Executive Orders

CH 79 | Well Laid Plans

"This is not what we agreed on, Mellie." Fitz had made a few more phone calls after their conversation and he was seething with what he'd learned.

Mellie stood before him, looking just as satisfied as she had sounded over the phone with herself. Fitz didn't doubt for a minute that it was due to the fact that she'd managed to get so far with her latest plan without him learning about it.

Fitz blamed himself; really, he should have known better after Mellie had called him and offered him the weekend after Thanksgiving to spend time with the kids. How foolish was he to think that she would ever put them ahead of her own schemes.

Now she was smiling at him, her voice far too reasonable. "If you would just stop and think it all through, you'll see that all I did was serve you up a golden opportunity to take advantage of."

"How's that?" Fitz asked.

Mellie spread her arms in a gesture that took in the entire room. "Fitz, I don't understand how you can't see it - you told the country that you were planning on spending Thanksgiving alone. This isn't how the president of the United States is supposed to spend this uniquely American holiday - it and you should be given its rightful due."

"I assure you, Mellie - I'm pretty sure that I had the situation well in hand." Fitz said. That had been the plan; a small, quiet mid-morning speech offering the nation the best of his good wishes.

Off-camera he would have spent some time accepting calls for the same from his peers on the world stage and then - the most wished for part of his day, and the one he had been most thankful for - an early private Thanksgiving dinner with Olivia in the Residence, with - blissfully and unusually - no other plans for the rest of the day - or night.

He'd expected the kids to fly in early Friday evening and to have all of Saturday and Sunday to at least begin to reestablish some level of family connection - especially with Gerry. But now...

Mellie's laugh - the one that he knew all too well - as bright and as false as the smile she was beaming in his direction - brought his thoughts back to the present. "You'll thank me later, darling. A sit-down with the party's leadership is exactly what you should have had planned - but not to worry - it's exactly what I've arranged, with the added bonus that everybody profits. Everyone who matters gets to make their pretty little speeches, you get a photo op with your - our - beautiful family - and best of all, it's how you unite the country behind you."

Fitz look at her in visible disbelief; she was practically glowing at what she'd accomplished. "Fitz, it's literally the most politically wisest thing you can do - and here I've wrapped it up with a bow and handed it to you on a silver platter!"

"A golden opportunity handed to me on a silver platter? The only thing wrong with this scenario is the fact that no one asked you to." Fitz was quietly furious -quiet at least for the moment and he was struggling to stay that way. "Do you really think that our kids will enjoy spending the day being forced to attend a formal dinner - to be dressed up and put on display in front of strangers and used as nothing more than a patriotic prop? Things have been hard enough for them lately - in case you hadn't noticed. Do you really think that this is something that they either want or need?"

"What they need is maybe something that you should have thought of before you chose to tear this family apart." Her voice remained steeped in her very best saccharine tones, but the sudden hard light in Mellie's eyes were saying something totally the opposite.

"Mellie, I thought that I'd done my best to make you understand that this marriage had run its course and it would benefit not just the two of us, but more importantly our children, if we just acknowledged that fact and move on." Fitz was trying, once again, to put his anger aside. "Thanksgiving is supposed to be about families and friends being together and being grateful for that. What you want is nothing more than a political stunt and a photo op."