You'll recognize Sam's 100 000 Airplanes speech. It belongs to Aaron, all the rest is mine.
January 20, 2021 12:20 p.m.
Jenna felt Jacob hold her hand and she turned to smile at him. She looked to his right and watched in horror as Mara and Matty both happened to be yawning during Sam's speech. She was sure it would be the yawn seen around the world and fodder for late night TV host's monologues. She hissed to get Mara's attention and told her to stop yawning. Mara mouthed, bite me, back and Jenna only hoped the cameras didn't pick that up.
Sam was blissfully unaware of the drama unfolding behind him. He hadn't looked at the teleprompter yet but, he was wishing that he had a glass of water because his mouth was starting to get dry. He remembered the spearmint Mara had dropped into his pocket and fished it out while he continued talking. He unwrapped it and popped it into his mouth. Within minutes his mouth was moist again and he felt like he could talk for another hour. He continued and wrapped up his speech twelve minutes later to the loudest outdoor applause he ever heard. He walked back to where Mara was sitting and pulled her to her feet and gave her a long kiss.
"Thanks for the mint, I needed it."
"I noticed, nice attempt at nonchalantly popping it. Can we go home now?"
"I believe we have a date in the Sit. Room. Can we ban Josh and christen it?"
"There will be plenty of time for that. You both need Sit. room training more."
"Slave driver."
"That's me. Now let's get out of here."
Matty wasn't thrilled about going back to the White House so Mara invited Sam along to keep him company. Ginger and the rest of the staff were going in for a few hours to set up their offices and Ginger promised to keep an eye on her daughter and Matty.
Donna, Josh and Noah walked into the White House, moments before the First Family. Donna suggested the three kids go bowling and they ran off. Donna heard her son saying that they could be rebels and not wear bowling shoes.
"Mara. Come look at our offices, you can tell me how you want it set up."
"Joshua and Samuel, don't burn the joint down and I'll see you in the Sit. Room in an hour. Don't be late!"
"Yes Ma'am." Josh replied with a wicked grin
Donna and Mara headed to the East Wing and found Deanna ordering people around. She smiled at Mara and asked if she needed anything.
Mara reached over grabbed her phone and dialed the only extension she had bothered to learn.
"Kitchen."
"Thomas?"
"No, this is Stefan."
"Hi Stefan, this is Ambassador Whitford, is Thomas there?"
"Yes Ma'am, one moment."
"Hello Ambassador, what can I do for you?"
"Hi Thomas. Are there any of those cherry danishes left from this morning?"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Wonderful, can you send a platter of them to the bowling alley with a jug of chocolate milk and 3 glasses, a platter full to my office with two jugs of chocolate milk and 6 glasses and then a platter full in an hour to the Sit. Room with a carafe of Tim Horton's coffee and another jug of chocolate milk. I'll bring a glass down with me."
"Sure, I will have to add the lemon and blueberry ones to make up three full platters."
"That's fine, can I put in an order for them tomorrow too?"
"Certainly. The head butler already notified us that they were a huge hit with your entire family especially with Matthew and yourself."
"It's Matty, Thomas and please call me Mara."
"Yes Mara, you will have them in ten minutes tops."
"Thank you so much Thomas. Were you advised that Sam and I are eating dinner out tonight and there will be no one in residence tonight?"
"I was hoping that was the case since I hadn't heard anything. Would you like me to come to your office for our one o'clock meeting tomorrow?"
"No, I'll come to the kitchen. We will also eat lunch so don't worry about it."
"See you tomorrow Mara."
"Yet one more reason why I love you, you are ordering pastries." Donna laughed.
"I've got my priorities straight. I'm not dealing with my husband and One Fry in the Sit. room without food to distract me from beating them senseless."
"Good idea. So I thought we should use the triple suites. Your office on the right, Deanna between us and I'll take the right office."
"Deanna, which office is the biggest?"
"The right one."
"That one is yours Donna. I'm hardly going to be here so I'll take the left. Oh, that is an order. Deanna, if you ever need more room to do something please use my office."
"I will thanks Mara. So how are people addressing you?"
"People you know, like Ed and Larry can call me Mara. Everyone else should call me Ambassador or Ambassador Whitford. Leslie is coming in tomorrow to introduce herself to my entire staff and lay down the chain of access to me."
"Everyone basically has to go through me and I call her when I need to right?"
"Yes, but hearing it from Leslie should make them fall in to line easier."
"Kay, holler if you need me."
"So how do you like your new digs?" Josh asked as he plopped down on one of the couches in the Oval Office.
"Today, I feel like I'm renting it. It will feel like mine tomorrow."
"I've got an update for you. The first to loose it in the White House was..."
"Mara doesn't count." Sam chuckled.
"No, the ticking time bomb wasn't included in the bet, nor was Toby for that matter."
"You were excluded too, Donna tells me."
"Do you want to know or what?"
"OK I'll shut up."
"Guess."
"Hmm, Carol has been particularly snarky lately."
"Nope, it was your darling daughter."
"What happened to make Jenna go gazebo on someone's ass?"
"Apparently, one of the staffers moved into your old office and shoved Jenna's three boxes that she dropped off this morning on Ginger's old desk. Jenna walked in and saw that someone has moved in and had a fit. Then she went ballistic when she noticed her boxes through the window.
The kid walked in while she was tossing all his stuff out into the corridor and asked her what the hell she thought she was doing. She ripped him a new one, banned him from the White House and told him if she was feeling generous he'd find he has a desk in the bathroom of the OEOB."
"Was the kid a part of the communications staff? "
"No, that was the icing on the cake. I guess he figured he could just pick himself an office when his ranking barely qualified him to be in the West Wing."
"Something tells me he won't be working for us for very long. Jenna will make his life hell."
"Yeah her evil powers are almost as good as Mar's. Have any ideas what situation she is going to throw at us?"
"No, but make sure all the data is up to date and don't assume she's going to make it super complicated."
"So what's Mara wearing tonight?"
"I have no idea, she wanted to surprise me."
"I wonder if she'll wear the purple dress."
"You know Josh, reminding the leader of the free world that you love his wife's breasts isn't the wisest of ideas."
Josh chuckled, "Sam, it's not like it's a state secret. I swear sometimes your crazy wife wears things just to see how fast she can distract me."
"So is there anything I have to do today?"
"No, you got your NSA briefing this morning right?"
"No."
"Hmm let me give them a call."
Josh picked up the phone and hung it up a minute later. "Mara asked that you get the briefing in the Situation room."
"Really? She has her reasons I guess. I want Charlie working on the minimum wage subsidy starting tomorrow. I've got Ed and Larry floating health care options and Jenna insists that we pay the UN every penny we owe them. I can't believe we've gotten away with not paying for 40 some odd years."
"Abbey said something about being at your disposal for the cancer thing earlier. I have no idea what she was talking about."
"Don't you remember, just before the third State of the Union, President Bartlet had the idea to irradicate cancer in ten years. I worked on the speech with the faint hope that we'd actually do it even though I knew it wasn't going to happen..."
"The censure, the motive, not knowing who or how we'd pay for it."
"Yes, curing cancer in ten years. Josh in the 40's the US armed forces weren't very strong but it was pretty obvious to President Roosevelt that we were gonna to be drawn into another big war. So he declared that we would produce 50, 000 planes over the next four years. Everyone thought it was a joke. You know what ? It was a joke, because we ended up producing 100,000 planes. People thought sending a man to the moon was a joke, breaking the sound barrier was a joke, sending Galileo up there was a fools idea. I promised myself, I promised Mara that I wasn't going to worry about being popular, that I wasn't going to think about a second term..."
"We're going to try to cure cancer in a decade."
"No, we will succeed."
"Do you still have the section you wrote for President Bartlet?"
"No."
"Sam you save everything. I want to read it."
"I deleted it from my hard drive a month or so later, I came across it when I was wondering what the hell we were accomplishing. It depressed me so much I got rid of it. The thing is, I may have deleted it from my computer but the file had already been transferred to my brain."
"Let's hear it."
"Over the past half-century, we've split the atom, we've spliced the gene, and we've roamed Tranquility Base. We've reached for the stars, and never have we been closer to having them in our grasp. New science, new technology is marking the difference between life and death, and so we need a national commitment equal to this unparalleled moment of possibility.
And so, I announce to you tonight, that I will bring the full resources of the federal government and the full reach of my office to this fundamental goal: we will cure cancer by the end of this decade."
"Whoa, I can see why that stayed with you. I see the theme of our first SOU already, the only failure, is in not trying."
"I want that framed and hanging in your office by the morning."
"Yes Sir." Josh replied, his love, respect and awe of his best friend evident.
"Shit, we better get downstairs before Mara kills us."
Josh looked at his watch and groaned, they were five minutes late. Mara was standing beside the hand print analysis door lock, her arms crossed and an I'm not amused look on her face.
"Sorry, we were just finishing something up."
"Sorry is a game, this room is not a game. Do you both understand that?"
"Yes Ma'am," they both replied sheepishly.
"Samuel get your hand on the console so it can be scanned and saved."
Since this was the first scan it took a few minutes and touch screen commands to save his hand print. Josh was next and when they finally entered the Situation room, Brendan Ng, the NSA briefer, was waiting for them. Mara listened to the briefing and made notes that she handed to Brendan. Brendan wasn't exactly thrilled having his performance critiqued by the First Lady nor being given a memo on how he should brief, what order the information should be given and extra information he was now required to provide but he knew better than to complain or question her authority if he wanted to keep his job.
"All right Beavis and Butthead what does that briefing tell you?"
"Well Bu, it tells me that we aren't going to be interrupted during the balls and have to come back here to face a crisis anywhere." Josh replied.
"It tells me that I can rest easily tonight."
"Fine now here comes another briefing. We've noticed that over the last 14 hours there has been a movement of three armed militias making their way to the Serbian border. In response the Serbian Army has scrambled fifteen jets to the area. What do you want to do Mr. President?"
"Serbia...there are like 5 border countries, which one?"
"There are actually 7 and it's Macedonia."
"Macedonia? They don't usually cause trouble. You said militia so it's not the Macedonian Army."
"Correct."
"Has anyone spoken to the Macedonian Government?" Josh asked.
"They deny that anything is going on."
"Which means that either they are involved or they are embarrassed that a General has gone rogue on them."
"What does our intelligence say?" Josh asked.
"US intelligence, that's an oxy moron." Mara quipped.
Josh rolled his eyes and Sam decided to completely ignore his wife. "Intelligence report?"
Mara gave them the information she had made up with Nancy and then waited to see what they would do. Sam asked a few more questions and decided that they would just monitor the situation for the moment. Mara didn't give them any feed back and popped a danish in her mouth. During the entire exercise she was eating and drinking while Sam and Josh stood there trying to ignore the danishes and coffee. Once Sam had made his decision he gulped down a cup of coffee, poured a second cup and devoured a few danishes. Josh popped a blueberry one in his mouth and moaned his approval. He told Sam that they needed them in Senior Staff every morning and Sam said he'd see what he could do.
After giving the boys a short break, Mara reminded Sam and showed Josh for the first time the tools available to them in the Situation Room. Sam noticed a few enhancements from the last time he'd been in the room during the Bartlet administration. Mara recognized the glazed look of too much information on Josh's face and she started jotting down notes for him. Once she had gone through all the technology she handed them both a worksheet that presented situations and what additional information that could be pulled up in the room.
"Wow, Mar, this must have taken you some time to put together." Josh commented.
"About 6 hours, then I had to call Nancy and make sure I didn't forget anything or if there was new technology installed that I didn't know about. Nancy put in about two hours of work on it. The things I'll do for you two."
"It is certainly appreciated Bu." Josh replied and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"You are one in a million baby."
"Yes I know." Mara looked at her watch. "We have to get out of here, Ainsley is expecting us in half an hour."
"See you at ball number one." Sam said to Josh and grabbed two more danishes for the road.
Mara snatched one out of his hand and ate it. Sam shot her a look and Josh started laughing as the Situation door closed behind them. He had another cup of coffee and brought the remaining danishes out with him to bring home. He laughed when he found a container of them on the kitchen counter when he got home.
Mara, Sam and Matty arrived at Ainsley's exactly on time. Ainsley had everyone sit down right away and presented corn flake breaded chicken pieces with the teriyaki sauce she knew Mara and Matty loved.
"This is great Ains, but I'm the President, I'd think you should have made one of my favourites instead of Mara's." Sam teased.
"Oh bite me pretty boy! Mara and Matty are the ones who didn't sign up for this, so they are entitled to a little TLC."
"Whoa, Ains! I was just being a smart ass."
"Daddy said a bad word." Matty chimed in.
Mara leaned over and swatted Sam hard. "Don't swear!"
"Did any of you happen to notice that I was sworn in as the President of the United States today?"
"Mr. President, Sir." Tom started with a grin "I don't think anybody gives a.."
"Tom!" Ainsley and Mara yelled figuring they knew what he was going to say.
Tom gave them both a glare, "Flying fig. That said, I think both of them are wound just a tad too tight today."
"I hope Congress treats you better than your friends and family, Uncle Sam." Michael stated.
"I hope so too buddy. At least they don't hit me."
"Ah pipe down, you big baby and eat." Mara replied with a grin.
He looked over at Ainsley who gave him a smug little smile and then stuck her tongue out at him. Sam rolled his eyes and started planning his payback.
After dinner it was time for everyone to get ready for the balls. Unlike Matty, Michael was eager to have a chance to wear a tux. He knew Sam would be there and he wanted to impress her. He was unaware that only one boy mattered to Sam, her best friend, one Matthew Tobias Seaborn.
Samantha Nadine Gauthier, was well aware that half the boys in her school had the hots for her. The fact that most of them were older than her always gave her ego a boast but none of them interested her. She would be turning 16 in 4 months and she knew exactly who she wanted her first kiss from. She's been looking forward to September when Matty would finally be in high school with her and Michael. Sam was also pretty sure that Michael had a crush on her because the 17 year old spend an awful lot of time with her at school. The more Matty talked about wanting to be home schooled, the more Sam tried to sell him on the benefits of high school, even though half of what she said was a lie. She wanted him to go to her school.
Matty had been her friend for as long as she remembered, they always had fun together and they shared a bond that was hard to explain. When she was 8, her friends at school thought she was silly when she proclaimed that Matty was her bestest friend in the whole world. They found the idea of her best friend being a boy and even worse only 6 was absurd. The more Sam saw of the fickle nature of the friends around her, the more convinced she was that she was lucky to have Matty. She'd loved Matty like a brother all her life but over the last several months she'd found herself thinking more and more about what it would be like to kiss him. She hide her feelings well and thought her secret was safe until Jenna pulled her aside a few days ago.
Jenna had been flipping through the pictures Matty took while on vacation with Ginger in Turks and Caicos and came across a picture of Sam.
"Did Sam know you were taking this picture?" She asked her little brother.
"Yeah, it's a really good picture of her don't you think?"
"Yes, she looks great. You should get a copy of it for her."
"Mommy said I should get one for Aunty Ginger too."
Jenna wondered what Mara was thinking, she was normally so quick to pick up on things but she decided her mind must really be preoccupied to not notice. "No, give Ginger the picture of Sam with Ryan."
The conversation ended and a few hours later Jenna called Sam and invited her out for dessert. She asked to see the pictured Samantha had taken. As Jenna flipped through the pictures she was convinced she needed to have a little talk with her.
"This is a great picture of Matty."
"Yeah." Sam replied with a dreamy little smile.
Jenna made sure no one was in ears shot and lowered her voice. "So, how long have you been in love with my brother?"
Sam choked on the piece of cake she had just put in her mouth and turned a deep scarlet colour.
"What? I don't..."
"Sam, it's OK. I recognize that look on your face when his name is mentioned and I want you to see something. This is the picture Matty took of you. That my dear is what they call the look of love."
Sam took a quick look at the picture. "Jenna, I think this marriage thing has gone to your head and."
"Sam, I was your age, almost exactly, when I first met Jacob so I know that your thoughts have turned to boys. You have a problem that I didn't though. Actually you have several problems that I didn't. The biggest one is that girls mature faster than boys. You may be 15 going on 16 but maturity wise you are 17 going on 18. Jacob was 17 when we met so we gelled really well. Jacob had been into girls for a few years. Matty is younger than you, so he's probably only recently gotten over the idea that girls in general have cooties. Now he couldn't give a hoot about the female population. Your other problems have to do with the fact that in a little over a week he'll be the President's son. He'll have even more body guards around him. The good news is that since you are considered family you can come and go as you please. However, the press would also love to write about his first girlfriend. Your other problem is that you fell for your best friend.
A best friend who isn't mature enough to realize you have feelings for him, let alone return them. You can't let him know how you feel because trust me, the squirt will get scared and start ignoring you because he doesn't know what else to do. You don't want to loose your best friend do you?"
"No."
"Then you have to be really patient. Now here comes the tricky part for me. Do you want me to be your friend right now or a responsible adult?"
"My friend."
"Has your mom or dad seen these pictures yet?"
"No. I just printed them out before you picked me up."
"Well more than half of them are of Matty alone. Your Mom is pretty darn smart, she's going to start wondering if you have a crush on Matty if she sees these pictures. She's going to know you do, if she sees that picture he took of you. You can't let your parents, hell any grown up see them. If your parents see these they will start monitoring the time you two spend together. You probably won't be able to spend the night or vice a versa without adult supervision. A serious crimp will be put on your friendship and we don't want that to happen."
"Gosh, I didn't even think about that."
"Sam, until Matty was born I considered you my little sister. Since he was a he, you've stayed my little sister. I'm going to be the only person you can come to about this. I promise I will always be on your side but you have to understand that I won't let you get hurt. You have to trust me implicitly and do as I say, if I ever tell you not to do something."
"I promise, even though I may think of you as the enemy at some point.."
"Good girl. Now is there anything you want to talk about?"
"Yeah, I want to look really good at all the balls. Will you help me find something?"
"Of course, why don't we look in my closet first. I have quite the collection of formal wear."
Jenna let herself and Jacob in the mansion door and found Sam sitting down on the couch nursing a glass of JD on the rocks. He looked at his daughter's face and smiled. He lowered his gaze to see what she was wearing and a frown appeared.
"Young lady, you are showing far too much skin."
"I thought skin was a good thing to you."
"On your mother, not on my daughter!"
"I think she looks fantastic." Jacob stated.
"You, have been off the FBI's most wanted list for less than a month, I suggest you stay out of this." Sam said, only half kidding.
"Sam, leave them alone!" Mara yelled from upstairs.
Jenna chuckled and climbed the stairs to talk to Matty. She found her little brother all dressed whipping his bow tie in the air.
"That goes around your neck, it's not a toy."
"How the heck do you tie it?"
"I'll do it for you. Let me know if it's too tight."
Jenna fixed his bow tie, adjusted it and took a few strands of Mara's hair off his shoulder.
"Mara sheds worse than a cat or dog."
"Yeah her hair is all over the place. Dad says it's weaved into some of his clothes. So how many of these things are there tonight?"
"Eleven, I actually came up here to offer you my experienced help. You are going to be expected to dance tonight."
"I know, with Mommy and you, Grandma Abbey and I promised Aunty Ainsley a dance."
"You should also ask Dana Ducane to dance at the Texas Ball since it's her home state. It would also be nice to ask Sam to dance with you. She's a girl and girls like to dance."
"OK, Sam is coming along to help keep me from getting bored so I guess it's only fair that I try to make sure she has fun."
"Good idea, you will also be asked to dance by people you don't know. The best thing to do is very politely claim that you promised the next dance to me, or Abbey or Donna. Mom is hard to tear away from Dad when dancing is involved."
"So in this case a little white lie is a good thing."
"Yes, sometimes little white lies are the only way to survive social situations."
"That and a few drinks." Mara replied from the door. "Matty, I'm weak in the knees, you are so handsome."
"Thanks Mommy, you look great."
"You look super sexy Mara."
"Thanks, you look amazing Jenna. Ignore your father, you are a grown woman with curves, you should be showing them off."
"Your feet are going to kill you in those heels, they are like 5 inches!"
"They are pretty comfortable actually, besides, they go with the dress perfectly."
"Hey let's get this show on the road." Sam yelled.
Mara went back in her room to put in her earrings and Matty and Jenna came down the stairs. The put their coats on and went to go wait in the limo. Sam put his coat on and looked at his watch again.
"Mara, we've got to go!"
She grabbed her little container of pills and a lipstick and made her way downstairs. Sam's heart stopped for a second when he saw her. She was wearing a emerald green silk dress that looked like it had been painted on her. The dress had a dramatic front plunge that revealed half of each breast. The dress dipped almost as low in the back and Sam knew there was no way she was wearing anything underneath the dress since it was so tight. She wore a pair of very high stilettos that matched the dress and the simple gold chain with the heart and floating emerald Sam had given her twenty years ago after their trip to the Bahamas.
"Kay take the dress off, we're having sex right here, right now."
"Sam, we've got to go."
"Sorry but one look at you and all I can think about is sex."
"People are waiting for you. I promise we can have sex later."
"I hate this job already." Sam muttered.
Mara laughed and gave him a quick kiss. "Move it Spanky."
She grabbed her long velvet cape out of the closet and was out the door, giving Sam no choice but to follow her.
"So where are we going?" Matty asked in the limo.
"The Patriot Ball, in hall A of the Convention center." Jenna answered.
"The first several balls are all in there right?" Mara asked.
"Yes Ma'am, the Liberty Ball is in hall D, the Freedom Ball is in hall C and the Stars and Stripes Ball is in hall G." Dave, Sam's head of detail answered.
"Dave, what did I tell you about Ma'aming me?"
"Sorry, occupational hazard."
The limo came to a stop and Sam waited for the door to be opened for him. He'd gotten use to the car protocol weeks ago while Mara's agents had to get use to the fact that she got out when she felt like it. Sometimes she waited, but most of the time she was out the door before the driver could put the car in park.
Sam handed his coat to a Marine standing near the door and took off Mara's cape. The door to hall A was opened and a minute later Sam heard the announcement for the second time.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the President of the United States and the Canadian Ambassador to the United States."
"Did they have to throw the, to the US part in?" Mara asked as Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
"Hey you didn't let me have stair sex, so suffer."
"Will you two grow up!" Jenna hissed before plastering on her fake smile.
"Oh joy, oh bliss, this is going to be such a fun evening." Jacob muttered.
Matty started laughing and he couldn't stop. Jacob joined him and a mortified Jenna walked away from them both. The look on her face only made them laugh harder. Mara turned around to see what was so funny and they couldn't tell her. She pushed Sam forward and stayed back to help calm them down. When Jacob finally repeated what he said Mara chuckled for a moment then asked them if they had shaken the sillies out.
"Jacob, go apologize to Jenna and tell her to chill. Matty we are going to find your Dad."
"Just look for the circle of agents in ill fitting tuxes." Matty replied.
"You've been hanging around your sister too much lately."
"Actually I heard you saying that a while ago."
"I see Abbey and Jed let's go say hello."
Mara was talking to Charlie and Zoey when she heard the opening notes of Creed's Higher. She left her drink with Zoey and walked across the hall to her husband.
"This your idea?"
"No, I thought it was yours. Shall we?"
"Fast waltz, sweetie." Mara replied and put her arms in the waltz position. They had just started moving when Mara moved her hands around his neck and started untying his bow tie."
"Let's be Sam and Mara from night one." She whispered and tucked the tie into his jacket. She wrapped her arms around his neck and Sam pulled her tight, his arms around her waist. Two decades of dancing together had made them move as one and they still managed a much sexier looking waltz.
"They are in the room alone." Abbey said to Jed as he slipped his arm around her waist.
"They've been like that since the night they met."
"They are magic together, and they make me ill." Toby added getting a chuckle out of them both.
As soon as Matty noticed his Mom taking his Dad's tie off, he tugged on his until Ainsley had to rescue him. He shoved it in his pocket. Josh grinned and had his sitting around his neck before Donna could protest. Jacob brought his hand to his neck and Jenna sighed.
"Please keep it on, you look so hot."
"What ever my lady wants, she gets." Jacob replied with a grin and pulled her to him to dance.
"I can't dance to this but how about the next song?" Matty asked Sam who had just handed him a cup of punch.
"Sure, I love to dance. Why don't they have food?"
"I think it is because they are mean evil people. I know I ate only a few hours ago but I'm starving."
"Think Sal's would deliver us a pizza?"
"I doubt it, too much security."
"I have a big jar of macadamia nuts in the car. Want to go liberate the jar?"
Matty grinned from ear to ear. "I love you, you are brilliant!"
Sam tried very hard not to react, "I knew I'd have the munchies so I grabbed a jar from home."
"We will dance, I'll tell Mom where we are going and then we'll be off."
"Sounds like a plan to me."
A few minutes later, Matty cut in on his Dad and danced with his Mom while he told her of his plans to get food. Mara gave him permission to go and asked that he bring her a handful. She also promised that once they left the Convention Center that they'd stop at a drive thru window before going to the next location.
They had moved on to the second ball and this time they were asked to dance. Sam smiled when Savage Garden's Truly, Madly Deeply began to play.
"I didn't know that PIC actually had taste in music."
"Who?" Mara asked as she continued to dance.
"The Presidential Inaugural Committee or PIC is in charge of coordinating all the balls we attend. Did they ask you about songs we like to dance to?"
"No, they should have asked us though. I can't complain so far but now that I think about it, it was rude of them to not ask."
"Maybe Ginger gave them a few suggestions figuring it was a detail I didn't want to get involved in."
"I remember you told her to deal with them so that is quite possible. I told Matty we'd stop for drive thru when we leave. I could go for some fries myself."
"Now you've given me a craving for a cheeseburger."
"Then my evil plan has begun."
"As long as that plan involves you naked at some point this evening, do what you will."
"You are such a such a." Mara laughed.
"You should be thrilled that I've spent the last 20 years thinking of ways to have sex with you. If you think I'm going to let a job interfere with my favourite pastime you are sorely mistaken."
"And you are still an over sexed teenager Mr. President." Mara chuckled.
"It's all your fault, if you weren't so damn sexy, I might occasionally be able to think of other things."
"Don't try to blame your short comings on me. It's funny how I can keep my mind on matters other than sex."
"That's because you are a robot not a human."
"No, it's because I'm a woman and we are both the fairer and stronger sex."
"Do you realize that you've insulted the US and men in the last 8 hours?"
"Yeah, it's been a slow day for me. I insulted you too."
"Like that is something new." Sam replied sarcastically.
"Do you want to go ten rounds pretty boy?" Mara asked with a smirk.
"No, I will not be deterred from having sex tonight."
"One track mind." Mara laughed.
After twenty five minutes, they moved to the third ball and Matty and Sam finally returned. Matty walked right up to his Mom and transferred a handful of nuts from his hand to hers. She stood there popping nuts until they were all gone. Ainsley walked over and told Matthew she'd like to collect her dance and they danced to Moon River. Sam was hoping someone would notice how bored he was and rescue him from Senator Grey. He finally caught Jenna's eye and she meandered over to him. She had half a mind to say something about Bambi and walk away but she decided to have some compassion instead and led him off to an imaginary phone call.
"Thank you."
"If I hear, see, even sense a Bambi anywhere near my vicinity for the next month you are so dead."
"I raised such a warm and loving daughter."
"Hey you started this whole Bambi crap, you dark twisted person. If I'm evil you only have yourself to blame." Jenna chuckled.
"Your Mom would be very proud of you Jenna."
"I know. I grew up well."
"Yes you did. Care to dance?"
"Why not."
Matty made it through 6 balls before he had had enough and went home with Ainsley, Tom and Michael. Sam was thrilled when only one ball remained a little after midnight. Their final dance was to Bon Jovi's, Thank You For Loving Me before they said good night and left for home. Mara took off her shoes in the car and demanded a foot massage. Sam teased her about the high price her vanity paid on her feet and she ignored him. Matty was fast asleep when they entered the house and Mara closed his bedroom door. Sam had kicked all the agents into the kitchen and they went willingly. Having to listen to Mara from the kitchen was bad enough, none of them liked to be just outside the closed door.
"So how about a movie?" Mara asked with a grin.
"I don't think so." Sam replied as he pulled the thin straps of her emerald dress down her shoulders and her dress hit the floor. "One track mind, remember?" He said before kissing her shoulder.
They way Sam was looking at her gave her chills and she decided she wasn't going to tease him and let him lead her over to their bed for an unforgettable night of passion.
