The Oval Office ✓ (Book One)

Chapter Forty Eight

                                Lauren's P.OV

  There's that worried look on his face again. The way that you only look at somebody when you truly love them but are worried about their mental state. He's had that look on his face a lot the past year and a half. I probably would too if it was the other way around.

  He looks like shit- though I definitely look worse. Don't think about it don't think about it don't think about it. La la la la la la la-

"Lauren-" He says, a hand lightly resting on my cheek. "I know you don't.. want to talk about what happened to you yet, but when... if you ever do, I'm here and I always will be."

I painfully shift my body weight onto my side, not listening to the doctor that told me moving want the best idea right now. "I know." I sigh. "Come here."

He kicks off the ugly bedroom shoes that I'd never let him set foot in public wearing, and cautiously- almost too cautiously, climbs into the bed with me, wrapping his arms around my waist. "Kyle- we have been together for twenty three years. You of all people are not going to trigger anything, so you can stop looking at me like you're trying not to step on a hidden tripwire."

  "Okay." He allows himself to lay closer to me and I lay my head on his chest, my hands pressed up against it. For hours we stay like this as doctors come in and out, constantly taking my vitals, changing  my bandages a couple of times and, when it's finally clear that I'm not going to pass out again, they remove my iv.

  Not thinking about it not thinking about it not thinking about it la la la la la la la. "Can you... hand me my phone?"I ask. He reaches over to a large bag that Kendra brought.

  "The residence kinda... exploded with most of our stuff in it so almost everything in there's from the house." He hands me a new phone, my iCloud already loaded on it.

  I bet the news looks just peachy right now knowing those motherfuckers that call themselves reporters. I sigh,opening the recent news app.

  In a historic supermajority vote that was once thought to be impossible, at 4:07 pm,the 28th amendment was passed, changing the American healthcare system forever.
2 minutes ago

Nothing's fucking impossible. This has been in the making for years- people have finally accepted that feeling in the pit of their stomach telling them that almost everything they grew up on was wrong.

Cheating scandal in the White House? Corrupt senate majority leader?

No and no. We both did things that we now regret during that short month  we were separated all those years ago. These amateur reporters really need to up their game, because if they're going to accuse somebody of cheating based off of things that happened ten years ago, they should start accusing me too.

Motherfuckers.

The presidential motorcade was spotted outside of Walter reed over twelve hours ago, but reporters are still being left in the dark. What exactly is going on?
-Meg Haines
39 minutes ago

None of your fucking business. Ahh, Meg Haines- a ruthless bitch. She's just about the best there is in her line of work, I'll give her that.  She never reports false news and is equally hard on everybody. Her questions stump people more often than not and the other 30% of the time she's able to back them into admitting something they never would've said on national television. What that means nowadays though is that she doesn't go to sleep at night until she has some sort of controversy to report on. She's definitely ruined a few people's lives, but hey- I can't be mad at her for doing whatever she has to do to make some dough. We've all been there.

BREAKING

Oh great.

According to our sources, the president had a criminal history during his youth. More details will be provided as we receive them.
-Meg Haines

The fuck?

"What is it?" He asks, reading over my shoulder as he kisses my forehead, and his face immediately falls.

"Kyle." I say.

"I can explain-"

"What the fuck did you do?!"

He shoplifted groceries from Walmart when he was twelve. That was already reported on during his campaign, which wasn't affected at all- if anything it actually helped it. It gave him the image of somebody who understands the struggles of normal, working class families, so re-reporting that would be ridiculous.

He cheated on one test sophomore year. Big whoop. We've all done it at some point and anybody that says they haven't is a liar. His campaign manager was able to spin any negative story in his favor or get it pushed aside at the very least. Anything slightly illegal he's ever done has been reported on, so what the hell could this be about?

He's silent now, trying to come up with the right words. I've only seen that look twice: when his family died in that car crash on the way to his victory party, and on 9/11 as we watched people jump to their deaths with no hope. Above everything else, that one's really stuck with me.

  Mothers- fathers, people with twenty grandchildren  that just gave up because they didn't see a situation that ended with them getting out of there. They had three options: burn alive, get crushed by the towers as they fell, or jump and go painlessly. Some of them were able to make final calls to one of two people, but most of them didn't have the option. That kills me. To this day, that is what's stuck in my mind. That and, since it was all hands on deck that week with every government agency, having to tell people their loved ones were dead.

  There wasn't a single police officer, firefighter, fbi employee or dog  within a twenty-ish mile radius that wasn't involved in the cleanup or investigation in some way. That was the first major investigation I played a roll in- I had to call the family members since nobody else wanted to, because how the fuck do you tell somebody that without breaking down yourself?

  "Kyle." I repeat. "What.did.you.do?"