Take It Easy On Me

Disclaimer; everything about Scandal belongs Shonda Rhimes.

Author notes; set after Beltway Unbuckled.

Take it easy on me
Take it easy on me
and I will trust you
I'll let you hurt me carefully
Beth Hart

Chapter 1

"Everything is gonna be all right" Edison's word played in Olivia's mind when she closed the apartment door behind her. No, it wasn't!. It was never going to be okay. She had played and been burned badly in return.

Maybe she deserved the pain; she had taken something that had never belonged to her, and could never truly belong to her.

Closing her eyes she leaned back and rested her back and head against the door, she was exhausted. Hurting and exhausted.

Edison was a good man, they had been good together for a while, at least they had matched fine from what she remembered of their time together. The memories were mostly shadowed by other, more powerful, memories of another man.

It wasn't fair, and she knew it. Edison was a good man. Olivia repeated the mantra a few times until the other memories faded into the back of her mind, where she tried to hide them but mostly failed.

Had it been a normal life, a simple life when she was engaged to Edison? Had she been happy? No, nothing was normal or simple when you operated in the political arena, nothing were just black or white, right or wrong. No, it was all mixed into a grey texture of black and white, of right and wrong. And… she had been riding the political rollercoaster even then, so had Edison.

Life had been simpler then, her heart had been intact, her gut had never lied to her. It was before…when happiness was an option, when she didn't want to hurt him, al the time. No, she hadn't been truly happy, she knew that now.

No, she wouldn't go to the after, sighing deeply she took a moment to recover, before she opened her eyes. Life wasn't fair, it needed a lot of fixing but never became close to fair. Happiness and power never walk hand in hand one had to be sacrificed.

Slowly Olivia stepped out of her shoes and wrinkling her toes she felt the cool touch of the wooden floor beneath her feet, the coolness was heaven for her sore feet. High heels made her look taller and made her feel attractive, but they were less friendly in the end of the day.

She had just ended a long meeting after a long day actually; it had been a long week, not to mention that it had been six long months. Walking tiredly to the couch she switched on the CNN channel, the world never slept, news was created every hour of the day, and somewhere a war was going on. Staying on top of the game in DC meant knowing the details behind the news, preferably before it hit the networks, tonight wasn't different. With a serious voice and his face grave Morrison spoke of the upcoming G8 meeting in Tokyo, his voice was followed by a film of the President saying goodbye to the First Lady before he boarded Air Force One.

Her body reacted instantly, her lungs refusing to take in air, and her body becoming numb except from the aching pain in her chest. "We are done" the words echoed in her ears and wouldn't leave her alone. He looked broken hearted, and the lack of sleep covered his skin with a grayish layer of fatigue. Briefly, she wondered if her skin was just as unhealthy looking. The pain became worse when the camera zoomed in on the President touching Mellie's pregnant belly.

The ring of her cell phone disturbed her, and glancing at her watch she sighed it was close to midnight. "Cyrus" she greeted.

"We need to speak, the bench tomorrow morning at ten!" He sounded less hostile but tired.

The tiredness worried her; Cyrus never slowed down except on Sundays and today was Tuesday. "Sure" she replied and hung up.

On Air Force One Fitz looked out of the window, they had worked together, Olivia had joined forces with Mellie. Never had he felt so betrayed, he didn't know whether to cry or laugh. The pain he had felt when he watched his wife appearing on the television talking to Jenny's parents had been devastating and numbed him. He had found it hard to breathe.

The numbness had shut his emotions down until he had talked the situation through with Cyrus. Cyrus had pointed out how similar in their heartlessness Mellie and…Olivia were but he couldn't believe, wouldn't believe that Olivia had hurt him on purpose and was alike Mellie. But they had worked together against him. The woman he trusted with his life had crushed him and now he felt too much almost wishing the numbness back. His Livvie, no she wasn't his anymore, he was letting her go…

Olivia Pope must really hate him, he couldn't turn his love into hate, but he felt cornered emotionally and that made him angry. Pain and anger were all he had left.

He had lost her.

At eight o'clock the next day Olivia walked through the doors to her office, wearing black pants, a classic white sleeveless shirt, high heels and a fresh layer of discreet make up she was the picture of an efficient woman who took the hard calls.

Abby swept into the entrance hall to meet her; "we've a guest." When she wasn't rewarded with an answer Abby tilted her head to the right, "it may be of no interest to you since it's not a private call or case, but perhaps you could fake interest?"

Stirring directly into Abby's eyes Olivia waited, Abby hated being kept in the dark, she wanted to know all the details of everyone's lives, Pope and Associated wasn't kind to her in that regard, everyone had secrets and shared very few private details. It made Abby cranky.

Abby continued, "Supreme Court Judge Lawson is waiting for you, he won't talk before Olivia Pope is in. He looks a little sour if you ask me. Do you know him?"

"I know Judge Lawson." Olivia forced a smile on her face, walked past Abby and into the conference room.

"Hallo Walker, how is Georgia?" Olivia greeted the guest, he was a high profile judge with connections to the Senate, and he was a sworn Liberal.

Judge Lawson walked around the table to shake Olivia's hand, "good to see you again Olivia, you look good" The smile never warmed his eyes, they were bloodshed and sad. "Georgia is fine, just fine. She doesn't know I'm here though."

Olivia made eye contact with Harrison, a little shake of his head was all she got, getting the same from Huck and Quinn, Olivia silently gestured for Judge Lawson to take his seat ad followed his example.

"What can we do for you, Walker? I take it you're here on business?"

The judge leaned deeper into the chair, and folding his hands in front of him he kept his eyes hidden for a couple of minutes before he took a deep breath, and looked up to meet Olivia's eyes. "I trust nothing leaves this room?" Nodding her head in agreement, Olivia looked straight into his eyes.

"Well, it's about Oliver." Pausing he took another deep breath, "yesterday he was arrested in his apartment. Unfortunately he wasn't alone."

"Why was Oliver arrested and who was with him?" Olivia didn't blink, another rich boy caught with his hand in the jar.

Judge Lawson's eyes flinched to his right side avoiding her intense stare. "He was arrested for possession of drugs; coke and amphetamine and…" Swallowing, the judge met her eyes again, "and a sexual relationship with an under aged…boy."

Abby opened her mouth but a stern stare from Olivia made her close it without uttering a word.

"Oliver is still at law school?" Olivia's looked at Judge Lawson but her attention was divided between him and her staff, she was gauging their reactions.

"Yes, his final year."

Harrison leaned forward, "has he been involved with the law before Judge Lawson?"

Flexing his fingers the judge looked uncomfortable, "nothing serious, he was arrested two years ago for procession of drugs, he agreed to take counseling and the charges were dropped."

Did you know about his sexual orientation judge Lawson" Abby smiled sweetly.

Intertwining his fingers together, the judge turned his face towards Olivia. "No I didn't. Oliver always came home with girls, lovely girls from nice homes. He made his mother proud."

Olivia felt his confusion and discomfort, "who is the young boy and how old is he?"

The response was slow and came in a monotone tone of voice, "Emilio Lopez he is 17."

"Okay Walker, we need to speak to Oliver before we decide if we want to take the case, I'll call you as soon as I know something. Oliver is 24, right?"

"Yes. Thank you, Olivia." Judge Lawson suddenly looked much younger and seemed to breathe more easily, "you've my private number, use it, please."

"Of course, Walker," Olivia walked the judge to the door, but as soon as the door closed behind him she yelled, "Harrison locate Oliver and make an appointment to see him, I will meet you there. Huck, see what you can find on Oliver and Emilio. Abby, talk to Oliver's neighbors and Quinn, locate the boy. I'm going out."

"To another secret meeting?" Abby's sarcastically asked. All she got was a sour look from Olivia and a roll of Harrison's eyes.

Cyrus turned his head in her direction when he heard the clapping of her heels against the ground, his arms rested against the back of the bench, and he looked relaxed but the tension around his eyes gave him away.

"Cyrus" Olivia greeted before she sat down next to him.

"Hallo Cyrus, how are you? Fine! Thanks for asking." He joked. Not long ago she would've played along but much had changed in the last six month, she didn't hold the same respect for him anymore.

"Well," he said when she offered nothing, "we've a problem inside the White House, it may blow up in our faces."

"Hollis Doyle explain the David Rosen problem pretty well last night, did I miss something since you summoned me, Cyrus?" How she would've liked to miss some things last night, like being confronted with Mellie's very pregnant body, that all too clearly reminded Olivia whose child grow inside the First Lady. Every time Mellie moved that thought had distracted Olivia,

"This isn't about David Rosen, it's about the First Lady."

"Mellie?"

To be continued