Hey guys here's the next chapter, just to note this takes place 4 years after the last chapter and in this story Mellie is a democrat.
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4 years later:
"As we continue our election night coverage we now turn to one of the most followed races of the year, the race for the senator of California. As election results continue to pour in on the west coast it is already clear that Democratic darling Mellie Grant has already shored up a commanding lead in the polls against embattled senator Harvey Scott"
As Mellie listened to the BNC reporter talk about her she began to feel nervous. She didn't quite know why, like the reporter said she had good reason to be confident. Every recent poll showed that she held a massive lead. The campaigns personal tracking polls offered as good or better news and after California was nearly all democrats so the chances of her loosing were slim. But as the day progressed, she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling the race would be closer than expected and she might end up on the wrong side of a historic upset.
She suddenly snapped out of her trance as she felt him squeeze her hand. She quickly turned towards her husband who was sitting next to her on the sofa.
"You okay sweetie?" He asked as he loosened his grip on her hand
"Yeah I'm just a little nervous I guess" she admitted
"Why? I mean you heard the reporter, your already leading by a double digits"
"Yeah I know I just I mean it's still early and I'm just worried that everything that all I've put into this, all we've put into this will be for nothing"
"Hey listen to me … in a few hours all the money and the time and the phone calls that we put into this will all be worth it when you become the hottest senator California has ever seen"
"Oh really … just California, so your saying there's a hotter senator in another state?" she asked as Fitz's face fell realizing he was screwed
"No I mean you'll be the hottest senator ever" he said quickly trying to back track
"Why didn't you say that in the first place?" she asked pretending to be annoyed
"Mellie Grant the love of my life, the woman of my dreams, the mother of my children, the future hottest senator ever I love you … I love you more than I thought was humanly possible." He said pulling her into his arms and kissing her temple
"I love you too" she said quietly turning Fitz and planting a kiss on his lips
"Okay hold on … as cute as it is to see you two all lovey dovey we have results to monitor and I need my candidate's full attention… you can have her later" Her campaign manager Abby teased. Mellie and Abby were best friends who had been roommates at boarding school before going their separate ways at collage, Mellie to Yale and Abby to Stanford. They had stayed friends though and when Mellie was first running for district attorney and now when she was running for senate it only made sense for her to hire Abby who was an up in coming campaign manager to run her campaign. She and Abby had spent so much time together on the campaign trail that Abby was now like a part of the family often crashing in the guest room of their L.A. home.
"Okay you can have her but when she wins she's all mine" Fitz said with a smirk
"Actually when she wins she belongs the people of California" Abby pointed out as she walked away
"I do not like her right now" Fitz teased as Mellie focused her attention back to the five TV's that had been set up. They were running watching / monitoring the results in the penthouse suite of the Grand hotel in downtown L.A. They had gotten here late last night with more people trickling in throughout the day. By now the rooms was at full capacity with interns and staffers sprawled out everywhere typing away on their laptops and making phone calls. And Mellie was right in the thick of it sitting on a sofa next to Fitz watching the election results. This was so much more intense and high stakes then her last election. Three years ago she had been told by an insider source that the District Attorney of L.A. would step down and they needed somebody to run for that spot. Now while this might sound like every lawyers dream job none of them wanted it because they clearly all knew something that she didn't. They knew that when you were district attorney you would have to deal with a police force that had awful race relations with the African American community. This became clear to Mellie about one year into her term when an African American teenager was shot by a police officer. After heinous details about how this unarmed teenager was unlawfully profiled the country grew angry. There were riots and protests in the streets and everyone from the police chief to the mayor stepped down. Everyone in the justice department decided to rest the entire case on the young new district attorney. Coming from a Southern family that had most likely made a little bit of slave owning in their background everybody expected her to side with the officer and get him out of a conviction. Despite the pressure from City hall Mellie refused to do that and instead she used every trick she had earned at Harvard and was able to get a first degree murder conviction.
After that she became a national star, she was on the front pages of newspapers and she was guest on all the morning shows. She even spoke at the Democratic national convention last year. While rumors swirled about what was next for one of the country's most popular politicians there were mentions of Attorney General or perhaps mayor of L.A. While Mellie had considered both these spots she was suddenly presented with the opportunity to do something far greater, run for the United States senate. Current sitting republican senator Harvey Scott was disliked by nearly everyone in California. He was known by all as a senator who didn't care about the people, all he cared about was the title. He would often be seen skipping important votes to go party on lobbyist yachts and he would only vote when they were bills that those lobbyists were interested in. California was failing and everybody wanted him out. Mellie knew this and she seized the opportunity, using her political capital from the trial to win the democratic nomination for senate. Although Harvey knew how disliked he was, the special interest groups he represented donated big to his campaign. He had used all that money to try to dig up dirt on Mellie and her family. Unfortunately for him they were a happy loving young family with no skeletons in their closet. Even so Harvey somehow found out about her miscarriage and leaked to the press that she had actually gotten an abortion be she wanted to focus on her career. This rumor had nearly killed Mellie, sure she was fine with abortion but the fact that he was taking something as painful as her miscarriage and spinning into lies for his campaign had completely broke her heart. She remembered just sitting on the floor of the shower for hours sobbing while Fitz just held her in his arms. After this though Mellie had decided to stop playing victim and instead she had dedicated everything she had to get Harvey out of the senate. She had made thousands of calls, and had raised millions of dollars. She had taken every spare minute coming up with better and more efficient ways to campaign all in an attempt to take Harvey down. Although she played hard she never played dirty because she didn't want to sink to his level. She had filled the airwaves with Photos of her and Fitz and their kids. She had reached out to the family values voters and had even got a good chunk of them to vote democrat. She had visited almost every single county which was crazy considering how big California was. Now here she was with victory in sight but all she could think about was what if Harvey pulled the biggest upset in California history and would destroy everything she worked for.
She tried to push these thoughts out of her head as she turned her attention back the screen. She didn't think she'd ever been this nervous before in her life. Turns out she was wrong because a second later Abby took a phone call which clearly seemed important. As Mellie stared at her she tried to analyze her best friends face but got mixed results. Had Harvey somehow pulled ahead? Were the polls closer than expected? Mellie was about to speak when Abby held her finger to her lips silently telling her to be quiet. After a minute Abby hung up the phone and turned to Mellie.
"That was Harold from the L.A Times …. They're about to call the race for you" she said as Mellie felt her stomach drop not sure if Abby was telling the truth
"You're kidding" Mellie said in disbelief
"No I'm not …. Look" Abby said as she pointed to the TV screen where all the channels had the breaking news alert with Mellie photo and the words under it. Projected Winner. As Mellie saw this she and Abby both at the exact same time began jumping up and down and squealing just like they did when they got their collage acceptance letters. She suddenly felt Fitz throw his arms around her and pull her in close and whispered in her ear "I love you". After that it was all a blur, she shook a lot of hands, got a lot of congratulations and was then shuttled off towards a private room to field phone calls from her biggest donor. As she was being shuttled over to the room she suddenly felt a tug on her skirt. As she looked down she saw her little four year old son Jerry in his little baby blue blazer and his Khaki's "Mommy did you win?" he asked softly
"Yeah I won baby"
"Nobody told me" he said as he looked like he was about to cry.
"Oh I'm sorry buddy but now you know … and now how about Laurie takes you to go play with sissy"
"Karen's asleep Mommy"
"Oh okay well how about Laurie takes you to go play daddy and mommy will join you little bit okay"
"Okay mommy" he said as he ran away towards where Fitz was sitting
"Holly shit you have the cutest kids in the world" Abby muttered under her breath
"I do don't I" Mellie teased as she headed to one of the private rooms. Once she was in there she took phone calls from her biggest donors along with the Governor of California and James earl an independent who she was also running against. Then she finally got the call she had been waiting for … the concession call Harvey Scott. Their conversation was short because neither of them liked each other. She had thought she would feel a little bit bad for him but he had attacked her family, he had spread malicious rumors about her and so she didn't feel bad at all, in fact she felt great knowing he could never do anything to harm her state ever again. Abby walked into the room as she was finishing the conversation with Harvey. A second later she hung up and set down the phone.
"Thank god I never have to deal with that asshole again" Mellie muttered
"Yeah well he's about to give his concession speech and we arranged it so you will give your speech once his is over so as to not steal your spotlight Miss Senator elect" Abby said with a smirk
"Wow that's the first time I've heard it … it doesn't feel real"
"Yeah well maybe it will after you give your speech which reminds me you Fitz and the kids need to get downstairs soon" Abby said as she left the room once again. Mellie quickly followed her and headed over to the sofa where Fitz was sitting next to Jerry who was playing angry birds on his phone.
"Hey babe so are we going down soon?"
"Yeah Abby said like 5 minutes"
"Okay cool I guess better go wake Karen up" he said as he headed into the bedroom where their 2 year old was sleeping. Mellie quickly pulled Jerry into her arms balancing him on her hip while she bounced him up and down slowly. Suddenly she heard a thud as the little boy dropped Fitz's phone on the floor.
"Uh oh" Jerry said quickly as he leaned down to try to pick it up causing him to almost fall out of Mellie's arms. She held him tighter as he quickly crouched down and picked up the phone relived to find that the life proof case had saved it. As she picked up the phone she slipped it into her pocket much to Jerrys dismay
"You can have it later buddy we just doesn't want you to break it cause then you'll have nothing to do" Mellie pointed out as the little boy nodded his head in agreement. As second later Mellie Saw Fitz exit the bedroom carrying their chubby 2 year old daughter Karen. The little girl had her tiny hands in mini fists as she rubbed her eyes. Mellie felt awful about walking the little girl up when she was sleeping so peacefully but she wanted the whole family there for her speech.
"Her dress is pretty wrinkled" Mellie said as she rubbed the fabric.
"I brought another one … should I change her?" he asked as Mellie smirked thinking about how domesticated Fitz had become.
"Nah it's no big deal …. I don't want to put you guys through all the trouble just for that besides she still looks adorable"
"Of course she does … she looks just like her mommy" Fitz said as he tickled his little girl
"Eh … she has your eyes, they both have your eyes" Mellie pointed out
"Hey sorry for interrupting family time again but you guys are due on stage in less than 5 minutes" Abby informed
"Oh right sorry lets go guys" Mellie said as she headed to the elevator. Once they got downstairs they were ushered by some staffers to the stage where Jeff Carl one of California's most famous congressman and a close family friend was finishing his introduction.
"And now Lady's a gentleman please welcome to the stage your new junior senator from the great state of California Mellie Grant" he said as the crowd went wild. Mellie quickly walked on stage waving to the crowd and shaking hands with Jeff as she got to the podium and began her speech.
"…. I want to thank my staff and everyone who worked on my campaign day in and day out. I want to thank everyone who donated their time and money to my campaign I want to say a special thanks to my amazing family, my husband who is my rock who kept me grounded throughout the campaign, my wonderful children who always reminded me why I was doing this, I'm doing this for their future and for the future of the kids all around California. And last of all I want to thank everyone who voted for me, because that vote is a vote for the future" she said as the crowd went wild with cheers and applause.
Suddenly the confetti canons went off and Mellie found herself surrounded by confetti, so much she couldn't see the crowd. Karen and Jerry were mesmerized by the sight as they reached out and tried to catch it , by the time it was down they all had confetti on their clothes and in their hair but they didn't care. Soon they were hurried off stage before shaking and taking selfies. Soon Mellie headed back upstairs, she thanked all the staff and had a quick party before she and Fitz decided to go home to let the kids get some sleep. Soon they got back to their L.A. Home and climbed out of the car carrying their two children who had passed out on the drive home. Mellie carried Karen into her bedroom pulling off the little girls dress and putting on her PJ's. After that she tucked her in the bed and then headed to Jerry's rooms where she found him already in bed. Mellie gave him a kiss as well before heading back to her bedroom where Fitz was sitting on the bed in just his boxers. He quickly stood up and kissed her
"You know I don't think I ever truly congratulated you , Madame Junior Senator" he said in a seductive whisper
"Oh well we have a few hours till the kids come bounding into our room all hyper again"
"Yeah … hey I was just thinking are we going to Move to Washington?"
"Yeah I think we're going to move have to move to Washington"
