The Prime Minister and Her

Weight of the World

Carlton was pacing back and forth, staring at the surgery board. "She should be out by now," he said out loud. "Christ, this is taking forever!" He continued pacing and shut his eyes with a loud sigh. Waiting was the absolute worst. If he could, he would barge in there and see what in the hell was going on. 

"Oh, shit," Johnny breathed, causing Carlton to stop and open his eyes. He looked to the surgery board. The line that was once green - telling him everything was going perfectly - was now red. "What the...nurse!"

He quickly ran out of the room and caught up with a nurse that was passing by. "Please, please you have to tell me what's going on with my girlfriend's surgery!" He frantically said. "I-I-I don't know why it's red!" He was tearing up now and the nurse quickly went over to the board. 

"Oh my," she said. "I'll call the surgery room and get an update from the doctor. I'll be right back." Carlton was running his fingers through his hair and letting tears fall from his cheeks. Johnny was standing by the board with his hands laced together at his forehead and his eyes shut tight. 

A few minutes later, the nurse quickly came in and said, "Cassandra is doing fine, but they are having trouble getting a response from the baby. They were in the process of stitching the surgical lining when it's vital's dropped."

Carlton closed his eyes and shook his head. "But Cassie is okay though?" Johnny asked. The nurse nodded and said, "Right now she is, yes, but they are going to have to unstitch her and sometimes that can cause problems. I've seen things like this before; if she is doing fine, they'll try to save the baby, but if not...then she is their top priority."

Carlton let out a strangled sigh, then opened his bloodshot eyes to look at the nurse. "Thank you," he hoarsely told her. She nodded and walked out of the room. "Oh God, my baby," he cried. Johnny went up to him and put an arm around his shoulder. 

"At least Cass will be alright," he said. Carlton wiped his eyes and said, "I know and I am beyond grateful for that, but...I so badly wanted the two of them to come out of this. She did, too. God, this is going to crush her." 

He plopped himself down on a nearby chair and put his face in his hands. He wanted these next few painful moments to just ben silent. No talking, no words of comfort, no thinking. Just complete silence. But, of course, he could never get that because his phone started ringing. 

With a loud sigh, he dug into his pocket and put his phone up to his ear. "What?" He sharply answered. "Oh no," Jacob's voice sighed. "What's happened?"  Carlton rubbed his tired and wet eyes with his fingers and answered, "I'm just stressed out. Cassie's surgery went well, but they just started to have some problems with the baby." 

His eyes started filling with tears again. "Oh...I'm sorry, Benedict. Really, I am and I hope everything pans out as we all hope. And I hate to do this now, but I thought you should know before you saw it on the news."

Carlton's eyes shot open. "What?" He anxiously asked. "There was a meeting held today with Parliament. I didn't know about it, none of us did. Again, I hate to tell you this, but...they've gathered enough votes to impeach you."

Carlton felt like he was in a dream. Everything was spinning and his mind was hazy. "Your absence has not gone unnoticed by them," Jacob continued. "They know you are going to be gone for a lot longer than all the other times because of Cassie's surgery. They are also quite livid that you are having a child out of wedlock and that your's and Cassie's relationship started out as an affair."

After a few moments of silence and trying to wrap his head around the news, Carlton asked, "What do I need to do?" Johnny looked over at him curiously. "You need to come up with a bloody good statement on why you shouldn't be and present it to them."