Get down, Mr. President

                                    

                                          
A/N: Trigger warning for gun violence.
_ _ _ 
One of Kiera's dad's favorite quotes was 'the sooner we get it over with, the better.' That quote applied to a lot of things like taking disgusting grape flavored medicine as a child and making an important phone call that made you nervous. In this case, the quote was applied to his wife's cheating scandal. 
The end of January was upon them and the skies looked as dreary as Willie Campbell felt. He still couldn't shake the feeling that Brenda, Beverly's best friend, had something to do with the news escaping. He had always hated Brenda, but no matter what he did, Beverly wouldn't leave her side. 
He glanced at himself in his bedroom mirror and adjusted the black suit coat over his dress shirt. Although he was stewing with anger on the inside, he forced himself to stand with his head held high. In a few weeks, this would end, and the media would find something else to jump on. They'd tear someone else's life apart instead of his. 
The news had leaked yesterday morning and by yesterday evening, it had exploded. The white house had been flooded with calls from news reporters and journalists. Paparazzi had been flocking around the outside of the white house trying to get photographs of the Campbell family, but to no avail. Willie had refused to let anyone leave the family section of the building. 
He locked himself in the white house study and made a phone call to his vice president, Philip Brooks. Besides recently running the country together, the two had often spent a lot of time with each other. Willie held more of a grudge against his wife rather than Philip. 
"She was beautiful," Philip apologized once Willie found out. "She was gorgeous, I just couldn't help myself. She seduced me and I knew I should have been stronger and pulled away, but I couldn't. I was captivated by her touch, her presence, it engulfed me whole. I became addicted to her." 
He understood where Philip was coming from. After all, his wife was beautiful. Philip was insistent that it had been his wife's fault from the beginning and Willie had believed him. As a man, he knew how difficult it was for them to control themselves. He made up with Philip at once, but his wife was a different story. 
"Willie, it's time to go." Bev's hushed voice came from the opening of their shared bedroom door. In her hands, sat multiple note cards that Willie had written himself. There was no way he was going to address the nation and then have his wife speak afterwards and screw it up. 
The whole plan was simple. They'd have a small press conference in front of the white house. It'd be live streamed on television so everyone could see it. He'd speak first and his wife would speak second. The whole thing would be over within less than twenty minutes. 
Willie didn't dare meet his wife's eyes. He finished adjusting his outfit and then walked out of the room. He didn't bother grabbing his wife's hand or speaking to her. He was holding back on the amount of anger that he truly felt deep down. 
The two walked up a hall and passed Kiera's door. Willie let a heavy hand knock against it a few times. "Kiera, let's go before we're late." 
The door opened instantly. Kiera had thrown on a simple black dress and a matching pair of heels. She followed along behind her parents. She didn't want to attend the press conference, but her father insisted that the three of them were going to go out there as a family and come clean about the scandal. She wouldn't be speaking, but she'd still be in the area. 
The family walked silently in a single file line. Her father had decided that Philip wouldn't be attending the press conference. The last thing he needed was photographs of his wife and Philip near each other. The media would just plaster them on magazines and he didn't need anymore buzz. 
They walked their way silently to the front of the white house. As they made their way to the front doors, a handful of secret service members were waiting for them. Adorned in black suits, and matching ties, they didn't dare smile. Willie mumbled a greeting and let them lead the way outside. 
Kiera bit down on the inside of her cheek as she followed. The moment the doors opened, the sound of shutters flashing filled the air. Bright lights flickered like fireflies. She kept her head up, but she didn't meet the eyes of the reporters. 
A large hand was placed upon her back and she stiffened. "You're going to sit in that chair, right over there." An arm jutted out in front of her and pointed to an empty black folding chair off to the side. She nodded and let the secret service member guide her there. 
She sat down and tried to ignore the large crowd of reporters and journalists that called her name. They begged her for a comment, but she sat in silence. She didn't know the exact story of her mother's cheating and she didn't bother to ask. 
Willie swallowed his anxiety and put on a polite smile as he approached the podium. He tapped the microphone and cleared his throat. The crowd quieted at once. The silence, besides the camera shutters, was enough to make a pin drop. 
"Well, I didn't plan on my first press conference going like this." He let out a laugh which caused a few chuckles from the crowd. "My wife and I wanted to address the recent rumors that have been speculating around recently." 
Kiera watched her father continue to speak. The anger that he had been stewing in when they were away from the public, it was gone. There wasn't a single trace of it. It was almost as if he hadn't been angry about it at all. As if this was a casual thing that had happened. Too bad he couldn't be this calm all the time. 
"And although the cheating did happen, my wife and I decided to address it. We just got here, you know? The last thing we need is public speculation to taint our image. My wife made a mistake in her past, but she's learned. Right now, our focus is America first, America always, and America forever." He smiled again at the audience. "I'll let Beverly take the mic, so she can add on." 
Beverly Campbell stepped over to the podium and glanced up at the crowd. Anxiety swarmed her, but she forced it down. She gripped the white note cards in her hand and started to speak into the microphone. 
"Everybody makes mistakes in their life that they're not proud of. I know that I'm certainly not proud of what I did, but it happened, and I can't change it. Marriage can be difficult sometimes, but that's not the point. I'd like to deeply apologize to anyone who my actions might have hurt. Family, friends, acquaintances, so on, and so forth." 
"I cannot change the past, but I can embrace the future." She tilted her head up and gave the crowd a shaky smile. "Together we can all m-" 
"Stray kids everywhere, all around the world!"  
Kiera tilted her head towards the crowd at the outburst. Willie's eyes narrowed as he scanned the crowd. Beverly paused her speech unsure of whether she should finish or not. 
Bang!
"Get down, Mr. President!" 
The crowd erupted into a fit of shrieks and screams. Men in black suits launched themselves towards Willie. Kiera's arm was yanked by the secret service member next to her. She had no time to react. He shoved her towards the ground and covered her body with his muscular one. 
She struggled to make sense of it all. Her ears rang from the sound of the gunshot. From her spot on the cement, she could make out the shoes of the crowd scrambling in different directions. Her heart hammered in her chest as her head spun. 
What the fuck just happened? 
She tipped her head up to see behind her. Her eyes widened and her mouth felt as dry as the Sahara Desert. She swallowed the vomit that threatened to escape her mouth. Nearly fifteen feet away, her mom was sprawled out on the ground. Limbs laid limply at her sides. Mouth still opened as if she was going to say something, but she never had the chance to. 
She screamed at the sight of it; the single bullet wound in the middle of her mother's head.