Doodling one of my fave scenes and the Maxwells! Seriously tho everytime I hear about the Maxwells I just have to wonder who the fuck made them the way that they are. Luna especially deserved better fuck
James had met plenty of important people in his life. With the amount of money his parents had it wasn’t unusual for schmoozing to be going on in his general proximity, but it was only after he’d decided to pursue a career in politics that it ever mattered. It was certainly fortunate that such connections had been made over the years; though graduating from Princeton summa cum laude certainly made him stand out to potential employers, his timidity and fluster during interviews might have hurt his chances at internships and staffer positions without the weight held by his family name.
Of course, being a part of his particular family did have its downsides. Being the oldest of many children, James had given countless hours over the years towards the care of his younger siblings. Even now, living on his own as an adult, he was not free from family obligations. At least, he couldn’t seem to let himself be free. While his other adult siblings often found ways out of doing favors for their parents, James could not seem to say no, especially to his mother. And so it was that on a rare day when he had no obligations from the campaign he was working on, he was at his family home, watching over his youngest living siblings.
The no-longer living siblings were the reason that James’ presence was needed--it hadn’t been long since their untimely deaths and his parents were doing the sensible thing and seeing a therapist to help with the loss. Not that a therapist had ever helped him, but he hoped his parents could be happy again at some point. If not, then an afternoon spent with still-in-diapers Fanny and teenage drama-king Billy, watching terrible music videos for terrible songs on MTV, was decidedly not worth it.
“How do you sit through this?” James asked as some pop star waved through the window down at a crowd of young people in the street below the TRL studio--maybe if young adults were as excited about politics as they were about celebrities, the country wouldn’t be such a mess.
Eyes glued to the screen, Billy gave a half shrug. “Quddus is hot.”
The VJ. Well, at least a VJ was almost a journalist, which was a better occupation to admire.
James’ phone began go buzz in his pocket. He’d gotten into the habit of always keeping it on vibrate, always paranoid about a call coming in during an important meeting or a speech. He slipped his phone out, and seeing the name of the campaign manager, he flipped it open.
“Hello, Matt. Is everything all right?”
“Yes, great. Everything’s great James. I just heard that General Washington is visiting a couple injured vets at Culpeper Medical.”
“I didn’t know he was in town.”
“Yeah, it was kept pretty quiet. It’s not a publicity thing. No reporters invited or anything. Great opportunity for you to go talk to him.”
James stiffened. “What? Talk to him? To General Washington? There’s no way I can--”
“James, James, James, calm down. I’m not expecting you to get McIntyre his endorsement. God, no. You’re not ready for that, and that isn’t the place for it bsides. I just want you to have a light chat with him and make sure he leaves knowing your parents endorse McIntyre. See?”
James did see, and he didn’t even mind the use of his family connection. Matt was a genius, of the level James could only aspire to.
“Yeah. Yeah, got it. Culpeper Medical?”
“That’s right. Good luck, James. Can’t wait to hear how it went.”
After the call ended, James slipped his phone into his pocket.
“Do you have to go to work?” Billy asked, suddenly reminding James of where he was and what he was doing.
Shit. James looked from Billy to the armchair where Fanny was down for her nap. He looked back at Billy. “Do you know how to install the carseat?”
James wasn’t worried about his parents beating him home. They always took the time to eat after their sessions, and often ran errands, both to give them some time to decompress before seeing the kids again. He should have plenty of time to get to the hospital, talk to General Washington, and get the kids back home. That was, if he could figure out how the hell he was going to put himself in a position to talk to General Washington.
As soon as they walked into the hospital, Billy made a beeline for a vending machine, pulling some money out of his pocket to buy himself a snack. James carried Fanny to a set of chairs; catching Washington on his way out seemed like a better idea than trying to figure out what rooms he was visiting and trying to find reasons to be near them. Fanny was fortunately in a good mood after her nap and well entertained by her Strawberry Shortcake doll. At least, she was until Billy joined them with a Hostess cupcake.
“Gimme!” she said, reaching towards Billy.
“No,” Billy said.
“Gimme!” Fanny insisted.
“No. I paid for this myself.”
Fanny tugged on James’ shirt. “Jimmy!” she whined.
“You can’t have it,” James agreed. “You’ll get it all over yourself.”
“I want it!”
“Billy, put it away for now. You can eat it when you’re not in front of her. See, Fanny? No one’s getting a cupcake right now.”
Billy traded his snack out for his Gameboy Advance, which quickly captured Fanny’s attention as she kept asking “what’s that?” to everything on the screen. It wasn’t much longer before an elevator opened, and out walked General Washington along with a uniformed soldier. James started to stand up instinctively, but stopped himself--he couldn’t just walk up to Washington out of nowhere and start talking to him.
Washington said something to the soldier, then started to make his way down the hall. The soldier began to follow him, but Washington held out a hand and the man stopped. Washington then proceeded to enter the mens restroom.
Good, the man was cornered now. James could run into him with no problem. However, the thought of having a conversation with his dick out was nothing short of horrific, so James needed to find an excuse to enter the restroom that didn’t involve forcing himself to take a piss.
“Billy,” he said. “Give me your cupcake.”
“What? No. It’s mine.”
“I’ll buy you another one. Just give it to me.”
“Fine,” Billy huffed, handing it over. James ripped it open and passed it to Fanny. She squealed with delight and went right to work on it.
“What the heck, Jimmy?” Billy demanded.
“Relax,” James said, pulling out his wallet. He handed Billy more than enough to cover the cost of the treat, then he pushed Fanny’s hand, squishing the cupcake more firmly against her face than it already was. She continued to eat, unperturbed as several crumbs and chunks of chocolate frosting littered down onto her dress. “Can you handle waiting here by yourself for a few minutes?”
“Uh, yeah. I’m not six.”
“Don’t leave the building and if anyone tries to make you, scream for help.”
“Okay, but can I go inside the gift shop? I’m pretty much rich now.”
“Fine, fine,” James said, standing up and picking up his sister. “All right, Fanny, let’s do this.”
When James entered the restroom, General Washington was nowhere to be seen. It was just as well that he was in a stall--James might not have caught him in time if he were only peeing. He sat Fanny down on the counter, wet some paper towels, and waited. When he heard a toilet flush, he began wiping up the girl’s face and clothes. He glanced up at the mirror, and there was the general.
“General Washington,” James greeted over his shoulder. “Long time no see, sir.”
“Hm?” Washington glanced at him. “Oh, yes…. Jimmy, was it?” He reached for a handshake, seemingly instinctively, then quickly drew back, clearing his throat before turning on a faucet to wash his hands. James elected to ignore this near faux-pas.
“James now, if you don’t mind. Unless my father is around.”
“Oh, of course. You’re a grown man now.” He nodded to Fanny. “Your daughter is beautiful.”
“Oh, she’s not mine.”
Washington’s eyebrows shot up. “Really. She looks just like you.”
“She’s my sister.”
“Oh. I thought….” Washington cleared his throat. “I mean….”
“That was the four year old and the seven year old. This one, however, is perfectly healthy. Isn’t that right, Fanny?”
The girl smiled up at him.
“I see. Very sorry for your loss, of course.”
“Thank you,” James said, rather graciously. He could certainly relate to saying the wrong thing and wasn’t about to give the man a hard time about it--not while he was trying to get something out of him, anyway.
“You must be done with college by now,” Washington said, changing the subject.
“Yes,” James said. He’d been out for several years now and wondered when that would stop being the topic of choice for older adults to bring up. “Political science. I’ve had a couple staffer positions since then. Right now I’m on the McIyntre campaign.”
“Ah yes, McIntyre. Haven’t looked into him very much. Not much time for that currently, you know. Seems like and upright man, though.”
“I certainly think so, or I wouldn’t be working with him,” James said. “He was over at the family home for dinner not too long ago. My parents were very impressed with him.”
“I’ll need to meet him some time soon.”
“I’m sure he’d like that very much as well.”
Washington cleared his throat. “Well, I should be going.”
“Yes, of course,” James said. “Good to see you, sir. Hopefully there’ll be less of a gap between meetings this time.”
As Washington made his way to exit, the door swung open and there stood Billy.
“Jimmy,” he began, “the gift shop has--”
His eyes locked onto Washington and he instantly went silent.
“Excuse me, young man,” Washington said, edging past him. Billy watched him go. Once the door shut again, James let out a deep breath, body going almost limp as his calm demeanor melted away. He grabbed the counter with one hand to keep himself on his feet, while his other hand stayed on Fanny to keep her on the counter.
“Wow,” Billy said finally. “Why didn’t anyone tell me General Washington was handsome?”
James glanced at his brother, straightened himself back up, and shook himself off. “If you’d change the channel away from MTV once in a while, you might have seen him sometime.”
