JUST SOME TYPICAL DAYS ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL
A/N: This will be a ONE shot on some shenanigans on the campaign trail.
I don't own any rights to the characters, except the ones I make up.
Somewhere in California
Elizabeth was laying in her bed on the back of her campaign bus, trying to take a nap until the next stop.
They were 2 weeks away from the general election in her bid to become President and she was beyond exhausted. The last 18 months have been taxing and tiring. She thought being Secretary of State was tiring, at least with that job, she had gotten to see her family more.
Henry would be flying in to join them on the next stop and would be with them until the end of the campaign. The kids would be joining them for the last week, so she would at least get to see them for more than five minutes or a quick video call.
Just as she was finally about to doze off, Mike B, burst into her room waving a piece of paper at her.
"That better be polling that I am up by 60 points, or I am going to kill you," she said as she glared at him.
"Not 60 but 6, which is a 3 point jump," he said smiling. "Turns out falling on your butt and sliding down the stairs of the bus plays well with the American people, " he laughed to her.
I am going to kill him if he mentions that one more time, she thought. "Glad I can bring you some enjoyment, now get out and let me rest," she shouted at him. He didn't make an attempt to leave so she picked up a day old cupcake from her bedside and threw it at him. He ducked, just as Blake hit the doorway and it smashed him right in the face.
"Oops, sorry Blake, I was aiming at the relentless taskmaster there," she said, apologizing to him.
Blake grabbed a towel to wipe his face and suddenly grinned at Elizabeth. He reached around with the towel and smeared the frosting all over Mike's face. Mike tried to dodge it, but Blake was took quick and coated his face.
Elizabeth was laughing so hard, she fell off the too small bed and landed on her butt. This elicited a laugh from her and Blake.
"You really have to stop falling on your butt, if you want the American people to take you seriously," Blake told her.
This made her laugh even harder until it registered with her tired brain, he was throwing a jab at her. She changed her expression and scowled at him. He smirked and turned and left.
"Take Mike with you," she shouted at Blake.
Blake snatched Mike by his collar and pulled him out of the room, shutting the door behind him.
Elizabeth thought about the exchange as she was crawling back on her bed giggling.
Just as she was about to finally doze off, her phone buzzed. She picked it up from the bedside and saw Henry's face on a video chat request.
"There is my love, " she said as she answered the call. She and Henry had been married for over 30 years and were still in as much love today as the day they married.
"How is it going Babe? Still on schedule for the next stop, I will be landing in about two hours, and I can't wait to see you," he told her.
"As far as I know, Yes, but Mike is in charge so who knows. He may lay an egg idea and throw in a last minute glitch to the schedule," she laughed to Henry.
"I know he is annoying and frustrating, but we are on the downhill of this and it will all be over soon," he said trying to alleviate some of her anxiety.
"He is one of the best at what he does, I just wish he was more flexible with letting me eat and sleep," she said.
Henry laughed and told her, "I will talk to Blake about making sure you get your daily allotment of ice cream and popcorn."
"And that is why I love you, making sure to keep me fed has always been your greatest skill," she said.
He raised an eyebrow and said, "I don't think that is my greatest skill, but we will go with that for now. I know you are sleep and food deprived and not thinking clearly.
Elizabeth looked at him quizzically and it finally dawned on her what other skill he was referring to. She smiled and shook her head, "Yes, that is definitely your better skill. I can't wait to have you put that to work."
"Okay, Babe, you get some sleep and I will see you in a few hours," he blew her a kiss and ended the call.
Two days later, they were making a stop at a party factory. A scheduling snafu had caused the confetti and some of the other items needed for her possible victory party were not ordered in time and they were going to pick them up. Mike used the opportunity to turn it into a campaign stop.
Elizabeth and Henry had used the four hour drive to get reacquainted and she warned Mike, if they were interrupted he would lose some vital body parts.
The team exited the bus when it pulled up to Confetti's Are Us.
They were greeted by the manager of the plant, Wilson Myers, and given a guided tour of the plant.
Daisy, Blake and Mike were the only ones on this leg of the trip. Mike per usual, was on his phone during the tour and was not paying attention to where he was walking. Suddenly there was a loud splash and the tour stopped to look at the source. Mike had tripped and fallen into a vat of coloring gel. It was used to dye the confetti and streamers. He stood up and had pink gel dye running off his body.
Elizabeth and the entire group were doubled over laughing at the sight of him. He looked like someone had poured Pepto Bismol all over him. Wilson grabbed some towels and tried to help him wipe it off. He told Mike there is a shower around the corner and I will find you a jumpsuit to put on.
Mike sloshed off in the direction of the shower, dripping pink dye behind him. The best part was for the first time ever he didn't have his cell phone attached to his hand.
The rest of the group continued the tour and Elizabeth gave a speech about the importance of keeping jobs in America to the plant employees.
Mike eventually caught up with them as they were getting back on the bus. Blake had gotten all the supplies they had ordered and while picking them up found a special item for Mike.
The team was loading on the bus and Blake walked up behind Mike, who was in a pink jumpsuit and still had lots of the pink dye on him. The special item was bunny ears and he placed them on his head, without Mike being aware.
Elizabeth caught sight of Mike as the photographers were snapping away. She called back to him and they got a perfect shot of him all in pink and bunny ears.
Everyone was laughing and Mike was looking at them as to what was so funny, until he caught his reflection in the bus door glass. He stomped up the stairs and went straight to his desk.
Elizabeth was trying to compose herself and thank Wilson and his employees, but was doing a poor job at it. The primary plant color theme was pink so it was everywhere and she kept seeing it and getting tickled all over again.
Finally, Henry was able to get her under control and guide her to the bus. She walked through to her room and caught sight of Mike and started laughing all over again.
Daisy and Blake got on the bus, Daisy was busy checking (the tablet of doom) to see if the pictures of Mike had shown up yet and how she was going to craft that situation. They were both still laughing as Mike glared up at them.
Henry and Elizabeth retired to her room. She was done for the day and looking forward to a good night's sleep. They would only be on the bus for one more day and then the campaign would move to the plane for the rest of the days until the election.
What shenanigans would happen next was anybody's guess. Mike would have to stay out of the limelight. The dye would take several days to fade. Elizabeth only hoped this would calm him down, but her fear was it would fire him up more.
The next morning her surprise was sitting on the bus next to Mike when she walked out of her room.
Russell Jackson had taken a seven day resignation from the White House to run her campaign in Mike's absence.
"Oh Good Lord Russell, what are you doing here?" she asked.
"Well since this one, pointing at Mike, looks like Pepto, I came to take over for the last week. We can't have him out in public looking like an Easter Bunny and people take the campaign seriously," he scowled back at her.
Elizabeth both dismayed and humored, mumbled, "I just had to question what could happen next. Karma gods are making me pay a hefty price for something."
"Let's get down to business," Russell told her.
They were making a stop at a chocolate factory and Elizabeth was beyond excited. Sweets were one of her weaknesses and this was going to be a great stop.
The rising cost of cocoa imports was making this an important stop and it would be full court press to make a good impression and impress to the voters the need to help the American worker and economy.
President Conrad Dalton and Senator Carlos Morejon (Elizabeth's running mate) would be joining the stop. Jay Whitman (Elizabeth's Washington campaign manager) was flying in with the President.
The stump speech had been written and rewritten several times to make sure it was perfect. Russell was more nervous and edgy than usual. He had told them this was a make it or break it speech and it had to go over without any mistakes.
Elizabeth and Henry were laying on the bunk in her room discussing the kids when Blake busted in and told her they were an hour out. She needed to shower and get dressed. She pouted at him since she had to leave Henry.
The bus pulled up to the plant and Elizabeth was jumpy to get to "The Chocolate" as she had been telling them for the last hour. Russell rolled his eyes at her and warned her not to get overly anxious and screw up.
The plant owner Thomas Mars and several of his key personnel met them at the entrance, just as POTUS'S motorcade drove up.
Conrad, Jay and Carlos exited the vehicle and walked over to them. Conrad hugged Elizabeth and said, "Bess, you are doing a hell of a job out here."
"Thank you Conrad, I just hope I make you proud in the end," she told him. Hugs and handshakes with the rest of the group were exchanged and the group proceeded inside the plant.
Thomas or Mr. Mars as he was referred to was giving them a guided tour of the chocolate room. The assembly line was coating candy bars with chocolate and Elizabeth's mouth was salivating to get her hands on one.
Elizabeth walked over towards the line and Jay walked up behind her. They were all wearing white coats over their clothing, so they would not contaminate the chocolate.
Jay's sleeves on his jacket were too long for him and he placed his hand on the line a little too close and the sleeve caught. This caused the belt to move out of place and the chocolate covered candy bars started jumping off the belt and falling on the floor and landing on Jay and Elizabeth. Jay panicked trying to get his sleeve loose and made the bars go flying in the air.
Just as Mr. Mars was about to point out a key element of the process, a bar landed on his head. He reached up to see what it was and pulled it off. It had stuck to his hair and when he pulled it off, his hairpiece came with it.
The group turned to see where it came from and suddenly were bombarded with chocolate bars and liquid chocolate. They all scrambled and some ended up falling on their butts due to the slick chocolate.
Elizabeth tried to run away and fell face first into a pile of bars and chocolate. She rolled over and was sitting on her butt peeling chocolate bars off her jacket and laughing. She had one in each hand and was eating on both of them smiling up at Henry.
A worker saw what had happened and ran over and shut the machine down.
Russell, who was in the hallway, walked in and saw the disaster and looked at them with his eyes wide and his mouth gaped open.
"You just had to get a sample didn't you?" he directed at Elizabeth.
"This was not my fault, this time," she told him, looking at Jay. She and Jay were standing closest to the machine when it happened so they were covered from head to toe.
"Luckily the press hasn't arrived yet, so we may dodge a bullet with this mess," Russell told the group.
Everyone was led into a cleanroom to try and get as much of the mess off as possible.
Blake went to the bus and the President's motorcade and retrieved new clothes for him and Elizabeth.
It was decided that everyone else would return to the bus and Conrad and Elizabeth would be the only ones present for the press and the speech.
Mr. Mars took to the stage to introduce them, having gone and reapplied his hairpiece and put on a new suit. Elizabeth stepped to the podium to give her speech and it was a roaring success with loud applause from the crowd. Conrad spoke next and the press deemed it a win for The McCord Campaign.
Conrad, Carlos and Jay bid them farewell and everyone loaded back up on the bus.
Elizabeth immediately went to her room and unknown to anyone else, Blake had secured her a giant stash of chocolate, one of the workers had given to him for her.
Elizabeth's eyes lit up when Blake walked in with the chocolate, "You are limited to three a day," he told her.
She pouted but shook her head OK.
The bus was enroute to the airport and they were saying goodbye to it. Mike would be staying on the bus and riding it back to Virginia. The rest of the team would fly to the rest of the stops.
Henry and Elizabeth retired to her stateroom on the plane and were cuddled up on the bed. "Wow, that was a fun day," she said with a smirk on her face.
Henry busted out laughing and turned to her. He looked closer at her and realized she had chocolate in her ear. He started laughing harder and reached up to wipe the chocolate off. "Were you saving this for later he asked her?" showing her his finger with the chocolate on it.
She reached up and pulled the finger to her mouth and said, "No it was an emergency stash."
They both fell back on the bed laughing.
Daisy was sitting in the main cabin when a reporter approached her for a comment on a photo. The photo was a side shot of Elizabeth on stage with chocolate in her ear. Daisy immediately laughed and told him, "I will get back with you about a statement."
Daisy walked to Elizabeth's stateroom to tell her about the photo. She showed it to her and Elizabeth said, "At least it is not of me falling on my butt."
They all laughed and decided not to comment on it and just let the press run with whatever they came up with.
The plane taxied to the runway and took off for the next stop and the next bit of hijinks that was to come.
I wrote this as a prompt from Brenda Wood for shenanigans on the tour bus. Had a free day inside with the nasty cold weather so here you go. Please review and let me know what you think.