The Choices of the Former Mrs. Ghurani

Fitz is even more restless than before. And for that, he paces around the main facility of Ft. Harrison even faster.

All over again, Ms. Ophir sits in the same chair. She watches Fitz pace, and feels even worse before.

"I'm sorry," she tells him. "I didn't mean to get your Liv kidnapped. How did they even get in?"

"Cyrus," Fitz spats.

"Excuse me?"

"Those elephantfish I tried to introduce you to, when I brought you to the Grey House. They're my chiefs of staff. I didn't think they were telekinetic before, but now I'm pretty sure they are. And that's just assuming that's their ONLY power they haven't told me about..."

"Wait, how do you know it was them?"

"They talked to me...last night, in a dream. They told me what they want. They want to live in the Grey House forever...with me outside it, at all times. In exchange, they'll free Liz...or so they've told me."

Ophir shudders. "The more you talk about your chiefs of staff, the more they creep me out. I can see, though, why you'd want them as your chiefs of staff..."

"There were better men for the job. But some fool once convinced me that the chief of staff doesn't have to be a man; just someone intimidating enough to chase loiterers off the Grey House lawn, if the need ever arose. I just didn't realize, at the time, that cichlids weren't the only ones who elephantfish pose a threat to."

"You can't blame yourself. You didn't know this would happen."

He keeps pacing. She keeps sitting, and fidgeting.

"What are they going to do," she asks, "if you don't give them what they want?"

"In order to do that, I'd have to set foot on the Grey House lawn...or otherwise announce my intent to do so. Anyway, they didn't tell me. They just told me that I didn't want to know."

She arches her brows. "I've sure heard that before."

"And now, it seems I've been challenged with a three-front war. I'm sure I'm not the first right-wing president of the NAU who has, but... On one front, I have no idea how I'm going to leave this fort, or explain the alleged assassination attempt on me without coming out as a doofus. On the second front, Liv's being held for ransom, and I've got no idea where she is, or how to free her, or even how to discipline my own chiefs of staff for kidnapping her...if that's even my responsibility. And on the third front, and I just found this out this morning, my wife's been reported missing."

Ms. Ophir looked up. "Are...you going to look for her?"

He shrugs. "My voters expect me to say yes. But you know me; I love Liv. If only I could make her my priority without looking suspicious in front of my voters."

She arches her brows, and nods. "That's a dilemma, alright. Wish I could help."

Fitz keeps pacing, at the same pace. He feels like going crazy...

He passes Dr. Ghurani, standing in an archway, in a robe. Fitz acknowledges him, does an about-face, and keeps pacing...

Fitz hesitates...but only for a moment. He whirls, pulls a pistol, and empties the mag.

Dr. Ghurani smiles, holds up his arm, and stops the bullets, in midair. He lowers his arm; the bullets fall to the floor.

Ms. Ophir stands, and puts her fists up.

"Calm down," Dr. Ghurani beseeches. "I'm not here for that. Also, need I not remind you that I DIDN'T try to kill you?"

"How could I forget? I suffered the torture of watching Aaron O'Reilly report it on Good Morning, Right Wingers!."

Ghurani chuckles...but frowns, when he acknowledges his old enemy's and captive's stare.

"How," Fitz sneers, "did you get in here? I've got security all over the place."

"Have you forgotten? I'm a magus. I'm a master of the Allahforce. But of course, you're a conservative bureaucrat from Bakersfield; as far as you and your voters are concerned, Allah is evil, and long may he be that way. It's as if you can't even tell that our Allah and your Jehovah are the same god."

"I already have enough trouble, as president," Fitz sneers, "debating with the left-wing crowd here, Doctor. Now, I don't know if you heard, but the assassination attempt that you were accused of making against me turned out to be a phony..."

"I already know all about it. One of her sisters briefed me about it," he points at Ophir, "when I hexed her with a truth-telling spell."

Ophir relaxes her fists, humiliated.

"I'm here to tell you," Ghurani continues, "that I've patched that up for you. Thanks to me, and my very icy divorce from my wife, since I caught her cheating on me, sometime after I released you from that POW facility after that war ended for us...your people are now under the hopeless impression that my ex-wife was the one who tried to kill you."

Fitz gapes. So does Ophir. They trade looks. Ghurani's expression isn't faltering.

"That...would be SO nice," Fitz says, still gaping, "if you were telling the truth."

"Perhaps, a little contact with the outside world," he casts a spell, turning the nearest TV on, "would convince you that my word is worth more than it was the first time we met?"

The TV comes on, expressing the show Good Morning, Right Wingers!. Bill O'Reilly is reporting, from the station.

Fitz arches his brows, and scoffs. "And they all thought Aaron's sire didn't have the ego to be on that show! What happened to him, BTW?"

Ghurani chuckles. "I'm surprised you don't know. He was reported missing about five minutes after your wife was, if I'm not mistaken."

Fitz arches his brows. "Oh... I wonder how I missed that..."

"If anyone has any information about my half-Vietnamese bastard son," Bill announces, "who reports on the show, as much as I usually forbid him to do it in our little sire-bastard talks on the home front...PLEASE report it. As much as I hate him, I still love his mother. She's a Vietnamese angel if I ever saw one, and I'm doing this for HER; NOT for him. I know that makes me look like a heinous ice king, but what can I say? I may be a conservative, but I am only human...rather like all the rest of us...Christian, Islam, atheist, and K-Pop man."

Ophir scoffs, and files her nails. "He thinks that just because he's reporting on a degenerate show, means he can say anything he wants. And the conservative men back at home think he's SO wise..."

"Anyway, enough of this horrible crucible. We now turn to Meghan Kelly, who has the very steamy and juicy story of how the President's ex-captor in Iran tried to kill him, as revenge for not meeting her sexual demands, behind her powerful husband's back, during the war. Meghan?"

Meghan Kelly appears on the screen, smiling. "Thank you, Bill, it's always nice to have you on the show...even if your reports are usually a bit more...refined. Anyway, enough of that. They say that a woman's jealousy is made of..."

"Mute," Fitz commands the TV. It mutes itself.

Fitz sighs, and faces Ghurani. "So...I take it that you know what your ex-wife used to do to me, back in camp?"

"I've only recently found out...but yes."

"And...has she done this for me willingly, or because you forced her to, with your magic?"

"She's a magus too, in case you forgot. I didn't find that out until AFTER our divorce, but... She heard about the trouble I got in with your country's navy, and she got to thinking about how she wasn't completely honest with me, at our divorce hearings, about how many times she'd cheated on me before that. She didn't want to see me get executed by one of my ex-captives from the war...even if I was her ex. Plus, she's always had a kinky sex fantasy of going to one of your country's prisons for your attempted murder."

Fitz arches his brows. "Well...remembering her sex-wrath, I can sure understand that."

"She might be a bitch, but she has a sense of justice. Also, she was rather let down, when your navy let me go. She would've rather known that you would've executed her, just for being a suspect in your attempted assassination...if she were the culprit, I mean."

"Well, I'm honored. I should find a way to repay her..."

"Don't bother. She's greedy. The last thing she needs is payment of any kind. Besides, she's a witch; she's not going to spend all of her jail time in jail. Heck, there's an even bigger chance that she'll spend NONE of it in jail, and spend her nights bathing in Macy's merchandise, in New York City, while an illusion of her, back at the prison, keeps the guards from sounding the alarm and reporting her escape."

Fitz smiles, and shakes his head. "You magi really betwitch me sometimes... And I DON'T mean that literally."

Ophir snickers.

"Well, Mr. President, I'd love to stay and chat, but..."

"Wait," Fitz stops him, just as he's about to teleport away. "Maybe you can help me."

He chuckles. "Don't you usually have Ms. Pope for that?"

Fitz stares at him.

Ghurani shrugs. "I might or might not have been following your political career, out of a sense of regret. And even more often so now, because I was almost framed for your attempted assassination."

Ophir waves, from the sidelines. "Sorry about that," she whispers.

Ghurani shrugs. "It's all good. I'm single again. I can get tortured by amazons all I want, now."

"What about the Allahforce?"

"Don't be absurd. There's no such thing as Allah. I get my powers from another dimension, rather like every other magus."

"Oh, well... Thanks for using that propaganda to torture me, when I was a POW."

"Uh... Did you say you needed help?"

"Yeah, you mentioned Liv. She's the reason I need you. And depending on how my luck turns out from here, my wife might be, too."

"And Aaron O'Reilly?"

"Leave him for dead if you have to...but don't do it for me."

"Of course. What sort of trouble has the great and famous Olivia Pope gotten so deep into, that it'll take more than her skill to sweet-talk her way out of?"

Fitz and Ophir trade looks. Then, Fitz starts at the beginning, and fills his old enemy in...