The early days of Aaron's presidency focused on doing whatever possible to help unite the country and prepare for an election to get him out of office. True to his word, every one of the people in the pool house that night ended up working under him.

Miles was given the title of Secretary of Defense. He had initially objected, claiming that he didn't want to see history repeat itself again. With the concession that the military would be overall governed by a civilian oversight committee, Miles had eventually accepted control of the armed forces. The gift he had for strategy was ultimately something they couldn't waste.

Neville was appointed as Aaron's Secretary of State. The position suited the man quite well, as the job came with the status and trappings he'd always wanted, allowed him to politically maneuver and manipulate opponents to his heart's content, and didn't require him to spend time focusing on the many humanitarian efforts that were necessary to keep the country together after the destruction that the Patriots had wrought.

Rachel became the Surgeon General. All matters scientific and medical were directed through her and the brain trust of intellectuals and scientists she quickly developed. Aaron enjoyed occasionally getting to talk pre-blackout tech with the group whenever his schedule allowed.

Having recently trekked entirely across the continent and back, Bass became the Secretary of Transportation. He oversaw the massive projects that Aaron had insisted on implementing – establishing and improving road, waterway, and rail transit through the country to better reconnect the people of the disjointed continent. The projects put a large number of the country's displaced citizens to work. With purpose and a paycheck, the general public seemed to once again find pride and confidence in the US of A. And while absolute power had corrupted Bass absolutely, his upper-middle management position was a great fit. He didn't have to make the big decisions or tough calls, just follow orders and ensure that those working beneath him got the job done.

At Miles's suggestion, Charlie became the youngest Postmaster General in the history of the country. She was responsible for travelling throughout the continent and setting up what was essentially a pony express network to improve communication across the country. It always brought a smile to Aaron's face each time he received a post card from her from different parts of the country as an indication that their messenger network had expanded. That tin box of post cards with pictures of far away places had been her dream when he had known her growing up in Sylvania Estates. The fact that after everything, they had somehow found a way to give that dream back to her was one of the proudest achievements Aaron could claim for his presidency. Though he couldn't help but notice that the origin of Charlie's post cards seemed to consistently coincide with whatever territory Bass was working in at the time.

Even Duncan was credited as being the regime's Secretary of the Interior, though she'd simply done exactly what she had said she would. She helped unify the former Plains Nation and western territories, and brought them into compliance under US rule.

The country was once again united. There was safe travel from coast to coast, an orderly dissemination of information to every territory in the country, a military that protected the people instead of terrorized them, negligible taxes, and health care clinics stocked with whatever medications they could still produce without electricity springing up everywhere. Despite doing everything he could to ensure that the country would be ready and able to elect a new president within two years, Aaron's efforts backfired rather spectacularly. He was elected by a landslide.

For the next half a decade, the country flourished. Not too long after being elected to his second full term, Aaron was sitting at his desk in the oval office, reading through his mail. The letter that had stalled his progress through the stack was out of Oregon, and was going to mean trouble for his command structure. At least it was the best kind of trouble, which only really happened because most of his cabinet was now related by blood or marriage. They were going to have to arrange maternity leave for Charlie again. And the wise ass father of her children was going to insist on paternity leave too. Sometimes he wondered if it would be easier if they had just killed Monroe when they had the chance all those years before. And of course this had happened while they were working clear across the continent. That meant that Miles and Rachel would be out of the office for an extended period of time as well. He may have been the President, but the Mathesons were undoubtedly the First Family. The country's government had all but shut down for the birth of the first little Matheson-Monroe. Though Aaron would concede that it had been a relatively fair trade for the safe arrival of his blue eyed and curly blonde headed god-daughter. He expected no less this time around.

Aaron was grumbling about how tranquil the idea of a Matheson-free cabinet would be, when a young boy suddenly appeared in front of him. After overcoming the initial shock of the apparition's appearance, Aaron recovered quickly. He'd spent the last seven years planning exactly what he would say to the nanites if the opportunity ever arose again. He was ready.

A press conference was scheduled for the next day. As Aaron took the podium in front of the press corps that had become somewhat familiar to him over the previous six years, they began to all ask why they'd been assembled.

"Today we're going to talk about nanotechnology and the blackout." He announced. The reporters all seemed a little less than thrilled. "I know. This is an old topic and not one that's usually of any interest to most of you." Then he produced a dilapidated old lamp and sat it on top of the podium. It was missing its lampshade and the bulb was exposed. "But this time I think you're all going to find it rather exciting." He twisted the knob on the lamp near the base of the bulb, and the light bulb began to glow.