Yes, Mr. President (ManxMan)

Chapter One

This chapter is long. I'm warning you now.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

An address I've thought about countless times in my career, never believing for one second that I would ever get an opportunity to step a toe past the heavily guarded gates. But here I was, driving to my first day of work at the White House. 

I looked down at the center console of my car for what seemed like the millionth time since driving away from my empty apartment. I had only moved in two days prior, so most of my boxes were still left packed up. I had a bed to sleep on, a couch for guests, a TV to watch, and the barest necessities in the fridge. Just enough to survive without going crazy.

I checked to make sure that my badge was still where I put it. It hadn't moved, but that didn't stop me from checking again a few minutes later.

My official White House badge.

I watched as the stone building ballooned up in my windshield. It was way bigger in person that it ever appeared in pictures. It could easily fit 50 of my apartments within it's walls and the thought made my heart pound in my chest as I got closer to the gate.

I turned off the main street, pulling in front of the main gate. Two men walked over to opposite sides of my car, keeping one hand at their gun on their hip. I rolled my window down and held up my badge to the officer at my side. He took it from me, inspecting it, and I turned my head to find out where the other officer had gone. My badge was handed back to me and I smiled, but it wasn't returned. "Can you open your trunk for us, Mr. Fields?"

I reached down for the little button, watching the trunk in my rearview as it stayed open for a few seconds and then was promptly closed. The officer behind my car nodded and his voice floated up through my window. "All clear."

I received a tight-lipped grimace from the officer at my window. "You're all set, Mr. Fields." He raised him arm to the guard controlling the gate and it opened faster than I thought the heavy iron could move.

"Thank you." I murmured under my breath, knowing that he probably wasn't listening to me anyway.

There was a second gate, this one leading into the parking lot. There was one guard behind what I'm sure was bulletproof glass who glared at me as I reached my badge out to the sensor in order to get the arm to raise up. Still, I smiled. D.C. was not going to turn me into an asshole. I made that promise to myself before I even left my hometown. If money-hungry corporate couldn't do it, power-hungry politics couldn't either.

I took a deep breath as I closed my car door, taking in the air. It smelled fresher on this side of the fence, although I knew that was realistically just a placebo effect. The air over here was no different than the air two blocks away.

But it was a nice thought.

I arrived at one of the east wing entrances. Having studied the map this morning, I knew the entire layout of the building, from top to bottom. Or at least, that which was public information. I'm sure there were a lot of private rooms and hidden stairwells that I would never get a chance to see. But I knew enough to get my to my boss' office that morning and that was enough for me.

Like I said, the White House was nothing like you saw in pictures. It was better. Everything looked more fragile, more intricate, busier.  Way busier. No one looked at me strangely because no one knew who I was. There was no way to know every single person in the building at any given moment. And quite frankly, no one cared. They all had their own lives, their own jobs, their own priorities. If they didn't need to know you, they didn't care to know you.

I could see the similarities from the corporate world already.

I was heading for the Chief of Staff's office. My boss. Secondhand to the President of the United States. That meant that I was closer to the president than billions of people ever would be. Hell, just by being in the building I was light years ahead of everyone else.