Fifty reviews! Yay! Thanks for all the support of this story about politics with a ton of OCs. Thank you.
Chapter Twenty-One:
The mood was light on the bus to Albuquerque. It was early in the morning and they were due to meet for a Q&A session at a breakfast meeting event. Brenner and Danvers had already prepped for the session and now decided to deal with what Anna had about Aiden's dismissal.
Danvers scribbled on a paper. "I really can't believe they threw out Rebecca Windsor. I feel like a school bully going against Mary Anderson."
"That never stopped you from going after me," Brenner said.
"That's because nobody watches C-span and I knew I wouldn't make you cry," Danvers said.
Felix brought coffee over for them. "You two are starting to sound cute together," he remarked.
Brenner glared at him. "Years of him attacking my every decision haven't been erased. I just tolerate him better."
Reid walked over with his own mug. "Your body language suggests other-wise. You no longer raise your left eye-brow when he says—"
"No profiling on the bus," Brenner said.
Anna came forward with file folders. "Quiet on the set folks. It is time for our review of the dirt." Reid and Anna sat while Felix stood."
She handed them out. "They are in paper format because they can be destroyed easily. I trust every member of the staff including those asleep to practice discretion. I personally deleted the contents from my tablet because I don't want this information to leave this bus agreed?"
Everyone nodded as they opened their folders. Reid looked shocked.
"That private investigator has almost every detail of my life in here. He wanted to follow up on my mother and Maeve but was instructed not to."
Brenner flipped a page. "We knew that was a possibility when the information leaked."
"You think they will now?" Felix asked.
"My mother has a restricted guest list which also includes correspondence. The sanitarium knows that people might go looking for her and are on alert," Reid said.
"What a waste of time and resources," Danvers said. "Spencer you may be special but you are not worth the amount of money they paid these guys. Was this with PAC money or out of pocket?"
"Out of pocket," Brenner said reading the next page. "He isn't that dumb to leave it where it could be investigated."
Danvers made a face at her. She ignored it.
Anna read the next page out loud. "Governor Lewis has all the right qualifications to be president. Having said that, he is prone to fits of anger, is slightly paranoid, and needs constant reassurance that he is doing a good job."
Felix underlined parts about campaign finances. "Are we sure we don't want any of this to leave the bus? We could make some brutal attack ads with it."
Brenner shook her head. "No. I don't want to win that way. I was wondering about Aiden though. Anna, have you reached out to offer him a consultant position?"
"He is currently in Spain," she said. "He doesn't want anything to do with the election and he is long over-due for a vacation."
Reid had finished reading the file. "With this data, I think your chances of winning have increased by twenty percent."
Felix glared at him. "Only twenty, I'd say we have this thing in the bag."
Danvers didn't look convinced. "We've elected narcissists and megalomaniacs before. It is all about the outward appearances. Good for the country does not always equal good people."
Brenner looked at him with interest. "Care to name names?"
"Not without getting into a debate with a bunch of very bright people. Besides, has anyone noticed the one glaring hole in this report beside Reid?"
"Senator you're not in it," Anna said. "I texted Aiden about it before he left and he said they hadn't started digging."
"I'm insulted," Danvers said. "I have plenty of skeletons. I tried multiple drugs before joining the military. I crashed my car into a tree the day after I proposed to Coleen. My sister has two DUIs to her name, one was sealed because she was under eighteen. And my oldest daughter was caught driving without a license twice and I can still hear my aunts yelling at me about every one of them to this day."
"They sound like characters," Brenner said.
"They still are," Danvers said confidently. "A little thing like death could never stop them from reminding me too keep baking soda in the fridge or how much meat you need to make a meatloaf depending on how many people you're expecting. My daughter Ally claims she can still hear Aunt Josephine complaining every time she forgets to signal. They live on the little things."
He noticed Reid was starting to silently tear up and continued.
"I still feel the presence of my wife too. It is much more faded but I remember scent of her perfume and the way she loved her hair cut. I hear whispers of her voice occasionally in a crowded room when I'm lonely. She will always be with me."
Brenner never felt more compassion for him.
"Is that why you never re-married?" she boldly asked him.
He nodded. "She was my first kiss. My first lover. The radiance of her smile after the birth each of our children. These are things that for me, cannot be replaced. That is just me though- I don't beat around the bush like this, Reid—"
He looked straight into his tear-filled eyes.
"I think you are capable of find love again in someone else. It won't be the love like you felt for Maeve but it will fill your mind and I really want that for a bright young man like you. I promise despite whatever science might indicate, love makes you smarter."
The bus went silent. No moved a muscle except Reid to wipe his eyes. A minute later Brenner broke the silence.
"How am I going to continue to hate you after all that?"
Danvers laughed. "Your last piece of proposed legislation was poorly written."
"I wasn't in charge of the writing process," she said irritably.
"You still should have pointed out the flaws. If you want to be president you have to…"
As they continued to bicker Anna silently picked up the files to place in her bag. Felix found something on his phone to be extremely interesting and Reid quietly excused himself from the conversation.