The Dayton Household,
Norfolk, Virginia
4th July, 2019
When Jillian arrived home that evening, it was just before carting off to Texas and then hammering Iowa. She proceeded to enter the house aware that July the 5th was the day on which admissions offers through the Virginian Tertiary Admissions Center which her Administration had setup would be dispatched. She sung out in a sing-song sort of greeting, "hellooo?" she said cheerily.
"In here!" Liam shouted from the kitchen, the entire family had been at Lafayette Park in Norfolk earlier in the day, before Jillian disappeared for an afternoon of handshakes in the north-eastern part of North Carolina which was incredibly close to Virginia and therefore, a conveniently easy place to innocently campaign. By the time she returned it was now near ten in the evening, the entire family seemed to be in the TV room, she placed her two bags by the door, checking her phone to see if the world had ended yet before she wandered past the front sitting room, the stairs leading up and the ground-floor landing then through to the Kitchen where she found Liam scooping a steak out of the pan and onto the plate, some mashed potatoes and an egregious amount of green.
"Do you think any other Senator is as lucky as I am?" she beamed as he poured two glasses of red and placed the second steak on his own plate.
He turned, "maybe, point is no other doctor is as lucky as me," he said with a grin as he brought their plates to the dining table, Jillian picked up the two glasses and bottle.
"The kids asleep?" she asked before turning to see that in fact, they were very much awake and watching TV, "I speak too soon."
She had three, her eldest daughter who would go to College that year, her son who would be in the eleventh grade after summer and the little one who would be in the sixth grade after summer. She had a horrific flash, what if she won? Would he have to leave Norfolk halfway through his last year for D.C.? Would she have to justify splitting the family and upping the cost of protection? Nevermind, let's win and then think about that. Liam recognized the look on her face, the one of a fear of loss, not loss of an event but of people. Normally they sat next to one another but today they sat opposite each other, rare and occasional indeed.
"Your mother fell asleep an hour ago despite her best effort to stay up," Liam brought her back to reality.
Jillian took her seat, "I'll see her before I fly out tomorrow, how was the hospital?"
"I have a new class of summer school placements and at least four of them will drop out by next week," he replied curtly, "there's a kid in Dallas I'm helping out on so I might actually be flying out with you tomorrow."
"What've they got?" she frowned, as she ate his cooking.
"Aggressive malignant brain tumor," he said, somewhat disappointed, "his odds aren't the best, and the parents have applied for every form of loan they possibly can, the hospital doesn't have a qualified surgeon hence why, they've called anyone who they think will do it at the lowest cost. He's also..."
Jillian always felt like crap after listening to Liam talk about his pediatric oncology work, one of sixteen doctors in North America who specialized in brain tumors, the other fifteen worked at major private practices, Liam worked in a teaching hospital and flew off with doctors without borders three months a year. She remember publishing her tax returns in 2018 ahead of her Senate run and her Republican opponent asking why her husband, for all his qualifications made less than three hundred thousand dollars. She remembered proudly answering that he works part time nine months a year and works for free for the other half of his usual work week and isn't in the States for the last three months where he's off freely helping children with just about anything. Had he been a GP, she'd never have to worry about her health, but instead, Doctor Stanford chose pediatric oncology, the heroes profession. For every life Jillian thought she'd changed, Liam had saved two, nobody could humble her more than an overachieving husband.
"... be that as it may, Doctor Fletcher and I will hopefully be able to attain some improvement in his case, as little hope as I have, it's something."
Jillian noticed they'd both finished their meals, "if anybody can help him, it's you," she smiled as she picked up the plates and he plucked up the glasses. She rinsed them once and into the washing machine, they stood with a kitchen island between them as they sipped their wine and Jillian described her day, her relatively unsuccessful meeting with Senator Kelly and her unfortunately low-ended outcome in polls, Velez had the lead in two early states, she had New Hampshire and Iowa was a powderkeg. Nationally in third, god what a nightmare. Early days, early days.
"Well is there anyway I can help?" Liam asked in absolute sincerity.
"Unless you can convince America that a woman can in fact be commander-in-chief, not particularly," she sighed heavily, "if I had a cock, I'd have a much easier time in Iowa, and South Carolina. God, if Baginski had won, nobody would be talking about Clifford losing because of sexism and I wouldn't have to address it, but no, I don't have a penis and Diane Clifford has lost and so here I am, yet another woman being asked to step aside for a man because according to some people, he's more electable."
"If it's any consolation, you not having a cock works pretty well for me," Liam joked, before turning to a more serious tone, "you're still doing well aren't you? His momentum is strong but c'mon, you're rising, and if the data is anything to go by, he'll have to falter eventually."
"Is this campaign affecting us? Affecting the kids? Liam if it is I'll dropout tomorrow," she replied somewhat frustrated, she wasn't winning in many walks of life right now.
"Why would it affect us? Or the kids? They're with you, I'm with you, we're all with you," Liam came around the island to drive home his point.
"You know what it is?" she said defiantly, "we used to have more us time, more fun."
Liam paused.
"We used to have more fun, I used to be more confident, I used to not give a shit what others thought, I used to," she seemed somewhat exasperated, "I used to take the fight to them, and now I'm sitting through my days avoiding attacking Mike Velez, so I can't consolidate my lane while Levi Murphy is off consolidating his. Both are toxic to the other side of the party and neither of them will be able to hold their own in a general. I should be making that case for me. I should."
"Can we rewind back to the part about more fun?" Liam asked, "just feel like that's an important component of this conversation."
"Upstairs, fifteen minutes," she replied, "I need to make a phone call."
She plucked up the phone and dialed the number of her campaign manager, Mike and Levi, she left the voicemail, aware what it would mean. Then she placed her glass of wine down and joined her husband upstairs. Fun tonight, war tomorrow.
