She heard the rustle of doors and feet early in the morning and got up to see what everything was about. When she looked over the staircase, she saw Tex and two other boys that she'd seen briefly during their thanksgiving leftover party. And then she saw Tom and her dad on the other side of them. She couldn't quite hear what they were saying, they were being too quiet to hear anything good. It could have been the hour. In fact, it probably was.

She went back into her bedroom and put on a robe and went down the stairs. If there was something going on, she wanted to be a part of this. Because whatever it was, it was obvious it wasn't good. She could pick that up just off the looks on the faces. She hurried down the staircase, hopefully to figure out what the hell was going on.

"You're not supposed to be sleeping with her. You're supposed to be protecting her."

"You know this could cost you your job and all the benefits that come with it."

"How could you? You know that she's supposed to be focusing on her school and her work, not on you,"

When everyone saw her at the bottom of the stairs, everyone got eerily quiet for a minute, and she looked around at everyone not entirely sure what was going on, but knowing very clearly that it was out of the bag that Rachel and Tex were together. That was the start of it. She'd get to the bottom of it very quickly.

"I wasn't aware that I couldn't make my own choices, everyone," She said, looking at her father and Tom first. "I thought Tex was supposed to be New York City for the weekend. It's still the weekend, why is he back here, talking about this stuff that quite frankly, was none of anyone's business but mine."

"Honey," Her father tried cajoling. "You don't know what you're saying."

She shook her head. "Oh, that one just won't do and that's not an answer to my question," She said, before she let that get too much farther. She couldn't believe that this was going on. How could they think she was strong enough to go to school on her own, but not figure out who she wanted to date on her own?

Tom showed her the headline with the picture. It was quite a cute picture in her estimation. She and Tex had just got done with a snowball fight and were wrapped up in each other's arms and they kissed. They pecked at each other honestly. It was a fairytale picture honestly. This is what people would put up as real romance.

"Secret Service Romance? First Daughter Rachel Scott Caught with Security Detail Tex Nolan, Apparently Having a Romantic Evening." She read. "This is from a gossip magazine, first of all. But second of all, it's true. We were having a romantic evening, because it wasn't anyone's business what we were doing there at all."

Tex was surprised by the way this was going, but he wasn't exactly surprised by Rachel's fiery reaction to her dad and Tom trying to get in the way of her life. "It was basically our first date," Tex said, trying to help add context to the story. "We were getting to know each other." He said, and then he looked down at his shoes and both the President and Tom shot warning glances at him, which Rachel rolled her eyes at.

"You guys aren't serious about this?" Tom asked. "Someone got you on tape and you don't even know if you're serious about this? How can we trust that you'll be good partners in your working relationship if this goes south?" He asked.

"Because we don't have to be," Rachel told him. "If this goes south and we don't want to work together anymore, you can give me some new random secret service person, but please for the love of god, let me date who I want." She said to them.

"But you're dating your security, that's got to be a breach of contract?" The president said.

She shook her head. "I didn't even want someone to come to school with me. But now, I have someone who cares for me more than anything protecting me? Honestly, I thought you'd be happier about this right now."

Tom looked a little amused at the whole thing. He did have some unfortunate news for the president. "Since this was a compromise with Rachel, we never thought that she'd end up liking him, so uh, technically there's no breach of contract. But Rachel, we will hold you to the idea that you get a random secret service agent if this ever goes south,"

Rachel nodded. That was good enough for her. It was a lot really. They should have had a more thorough negotiation about the whole thing, but she didn't even want to do that. She just wanted this to stop. She wanted Tex to be given some more freedom to live his life authentically, the way that they were used to doing it at school.

"Besides, Tex is the one encouraging me to do things that up my media profile. So he's helping you guys," She said as she took Tex and Danny and Wolf upstairs and into the bedroom that Tex had been given for the duration of the trip.

She looked at the three of them who looked a little bewildered by the situation. That tracked though. The whole situation was a little bewildering. And if you weren't used to being in the middle of an argument about what kind of dating life a human woman could have, well then it would seem a little bit extra bewildering.

"It's going to be fine," She said to them.

"How do you know that?" Danny and Wolf asked.

She simply shrugged. "Because I just handled it." She said as if that were enough. She looked around and looked to them. "Well, uh, welcome to the White House. We should all probably get a little bit more sleep," She said as she looked at the time. Four O'clock in the morning. On January first. Yeah, a little bit more sleep would probably do them all a bit of a good. "You guys are okay in here, right?" She asked.

They nodded before she left. But Tex followed her out and to her room. He smiled. "You are something else." He said.

She smiled and kissed him gently. "You bet I am.