WHITE HOUSE
Fitz is sitting at his desk working on his speech when Cyrus walks into the office and sits on the couch.

Fitz: "Cyrus! I know J.P. and Sally are probably crying in the hall, but I'm writing my own speech now. It's good. It's great. I'll show it to you when I'm done."

Cyrus: "Amanda Tanner is pregnant."

Fitz: "What?"

Cyrus: "The good news is Amanda doesn't want your money. She wants publicity. Also good you don't have to worry about that sex tape, because who needs a sex tape when you've got a fetus full of presidential D.N.A.? It's a win-win."

Fitz: "That's not my baby."

Cyrus: "You just keep practicing that line. You're gonna be saying it a lot."

Fitz: "Okay, what do we do? Next step? How do we? How do we fix this?"

Cyrus: "I don't know."

Fitz: "Cyrus, I know you're upset, but we have to game plan this."

Cyrus: "What's next? What's next? Okay, here's what happens next you resign from office now. Or Amanda goes on TV, tells her sad, sordid tale, there are hearings, you're impeached, and you're forced to resign from office. Your Vice President a moronic, right-wing nut job who thinks the Tea Party was founded to lower the yacht tax and who also seems to not quite understand that evolution isn't an idea but an actual fact, but who cares? We won the scary states in the election. They'll have a party now that their grand wizard is President. I'm pretty sure I'll never see a legal marriage and women will lose their right to choose, but hey, whatever. We're all Republicans, even if the new President will give Republicans a bad name. You'll leave in disgrace, go home to California, keep a low profile for a while, and then some fancy publishing house will pay you a fortune for a book, which you'll write, only it won't talk about what everyone really wants to know about, it won't talk about your sordid affair with a White House aide. It'll talk about policy and your thoughts on the economy, and it won't sell because no one cares about your thoughts on policy and the economy anymore because you're not the president anymore. What you are now is a joke on 'Letterman.' Mellie, a lovely woman, ambitious and strong, and, well, quite wealthy in her own right she's not gonna be circa 1998 Hillary on this. No siree. This is the 21st century. She's gonna leave you and she's gonna take your children with her, and everyone will applaud her, from the religious right to the women's groups, because you're a philandering pig who had a child out of wedlock, and we all know it's true because we heard the tape. You'll be alone in your house in Santa Barbara, listening to old records and telling the same story over and over again to the poor sap not smart enough to get out of being assigned to your secret service detail. Then one day, about, oh, three or four years from now, you'll step into your bathroom, take out that revolver your father gave you when you were elected governor, you'll put it in your mouth and you'll blow the back of your skull off. Oprah's retired now, so I guess I have to do a post-funeral interview with Barbara Walters. She's nice." he tells him, then jumping up to walk out of the room. "But, you know you just go back to writing your own speech. That's important." he says to him. "That matters." he chuckles while walking out of the office. 

~~~~~

OPA
Mia, Liv, Stephen, Quinn and Amanda are sitting in Liv's office discussing what is happening next in Amanda's case.

Stephen: "We'll be filing a petition to determine the paternity of your child in D.C. superior court, after which there will be a hearing and a D.N.A. test."

Mia: "The petition is public, which is going to set things in motion."

Olivia: "That same day you'll be taping an interview with Diane Sawyer for '20/20.'"

Amanda: "Diane Sawyer?"

Olivia: "Don't worry. We'll be doing mock interviews to prepare you for the kinds of questions you will be asked."

Mia: "We don't want any surprises."

Stephen: "And if you're properly prepared, you've got nothing to be afraid of."

Mia: "You need to call your parents and all your friends. Warn them about what's going to happen. Your parents will want to check into a hotel when the interview airs because their street will be chock-full of reporters, and they won't be well-behaved."

Olivia: "I know this seems scary, I know it's overwhelming, but we are talking about the President of the United States. You want to burn down his house, you're gonna have to burn down your own as well." she tells her as the door opens and Huck walks in looking for Liv and Mia.

Huck: "Livvie, Mimi." he says before both follow him out of the fixer's office and down the hall a bit to where David is waiting. 

David: "Clearly, you two were busy before. It was obviously not the right time to ask for a favor, but I do have a favor to ask, and keep in mind, you both owe me big-time, sort of how I owe six cops from E.R.T. double overtime for showing up at a church, ready to blow holes in 30 nuns. And one way in which I'd like to cash in on what's becoming a truly massive favor deficit between us is for you to help out an old friend of mine."

Olivia: "David?"

David: "Yes?"

Olivia: "I did not answer you when you asked me about this earlier. That was rude. This time, I will be more clear. I have far, far more important things to worry about right now than the fate of the crappy newsstand you buy your morning coffee at, and I do not have time for this or for you. Bill us for the police overtime." she tells him before walking back to her office leaving Mia and a shocked David still standing there.

Mia: "It's been a long past few weeks." she tries to explain to him before following after her.

~~~~~

HOTEL LOBBY
Abby is in the hotel lobby to check in on Carolina.

Abby: "Hi. Excuse me. I checked someone in yesterday my sister and her two young children, room 402?"

Worker: "Okay, uh, let's see. Room 402 is vacant."

~~~

OPA
Abby is walking back into the firm and passing Harrison who is standing in the hallway.

Harrison: "You in trouble." he tells her before she walks pass some soldiers and into Liv's office and sees Liv, Mia, Stephen and Benicio. As well as Carolina and the kids sitting on a couch. 

Olivia: "We will. We will." she tells the General before seeing Abby and turning to her, "Oh, Abby, good. I was just telling the General that it was you and Stephen that found Señora Florez."

Benicio: "I cannot thank you enough. There were moments when I thought I would never see them again. Thank you."

Abby: "You're welcome." she says through a strained smile.

Mia: "We think the kidnappers may have been allied with the General's political enemies possibly the exile community."

Olivia: "Anyway, thank goodness whoever it was lost their nerve, dropped Carolina and the children off at that shelter, and now here they are, safe and sound."

Abby: "Safe and sound."

~~~~~

Mia is sitting on the conference table with Liv standing next to her, as Abby is tearing the pictures from the case off the wall. During this Mia is staying quiet while Liv and Abby are arguing back and forth.

Olivia: "You had no right to do what you did."

Abby: "No right? No right?!"

Olivia: "That woman was not our client."

Abby: "She had one shot, and you took it away."

Olivia: "She chose to marry that man. She chose to have children with him!"

Abby: "Oh, and that makes it your call to decide whether or not," she tries to say as Liv is talking over her.

Olivia: "And now, 20 years later, she wakes up and realizes she's sleeping next to a monster and she wants out?"

Abby: "Are you kidding me? That's what you did for me." she continues to state to her as both women are trying to talk over one another. 

Olivia: "She fell in love with the wrong man."

Abby: "No, you made the wrong call. When I wanted to leave Charles,"

Olivia: "She put herself in an impossible position."

Abby: "When I wanted to leave Charles,"

Olivia: "We did what we had to do for our client. We made a tough call. You don't like it, Abby? Too bad! It's our practice and it is my name on that door, not yours!"

Abby: "When I wanted to leave Charles!" she shouts as she turns around and throws the pictures she was taking down at Liv. "Don't talk to me about tough calls, whose practice it is, and names on the door. That woman needs us. And I don't know what's going on with you or what's happened to you, but I know that you two have your stuff that you don't talk about except with each other. I know that. But something's going on with you, and I'm sorry about that. I am, but that doesn't mean that you get to stop being Olivia Pope and you don't get to stop being Mia James. When Charles fractured three of my ribs and broke my jaw and threw me out into the snow in my nightgown, Mia James took a tire iron and broke his kneecap and then Olivia Pope got me the best divorce attorney in the state and got me out of that marriage. That's what the two of you do. That's who you are. You are gladiators. I would gladly follow either of you over a cliff. But you gotta show up. You gotta be warriors. You don't get to pick and choose when the real Olivia Pope and the real Mia James walks through that door." she turns to Liv, "You made the wrong call," she then turns to Mia, "and you let her." she then walks out of the room leaving Mia and Liv speechless. 

~~~~~

O.A.S. CONFERENCE
Benicio(on tv): "We have withstood lies spread by powerful media outlets and the permanent threat of this capitalist empire. We have withstood the very naked disrespect for the sovereignty of our nation." he says during his speech while his wife and children are watching on a television in a back room. The door then opens and Liv, Abby and Huck walk in.

Olivia: "If you still want asylum, we can get it for you. I have a car downstairs waiting, ready to take you and your family to homeland security, but if you want to go, we have to leave right now, this minute. Do you still want asylum?"

Carolina: "My husband's security men are down the hall. They won't let me leave the building."

Huck: "We've got it covered."

~~~

Mia: "If she wants to go, you can't stop her. Now we can talk I.N.A. Code 101 section A-42. You guys familiar with that? Oh you're not, okay, then let me break it down for you. Asylum given for foreign-born spouses subject to persecution. Or well founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or as it pertains to our case here, political opinion. So you can object, petition, protest, make yourself a nuisance all you want, but in case you haven't noticed, she's on American soil, otherwise known as You. Have. No. Jurisdiction. Here." she tells off the the armed men, that surround her, with a slight smirk on her face.

~~~

Abby: "Liv, we need to move now." she warns them as she sees Benicio finishing his speech and leaving the stage.

Olivia: "Okay, Huck, baby." she says as Huck grabs the baby from Carolina and the woman goes to grab some of her things.

Carolina: "Thank you. Manuel, wake up. Manuel, we have to go. Come on."

Olivia: "Huck!"

Huck: "I dropped the pacifier." he says picking it up, before handing the baby back to the mother.

Carolina: "Take your toy. Thank you. Come on. Felipe?" she asks her oldest son, "Cariño." he then nods and goes to leave but gets stopped as the General and his men walk into the room.

Olivia: "General Florez. What a wonderful speech. I was just coming by to congratulate you."

Carolina: "No, Benicio, she was helping me to leave you. There was no kidnapping. There were no men. There was no van. I left on my own. I left you because I wanted to leave you. I left you because I don't love you anymore."

Benicio: "Fine. Then leave. But you're not taking the children. They're coming home with me."

Carolina: "Benicio..."

Benicio: "No, Carolina, mira." he pauses before continuing in Spanish. "No vas a condenar a mis hijos. Vivir en este país sin que yo haga nada al respecto. Este juego se ha acabado. Ahora dame a mi hija." TRANSLATION = "You're not going to condemn my children. To live in this country without me doing anything about it. This game is over. Now give me my daughter." he goes to take his daughter out of her hands, "Come here. Come here."

Carolina: "No. No. No. No. No! No!" she responds heartbroken and their daughter starts to wail.

~~~~~

OLIVA'S APARTMENT
Amanda is standing in Liv's kitchen with her phone up against her ear.

Amanda: "It's me. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. I can't lie anymore. I'm out. I'm gonna tell them the truth."

~~~~~

WHITE HOUSE
Fitz is walking into Cyrus's office, and sitting down on his couch, after finishing his speech at the O.A.S. conference.

Fitz: "The way I see it, all roads lead back to Amanda Tanner. She's saying we had an affair. She's saying she's carrying my child."

Cyrus: "Without her, there's nothing but that tape."

Fitz: "Without her, that tape is just a guy who sounds vaguely like me. There's no proof. Nobody even takes that tape seriously without it being vouched for, which means our problem is Amanda Tanner, and she's not our problem. She's a kid. Our real problem is Olivia Pope."

Cyrus: "You realize—"

Fitz: "I got into this job to help people, to change this country for the better." he then gets up and heads out of the room. "I am the President of the United States of America. It's time I acted like it."

Cyrus: "Thank you Mr. President."

~~~~~

O.A.S. CONFERENCE
Mia/Olivia: "General Florez." they call out while following after the man as he's exiting the building.

Olivia: "General Florez, you need to reconsider."

Benicio: "You know that the Hague Convention guarantees that custody must be decided by the parents' home country, right? Right?" he tells them once he stops and turns around.

Mia/Olivia: "Yes."

Benicio: "Yes."

Mia: "We know. We know she's your wife, we know she's the mother of your children, and we know she seems weak now, but she is smart, she is powerful, and smart, powerful women like Carolina they don't curl up and hide when they've been wounded."

Olivia: "They strike back by writing memoirs and appearing on talk shows and at benefits and on red carpets, talking about women's rights in the developing world and how babies were ripped from her arms by a ruthless dictator who can't run a family, much less a country."

Mia: "And then one day, out of nowhere, she's not just the mother of your children anymore. She's a hero. And people everywhere, here, in your country, people love a hero, General. People rise up and fight for a hero."

Olivia: "And we will make it our personal mission that the rest of the world is behind them when they do, so you need to tread very carefully here, because what you do today may determine your political survival. This woman can either be the mother of your children or the face of your opposition now which would you prefer?"

~~~

Benicio: "Iremos a pescar este verano. Apenas el dos de nosotros."TRANSLATION = "We'll go fishing this summer. Just the two of us." he tells his oldest son. The two then salute each other goodbye, with a few tears in their eyes, before the General gets into a car and Felipe walks over to his mother, who has Mia and Liv standing behind her.

~~~~~

DAVID'S OFFICE
Mia is sitting in David's office, buying a plane ticket on her phone for California when David walks in and sighs.

David: "My secretary isn't suppose to let you in." he tells her as he sits down at his desk.

Mia: "Dennis and Katherine Mahoney emigrated from County Cork, Ireland, to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 1860, just in time for the Civil War. They started with nothing, built an empire selling news in the front. And in 1973, their great-granddaughter Margaret Mahoney sold her family newsstand chain for $25 million, but she kept one for herself, one to sell to one of her employees Kiyong Kim, who'd also been working at Mahoney News since emigrating to Washington from Busan, South Korea, also with nothing. Kiyong Kim learned English at that newsstand, he became a U.S. citizen at that newsstand, and eventually, he became the owner of that newsstand because Mahoney News is everything that makes this country great. It would be a crime against the nation to knock it down for greed and profit. Kiyong's got a news crew showing up at 2:30 tomorrow for the 5:00 news and an 800-word human interest story in the 'D.C.Weekly,' which comes out Thursday." she tells him as she gets up to leave but he stops her with a question.

David: "Do you or Olivia Pope ever actually apologize to anyone?"

Mia: "We just did." she says with a smirk before leaving to head back to the office.

~~~~~

OPA
Mia is sitting across from Liv when Cyrus walks in with his hands full of files on the OPA team.

Mia/Olivia: "Cyrus." they greet as the two go to stand up.

Cyrus: "Don't get up. This won't take long. Let's see, Abby Whelan does her ex-husband know where she is because he's been looking for her? Stephen Finch he's been a bad boy. This fella Huck, his file reads like 'Helter Skelter,' a real page-turner, and that's just the parts that haven't been redacted."

Olivia: "Nice show, Cyrus."

Mia: "Very scary."

Cyrus: "This is two days' work, and I'm a little worried about all the trees that I'm gonna have to kill to print out the rest of the dirt I will find. Like where $500 monthly payments go to." he states as Mia freezes and gets quiet. 

Olivia: "You want to go nuclear? We have that option, too. You should see the size of the mushroom cloud that's going to go up when the president is hit with the paternity suit for Amanda's baby. It's gonna make our '20/20' interview look like a hug. Just finishing up some paperwork. We're going to need some blood."

Cyrus: "I really thought I trained you two better. You haven't even filed a paternity suit yet. I expected that days ago."

Olivia: "You seem awful chipper about all this, Cyrus."

Cyrus: "I am. I am. I'll tell you why. I'm a workaholic, and my sweet husband doesn't let me work on Sundays, unless there's a war, which is why I hate Sundays and I really hate to garden. So you can see why I'd be excited, because there is, in fact, a war. There's a bloody, scary war starting right now."

Mia: "You're going to war against us?" she asks finally speaking up again.

Olivia: "That's what you want? Fine."

Cyrus: "Oh. No. I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. This isn't my war. You know who sent me here? The President of the United States sent me here, to this office, to deliver these piles of dirt. I'm not the general. I'm not the bad guy. I'm just an errand boy who doesn't have to garden anymore. President Fitzgerald Thomas Grant III has declared war on you, Olivia Pope, and he does so with the full force of the White House and the legion of men and women who work in the United States Government. May God have mercy on your soul, all of your souls." he tells the two before walking out of the room to leave the office.

Mia: "He knows about the money."

Olivia: "Mia,"

Mia: "She can't know, Liv. I got lucky, I got out. But she was never in. She doesn't know, she can never know. She can never know that woman. She'll ruin her." she nervously tells Liv.

Olivia: "Once or even if, he learns where the payments go, he won't use that. He knows how you feel about that. He knows be—"

Mia: "Except this is war, Liv. This is war." she states, causing silence to fall amongst the two for a moment.

Olivia: "You don't have to do this if you don't want. If you want an out, you can take it Mia."

Mia: "You're sure helping Amanda is the right thing? 100% certain? Not a doubt in your mind, you feel it in your gut, certain?" she asks Liv as she nods in response, "Then I'm with you. Let's go to war."

~~~~~

In the conference room, Olivia and Mia are in front of the rest of the team, as they sit surrounding the table.

Olivia: "We know we've been asking a lot of you all, asking you to trust us, and we know that hasn't always been easy or fair and sometimes we're wrong. But we are about to go forward with Amanda Tanner's case. Going up against the White House is the biggest thing we've ever done."

Mia: "It will be hard. It will be mean. It will be personal. But you don't have to do this because we say so, not this time. You have to decide for yourselves."

~~~

OLIVIA'S APARTMENT
Fitz(on tv): "It is a great honor for us to host this meeting in Washington once again. We're grateful for the reminder that this new world of ours America, North and South is more than an accident of geography." he says as Amanda watches the rerun of his O.A.S. speech.

~~~

Mia/Olivia: "So let's vote on it." they say before turning to Stefan first.

Stephen: "We are not gonna make a dime out of this, but I still vote yes."

~~~

Fitz(on tv): "We, the free people of the Americas, are bound not only by a shared history, but by a common aspiration," as Amanda watches his speech, a hand comes from behind her and covers her mouth, muffling her while she tries to scream.

~~~

Harrison: "I'm in." he tells them as the two look at him.

~~~

Fitz(on tv): "Freedom Dignity Progress." he says, as Amanda is trying to fight off her attacker, while said person is putting duck tape around her mouth.

~~~

Huck: "Yes." he responds once Mia and Liv look at him.

~~~

After being pulled to the ground, Amanda is still struggling against the mysterious person as a needle is stuck into her foot causing her to go limp.

Fitz(on tv): "But I am sorry to tell you that our work is not finished. For as long as some of our brothers and sisters still live under the tyranny of dictators, we must not resign ourselves to the status quo."

~~~

Quinn: "Of course." she states to the two once they look towards her.

~~~

Fitz(on tv): "Democracy is your destiny." can be heard from the television set, as the unknown attacker is cleaning up any evidence that they were there.

~~~

Olivia and Mia, along with the rest of the group, then look towards Abby and await her answer.

Abby: "Over a cliff." she says to the two with a smile.

~~~

After cleaning everything up, the attacker picks up Amanda getting ready to leave.

Fitz(on tv): "I call on my fellow leaders to stand together and to speak with one voice loud, clear, and strong."

~~~

Now that everyone agreed, they all look back towards their two leaders.

Mia: "All right then."

Olivia: "We go to war."

~~~

Fitz(on tv): "So General Florez, President Chavez, and President Castro all those who would seek to squash individual rights and freedoms, may hear us. Your time has passed." he says finishing his speech, as the mysterious attacker leaves Olivia's apartment, with Amanda's limp body over their shoulder.

~~~~~

posted — November 26th, 2020
reposted — September 29th, 2022

~~~~~