Madam President

by Cooper, Blayne

  "Who called you and told you what had happened?" the dark-haired woman asked quietly, her mouth near Lauren's ear, but her eyes on the unfolding scene.

  Lauren licked her lips, remembering Jane's pale face and shaky voice. "Umm... Jane," she replied softly. "Jane called me."

  The President nodded. "She was a good choice for the job. Jane always holds together, no matter what." Dev briefly remembered getting word about Samantha's accident. It was Jane who had broken the news.

  Lauren nodded, her attention split between Dev's real life voice, burring quietly in her ear, and the image of Devlyn at the foot of the bed. "She was great."

  Dev's grip on Lauren's hand tightened as the video continued to play. With a start she realized she could be hurting the smaller woman, though Lauren hadn't mentioned it. She loosened her grip and patted the slender hand before regretfully resting her palm on her thigh. Dev immediately felt the loss and balled her hand into a fist.

  Lauren had been so busy over the past couple of days she hadn't spent a lot of time thinking about the exact circumstances of the shooting. She'd spent countless hours at the hospital. And, at Dev's request, made sure the children knew what had happened, but weren't scared out of their wits. Though she wasn't convinced she had been completely successful on that front. The kids had already lost one mother. The looks on their little faces when Lauren told them Devlyn was in the hospital nearly broke her heart. Thank God for Emma, who immediately stepped in to help when Lauren began to flounder.

  Lauren watched the video with intent eyes, scanning the shots of the crowd for the crazy boy who had tried to kill Dev. But no one looked out of place. Everyone seemed happy and excited that the President had made time for them in her busy schedule.

  "Where is he?" Lauren whispered to herself, frustrated that she couldn't spot him right away. A killer should be immediately recognizable, shouldn't he? He should... well... look guilty, sinister, something. Lauren knew it was a ridiculously naive thought. But she couldn't help but think it easier. It would make things so much easier. "I always foreshadow in my books," she mumbled.

  Dev turned away from the playback. "What? Pause video," she ordered in a louder voice. "What did you say?"

  Lauren frowned. "I don't see him anywhere. The camera is panning the audience, but I can't spot him."

  "Well, if he'd been that easy to spot I'm sure the Secret Service would have picked him up before he got off four shots. I don't know for sure which one he was either. But the shots came from the center of the audience just as the crowd began to applaud when I was about to get off stage." Dev waved a hand in the direction of her frozen image. "Let's skip all the boring stuff about how my DNA Registration legislation could help capture criminals on the loose." She chuckled, "Funny that in this case it wouldn't have mattered either way. The shooter had never even had as much as a speeding ticket."

  Lauren smiled weakly, not quite able to enjoy the irony that Dev seemed to. She could feel her stomach turning into a solid knot of tension and her palms growing sweaty. Her heart rate picked up in anticipation of what was to come, and she unconsciously leaned closer to Devlyn, reassuring herself that she was here. That she was alive.

  "Video playback advance." Dev's eyes scanned the events as they flew by at five times their normal speed. She moved her hand slowly, letting it come to rest on Lauren's arm, stroking gently. "Halt. Regular play."

  They watched together as Dev made a few parting comments and cracked a joke that had the students laughing and clapping. Then she gave a short wave and turned to leave. The band hadn't even cued up again before a well-dressed teenager, who had only seconds before been smiling and applauding like everyone else in the audience, stood and yanked a gun from the back waist band of his pants. He held it straight out and screamed, "Die, bitch!" as he pulled the trigger four times, with a brief pause between the third and fourth shots.

  Dev flinched when the shots rang out. She watched with an odd sense of detachment as her body recoiled and blood began pouring from her shoulder, hip and face. The last shot, the one that hit her head, dropped her instantly.

  Lauren's entire body jerked with the loud crack of the pistol. Her stomach lurched, and her heart jumped to her throat, the raw pain of the moment shocking her for several dazed seconds. She had known it was coming. But that still hadn't prepared her for witnessing Dev's body recoiling violently, then crumpling to the ground from the vicious impact of the shots. "God, Devlyn." Lauren whispered. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut just as a warm arm wrapped around her shoulder and pulled her close.

  Suddenly, the camera angle changed, and the image of Dev on the stage was magnified to a close up. The sound quality was slightly worse because the background noise had risen to a dull roar, but it was still focused, allowing the viewer to hear every raspy, ragged breath Dev took.

  "God..." Dev groaned, reaching up and smearing away the blood that was dripping into her eyes.

  Three agents immediately descended upon her, using their bodies to shield her as several more Secret Service members tackled the boy in the audience and disarmed him. The camera angle shifted again, this time to an overhead shot. Michael Oaks was the first member of the President's staff to reach her side.

  "They got the shooter. The Chief of Staff and Vice President Vincent are being notified, Madam President," Michael explained worriedly as an agent pressed his suit coat jacket into Dev's shoulder to stop the bleeding. Dev gasped.

  Lauren sucked in a quick breath in response to seeing Dev's pain.

  "The kids...?" Dev winced as two men rolled her onto a backboard.

  Michael looked out into the audience, which was being herded out of the auditorium like spooked cattle. "They're fine, Madam President. No one else in the auditorium was hit."

  "My children?" Dev's eyes closed as she struggled to move her left arm, but found it impossible.

  "They're fine too. The nest has been notified, and all security precautions are being taken."

  Devlyn opened her eyes and focused on one of the agents who was pressing a thick pile of bandages against her hip. "Bad?"

  "No, Madam President." He leaned over and whispered to her, "This is nothing for Wonder Woman."

  Dev blinked, and they were moving. Her confusion was evident, and she looked as though she was going into shock. "Mighty Mouse..."

  Lauren burst into tears at the sound of her Secret Service name.

  "It's okay," Dev whispered. "It all turned out all right." The President's men had done everything right. They had covered her and gotten her out of there more quickly than she remembered. Although, to be honest, she couldn't remember much, beyond a searing pain in her hip and shoulder and the smell of her own blood.

  Then the video simply stopped after Dev's gurney was wheeled away, freezing on a shot of the bloodstained stage. Dev's gaze dropped to her lap, and she concentrated on that day. "That boy. I remember him. He, he kept smiling at me..."

  "You remember him?" Lauren turned in her friend's loose embrace so that she could see Dev's face. The President had watched with little more than a flinch, though Lauren didn't miss that her face was slightly paler than when the tape began. "Out of that entire crowd?"

  "Yeah. He was right there. Smiling at me. Listening to me. Watching me." Dev shook her head. "Hell, I thought he was interested in what I had to say."

  Lauren's anger mounted as she imagined the teenager biding his time, waiting to murder Dev, smiling as she tried to connect with him, just knowing that he was going to kill her. Little bastard! She turned away from Dev and was struck again by the image of the bloodstained stage. "Jesus..." She pointed at the image. "Can you...?"

  "I'm sorry. Image off." Dev looked to Lauren, who looked like she was going to throw up. "Are you all right?"

  Tears filled the blonde's eyes again. "I... I..."

  "Hey," Dev said softly as she reached out and cupped Lauren's cheek in her palm. "I'm okay. I might leak when I drink now, but I'm okay," she joked.

  This t
ime Lauren did laugh through her tears. "Okay," she sniffed. "You're right. I'm sorry for being a baby."

  "Don't be sorry." God, Dev. You haven't even asked about her mother. What kind of a lousy friend are you? “How’s your mom?" She felt Lauren stiffen. "Do you need to go back to Tennessee to be with her?" Her heart went out to the younger woman.

  Lauren pulled away a little, suddenly uncomfortable. "What, um... what exactly do you know about my mom?" She eyed Dev warily.

  "I know what happened, Lauren. And I understand if you don't want to talk with me about it. I mean, I'm not family." She's been here for me these last few days when her heart is probably back in Tennessee. “If you want to talk, I'm here, okay?"

  Lauren nodded, but continued to pull away. She wasn't ready for this discussion. Especially not now. Not after everything that had just happened with Dev. Lauren felt like she was on an emotional roller coaster, and, while a big part of her wanted to talk about it with someone, she just wasn't ready.

  The blonde woman's father hadn't understood her leaving Anna to come back to Washington D.C. She'd tried to explain that Devlyn wasn't just part of her job, that she was a good friend, but that hadn't worked either. They'd had a horrible argument in the hospital, and, despite the fact that she wasn't close to either of her parents, her father's parting words had hurt her more than she'd thought possible.

  The writer grabbed a tissue from the stand next to Dev's hospital bed. "I don't need to go back." She wiped her eyes. "There's nothing I can do back home." Dev remained silent, but Lauren could tell she wanted to know more, and her chest constricted at the prospect. The room began to close in on her. Air. That's what she needed. Clean air, without the scent of disinfectant. She needed to be out of the hospital.

  Lauren nearly jumped from the bed, startling Dev in the process. "I... um... I'm going to tell David we're finished here." And without looking back she bolted across the room and flew out the door.

  "Lauren! Wait!" Dev cursed inwardly when the shorter woman disappeared out the door. She wanted to follow her and try to apologize for upsetting her. She wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be all right.

  Dev groaned as she pushed herself forward, and a jolt of pain shot through her hip. She dislodged her heart monitor in the process, and the room was suddenly pierced with a shrill beeping noise as an alarm sounded.

  Several doctors burst through the door with David right along side them. His eyes shut in pure relief when he saw that Dev was all right. "Oh, no you don't!"

  "David," Dev grunted as she swung one leg off the bed. Another blast of pain made her feel lightheaded.

  Jane joined David at Dev's bedside and after several moments she and David were finally wave off the panicky medical staff. "You can't get up, Dev!"

  "Lauren"

  "Lauren is a big girl." David eased the President onto her back and carefully repositioned the leg she still had hanging off the bed. "She'll be back, Dev."

  Dev had asked David to keep tabs on Lauren's mother. Apparently, everyone in the hospital had been talking about the very public argument between Lauren and her father. The old man had yelled at Lauren as she'd left the hospital. Screaming for everyone to hear that if some woman she'd barely known for a few months was more important than her own damned mother, that she didn't need to bother coming back home... ever.

  David let out an unhappy breath. "Dev, she's been through more than you know. Give her some space."

  Dev settled back into her bed with an angry sigh. "She's going to be okay, because I'm going to make sure of it." She looked up at her Chief of Staff, determination glinting harshly in pale blue eyes. "Sit down, David. I think you've got something to tell me."

  CHAPTER VI

  June 2021

  Tuesday, June 1st

  DEV SAT WITH her head hanging between her knees. She was panting slightly as her physical therapist stood back and made notes on the President's chart. The therapist was young and fit and a rising star in his field, having earned the glowing recommendations from Devlyn's leading physicians. The man took a breath and girded his mental loins before turning back to face the tall woman straddling the weight bench. They were about two-thirds of the way through their rehabilitation routine for Dev's shoulder and hip and he could clearly read the lines of exhaustion and pain on his patient's face. Things were about to get ugly.

  "Madam President?"

  "What?" she growled, not bothering to lift her head. Sweat was dripping from her forehead and chin onto the vinyl-covered bench between her legs.

  "We need to do another set to work your arm." The therapist looked up to see Lauren slipping quietly into the room.

  Lauren closed the door behind her and motioned for the man not to alert Devlyn of her presence.

  "Don't want to." The President shook her head, grimacing at the bolt of pain even that small movement caused her stressed muscles. "We're done for the day."

  "Ma'am, you have a routine that we need-" He ducked just in time for a small water bottle to sail past his head.

  "Fuck the routine! I said we're done for the day!" Dev's shoulders slumped even further. "Now leave me alone," she whispered, ignoring the twinge of guilt she already felt over her outburst.

  Lauren cleared her throat, causing two sets of frustrated eyes to swing her way. "Hi. It's Julio, right?" The blonde extended her hand to the therapist. "I'm Lauren Strayer."

  The young man smiled and moved several steps towards Lauren to take her hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Strayer. I was just on my way out. I'll be outside if you need me."

  Lauren watched as the therapist made a hasty exit. She decided to ignore Dev's mini-meltdown. Lauren had been meaning to come to one of Dev's sessions earlier. But something always seemed to come up. Be honest, Lauri. You don't want to see her in pain. And you don't know what to say to her after tearing out of the hospital like an idiot a couple of weeks ago. You're embarrassed to face her in private.

  The writer slowly padded to a bench near Dev and sat down. She studied the President carefully. Other than a quick initial glance, the older woman hadn't even acknowledged her presence. Dev's face was flushed and drawn. And it was clear that she was hurting. Lauren's thoughts turned to Dev's would be assassin, Louis Henry. The little bastard.

  When it was clear that the President wasn't going to say anything, Lauren blew out an unhappy breath. "Hello, Devlyn," she drawled softly. "Are you finished for the day?" She cocked her head to the side. "Liza said you'd be going for at least another half an hour or so."

  "Liza was wrong." Dev self-consciously wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "That's the beauty of being the President - I can tell people to fuck off and they actually have to do it."

  Lauren sat up a little straighter at Devlyn's choice of words. "I see," she answered seriously. "And does that include me as well?"

  Dev shot Lauren a contrite look and shook her head. "No."

  Lauren watched as the President tried to make a fist with the arm that had been injured. She couldn't do it. "I'm just tired." Her voice was resigned. "And it hurts a lot."

  Lauren had to sit on her hands to keep from literally reaching out for Dev. She wasn't sure it would be welcomed and she was already treading on dangerous ground. "I know it does. But there's something else I'll bet you didn't know."

  "What?" Dev reached for her sling and looped it over her head.

  "You're the strongest person I've ever met." Lauren stood up and moved behind Dev, carefully tugging long hair out from under the sling's strap. "And you're not a quitter." Okay, this is where she blasts you for not understanding what she's going through. Lauren closed her eyes and waited.

  "I'm not as strong as you think, Lauren. I've been through an awful lot and I'm just damned tired. I only want to go to my room and go to bed."