POTUS
11
A/N: I'm back from vacation and raring to go. And yes, I did in the end choose "drunk by the pool" over writing! I think the next chapter will be the last for POTUS, Friends. Next, I'll be continuing Matumaini Mema.
As an extra note, Guys, for those of you commenting as Guests. I can't respond to questions you ask me if you're not a registered user so please don't bother asking me questions or commenting on the fact that I haven't posted in two weeks or that you're waiting for the next update. I couldn't respond to you to tell you on I was on vacation.
Kara had just enough time to clear her right side before dropping to one knee and shooting three of the five masked gunmen on Alex's side in the head. They dropped to the floor, eyes sightless as, at the same time, the president took out the other two men with a shot to each forehead.
"Clear," Alex said as she crouched and put her hand on Kara's back between her shoulder blades.
"Clear," the agent agreed.
"Didn't even get a shot off," the president chuckled as she went to the men and pulled their masks off.
"So hard to get good henchmen these days," Kara said with a rueful shake of her head.
"None of them are your dad," the brunette added softly.
Kara got to her feet. "Get your mom while I collect weapons and ammo," she stated.
Alex slowly straightened. "Kara…"
"Please," the agent said, her clear, blue eyes meeting the president's steadily. "The fewer guns they have access to, the better." She turned to walk away but Alex caught her hand.
"If it comes down to it, I'll take care of him," she said.
Kara closed her eyes but shook her head. "He's trying to hurt the woman I love. If it comes down to it… he's mine."
Alex went back to the elevator and held out her hand. "C'mon, Mom, it's safe," she said. Eliza nodded, allowing herself to be tugged into the hallway and pulled toward the open doors of the PEOC. Kara was standing silently, looking inside the large space and she shook her head unhappily. "No one else made it down here. I'm not sure I can do this, Madam President. I don't have training on the systems…"
"Hey… Kara…" the president said. "We have three brains between us. We'll figure it out."
Just then, the elevator dinged. "Someone's overridden the controls. We should get inside," the agent said, accepting her backup weapon back from the president and sliding it into the holster at her right ankle.
"Yeah," Alex tugged her mom's hand again. "Let's lock this place down." They entered the PEOC and Kara hit the control to close the door as the president went to a console and sat down. "I feel like there should be a manual somewhere," she chuckled.
Eliza shook her head with a little smile. "You're not afraid of anything, are you?" she asked.
"On the contrary," the brunette replied as she looked back over her shoulder. "I've been more scared over the last few months than over my entire time in the military."
Gentle hands rested on her shoulders and her mother kissed the top of her head. "I'm so proud of you, Alexandra."
"Thanks, Mom," the president replied with a smile. Then she sobered and looked at her lover, who was at another console, typing at a keyboard. "What do we have, Kara?"
"I'm trying to figure out how to bring up the external cameras. I'd like to know what's going on outside the door."
"Oh…" Alex pressed a button on her console. "Cameras. Got it."
Kara blinked and then shook her head with a chortle. "Good job, thanks."
The screens mounted on the walls turned on to display views of various parts of the White House. They were mostly empty of people, except the screen displaying right outside the door of the room they were currently in. They watched as the elevator doors opened and three more masked men stepped out, accompanied by Russell Warren.
Kara sucked in a breath and her hand clamped down on the edge of the desk. "I have a bad feeling about this," she murmured. "Please tell me the access code for the PEOC was changed after my father retired?"
Alex swallowed.
"I guess we're about to find out," Eliza added.
Without a moment's hesitation, Kara's father stepped up to the keypad on the door. And then the doors were opening.
"Fuck," Alex sighed as the masked men flooded in, yelling at them to drop their weapons and put their hands up. "Remind me to have a word with SAC Miller."
"Get in line," Kara muttered as she complied and surrendered her weapon to lace her fingers behind her head. The president and her mother followed suit, but Kara growled as her father stepped into the room and approached her, an almost sheepish look on his face.
"I never meant for you to be caught up in any of this, Honey," he said quietly. "I tried to force Miller's hand into moving you onto another detail. I leaked the story about you and President Danvers to the media. I did everything I could, but Miller just wouldn't remove you and the plans still had to move ahead."
Kara stood, tall and proud, in front of him and then she jabbed him in the chin, knocking him back a few steps. "You almost killed me… twice! What the FUCK are you thinking?"
Warren shook his head, rotating his jaw with a grimace. "I don't expect you to understand, Kara," he said. "But this administration is too liberal. LGBTQ+ this and clean energy that. We're moving away from the ideals and morals of our forefathers. Gay sex all over movies, TV shows and the internet. Corrupting our children! Taking away jobs from families who have been mining for generations! It's just wrong!"
Alex looked at Kara, her heart breaking at the dismay and devastation on her face. "But… I'M gay, Dad," she said breathlessly.
Warren folded his arms and shook his head. "I thought taking Lena out of the picture would cure you of that deviance… but no."
Kara's brain wouldn't… couldn't… understand what he was saying. "Wh-what?"
"Oh my God," Alex whispered.
"With Natalie Crow being undercover overseas, it was easy to fabricate that cancer backstory." Warren began pacing. "It was quick, Honey, I promise. She didn't feel a thing."
"No," Kara whispered, shaking her head. "No… that's not… I saw the medical records…"
"You saw what I wanted you to see," Warren replied a little smugly. "I had to make you see the truth, Kara. Honey. My sweet baby. Being gay is just a choice. You chose Lena so… she just had to go away."
"You're insane," Alex said, so angry that she was vibrating with it.
Kara was visibly shaking. "You killed my wife?" she said. "How… how could you do that to me? How could you take her away from me?"
Warren shrugged. "Well, you found a replacement just fine, didn't you?"
Alex's eyes closed and she swallowed hard as Kara dropped to her knees and bowed her head. After a moment, her blue eyes slowly lifted, and Warren actually took a step back at the fury in them. Then the agent was moving, her backup weapon from her ankle holster in her hand. She took out each of the three masked men in a split second and then she was in her father's face, hand clamped on the back of his neck and muzzle of the gun pressed against his temple as she glared into his eyes.
Warren's surprise slowly melted away as he gazed back. "I knew you had skills, but it seems like I've underestimated you, Kara. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe you WILL kill me after all."
"Does Mom know?"
"About my little plan to take out the president? Of course not."
"NO!" Kara yelled, pressing the gun harder into his temple. "DOES SHE KNOW THAT YOU'RE A MURDERER?!"
"No," Warren replied. "She doesn't know about any of this."
The agent nodded slowly and pulled the gun away, taking a couple of steps back toward Alex. The president whooshed out the breath she'd been holding. "Kara…"
"Quiet!" the blonde ordered coldly.
Alex blinked but didn't say anything else.
"I'm not going to let you take Alex away from me too," Kara said, looking her father in the eyes. "So, you have two choices. You go to prison for the rest of your life, or I end you right now."
Warren laughed softly. "Everything happening in this room is being recorded. If you shoot me, it will be on record, and YOU'LL go to prison."
"I don't care," Kara replied. "You killed Lena and you tried to kill Alex. You're going to pay."
"Then I choose death," the man replied seriously. "I'll rest easy knowing you're in prison and away from…" He looked at Alex. "HER."
Special Agent Kara Lee trained her gun on her father, lips pulled back into a snarl as she aimed dead center of his forehead.
"Kara!" Alex cried out. "No!"
"He has to pay, Alex. I don't care what happens to me."
But the president was suddenly between Kara and her father. "But I do, My Love," she said gently, holding her hands up. "I can't lose you, Kara. I love you too much to let you do this."
Kara shook her head, resettling her grip on her Glock. "But he killed Lena," she whispered.
Alex moved slowly closer to her. "I know… and we'll make him pay for that, I promise. He's going to prison for the rest of his life, Honey. Trust me."
"I want him dead," Kara growled.
"No, Baby," the brunette replied. "You want him to pay. And prison for a man like him is a fate worse than death." Briefly, in the back of her consciousness, Alex heard the elevator ding and the doors opened to spill Secret Service agents into the hallway. They quickly entered the PEOC and took positions around the room, yelling at Kara to put her weapon down, since it was currently pointed at the president. "Secret Service, stand down," the president ordered. Then she focused back on Kara. "Please, Love. Please, don't take you away from me? I won't survive it."
There was tense silence for a long moment and then Kara slowly lowered her hand to let the gun drop to the floor. Alex went to her, holding her tightly in her arms. "I'm sorry," Kara sobbed as she clutched at the president's shirt.
Alex kissed her head. "You have nothing to be sorry for," she whispered. "I love you, Kara."
"Repulsive, perverted deviants," Warren muttered disgustedly.
"Excuse me, Mr. Warren?"
The man looked to his right to find an older blonde woman standing there, glaring at him with disgust of her own.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
Eliza leaned a little closer. "The so-called-deviants' mother," she replied and then swung as hard as she could, punching him right in the jaw. He crumpled to the ground, out cold, as Kara and Alex looked on in awe.
"Holy shit," Kara whispered.
Eliza was in considerable pain as she shook her hand out, but she just glared around the room at the openmouthed agents.
"NO ONE calls my kids, deviants," she stated with a sniff.
Then, to everyone's surprise, Kara started to laugh with a slightly hysterical edge to it, and she pressed a little kiss to Alex's cheek before wiping her eyes on her sleeve and moving to Eliza to pull her into her arms for a hug. "Thank you, Eliza," she whispered.
"You're welcome, Sweetie. Welcome to the Danvers family."
"We should come with a warning," Alex added as she went to them and added herself to the hug. Then she stepped back. "Get Warren out of here and arrest him. The charges are murder and treason for starters."
Kara was sniffling into Eliza's shoulder and the older woman stroked her hair and spoke softly to her. "It's ok, Honey, it's over now."
"How am I going to tell my mom?" the agent asked as she eased back and wiped her face.
"You don't have to," Alex said gently. "That's Miller's job."
Kara nodded, sliding her impassive expression back into place as she picked up her guns and slid them back into their holsters. "Let me escort you back to the residence, Madam President," she said, but there was a hint of a smile pulling at her lips.
"I think my hand might be broken," Eliza said with a sigh. "But totally worth it."
"Good thing I know someone who has a personal physician," Kara smiled.
"Yeah," Alex agreed. "We can tell him we hurt our hand punching an asshole in the face and that we need to have an x-ray."
"We?" Eliza repeated.
Kara chuckled softly. "You'll see."
Xx
Kara was very quiet, had been so all evening, and Alex didn't know what to say to her so, after a quick dinner, she just curled around her on the couch and held her as an episode of something they weren't paying attention to, played in the background.
"Do you think he hates me?" the blonde said after a long span of silence.
"No," Alex replied honestly. "But I think he was torn between his love for you and his dislike of people he considered to be abnormal. I was the perfect target for him. Gay AND trying to make positive change, challenging the status quo. When he found out you and I were together, it probably infuriated him."
Kara nodded her agreement. "My mom is broken," she said. "She could barely do anything but cry on the phone when I called her. She had no idea what was going on the last few months. She just kept saying that he was rarely home."
"If only we'd found out sooner that the shell corporation was his," Alex said with a sigh.
"He knew exactly how to cover his tracks," the agent replied. "If he hadn't made his move today, we probably still wouldn't be any the wiser."
"Why don't you bring your mom here for a while?" the president suggested as she stroked her fingertips along her lover's collar bones and then pressed her palm against her chest. "Plenty of room here in the Residence for her." She smiled a little. "And for you, if you'd like to?"
Kara smiled. "I know we're public now… but it's a little soon for me to move in, don't you think?"
Alex nodded her agreement. "I know… and I don't mean give up your apartment or anything. I just miss you when you're not here."
"I miss you too," the agent agreed with a sigh. They kissed gently until a soft clearing of throat made them ease apart.
"Sorry," Eliza said sheepishly as she crossed the living room.
"Don't be," Kara said, sitting up straighter. "Can't sleep?"
"Hand hurting?" the president asked.
"No, the painkillers are doing a good job," the scientist chuckled as she took a seat in an armchair. "I guess I'm just still a little freaked out about what happened today." She focused on Kara then. "How are you holding up?"
"I feel raw," the agent replied honestly. "Hurt and angry."
"Understandable," the older blonde nodded. "But we're here for you." She took a breath then. "I'm glad you didn't kill him, Kara, even though I would have understood if you had."
Kara nodded and closed her eyes. "I'm glad I didn't kill him too. My mother is broken enough as it is."
"Bring her here," Alex urged gently. "She needs to be with people who care about her."
"Ok," Kara agreed. "I'll talk to her tomorrow when she's had a chance to calm down and think." She rubbed between her eyes then. "I'm sorry, would you mind if I called it a night? I'm pretty tired and I'm on shift early."
"Of course not," the president replied. "I'll be in shortly myself."
"Goodnight," the agent said as she got up and headed for the bedroom, closing the door gently behind her.
"She's going to work tomorrow?" Eliza asked incredulously.
Alex nodded sadly. "It's how she deals with things. She needs to have something to do, or she'll go stir crazy."
"Is she ok?" the scientist asked.
"No." Alex shook her head. "She's not ok at all, but all we can do is be there for her." She got up then and moved around the chair to kiss her mother's head. "Night, Mom. I love you."
"Night, Alex. I love you too."
The president quietly went into her bedroom to find Kara just sitting on the edge of the bed, half undressed and staring at nothing. She hesitated a moment, but then she crawled onto the mattress to kneel behind her lover and wrap her arms around her, burying her face in the crook of her neck. "What can I do, Baby?"
"You're already doing it," the agent replied softly. She turned her head and kissed Alex's forehead. "Let's get some sleep."
The president nodded and slid off the bed to slip out of her robe as Kara got up to finish undressing. She pulled back the covers and lay on her back to open her arms, smiling as the exhausted agent lay down and pressed against her without a moment's hesitation. Then she turned out the light and cuddled Kara as close as she possibly could.
They lay there together for a long time, neither woman able to sleep despite their weariness. "I hate him," Kara finally mumbled.
The brunette stroked her fingers through the agent's hair. "You have every right. I know how much it hurts to lose someone you love, but to know someone deliberately took them away... I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, Kara."
"Fucking angry," the agent replied, suddenly overwhelmed with feelings of being trapped. She extricated herself from their embrace and sat up. "I'm... I have to..." She shook her head. "I need space. I'm going to the gym."
"Kara," Alex began but when blue eyes focused on her pleadingly, she just nodded. "Ok, Sweetheart."
The agent got back into her clothes but padded barefoot to her office, where she kept a go bag, and changed into shorts and a sports bra. Then she went to the gym and started her workout routine, pushing her body to its limit as Lena's face flashed through her mind, before she finally collapsed on the mats, sweat pouring from her. She was still angry, hurt, raw... but she was exhausted enough to sleep so after a quick shower, she went back to the Residence and slipped into bed, spooning against the president's back and kissing her neck as Alex wiggled back into her chest. "I love you," she whispered. "I'm sorry."
"No apologies," the older woman replied sleepily and moments later, Kara was asleep.
Xx
Miller was standing in the Oval Office, a contrite look on his face as Alex slowly paced back and forth in front of her desk. "After everything we've all been through, I don't want to fire you, SAC Miller... but..." She looked up and met his gaze. "What do we do? It's going to come out that the code was never changed and that..."
"I know," the man interrupted gently. "My resignation will be on your desk by the end of today and thank you, Madam President. I had fully expected to be marched out of here in handcuffs."
"Nah," Alex replied seriously. "If I was THAT mad, I would have just disappeared you." Her brown eyes twinkled though, and the man snorted a small laugh.
"Can I recommend Special Agent Lee for the position of Special Agent in Charge?" he added then. "She's more than earned it."
"I agree," the president nodded. "But I'm not sure she'll want it." She shrugged. "I think she likes what she's doing now."
"I know she does," the man nodded. "But still, she'd make a great SAC. Everyone respects the hell out of her."
"I'm curious myself," the president said. "I'll feel her out and see what she thinks."
And with a smile, Miller shook her hand and headed back to his office to pack up.
Xx
Kara and her mom were in the Residence with Eliza when Alex came into the living room and closed the door behind her. "Hi," she said softly, crossing the floor to where Rowena was sitting and crouching in front of her. "How are you doing?" she asked.
"Madam President..." Rowena said with a sniffle, taking the younger woman's hands and squeezing gently. "I don't even know what to say."
"C'mon," the president said. "You know you can call me Alex. We're family."
"You're in love with my daughter." Rowena smiled a touch, for the first time all day.
"Very much so," the president agreed, her smile much brighter. "That ok with you?"
Eliza exchanged a look with Kara and chuckled softly.
"More than ok," Kara's mom replied. "Because I know she's in love with you too and seeing that she's happy with you... helps."
"Have you spoken to Russell?" Alex asked.
"No," the older woman replied. "And I don't intend to either. I'm filing for divorce as soon as I can, so I can testify if I'm needed."
"Mom," Kara said, leaning closer to her mother and taking her hand. "Are you sure that's what you want?"
"More than sure, Honey," Rowena replied firmly. "If there's anything I can do to put him away, I'm willing. You are my child, Kara, and what he did..." She started to cry again, and Alex moved out of the way as Kara slid down onto her knees to hug her mother tightly.
"It's going to be ok, Mama," she murmured. Then she looked at Alex helplessly, receiving a sympathetic look in reply.
Xx
Alex loved that Kara no longer knocked when coming into the Residence. Eliza and Rowena had gone home and, for the first time since what they'd dubbed the 'final incident' (since the attack in Geneva had been called 'the incident' and the attack at the LGBTQ+ rally 'the other incident'), they were alone together to just... be.
Kara flopped down onto the couch, stretching out her long body to rest her head in her lover's lap and gaze up at her. "You want me to do it, right?"
The president chuckled. "I want you to do what makes you happy. It's your choice, Sweetheart."
The agent huffed her blonde hair out of her face and shook her head. "Career-wise, I know it's a good thing."
"Mmm..." Alex agreed.
"But it would take me away from your protection detail."
"Mmmm..." Alex agreed again.
"It'd be a lot more money... don't say mmm."
"Actually, I was going to say that I think I'd do well as a kept woman."
Kara grinned at that. "How much do presidents make anyway?"
"How much do special agents make?" Alex countered, stroking Kara's hair lovingly.
"Well, technically, I'm a Senior Special Agent so just over seventy-five."
Alex nodded. "And how much would the SAC position bring you up to?"
"Close to a hundred." Kara's eyebrows lifted. "I can Google your salary if you don't want to tell me."
The president sighed. "Four hundred."
Kara snorted. "Is that all?"
"I get some other perks too. Plus, I live here rent free so..."
"It's just accruing in a bank account somewhere, isn't it?" Kara teased.
"Yeah," Alex shrugged. "Unless I want to get something personal, you know?"
The agent waggled her eyebrows. "So, vibrators don't get expensed?"
"I could ask? Say it's for a friend named Kara?"
"I already have vibrators," the blonde replied with a shrug.
Dark eyebrows lifted. "Vibrators... plural?"
Kara nodded and then sat up and shifted to straddle her girlfriend's lap. "There's nothing worse..." she said slowly. "Than running out of battery," she purred. "When you're so close that you're trembling and moaning and clenching around your own fingers."
Alex swallowed. Hard. "Honey... I have a meeting at three."
Kara glanced at her watch. "That gives me twenty minutes to make you come," she said, sucking the president's earlobe into her mouth and teasing it with her tongue as she palmed her breasts through her shirt. "Think I can do it?"
Alex tipped her head back, insistent throbbing between her thighs already making her squirm a little. "Show me that body, Beautiful, and it won't even take that long," she huskily replied.
Kara slipped her jacket off her shoulders and lifted her shirt off over her head, muscles rippling. Alex's hands were already at the button of her pants, but the agent chuckled. "Nuh uh. This is about you and how much I love you."
And then, maintaining eye contact with half-lidded brown... she slowly got down on her knees to worship.