Work Text:
I December 2020
The first time that Alex doesn’t jump at doing something for his mom regarding “First Son duties” is in early December.
It’s been a month since the election, two months since the Leak. He spent the early part of November afterward with Henry at the Palace, focusing on law school applications when Henry was busy playing a prince, and after Thanksgiving received a number of law school interviews to prep for, thus returning to the White House to focus on them. He couldn’t focus on prepping at the Palace, and he’s seeing Henry at the end of the month for the holidays, anyway, so it made sense to come back.
Still, he hadn’t been attending the weekly briefing with June and Zahra since his ma won her second term and is therefore surprised when suddenly on Monday morning there’s a knock at his door. He's awake, but not exactly dressed, so he ignores it, at first.
Then the person tries the door, and after everything, Alex had a bolt lock installed on his door. It might be a bit much but he's tired of his privacy being invaded and woken up to Zahra disregarding his feelings on entering his rooms.
Clearly, it’s her. Because June knows.
In fact…
“I told you that he locks the door now, maybe he’s sleeping.”
“We have our weekly meeting that he’s required to attend. And he shouldn’t be locking the door…”
“Maybe if you didn’t constantly burst in on him, he wouldn’t,” June retorts.
It doesn’t matter because now he knows that he can’t ignore it. So, throws on some pants and a t-shirt and opens the door.
“I’m pretty sure my room isn’t a meeting room.”
“It is when you don’t show up to the meeting,” Zahra retorts, pushing her way in.
Alex shrugs and he throws himself back on the bed, and gestures for June to join him. “I didn’t know we had a meeting. You canceled my invitation to it in July, remember?”
She’d done that after her was fired from being First Son and the campaign (even though sometimes they brought him in so she could rub his nose in it – like the day of the photo leak), and even when he rejoined after getting outed, he hadn’t been reinvited as far as he knows. He’d been getting written lists of appearances and wasn’t anywhere near these meetings during that time.
Zahra gives him an unimpressed look. “I sent you the calendar invite via email after you rejoined the campaign, and it’s not like this meeting hasn’t been long standing.”
He shrugs. "If you think I’ve been looking at emails since September, you’re sadly mistaken.”
In fact, even his law school interviews had all been phone calls to set up the appointments.
Before she could retort something like he should get over it, June intervenes, “Can we just get this meeting on the road? I’ve got a deadline to get to.”
“Fine.”
Zahra goes through her usual updates that Alex just pretends to listen to, before she gets to appearances.
June, though reluctant, has one appearance and its only because it’s related to journalism that she even bothers to go. She’s never gone to the extent of appearances that he has (except while he was locked up) but she made an agreement with their mother that she attends at least a handful throughout the year.
Then Zahra focuses on him.
“Now, since you were gone for your princess visit, you’ve got a few appearances to make up for in the next couple of weeks …”
He looks down at the list she hands him. None of them align with Henry’s appearances so he shakes his head.
“Can’t, I’m busy.”
“You don’t have a job. What are you busy with?”
“Law school interviews.”
Technically, true.
But that’s not why he’s refusing to attend events. He’s had some time after the election to think about all that has happened in the last few months and despite the situation with Raf and still feeling hurt at what he did, he still finds Raf the easiest person to talk to about the situation.
And his last conversation with Raf had touched on how it’s difficult to be interested in being First Son for his mom after everything he’s been through.
The fact that she used him until she found out about Henry and locked him up for it, only for it be perfectly fine for June to fake date him… and then they were outed and suddenly he’s usable again?
It left a bad taste in his mouth.
Zahra narrows her eyes. “You never mentioned law school before.”
Alex shrugs. “I was locked up for months, so I plenty of time to think about my options. And I need to prepare for them, so I don’t have time for any events right now.”
She huffs. “Fine.”
And appears to let it go.
***
II March 2021
Alex doesn’t do any First Son events aside from the inauguration and the State Dinner (it was hard to skip that one living there, plus Henry came). He doesn’t count the New Year’s party since he had June and Nora do most of the event stuff and he just hung out in a corner with Henry, Liam, and Spencer (Pez didn’t make it this year).
She doesn’t even ask him about the event in February or early March (which worked out because it aligned with Valentine’s Day and Henry’s birthday) but he supposed that she was just bidding her time.
Because three days before he’s supposed to leave for his week at the Lake House with Henry, Liam and Pez for his birthday, she blindsides him with, “Here are some events we’re scheduling you for next week.”
There were three events listed, and they were all nowhere near Texas next week.
“I don’t think so, I’ve got plans.”
It’s true that he has plans, but he knows that if he really wanted to do these events, he could make it work. A year ago, he wouldn’t have hesitated to make adjustments. Shift his week plans to be more half one week, half the other, rather than a Friday to following Sunday plan, but he’s not bothering with First Son anymore, so why go the extra mile to help Zahra out?
“No, you don’t. There’s nothing on your calendar…” she says opening up her phone with their calendars linked.
Alex laughs. “Yeah, I kind of stopped bothering with updating that calendar when I got fired. But no worries, my plans don’t need to be on your calendar.”
“Everything you do needs to be on my calendar.”
“It’s a vacation for my birthday,” Alex retorts. “Liam says I need to celebrate making it to 23 after the year I’ve had and he's throwing me a party. It was going to be a surprise, but he’s figured I’ve had enough surprises of late. Don’t worry, the security stuff is all being handled.”
She doesn’t look happy but once again backs down.
Odd. He wouldn’t put it passed her to pressure him somehow, but he’ll take oddness over pressure.
***
III May 2021
Alex is with Henry, packing up his room, ready to move to New York City when he’s being summoned to his ma’s office.
He's sure that he knows what this is about.
Zahra and his mom had been on him about finding an apartment with enough time to scope out the security they’d have to set up for him, and he’s been avoiding the issue. Cash knows that he’s moving in with Henry and he’s guessing that his ma and Zahra are wanting to try to convince him “it’s inappropriate” and to get his own place.
Yeah, that’s not happening.
He gives Henry a kiss and tells him that he can take a break until he gets back.
Henry laughs and teases, “Afraid that I’ll find something to embarrass you with?”
“There’s nothing that you can tease me with that’s worse than your taste in Star Wars movies,” Alex teases. “Just thought you might like a rest.”
He doesn’t wait for an answer, instead he steals another kiss and then leaves for his meeting with his mom.
He’s not surprised that Zahra’s there, but he is relieved that his mom’s smiling at him.
“Sugar, come in, come in.”
He sits in the same seat that he got yelled at about cakegate. The same seat that he told his mom about Henry. The same seat that he got fired in.
There are other things that happened here, of course, but he’s just thinking about the negatives now. His once-excitement at his mom being a president – the first female president – has faded quite a bit in the last year.
Still, he smiles. “Hi ma.”
“How’s the packing?”
“Good,” Alex grins.
They’re nearly done and then everything can be moved while he and Henry are sailing Henry’s boat around the world on vacation (at least the world with ports). They figured it would give them days where it was just them on the boat without people (sans security) watching, while also getting to explore their world together, happily in love and not caring who sees.
“And you’re ready to go on a long holiday with him?”
Alex nods. “I think we both need some R&R and we’re happy we get to do that together.”
Ellen smiles. “I’m glad to hear it.”
It’s quiet for a moment before Alex asks, “Is that why you called me here?”
“Oh, uh, no. Not exactly,” Ellen states. “I know you have plans to travel around, and I was hoping that perhaps if you gave us your schedule, we could align some appearances for events while you’re there anyway.”
Alex blinks.
Is she serious?
“Wait, you – uh – want me to go to events while I’m on vacation?”
Ellen nods. “There wouldn’t be many, but –”
“No,” Alex states. “Henry and I planned this trip so we can relax and heal from everything.”
“It’s been months of you lazing around –”
“Zahra,” Ellen hisses, stopping her from going on a tirade about how Alex somehow isn’t pulling his weight as if his mom didn’t invent the role of First Son and he doesn’t have to do shit. Hadn’t she been the one to point out that his role wasn’t spelled out in the Constitution when the chaos of Cakegate happened?
She gives her a look, and Zahra nods.
Ellen, then, looks at Alex with a soft a smile.
“I understand that it’s been a while since you’ve gone to any events, and it’s not as if you would have to go out of your way…”
“Henry arranged things so that he wouldn’t have any princely duties and I’m not going to ruin all of his hard work on that by suggesting appearances for me.”
“The prince has also been completing plenty of his princely duties in the last few months while you’ve been –”
“Lazing around doing nothing.”
“Zahra,” Ellen hisses, but Alex doesn’t care.
He’s not changing his mind. Even though he knows that Henry will absolutely allow it because he gets it, he lies about the reason that it won’t work (although he’s sure some assholes will actually think this way).
“It doesn’t matter. Do you know how terrible it would look if Henry takes his royal suitor on vacation and that suitor spends any time working rather than with him?” Alex asks, rhetorically. “Do you really think that the general public will react well to Henry taking me on vacation and me spending time not with him but working for you? Even if I wanted to, it would look bad. They already think I corrupted him; I can imagine that they’d start spotting lies about using him or being a gold-digger or something. I don’t need that going into law school in the fall. So… no. I’m not doing it.”
He doesn’t wait for a response, especially because Zahra looks like she wants to argue the point, and instead, leaves quickly.
Back to his boyfriend and his vacation plans.
It’s going to be great.
***
IV September 2021
Alex is already at the end of his rope because of the stupid people in the world tweeting him (and Henry) about the fake dating thing with June and Nora that happened at this point last year as things approach the Leak, when Zahra calls him.
He’s ignored the call the last three days, largely because she keeps calling him while he’s in class, and while at Georgetown he had no problem answering, he’s done prioritizing his ma’s politics over his own future career.
He’s already been told quite plainly that he has to make a choice because law school isn’t easy during his interviews, and he made it clear that law school was more important than anything else.
This is his future and his choice and he’s not going to put it aside for his ma.
So, he ignored the calls. If something major had happened, Cash would hear about it through Secret Service connections and let him know.
That is until Friday, just three days before the anniversary of the Leak (Alex had discussed with his professors how he would need the day, and they understood), so he was having lunch with Henry (who had made a point of coming to NYU for lunch every day since that first reminder of the ‘fake dating’ situation) before his final class before the three day, very rough, weekend ahead of them.
That’s when she calls, again.
“I think you should answer it, love.”
“I’d rather not,” Alex says, leaning his back against Henry’s chest. Henry’s leaning against a tree, his legs on either side of Alex, and his arms wrapped around Alex’s waist.
“She’s just going to keep bothering you until you answer her, it’s best to answer and tell her to go away instead of just ignoring it. Clearly, ignoring her calls is not working.”
Alex huffs, even as Henry kisses his cheek.
He should be fine. He can handle it.
“Yes, Zahra.”
“About time. Why haven’t you been answering?”
“I was in class.”
“Every time I’ve called?”
“Yes.”
“And you couldn’t call me back because…?”
“I’m not always good at remembering things like that,” Alex lies.
Well, not lies. He does have a sort-of problem with remembering to call people back, but not Zahra, this choice was deliberate.
She huffs. “Well, now that you’ve finally answered, your mom needs you to come to the White House this weekend and prep for an interview on Sunday that will air on the anniversary of your nearly campaign ruining presidential sex scandal.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Alex states, angry before hanging up.
He could give an excuse like tons of homework and still adjusting to law school (and that would be fair), but he doesn’t want to.
It’s absurd that his ma (or Zahra) could think to set up an interview for the worst day of his life without even consulting him on whether or not he would ever want to talk with anyone other than Henry and his therapist about it was acceptable.
It’s bad enough that she made him give a speech about his privacy being invaded to save her campaign and that so many people (including her and Zahra) refer to the event as a presidential sex scandal, but bringing attention to it? Trying to throw him to the wolves, again? Seriously?
Alex could tell that Henry has questions, but he just hugs Alex’s waist tighter, kisses his temple and suggests, “Let’s go home, love. Your last class would understand –”
“No, I – I can deal with it, just –” he turns to look him in the eyes, “– don’t let Zahra win if she tries to get Shaan to get you to do it, thereby forcing me to do it, too.”
“Of course not, love. Whatever it is, I have no intention of doing anything that you don’t want to do.”
“Good.” He gives him a kiss, and then texts Zahra and his mom:
I can’t come to DC this weekend, big presentation on Monday, and I can’t use ‘trauma from a privacy invasion’ as an excuse. Sorry. Should’ve asked sooner.
It’s a lie, but his ma will get Zahra to leave him alone, he hopes. If not, he and Henry can just turn off their phones for the weekend.
They have more important things to do this weekend – like healing together.
***
V December 2021
It should be no surprise that his ma expected him to stay and host the New Year’s Eve gala that he always does, but this year, Alex already agreed to travel to London and do his first set of ‘royal duties’ until a few days before his second semester of law school started.
It was a test – largely by Mary – but he knows that the public has been tentative about accepting him, and it would be his first foray into what they might have to do together as part of being royalty since despite how much he has come to loathe it, Henry can’t just stop being a prince.
Not the way that Alex can stop being First Son.
After all, in three years, his ma won’t even be President anymore and he’ll largely be a distant memory (or he would be if not for his full intention to marry a prince).
Given all of that and the etiquette lessons that he planned to attend (because he knows how strict things are for Henry’s family – though Catherine is working on loosening those restrictions), he wouldn’t be able to have the gala as always. Well, he wouldn’t be able to attend.
Technically, he doesn’t have to – it’s not as if June and Nora couldn’t host the party without him. Just because it was a trio thing, doesn’t mean it has to be. After all, they basically made the decisions for him and Henry for the fake dating thing last year, it wasn’t exactly a trio discussion.
In fact, that might even be part of the reason that he doesn’t want to do any events with them, either. It’s not just events at all, he probably could be convinced to do events with June and Nora or would have done events with them (in lieu of Henry) if he wasn’t more than a little sour that they got to come out as a normal couple, barely anyone noticed or cared, but it was such a big deal when Alex came out to their ma and later, forced out.
He's mad that they decided to pretend to date him and Henry despite knowing how much they didn’t want to do it and to suggest it in front of Zahra knowing that would force their hands. He might also be a bit mad that June gave him hell for not telling her about Henry and yet, was keeping her sleeping with Nora a secret.
It’s not like he doesn’t want to be happy for them, it’s just a bit weird. He’s still processing, and he doesn’t want to be their third wheel, and that’s exactly what he is. Maybe what he’s been for most of this trio thing – even if they weren’t together, there was always something there and June had always argued that Nora was her BFF and not their BFF.
Still, he’s unsurprised when he’s called once again to his ma’s office not a day into them coming to the White House for his semester break, the tension with his ma’s request filling the room not a second after she tells him that he’s behind on planning the gala.
“I’m not behind on planning any gala,” Alex retorts.
“Yes, you are. The Young American’s gala that you do every year is in less than two weeks –”
“And I won’t be here for it,” Alex states. “Henry and I have to go to London after Christmas for his family’s holidays.”
“You could still come back in time for the New Year,” Zahra offers, in a sort of duh voice. As if she thinks it’s impossible that Alex would have thought of that.
“I can’t, actually,” Alex counters. “We have plans that require both of us to be in London.”
“I could see why the Prince is required to be in London since it has been months of living here, but why would you need to be there?” Ellen asks, as if she couldn’t possibly understand that Alex would want to support Henry as much as Henry’s been supporting him over the last year.
But if he tells her the real reason that he needs to be there (to test out his new pseudo royal duties), she’ll immediately suggest that he do something for her while he’s over there and he can’t do that because he’s meant to be there in his place as Henry’s future husband (though they’re far from engaged – they are going to wait until his ma’s no longer President –, it’s definitely in their future) not as the First Son.
So, he lies.
“It’s more about being there for Henry and supporting him. Things aren’t easy with Mary the homophobic bigot, and even with his ma and his sister there to support him, I want to be there, too.”
“You have a duty to be here,” Zahra counters. “You’ve done this gala every year.”
“The girls can do it without me,” Alex counters. “I mean, it’s not like I really did anything last year.”
“That’s exactly why you need to do it this year, it was noticed last year that you were busy most of the party and we think it would be better if you spent some time being the focus the focus this year, especially with your lack of First Son appearances.”
He knows his mom really means that the public has noticed that he’s gone in the shadows and keep theorizing that it has something to do with Alex’s ‘firing’. As he clearly stated in the emails that he’d been fired and hated it, and that Henry had offered to end things so he could work instead but he refused. Combine that with the fake dating thing and Alex’s lack of appearances once Ellen won again, and it was painting a particularly unflattering picture. The Alex from 2019 that faked his friendship with Henry even though Cakegate was an accident would have immediately jumped to doing all of the appearance requests just to keep the heat off his mom, but this is 2021 Alex, and he doesn’t care.
“Sorry, I really can’t,” Alex states. “This is more about the public’s perception of me, otherwise I would,” he lies. “It’s just – Henry’s been seen supporting me, living with me in the States and it looks like I made him give up everything for me. This is a brief opportunity before my next semester starts to make it clear that I support him just as well.”
“Surely the people would understand that you have a duty here, too?”
“But I don’t, Ma,” Alex retorts. “As Zahra pointed out when Cakegate happened, I don’t have a role spelled out in the constitution, First Son is something you invented. No one would accept First Son duties as an excuse for never showing support to Henry when he’s a Prince. Or the fact that I haven’t been seen in London supporting him for some time.”
He has a point, and they know it, which is why Ellen nods. “I’m sure June and Nora can handle it.”
Zahra opens her mouth to argue otherwise, but Ellen cuts across her to say, “We wouldn’t want the public to think less of you, especially since you’re correct that it would not look good for the Prince to be shown supporting you, while you’re not shown supporting him.”
Of course it’s all about how it looks, but he’ll take it as a win.
At least for now, but he’s sure that she’s, at least, a little bit suspicious that he’s managed to not have a single appearance in the last year.
Still, a win.
***
Plus 1 - May 2022
Alex manages to avoid any and all conversations with his mom and Zahra about appearances as First Son. He and Henry have developed a way to always get those conversations to be cut short, and he knows that his Ma has, at least, realized that he can rely on law school for a ready-made excuse, but he doesn’t have school this summer and since the Shelter is up and running, the Queen has requested they spend the summer completing their royal duties (even though technically Alex won’t have ‘royal duties’ until he officially marries Henry), Henry’s made it quite clear that he doesn’t want to come to London without him and the Queen said that he could come along as long as he attended events for them not the White House.
Putting him to work while giving them what they wanted was considered a win-win, so they agreed.
Unfortunately, they both knew that the conflict of Shaan dating Zahra means that Zahra would know that Alex’s ‘misunderstandings of appearances’ in January (that was the lie they gave – it wasn’t on purpose, it just happened) was not going to be the case with this summer.
These appearances that he’s doing are going to be obvious – no excuse will cover what he’s doing that he has no problem appearing for Henry (and the Monarchy) but clearly has an issue appearing for his mom (as First Son).
So, it’s time to face the music.
It’s why he’s not surprised that this call he’s been avoiding with his Ma ends up being a video chat (but at least it’s not in person, so if it becomes too much, he can just end the call).
Henry is just out of sight in the doorway of Alex’s office. The steadfast support that he needs for this conversation without making it too obvious.
Alex takes a deep breath and accepts the video call.
“Hi, Ma.”
“Hello, Sugar, how are you doing? All done with exams?”
Alex nods. “Yes, finished yesterday and I’m doing a lot better since finishing exams.”
“I would say the first year is the hardest, but it’s only going to get worse. You’ll do great though, you didn’t finish high school and undergrad in three and a half years by not doing well in school.”
That kind of reminds him of all the things that he gave up when he decided to be on his ma’s campaign and force an early graduation in high school and postpone Georgetown until January so he could be the face she needed to support her. June had her final year at UT, and Nora was already in her first year at MIT, so he did a lot of the face stuff in the fall months of that first campaign… giving up being a normal teenager with high school and college in the process…
Not this time though.
“Thanks, Ma, I appreciate that. Is that why you wanted this call? To check in on how I’m handling law school?”
“Oh, uh, not exactly, Sugar. I do think I should check in more often, but actually, I heard something from Zahra that had me… a bit curious.”
Alex doesn’t want to beat around the bush, so he says, “I’m guessing Shaan told her that I was planning on doing appearances with Henry this summer – as a future member of the Royal Family and not as First Son.”
“Ah, yes, I – well, it just seemed strange to me that you would do appearances for the Monarchy that you hate, but you’ve been avoiding your First Son duties for the last year and a half. I thought it was a misunderstanding, but it sounds like it’s true.”
“It is true, Ma,” Alex states, plainly. “When Henry and I decided that we were going to be in it one thousand percent, we both knew that we couldn’t just walk away from his place as Prince. He’s limited a lot of his appearances, but it’s on the condition that he does do appearances over the summer in between my school years – at least this summer, next summer might be different if I get an internship.”
Ellen blinks. “I, of course, understand why he can’t walk away. It’s part of why I told you to make sure this is what you want before coming out. I, just, I admit that I am a bit surprised that you’ll do appearances with Henry when you’re not even engaged, but you’ve been avoiding the First Son duties.”
“It’s funny. I keep thinking about the term duties that you and Zahra keep bringing up ever since the Leak and getting me back involved in everything because my privacy was invaded, and it turned out that the public would actually support us, so you could use me, again.”
“See, those duties that aren’t spelled out in the constitution since it’s something you invented, those duties didn’t seem to matter in July or August of 2020. Hell, they didn’t even matter in September of 2020. I was locked away in my room and fired from even being a face of your campaign (like I’d done when I gave up a normal senior year and pushed back Georgetown to be there for you in 2016) all because I fell in love with a Prince.”
“A Prince that supposedly caused an ethical clusterfuck, as you put it, even though I did nothing unethical by falling in love with Henry, and when it came to covering up what you and your staff thought was a big fucking fuckup, it was no longer an ethical clusterfuck if it was my sister dating my boyfriend. Still a member of the First Family, still dating a Prince, yet, for some reason, that was perfectly okay. Lauded even. Applauded. Celebrated.”
“June went on every possible campaign appearance while pretending to date my boyfriend and – it wasn’t a big deal.”
“Alex, you have to understand, there’s a difference between you and June dating the Prince –”
“Yeah, it’s homophobia, Ma. You had a homophobic response. You claimed that you would never make me dump him or pretend to be something I’m not, but it was a lie. Because the moment you fired me, you as good as did it. You basically told me through your actions that choosing to love him meant I couldn’t be on the campaign, yet June could be, because of homophobia. I know you love me, Ma, but you locked me up and tried to pretend that I wasn’t bi and in love with a prince, which is exactly what one of those Republican assholes would’ve done.”
His mom looks speechless and a little guilty.
“And that’s the reason I’ve been avoiding doing ‘First Son’ things. I can’t represent you when all I could think about is how you threw me away when all I ever wanted was to help you. I was inspired by you and Dad and Raf, but mainly, you, and you let me down. You made my sexuality discovery about you – not me or Henry or anything, but you and your campaign.”
“Sugar, I –”
“No, Ma. It’s my turn to talk,” Alex states, plainly. “You want to understand why I can’t do appearances as the First Son? It really starts with Cakegate – you asked me to fake my friendship with Henry and then, got mad when we became more than friends. It really becomes serious when Zahra invaded my privacy in the first place and found Henry in my hotel room. It really became downright terrible when you fired me and then turned around and rehired me after all the trauma that I dealt with because your competitor saw how you responded and decided to expose that. And after I was exposed, instead of protecting me and letting me handle that trauma on my own, instead of letting me heal from all that, you made me a part of the campaign again and threw me to the wolves. I had to make a fucking speech about my love for Henry when you should’ve gotten up there and defended my right to privacy. I had to go out on the campaign trail and face all of those horrible people and the horrible things they say instead of hiding in my room and heal like I deserved.”
“You don’t even know, do you? What I dealt with in that month following? That I had to deal with the way people looked at me, the way people asked inappropriate questions, and republican-leaning journalists talking about how the exact problem of you suddenly using me again and mocking me and Henry for the private conversations we’ve had looks. The way they questioned if you were truly the ally you claimed when you locked me away the same way the Queen tried to do to Henry? The way I was constantly made to question just how much of your response was actually true – were you supporting us now because you had no choice? Would you have wanted us to pretend the emails were faked?”
“I wish I could say I was sorry, but I’m not. I’m not sorry for backing out of the whole First Son thing when it costs me so much. So much time from being a normal student. So much effort to fake things when I don’t want to. So much of my privacy and my life belongs to the public for consumption and to pick apart.”
“I can’t avoid public outings, not while in love with a Prince, but I don’t have to represent you and I’m not going to do it anymore.”
If they had their way, they wouldn’t be representing the current Queen for long either, and Catherine already promised to make some changes once she takes over. But this isn’t about them.
“Not when I don’t get the respect and care I deserve. We can’t go back go back and change things and I can’t change the way I feel about this.”
Ellen still looks very shocked, but there’s a moment, a beat, where he can see that his words have clearly hit.
“I hope you can understand. Maybe not now, but some day. Night, Ma.”
He doesn’t wait for her to say goodnight as he exits the meeting and looks up at Henry. “Was it as rough as I thought?”
“It was as direct as it needed to be,” Henry states, coming over to him and draping himself over the back of Alex’s chair. “Neither of them seemed to be coming to the conclusion themselves, and just like I had to be direct in which appearances I’d be willing to do this summer, this was a direct explanation. Did it likely cause her pain? I believe so, but your therapist did say that it was time for this conversation.”
Alex nods. He had discussed at length with his therapist about this situation and she had led him to the conclusion that he needed to tell his ma how things really felt to him after all this time.
“I just hope it works.”
“I’m sure it will, love.”
***
It does.
It takes a while before Alex and Ellen have another conversation – long after she’s no longer President (she never asked for any other appearances after that) – where she apologized for everything and hoped that he could forgive her.
He does forgive her.
He and Henry have made peace with what happened and with the knowledge that Ellen’s decision to make her children be famous as First Son and First Daughter didn’t carry over to the next President, he knows that something did get through to her.
And that’s makes it worth it.