Growing Pains & Missing Planes Prt I

Posted on Sun Nov 28th, 2021 @ 1:39pm by President Gabriel Helman & Vice President Nina Frost (*) & Ms. Sara Gilmore (*)
Edited on on Sun Nov 28th, 2021 @ 1:43pm

Mission: So Help Me, God
Location: Transition Team Offices, Eisenhower Executive Office Building
Timeline: Friday, January 13, 8:55am

The rooms allotted to the transition team always seemed abuzz with energy as dozens of people worked in the same confined spaces in a series of rooms. The suite had numerous rooms connected by several doors, and the only two people who got their own offices were the President and Vice President elect. They were situated on either side of the set of suites, so Nina Frost had to walk the entire length to make it to their shared National Security Briefing.

Nina Frost was a simple girl from Tucson, Arizona before she married the genius son of a multi-billionaire. He was rich and she was ambitious, and some might say the rest was history. She marked it all, however: her meteoric rise from her years as an Assistant Deputy Director of the CIA to Lieutenant Governor of Arizona, and then the Senate. She'd only served in that prestigious body for two years before she launched her bid for President.

Her political style had always been personable, confident, and sexy. She got things done in Arizona by flirting with old men; she got elected to the Senate by flirting with old men; she tried to get elected President by flirting with the American people. It seemed, however, men were more keen to vote for a woman because they wanted to sleep with her when she was playing second-fiddle to a man. Typical.

Like a true go-getter, she had reached for the Presidency and had landed, in the end, in the most boring position in Washington. She knew she shouldn't be upset about it - that's what everyone would tell her if she was honest with them - but the truth was she would never be happy until she had it all.

Her dark blue skirt-suit was topped with a cream-colored silky blouse and a $2,000 pair of firetruck-red jimmy-choo high heels. She was dressed to kill; a good look for the woman who would soon be a heartbeat away from having the nuclear launch codes. She walked with a somewhat seductive gate, radiating a feminine energy that had helped to sprinkle some spice on Gabe Helman's good-boy Hoosier reputation. She winked at several staffers as she walked by, milking her energy for all it was worth.

When she arrived at the oak double-doors that lead to the man's office, she greeted his secretary.

"Good morning, Sara. Is the President-elect ready to see me?" she ask, pointing to the door absent-mindedly.

Sara Gilmore, Helman's Executive Assistant, kept all the man's eggs in the right baskets. In a week, she would be doing her job from the small office outside the Oval which she would share with his body man. She would screen the President's calls and have some say over who comes and goes from the historic room. Now, she was sorting through tons of documents that had to do with his transition appointments.

"Yes, ma'am. You can go right in." she answered, looking up at Frost and giving a professional smile.

"You're gorgeous today, Sara. You should be famous with eyes like that." Nina said, wringing her hands as she spoke.

"Thank you, ma'am." Sara responded, blushing visibly.

"You've been with the President elect from the beginning, haven't you?"

"I started off as an intern in the Governor's Office in Indianapolis, yes." she responded. She was clearly skeptical of the older woman and she was reserved in her speech. The woman was a charmer however, and as much as she put her on edge, Sara had grown to look forward to the intensity of their interactions.

"Ah...so, serving Gabriel Helman has gotten you far. That's good. Just a piece of advice from a woman who crawled up from the small time world: don't get so focused on the past that you miss the future." Nina said, giving the girl a friendly wink.

Sara immediately raised her eyebrows, looking like a deer in headlights. Other people may have been confused by the woman's advice, but she was bright enough to catch exactly what the woman had meant right away. She was flooded with so many feelings she didn't know how to process them. She said nothing, but merely blinked. The Vice President elect seemed unbothered.

When the doors to the office opened and Frost walked in, Gabe stood from his black leather chair and removed his reading glasses with a quick flourish. He gave her a small smile and stepped around the desk, his hand extended.

"Nina, good morning. How are you?" he asked, his baritone voice sounding almost musical in the echoing room.

"A good girl can always find the sunlight in every night, Mr. President elect." she said, grabbing his hand and fluttering her eyelashes slightly. She had always been careful to schmooze him very subtly. He was such a Boy Scout, she was afraid he might lock her out if it was too overt, but he was still a man, and the opportunity to manipulate him was just too good to pass up. "The only chink in my armor is this situation in Iran. They can sense Santos' weakness from across the globe. The sooner we can get into the White House, the better."

Gabe felt a pang of annoyance; pride, perhaps? He picked Frost for his running mate because he needed the right of the party and men. He'd already had women on lock himself based on calm eloquence, good looks, and talk about responsibility. It had been purely political, and that fact nagged at him to no end. He was attracted to her, for sure, but he didn't trust her or, in honesty, like her. He didn't want to make decisions together. Perhaps now wasn't the right time for that conversation.

"We're set to come into our roles at a fixed time." he said, choosing the neutral road. "We just need to make sure the country is still here when it happens, Nina."

TBC