"Thank you. No, Thank you, really," Rachel said as she got off the phone call and managed her way into the living room. Tex was curious what the whole thing was about, but he was sure she'd tell them.
The President looked a little concerned. "Everything okay, honey?" He asked.
She nodded and smiled proudly. "Yeah, that was the people from the Food Across America foundation, our partner for the Every Child Deserves A Christmas Dinner campaign and we raised just under a million dollars. Obviously, it's not enough to feed every child a Christmas dinner, but it raised a lot of money and a lot of kids…and adults, but the kids,"
Everyone in the room congratulated her. Her mother gave her a big hug and then the President, and Tom was noticeably absent from the festivities, so he also gave her a big hug. Hugs were okay. Hugs were just about congratulating her.
Her parents wouldn't have any idea what was going on with them, despite the fact that he didn't want to keep this a secret, they knew they should. At least for awhile. So they could have data to back up the idea that they were good together. This was the scientist in Rachel Scott. He loved that she was so hellbent on proving that they could be together and still keep his job.
He did like his job. It was a free place to stay with a great roommate in the heart of the city and he got to go to college on the government's dime without having to worry about what it might cost him. It was everything to him. Rachel was a good client too. She wasn't too high maintenance about where he had to be. And she wasn't constantly trying to throw him off her tracks. A perk of being the boyfriend he guessed.
"So how's school going?" The president asked.
"Oh, hush," Mrs. Scott answered. "Let them enjoy Christmas day without you badgering them about what school is like,"
Rachel blushed a little and picked out a few presents and handed them around. A diplomatic approach if ever he saw one around the whole thing. She said nothing that would have been construed either way. She just simply floated around it. She passed out presents till there were only a few left in the stack, a time where Tom found it in his duty to stop by.
"How's Christmas everyone?" Tom asked.
"Oh, I think we're doing okay," Tex said, holding up the few presents that he had gotten from Rachel. Everyone else had significantly more presents around, but that was to be expected. He was the help still in their eyes. Although, he did eye one that seemed to have Mrs. Scott's name written on the tag. That was nice of her. He certainly didn't need presents from anyone, though the gesture warmed his heart.
"You're supposed to be off today," The president said to Tom.
Tom nodded. "Oh, I am. I'm just here as your friend. Not as the Chief of Staff," He promised. He gave an eye to Tex and then looked at the gifts as they were being unwrapped.
There was a pair of earrings for Mrs. Scott, some new books for the President, hopefully with time to read them, and a new bottle of perfume for one Rachel Scott. Tex opened one of his presents and it was a sampling of a beard and hair care kit. It was probably not something he would have bought for himself, but it was something that someone who was reasonably newly acquainted with him, could probably get him without sending him into a tailspin. He looked at it with some confusion, but smiled, "What a thoughtful gift," He said, putting it to the side and looking around. It had been Mrs. Scott's gift and she looked happy that he didn't just feel like throwing it away it seemed.
"I'd have gotten you something more traditional but a lot of those things aren't allowed in the White House," Mrs. Scott said with a laugh.
He nodded. He assumed that she meant something like a knife as something more traditional, but he wasn't quite sure. He just hoped that he could make use of all the gifts they currently got. The hair care kit would most certainly be tried, so in the end it was a good gift.
Rachel opened some more gifts which included some cookbooks and some movie musicals, a thing she seemed particularly excited about. They weren't that far from the city and while he was going out with the boys for New Years, he wondered if he had just found an idea for her birthday maybe.
More than anything, he just liked seeing her happy, around her family, she let her guard down. She was one of the most recognizable people in the world right now and the thing that she wanted to desperately try and do was keep a low profile. She did that well at school, because they had not published where she was going to school and so any person. But here with her family, she didn't keep her smiles subdued and the light within her, it was something else. It positively radiated from her.
She was doing better about being that way at school too, but it took time. She was someone who spent so long carefully constructing an image that she didn't really know how to be outside of that without the consumption of alcohol. Here it was different. She was different. And he loved every second of it.
"Well, I should go," Tom said. "It's clear you guys are having a wonderful time. Your Christmas message has already been sent out into the world. Continue on," He said as he started to leave. Tex smiled to the President, Mrs. Scott, and Rachel, and followed Tom out of the room. Tom looked a little bit surprised, but he didn't seem overly concerned. "Well aren't you the funky chicken today?" He asked.
"Chandler, I uh was hoping to have some free time," He asked. "For New Year's Eve weekend. Some friends and I want to go up to New York City. But obviously, that will leave Rachel unattended for quite some time."
Tom nodded. "You've been more than watchful," He said. "But you deserve a break from your duties. Consider it done."
Tex didn't love the response of 'more than watchful' but he decided not to try and see where Tom was coming from. There could have been a thousand different ways that he meant that, none of them meant to be sinister. "So who's going to watch over her?" He asked.
"Oh, I probably will. But there are secret service ready for her, don't you worry," Tom said as he smiled. "You should enjoy your weekend. It's the first time you've gotten off since you took this job."