Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, 1960
Jackie straightened her husband's tie, looking up at him with soothing affection.
"You'll do great." she said, straightening his tie and some of the creases in his jacket.
She kept her hands on his chest and smiled up at him, he smiled back.
"Really? I'm not so sure."
"Well I am."
"And that's all the reassurance I need."
Jackie smiled and kissed her husband, after seven years of marriage here was something so familiar yet so exciting about kissing him. Sometimes it felt like it had in the beginning, with all of the excitement and uncertainty about the future.
"Now," said Jackie, "remember, look Eisenhower in the face. He may have eight years of experience behind him but you're young with fresh ideas and the country's support."
Jack felt some pain in his back and sat down, "I barely have half of the country's support. The election was one of the closest in history, and Nixon was trailing my back the entire damn time."
"Don't lose confidence." said Jackie, "You're brave and strong and twice the man Nixon could ever be."
Jack smiled, "Maybe to you."
"Of course to me." Jackie went over and knelt down to his level, "And to anyone else who meets you."
"Jack! Jackie! Come on! We need to get going!" Joe yelled from the bottom of the staircase.
"Give them a break, Dad. He was just elected yesterday, he's probably overwhelmed." said Bobby.
"Well, look who's suddenly Mr. Nice Guy." Joe replied.
Bobby rolled his eyes, "I can be Mr. Nice Guy now that this campaign is over."
Jack walked down the stairs, and the family burst into applause.
"Please, please!" said Jack, "I have to go face down Eisenhower!"
"That's my boy!" said Joe, smiling so proudly it was almost blinding.
Joe embraced his son, but whispered into his ear, "We need to talk when you get back."
———————
The White House
Jack walked through the long halls of place that, in a few months, he would call his home. He looked over at President Eisenhower. They had been walking in silence for awhile, and neither really wanted to speak.
"You know," Eisenhower said, "eight years here and I still don't know how to describe the feeling."
"What feeling, sir?"
"The way it feels to be president. It's indescribable, really. There's so much pressure, sometimes it feels as if someones put a thousand bricks on your shoulders, and yet the glory. To look out at a cheering crowd and know that on Election Day they said: 'We want you to be our leader'."
"How does it feel to leave?"
"What?"
"How does it feel to leave after being here for so long?"
"It's a mixture of feelings, really. On one hand, I'm relieved, soon I won't have to feel any of that pressure. And on the other hand, I'm going to miss it so damn much."
"I wonder what it'll feel like when I leave in four or six years."
"Maybe a bit better."
Jack looked over at Eisenhower, "Sir?"
"I'm leaving this place with no sense of personal glory. You were elected because the people were tired of me. Maybe when you go people will mourn the end of your presidency. I wouldn't tell this to anyone else, and if you tell anybody I said this I'll deny it, but I'm rooting for you, kid. Nixon's a nice enough guy, but he's a snake. He wouldn't be a good president, he'd sink the party. But you. You can create something special. Something that people can remember for years as the best time of their lives."
"Thank you, sir. That's more reassuring than I can describe."
———————
"He really said that to you?" said Jackie as she and Jack flew home.
"Yes. I was as shocked as you are."
"He was so right. You are going to be the face of an era. And everybody knows it...except you."
———————
Jack sat across from his father in his study, drinking scotch.
"How was old Ike? Struggling to keep his composure?"
"Surprisingly kind, if you must know."
Joe smiled, "This changes everything, you know. Everything."
"Of course I know tha-"
"You have to break things off with Marilyn." said Joe abruptly.
"What?" asked Jack.
"You don't think I have you trailed everywhere you go? That I have accounts of everything you do? She's married Jack, you're married, with a child and a pregnant wife. Sooner or later things like this come out and it's messy. And there cannot be scandal surrounding you at a time like this."
"I know, I know." said Jack. He took a long swig of his scotch and sat in silence for awhile, "I'm scheduled to meet her tomorrow. I'll tell her then."
Joe nodded, "Thank you."
———————
"You can't do this Jack!" Marilyn said, sitting on the couch next to Jack, tears brimming in her eyes.
"You don't understand, Marilyn, this is the way it has to be."
"Why?"
"Because I'm the President-elect of the United States, Marilyn! I have to be a moral center for the country. And I love Jackie, I never should have started this on the first place."
"Look me in the eye and tell me you don't love me as much as you love her."
Jack was so angry, he was fuming, his chest heaving up and down, he looked Marilyn right in the eye, "I don't love you. And if I do, I certainly don't love you half as much as I love Jackie."
Jack stormed out of the room, and he already felt a weight lifting off his shoulders.
———————
Bobby smiled as he watched his children play on the garden of his home. Ethel sat in a chair, playing with Kerry, their youngest.
To many men, this was the thing they dreaded to come home to. A life that constantly seemed to repeat itself. But to Bobby? It was Heaven.
"Bobby!"
Bobby winced, his father was here. Now he would interrupt his tranquility yet again.
"I want to talk to you about something."
"Of it's about Jack, I don't care. I'm done with this campaign Dad."
"You might be done with the campaign, but you're not done with Jack."
"Want do you mean?"
"I want you to be his attorney general, and Jack's agreed."
"Attorney general? Wouldn't that be controversial? He's my brother."
"I don't give a damn, Bobby, you're doing this."
Bobby sighed, "Dad, I'm so tired. I spent more than a year on this campaign and I want to rest. To play with my children. To be with my wife.
"There'll be plenty of time for that when Jack's successor is sworn in."
"Dad, I-"
"Bobby!" snapped Joe, "Just do it. Please."
Bobby looked over at Ethel, who smiled at him, he would be giving up everything he had ever wanted to do this, but it was Jack.
Bobby looked up at his father, "Alright, I'll do it."
———————
"No." said Ethel, "No, Bobby, you can't. I won't let you."
Bobby sat in a chair across from his wife in the parlor.
"I have to."
"You almost killed yourself working on that campaign, Bobby. And you'll do the same as attorney general."
"Ethel-"
"Is it to much to ask to lead a normal life? To want a normal marriage that doesn't involve you working yourself to death for your brother?"
"You don't understand. I have a duty to Jack, one that I can't ignore."
"No. You can't ignore anything concerning Jack. You will always put him above me. Above our family."
"That isn't true, Ethel!"
"It is!" said Ethel, "And you're too blind to see it!"
Ethel walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?", asked Bobby.
"Somewhere that isn't here." said Ethel, slamming the door behind her.
———————
"I am, uh-very glad to announce today that I will appoint my brother, Robert F. Kennedy, to the position of attorney general. I am confident that he will do his country a great credit."
Bobby smiled, proud of his brother, but then he looked over at his wife, who stood in the audience, and he wished that he wasn't the reason she looked so defeated.