Chapter 25
He was hearing something. It was a voice. It was the voice. There was something about that voice. Right now it was loud and boisterous. It was angry. He was accustomed to the voice. Most of the time when he heard it, it was calming and soothing. Today he thought there might be two voices. They were angry voices. He tried to open his eyes to see who they belonged to but they wouldn't open. He wanted to lift his hand, but it wouldn't move. He felt cold right now. Why in the hell was he so cold? And trying to open his eyes made his head hurt. What had happened to him? In fact who in the hell was he? He thought he was a guy because he kept dreaming about a girl. He was with her. She was touching him and he was touching her. The voice and the girl were in his dreams. It made him smile those dreams.
He went back to the voices. He wanted to know who they were. If he knew who they were then perhaps he would know who he was. He was in some kind of limbo. Something had happened to him, but he couldn't remember what. This god-awful pain in his head if it would stop maybe he could open his eyes and his memory would return.
When the pain in his head was unbearable he would will himself back into that place where everything was just a void. He was willing himself to go there now. He went back into this place where he felt nothing and there was nothing to hurt him.
Cyrus looked at Tom and the phone he was holding. He shook his head. He wasn't talking to Sally Langston. Tom looked at Olivia Pope to see if she would take the call. She shook her head no. When he walked into the room he had known the President wasn't awake. Cyrus had already told him what the First Lady had done. It was just unbelievable!
That woman was going to end the Grant Presidency yet. She was the most selfish and conniving woman he had ever seen. She had come to him and offered her body. She wanted him to tell her of the President's comings and goings. She was trying to protect him from himself she had said. The President had a penchant for beautiful young women she had said. It was bullshit! The President had a penchant only for Olivia Pope, he loved her. Those two, he worried for them. Anyone with half a brain could see the love they had for each other. They tried hard to mask it, but their unguarded moments told their story very clearly. They loved each other to death.
"Give the phone to the First Lady Tom, Olivia Pope stated dripping with sarcasm. "She can explain to President Langston that the President is napping. Please give it to the First Lady."
Tom turned to the First Lady. "Madame?"
Mellie snatched the phone from Tom's hand and rolled her eyes. "Hello Sally, It's so good of you to call. The President is sleeping right now. All the excitement of waking up from a coma, it's tiring you know. Yes so you received the President's letter. He could barely wait to dictate it and sign it! He is very anxious to get back to work. Oh no Sally, the President is only receiving immediate family right now. As soon as he is up to it I am sure he will give you a call. In the meantime Sally you continue as you have. And Sally thank-you so much for your service to the country, what you have done for the President stepping in as his second, is commendable. You are a special lady Sally." With that the First Lady returned the phone to Tom.
"Tom if that dreadful woman calls here again, please tell her the President although he is awake isn't taking any calls. She is such an over-bearing personality. She knows that Fitz is still the President. She acts as if he is dead and buried," Mellie lamented.
Tom took the phone and quietly left the room. Silently he said to himself, "The President had better come around if he wanted a Presidency to come back to. And from the sound of things minutes ago his wife may get her wig snatched if she pulls another ridiculous stunt like the one she just pulled. Sending a forgery out in this political climate was very tricky. She may be looking at ten to twenty at Leavenworth. What a dingbat!"
Meanwhile back in the hospital room of the President Olivia Pope is just staring at Mellie Grant shaking her head. "But he isn't dead is he Mellie? He isn't awake either and because of your not so ingenious move to keep Sally "at bay" she is now knocking at the front door. You are the most dense woman in the universe," she said, still shaking her head.
"Not so dense Olivia, I saw your game early. Again Ms Pope, you are supposed to be a fixer, fix it! In the meantime I am out of here. The room is filled with stink. I am very familiar with the odor though; my husband was wearing it home at night for years! Let me make myself clear, I didn't marry the fool lying in this bed to have it all go up in smoke Cyrus Beene. You and "Livvie homewrecker" had better do your jobs. I have done mine, she said aloofly as she approached the door.
"You are a piece of work. You walk around the White House, no make that the planet, professing to be the model of Southern gentility when in fact you are nothing but a status seeking bitch riding on the coattails of a rich White male. I saw your game early too remember. That man lying in the bed could hardly stand to be in the same room with you. I had to coach him to pretend he even liked you, so stop placing your failed marriage at my feet. Your stinking marriage was at level ROT when I walked in the room sweetheart, I wrecked nothing. As for that "scent" your "husband is wearing, get use to it!"
Mellie turned from the door and lunged toward Olivia. Cyrus ran in front of her and grabbed her. "Okay I said enough, E-fucking-nough!
"I WISH SHE WOULD, let her go Cyrus. I swear to God," Olivia Pope said calmly behind him. Her eyes were dilated and fixed on Mellie Grant.
Unbeknownst to the two combatants and their referee the comatose man on the bed moved his hand and he had moved a leg too. You had to be watching to see it but it had happened. Fitzgerald Grant III was starting to awaken. Dr. Harper had been watching, these were signs he was looking for!
All that had taken place was the result of what Dr. Harper and his wife had been doing toward the recovery of the President. Initially his body temperature had been lowered to retard the swelling going on in the President's brain. Drugs were given to keep the body from over-exertion, to keep his brain from sending signals to his body to fight against the things that had happened to him. They were slowly weaning him off of the drugs that had kept him comatose. His thoughts processes would be returning to him soon. He would begin to remember his life and what had happened to him hopefully. Doctor Harper was praying for a full recovery, but all of this was very tricky.
Ms Pope had been very concerned that the President had not communicated with her since that first night. Their telepathy was apparently very real to her and she feared because she had not been able to reach him that his brain injury may have been insurmountable. He couldn't say the President would not have some brain damage. Initially when he had seen the President covered in blood and a portion of his brain exposed he assumed the worst. But Fitzgerald Grant had defied the odds. His initial life-saving surgery, cryogenic techniques, and some very ingenious medicine were what saved the man. The brain though not regenerative can heal itself if given half a chance and the damage not too traumatic.
President Grant was monitored 24/7. Today was no different. What they didn't see themselves was recorded through EEG, ECG, and electrical impulse emission therapy. The job of Dr. Harper and his team was to monitor the President's vital signs and progress. They were determined to return him to a degree on normalcy. They administered and stopped medications as they were needed. They recorded every motion. They were doing their jobs.
As a matter of established Presidential protocol Dr. Harper stayed away from the personal side of the things going on in the President's room. Every day the President's wife came and left and then the mistress would come in. The President's Chief of Staff was there every day as well. His daughter had been there only once. Nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the observance of his patient. He rarely looked at what happened inside of the room. He, his wife, and one of their most trusted assistants observed the patient directly on entry when they made exchanges and every hour to record data.
Secret Service had gone over every aspect of his monitoring system. The head agent had advised him that all tapings of the President would be screened daily and that anything they deemed to affect the office of the Presidency would be erased. He very much suspected the nights Ms Pope slept beside the President would never see the light of day.
Today had gone as every other day until about thirty-five minutes ago when the Chief of Staff and the First Lady were being very animated with each other. His coordination with the Secret Service had included a rule he felt was appropriate in order to preserve the privacy and dignity of the President. The volume on the monitor in the room would be turned off when any one was in attendance with the President. He was the President but it was a common courtesy which any patient deserved under the circumstances.
He was observing the patient when Ms Pope came into the room. This was odd; the two women had never been in the room at the same time before. Every forty-five minutes a ten to fifteen minute observation of the patient takes place. Dr. Harper was doing that evaluation. Mr. Beene had ushered Ms Pope in and told her something. If looks could kill the First Lady should have withered and died on the spot. He broke his own rule and turned up the volume. Olivia Pope tore into Mrs. Grant for forging a letter saying the President was no longer in a coma. He had surmised that Mellie Grant was nuts, but this act if true had certified it.
Mrs. Grant was torn a new asshole by Olivia Pope, but the First Lady gave as good as she got. The woman was evil and apparently didn't play but neither did Ms Pope. This was unbelievable theater but he was eavesdropping on private business. He turned off the volume. He just felt such a connection to the President. He had been there, between a rock and a hard place. Married to one woman and loving another was not an easy situation. He needed to bring the President back amongst the living so he could take control of his live. he was one of the best trauma surgeons in the world, specializing in brain injury. He had saved lesser men, He would save this one too!