Chapter Sixteen
I feel guilty for needing to increase our time on the campaign trail, but Christopher assures me it’s what he wants, too.
He alsoneedsit. Campaign events are a way for him to escape reality for a while. Where they were a chore the first time around, now they’re a needed distraction.
Apparently, Iowa loves me. There were two or three outliers who wiggled theirway onto the caucus rolls there, but they didn’t stand a chance, thanks to Kevin’s plan, Lauren’s brilliant Comms shop, and my overall poll numbers.
My performance does equally well in other primaries.
Kev was correct that our family’s tragedy has probably clinched me the re-election. My approval numbers are higher than ever, and really the only thing different is we buried Charles and Tory.
Yes, I feel guilty over that, despite the fact that their deaths aren’t my fault. But I damn sure won’t waste it, either. Now all I have to do is bring it home.
Kev is trying to strike a tone for my schedule between getting shit done as POTUS, being a good mom, and hitting the campaign trail hard and heavy. Obviously, unless a day-trip can take place while the kids are in school so we’ll be homebefore they return, Chris stays home so he can be there for them. We do our best to keep at least one of us home with them. To me, that’s more important than my reelection bid.
There’s been enough upheaval in their lives to last them a lifetime.
We change our wills to add the kids and to name Kev and Lauren as additional guardians for them, should something happen to us. The chances are nothingwill happen to us, but I’m sure Charles and Tory thought that, too.
Hudson and Shawna Harris are frequent visitors to the White House, especially on weekends, or when Chris and I will both be gone overnight. We do have Yasmine stay over those nights, but it’s good to have family with them as well. Chris sends a car for them—which we pay for out of our own pockets—to ferry them here.
Shawna admitsthey get to see the kids more now than they used to, and they’re relieved that they’re kept safe.
The driver who killed Charles and Tory still hasn’t been caught, which agonizes me on a personal level, and infuriates me as the Commander and Chief.
As Kev reminds me, I can’t just randomly nuke people, even though that’d be a really awesome power to have.
Kev’s also told me I’m not allowed tosend the fucker to Guantanamo Bay, or some secret CIA black ops site, and let them be tortured.
Once school lets out for the summer, the last thing I want to do is drag the kids around the campaign trail with us, no matter how great the optics.
Make no mistake, no matter how much Kev loves the kids, he’d be remiss in his duties as my chief of staff if he didn’t remind me about the optics.
Instead, I let Chris, Kev, and Lauren do their jobs and set up a campaign-slash-family vacation schedule. The kids won’t be with me on every trip, but we can take them places like Yellowstone National Park, Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and other famous landmarks.
This allows me to highlight the hard work of our National Parks Service and environmental protection initiatives we’ve implemented,so they’re not just campaign and vacation stops.
It also helps chill complaints from people who want to bitch that I’m traveling too much for vacation, because the kids have become a tragic national story. When the bastard who killed Charles and Tory is eventually apprehended, they’ll need to be put into protective custody immediately because of the wave of public opinion against them.
We alsospend two desperately needed weeks at Camp David, all of us, including Hudson and Shawna Harris, Kevin, Lauren, Elliot, Leo, and some other key staffers.
Susa, Carter, Owen, their three children, and Benchley and Michelle spend a long weekend with us, too.
The convention is a formality because I’m the presumptive candidate, as well as I didn’t lose a single damn primary despite a few challenges.
School starts up again, and Congress is in session. Kev and I get more time alone together on campaign trips, although Chris steals him for an hour or two during the days when Kev’s there and the kids are in school. Our lives settle into whatever passes for a “regular schedule” when you’re the leader of the free world, the mom to three active kids, and trying to conceal your polyamorous triad’srelationship from the public and your press secretary.
The bad thing about Congress being in session again is Rep. Edwin Markos running his goddamned mouth every time he turns around. Istillcan’t believe voters have sent him to the Hill fourteen fucking times, and he’s running for the fifteenth.
What thehellis in the water in West Virginia?
At least it looks like his days are numbered aswe head into the second week of October. His last election went to a recount, where he won by less than eight hundred votes. This time around, he likely would have been turfed out in the primary, except his young, popular Republican opponent died from an allergic reaction before early voting started. His poll numbers are too close to call, but we’re all hopeful he won’t be coming back to DC nextJanuary.
Kevin hasn’t had any personal contact with him since the day the asshole showed up at the DC townhouse after I was first elected. Kev won’t call him, and he hasn’t called Kev. Not even after Lauren gave the asshole a pretty spectacular smackdown during a presser last week, in response to a smart-ass comment the congressman had made.
In this way, we have a common enemy. Lauren once confidedin me how creepy the elder Markos is, how he used to hit on her when she and Kevin were together and Kev took her to holiday functions. That apparently there were a few instances where he got handsy and she finally nailed him in the balls, which put an end to it. But she didn’t tell Kev about that, not wanting to upset him.
Fortunately, the elder Markos straightened up after that.
