Work Text:
"Well, how bad is it?"
Sally liked to think, considering the circumstances surrounding her second term of presidency, that she was doing a decent job at putting out fires.
It hadn't been easy as the first woman at the helm, but she wanted to believe that she was making a positive difference—after all, her motivation came from her own personal experiences and there was no better teacher and humbling force than being nineteen in a big city with no one on her corner, working the crappiest job on earth and only wanting to make the world a better place for her baby boy.
Because take away all the fancy titles, she was just Sally Jackson, a single mother who got fed up with how the system worked and wanted to make sure her son never faced the same hardships she did, she just wanted the future generation to inherit a better tomorrow.
Everything she did, it was for her son. Right now, she was reminding herself of that same love for her son.
"It's not looking very good, ma'am."
Her 'war council' exchanged uncertain looks and she sighed. Her administration had just been through the literal outbreak of war in both Europe and the Middle East, not to mention the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, and the pandemic that kicked her presidency to start.
Still, all of those challenges felt like a breeze compared to this one.
She popped a few blue jellybeans straight from the bag, the wrinkled red-white-and-blue logo of Sweet on America making her nostalgic for simpler times when she'd just have to deal with her son instead of dealing with an international crisis because of her son.
"Has Stockholm responded yet?"
Paul met her gaze and shook his head.
"So far, how many are asking for a response?"
Susan, her press secretary, pursed her lips into a thin line (as if trying not to laugh). "Channel 5 News, the BBC, Al Jazeera, TMZ, and the latest was Teen Vogue."
Sally drummed her fingers on her desk. "Alright, give it to me straight—can we say that this was photoshopped, Paul?"
Paul, her Chief of Staff, shook his head. "I don't think we can challenge the validity of the pictures, Madame President."
Two separate Twitter and Instagram accounts were pulled up on her tablet and it showed damning evidence all over the respective feeds through geolocation posts. Not only was it trending on all the social platforms, but there were also multiple angles—front and back. There was no way she could just ignore this and hope for it to blow over, especially when Channel News 5, BBC, Al Jazeera, TMZ, and now Teen Vogue were set on running the story as their headline for the 7 o'clock news.
"Then we'll have to release a statement on Percy's behalf."
Both her chief of staff and her press secretary looked at her as if she grew two more heads. She couldn't blame them for the reaction—it was hardly a response she'd expect from the president of a country, but it was the response she'd expect from a mother of a 20 year old boy.
And right now, she wasn't chief of the armed forces or the chief executive, she was a mother.
The mother of a son who was going to be in a whole world of trouble.
"Paul, put him on the line."
He passed her a phone and she listened to the dial tone as it rang for the third time. She tapped her fingers on her desk and couldn't help but think, if she didn't catch the attention of the then governor of New York and therefore didn't become the President of the United States of America, she'd be an author and this would be a great idea for a best selling novel.
She glanced at the photograph again, hoping that if she stared hard enough, it'd change.
But at the same time, she hoped that it didn't, because who didn't predict this wouldn't happen after watching this develop over 8 years of rivalry, friendship, and now something deeper.
(But, then again, when she told her then 12 year old son to play nice, she meant not pick a fight, not send the internet and her international relations into a frenzy.)
Because in the photo, Percy was in line for a ride at Disneyland for the Little Mermaid attraction when he was supposed to be attending a G20 summit in Hong Kong.
In the photo, he was wearing a blue and yellow jacket reminiscent of Sweden's flag while his favorite blue letterman jacket with an embroidered 'Jackson' written across the back was draped over a blonde girl whose curly hair was tucked into a blue Yankees baseball cap.
In the photo, two of the youngest dignitaries sent to the 2023 Hong Kong Summit (who were supposed to be sick from food poisoning according to their aides) were out traipsing at an amusement park with a group of sixth graders on a field trip in their background.
In the photo, the First Son of the United States of America's hand was on the Crown Princess of Sweden's ass.
And in the photo, her son Percy was leaning down to kiss the smiling Annabeth who stood on her toes to meet his lips.
She looked at the trending list: #Percabeth.
Sally sighed again and massaged her temple. That boy was in so much trouble—
"Hey, Mom."