that Ella never will." "

She was going straight for the jugular, slicing deep into his weak points - just the way he'd taught her. Cyrus acknowledged the hit with a tiny nod. He'd recover, but right now, it hurt.

Cyrus saw a measure of his pain in hers, watched as she steeled herself to go on.

"Your idea is a good one, Cy - and here's another, one that you should keep in mind as we move forward - you heard Fitz loud and clear today. Whether he chooses rightly or wrongly, we're going to run this campaign his way. There will be no end runs around his decisions, no doing what's best for him without either his input or his final say on anything, and especially no actions taken on behalf of the greater good of the republic or on whatever Fitz and Fitz alone decides."

"Because we owe him for Defiance?" Cyrus asked, reading her determination.

Olivia nodded. "Because we owe him for Defiance. And so much more. Don't you think he deserves the chance to earn and win the presidency on his own terms?"

Fitz didn't believe in political expediency; it was one of the reasons why the American People had responded to him so strongly - and they'd only had a glimpse of it. But that wasn't how campaigns were won, let alone a presidential re-election bid.

"You know what he wants as well as I do. You know how he wants it. No tricks, no lies, no games. This isn't about just what Fitz wants - this is about what he needs."

For the first time since she'd arrived, Cyrus saw a fierceness rise up in her that was nearly incandescent in its purity. "And you're going to give it to him, no matter what."

"If I have to serve him your head on a platter like Salome before the king." Olivia said.

This time the smile Cyrus gave Olivia was genuine, despite the warning she'd just given him. If her words caused it to twist a little twist at its edges, it was just a sign of the new order of things, then that was okay too. "Well, now that we've gotten the ground rules out of the way..."