After Afterall

26

My day starts off good. I wake up to a text from my very hot, very Presidential boyfriend that wishes me a good morning and reminds me about the dress I'll be wearing to a very fancy party at the White House tonight will be waiting for me at the White House so we can get ready together. I reply back something akin to possible sexting, but a more PG version in case the NSA is keeping tabs. Who am I kidding? Of course the NSA is keeping tabs.

I take a shower, check my phone for any alerts about my patients (luckily finding none), and then head downstairs. I find a pot of coffee has been made for me, which is now a routine between Toby and I. Since he gets here so early in the morning, he starts a pot and grabs a mug before heading downstairs to monitor the house before I'm ready to go. I like the routine a lot. It makes this place feel more like a home than somewhere I've been carted away to for "my own protection."

I grab an apple and walk into the living room and flip on the TV. I can immediately tell Derek was the last person to watch my TV because the news is on. I usually find a blank screen when I turn the TV on because I'd been watching a surgical tape the last time. I'm about to change the channel to the weather when I hear my own name.

"—Meredith Grey. Look, I like that this President is shown to have a social life. Every modern President has been so buttoned up and he feels like a less playboy version of JFK. But that doesn't mean he should keep taking weekends off to spend with his girlfriend. It's exactly what we were afraid would happen; he needs to spend all this time with her to get to know her and he's ignoring his responsibilities."

"And what responsibilities are those?"

"What responsibilities?" The female anchor asks. "Well we were all just bombarded with a tape that shows a doctor being decapitated by ISIS and he wasn't even around to address the nation. He was too busy drinking whisky in Maine."

"It's scotch," I say to myself.

The male anchor replies, "I believe the President doesn't even drink whisky."

I smile.

"That is so beside the point."

"So what is your point, Elise?"

"My point is: the President needs to focus and, almost as important, Doctor Grey needs to focus. I did some digging and I learned that she's been pushing her elective surgeries and she's been handing off patients she's spent days, weeks, or months with to lesser doctors so she can be wined and dined on the tax-payers dollars."

Another female anchor chimes in and says, "Oh come on. Derek Shepherd was loaded before he became President. I'm sure that's his own money he used."

"Not for Air Force One," Elise fights back.

"Did you check the tax sheet for Air Force One?" The male anchor asks.

"No, but we all know tax-payers support Air Force One."

The other female anchor shakes her head. "I think this whole conversation is ridiculous. The President isn't expected to be in the White House every day. Yes, he's held to a higher standard, but the Presidency is a job and the man should be able to spend a rather tame weekend with his family without people judging."

"Our job as reporters is to report and I think the American people deserve to know that both the President and the good doctor are shirking their responsibilities."

The camera focuses on the male anchor and he seems less than happy. "While I don't agree with my colleague's assessment of the weekend, it does seem like President Shepherd, Doctor Grey, and the Shepherd family had a great time at the President's home in Maine. Here are some of the photos we received, including the two released by the White House of the President and Doctor Grey stepping onto and off of Air Force One."