Damaged

You Made Me A Believer

"Nice one!" Olivia doubled over, placing her hands on her knees and breathing heavily, as her trainer gave her a thumbs-up. She brought her arm to her forehead, swiping at the sweat that was threatening to run into her eyes. Her side ached from the physical exertion she had been through in the last hour.

"You're a fast learner," the trainer commented, holding a bottle of water in front of Olivia's face. Olivia reached for the bottle, half-tempted to place the cool bottle against her warm face, and unscrewed the lid – gulping the cool liquid.

"I never did knock you down." She screwed the lid back on her bottle, sat it on the ground, and took a few deep breaths – her breath finally returning to normal. She placed her hands on her hips and bent backwards, stretching her sore back muscles.

"Patience! You'll get to that and you landed some great punches." She shook her head, unwilling to accept the tall redhead's words of encouragement. She wouldn't go easy on herself until she had perfected her fighting technique. She sighed at the thought of that: her fighting technique. Fighting, or anything remotely close to it, was something she never thought that she would do. Fitz had convinced her to take these pseudo 'self-defense' lessons. He had told her it would build her confidence – and make it easier to face Jake. The man still tried to occasionally place himself in the position to cross paths with her. Fitz was a surefire way to put a stop to that, but he couldn't always be around.

"We'll see about that Jocie." Olivia slung her cooling towel over her shoulders, sighing as the cold seeped into her sore, heated shoulders. She rolled her shoulders backward – they were a little stiff.

"Hey, you're doing great. Don't give up. I'll see you Thursday." Jocelyn patted Olivia on the shoulders, giving her a wide smile as she grabbed her bag and headed toward the exit. Olivia watched as she stopped by the weights, exchanging a few words with Fitz before she headed out. Retrieving her water bottle from the floor at her feet, Olivia took another gulp of water before inching toward the weights. Fitz stood in front of the large, floor-length mirror, a fifty-pound dumbbell in his hands as he did bicep curls. Crossing her arms and leaning against the wall, Olivia gave him an appreciative once-over, watching his sweat covered arms flex with each movement. She grinned when he winked at her, finishing his last set before placing the weights back in their respective spots.

"Jocie said you catch on quick," he commented, gulping at his own water bottle. Olivia shrugged.

"She said she's new to this whole teaching thing," Olivia probed. This had been her first session with Jocelyn and she had admitted to Olivia that she had never taught fighting techniques before. Olivia had taken that to mean that Jocelyn typically operated as a personal trainer, at best, only to discover that she wasn't that either.

"I asked her to teach you. She was in here the same time as Eric and I..." he trailed off, watching for her reaction at the mention of his friend. She hadn't seen Eric in years, but it didn't surprise her that he and Fitz were still close.

"Oh? How is Eric?"

"He's great. Just got engaged. He's worried about you, Liv." She bowed her head, staring intently at her shoelaces as her mind worked through what Fitz had said.

"You talked about me?"

"Of course. Nothing bad, I promise," Fitz threw a heart-stopping smile her way as he reached for his towel, "He was your friend at one point, Liv. He still cares for you."

She allowed the ghost of a smile to tug at her lips. The idea that her old friends still cared for her was new. Sure Abby had stuck around, but the others had seemed to go about their lives and she wasn't one for dragging them down just to make herself feel better. She had always considered Eric to be her friend because of Fitz – she had never imagined that he actually cared about her.