A.N. Hi!

So, i know it is literally exactly a month since my last update, but that month has been absolutley insane-crazy-stupid. It's also been my last month of school; i have one more rehersal and Showcase, and then I am DONE with school until the fall :) :) :)

Carito1988 requested/suggested an already-in-love!Mash, one about them being together and being ready to start a family, which means that instead of angsty!Mash, i give you happy!Mash.

Here's what else: in the U.S., you have to be at least 35 to run for the office of President. I imagine Mary to be roughly 28-32 in this, and Bash anywhere from 29-34, so that's been slightly amended.

this is political!au, which is not based on but draws from Scandal.

Carito1988, I hope I did a good job, and I hope you enjoy! :)

So here's the end result: January 22nd, Mary Stuart is inaugurated and becomes the first woman president of the United States. She stands tall and regal while she gives her speech, but the cameras spend less time on her and more on the blue-eyed Chief of Staff behind her.

The diamond ring on her hand glitters as she speaks, and all the newscasters comment on the anticipated White House Wedding.

Here's how it begins: Mary Stuart gives a rousing speech in Miami, Florida, and she spends the whole time avoiding eye contact with Sebastian Leopold, the man who's about to be her Chief of Staff.

And also, conveniently, the man she may have accidentally (on purpose?) hooked up with last night.

Oops doesn't even begin to cover it.

LIST OF THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON THE STUART CAMPAIGN TRAIL THAT MARY STUART IS NOT NECESSARILY PROUD OF BUT DOESN'T REGRET:

• She, her campaign manager, and three of the interns got wasted every single Friday night and watched Game of Thrones reruns.
• Her campaign manager, Lola, tried so very hard to manage it, but Mary doesn't feel bad about letting her leave. Lola was seven months pregnant and hormonal, and her boyfriend was infuriatingly charming.
• Kenna broke her leg while trying to get Mary onto a bus on time.
• She fell in love with her Chief of Staff pick, Sebastian Leopold. Harvard grad, criminal law degree, and blue eyes to wreck lady parts.

One thing about Mary Eleanor Stuart:

She is a woman. But she is not weak, and she is not helpless, and she does not need a man to complete her.

She doesn't need a man period, and even if she wanted one, she doesn't have time.

But here's how it happens, anyway: two months into her first presidential campaign trail, and every minute she is not debating foreign policy or smiling and kissing babies, she is with him.

They talk about politics, and then they start talking about other things, like where he learned to ride a horse so damn well, why he likes cherry Popsicles the best, where she grew up, why she chose Princeton over Harvard.

And then it's why he doesn't sleep with the curtains closed, why the smell of cigarette smoke makes him shudder, why she feels like she has to lace all her worries, all her issues, up into a tiny little dress with black heels, because no one can ever see her like this, why she will never talk about her family.

And it's moments like these that Mary hates her job, because if she were anyone else she could do these things and it would be normal, but because she is trying to be the first Madame President, all she needs are her opponents to see them together, and then the cries of her being weak, of her being dependent, will ring from the mountain tops.

THINGS MARY STUART HAS NEVER BEEN GOOD AT, EVEN THOUGH SHE REALLY WISHES SHE WAS:

- Pretending not to be upset. (this has become almost embarrassingly apparent in almost every single important event of her life, but it's too true. She's just not good at hiding.)

- Chess.

- Horseback riding.

-Hiding what she feels.

So the moment she admits to herself that her CoS pick is not just a potential member of her administration, everything changes. Because now, how is she supposed to look at him the same? Now, things that she didn't use to care about matter, and more importantly, it matters what he thinks of her.

And this is not a good thing, at all.

So here they are, going up an elevator to the floor they've booked rooms on, directly after Mary's speech on women's right to choose, which was a stupidly amazing success, if she does say so herself.

And she's giggling, and her hair is pulled out of the chignon it was in for the speech, now it's falling and spilling in dark waves over her shoulders, and his eyes are sparkling and laughing at her soundlessly, like she thinks the stars might, if they had voices. And she's slipped her toes out of the high heels, so now he's dramatically taller than her, which makes her giggle even harder, and she's swaying a little bit from sheer exhaustion and sheer exhilaration, until she sways just a little bit too close to him, and she catches a whiff of his cologne and his smile is intoxicating.

Right there in the elevator, she leans a little bit closer, and their lips beautifully, perfectly, finally meet.

It's too perfect. The kind of kiss that happens in movies with the Nora Jones song in the background, right before it all goes downhill.

He pulls away first; she tries to follow him, eager to feel his lips on hers again, and all he does is laugh.

"So, Mary," He says quietly, hands playing with the hair near her face. "I'm prepared to make you a deal."

"What's that?"

"If," he says, "And remember, this is only if this is a one time thing, I'm prepared to pretend this didn't happen. Not forget it, because I've waited an obscene amount of time for that, but pretend, if that's what you want. Is that what you want?"

No, Mary thinks. That is the exact opposite of what I want. In fact, if that happens, I might cry.

Instead, she simply says, "Which way to your room?", which she supposes might be answer enough.

It is.

She doesn't want to make it official, and he gets that: the moment they're seen together, her credibility takes a gigantic hit. Not only is he her chief of staff, he's a man, and the idea that she got this far only to pick up a boyfriend disgusts her.

But here's the problem that arises roughly a year into her campaign.

He wants to put a ring on it.

And Mary wants to, of course she wants to, but she's over here trying to get get herself elected in a man's society, okay, which is not an easy thing, and so forgive her if she wants to wait a little before planning a big white wedding, okay? Excuse her if that's at the top of her priorities list.

They're in bed one morning, and he has an eight o'clock press meeting and she's got a meet-and-greet, but that doesn't stop them from staying wrapped up in each other.

"So," he says, and his voice tickles the top of her hair. "I kind of love you."

Mary sighs, because he's sad it before, and he's never pressured her into anything, but she's having trouble saying it.

She feels it; she knows it.

It's the articulating that's shit.

He goes into the press meeting with confidence in his step and caffeine in his bloodstream.

He grins at the reporters and rubs his hands together. "Let's begin, shall we?"

He gives a quick debrief of the current situation in the Middle East, but the moment he asks for questions, it gets interesting.

Willa Turntrout from the Washington Post smacks her gum and asks, "What is your response to the allegations of an improper relationship between Miss Stuart and yourself?"

Why do you care? Is what he wants to say. Go read a book. Do some Algebra. Educate yourself.

Instead, he grins and says, "The Stuart campaign has no comment at the time."

(He says that a lot during this particular meeting.)

When Mary comes into his office later, he's talking animatedly on the phone and tossing darts at the clock.

"Well, Liza," he says, and Mary cringes at the name of her Vice President pick, who Sebastian loathes. "Here's the deal. We. Are. Supposed. To. Be. A. Team. And I don't know if you played team sports as a kid, but you do not purposefully cripple other members of your team, because -get this- we all want the same thing. So I suggest you take that impressively large ego of yours and transfer all that skill you have at messing things up into trying to prevent your daughter's rebel stage. Yes, I know I'm a bastard, thank you for pointing that out."

When he slams the phone down, Mary quietly asks, "Rough day?"

"Rough week," is his answer. "Next time you run for President, I get the VP pick."

"I can let you pick the movie right now," she offers him, and he rewards her attempt at humor with a laugh. "But you have to stop cheating on me with the telephone."

"Don't you have work?" He questions. "Because I have work. And most people would say that my job is not as important as yours, so if I have work, you should also have work."

"It's like the rest of the team thinks that I'll break if they give me too much to do," Mary sighs. "Which is good, because it means I spend more time with you. But not good, because it means that I am still not important."

"Hey," he says, and he gets up and takes her hands. "I believe in you, okay? I'm going to vote for you. And even if your campaign team are a bunch of masochistic pigs, well, I'd purposefully plant evidence in their homes that'd get them twenty to life in a federal prison."

"Oh, Bash," Mary pretends to swoon. "You'd purger yourself before the law for me?"

"For you, babe, I'd pay off an entire jury," he replies, and kisses her fingertips. "But only for you."

Later on that night, she rolls over on his stomach, stifling a laugh at the groaning sound he makes, and says, "Bash? Would you really pay off a jury for me?"

His words are muffled into a pillow, but she can still hear him say, "Only if you marry me."

(Sebastian's mother spent four years in jail because of a false jury. They're the one thing (besides Liza) that Bash hates the most in the world. The fact that, even jokingly, he's willing to bring them up, means something.

It means everything.)

(And even later, when he's snoring softly and the moonlight is trickling into the room and painting designs on his skin that she wants to trace, she raises her hand and for the first time, the thought of a diamond on it doesn't scare her.)

Bash goes into the press conference the next day, and the first question is if the Stuart campaign has any statement on the rumors he stayed the night in the candidate's hotel room.

"Seriously? Do you guys have nothing else to do?"

"Liza, I swear on all things holy, if you ask me if Ms. Stuart is pregnant one more time, so help me, I will hire hackers to make every single internet picture of you have the gap of Rohan in between your front teeth, and I will laugh when InvisiLine asks you to be their spokeswoman."

"Bad day?" Bash's assistant asks him once he slams the phone down.

"NO, Trinity," He says, rubbing his temples. "Everything is fine."

They go walking in the park with Lola and the baby and her boyfriend, and behind all the camera flashes, Mary sees a little boy, with blue eyes are dark curls and cheeks pink like apples.

His father picks him up and swings him around, and the little boy is laughing delightedly, and she looks over at Bash and he's looking at him with something like longing. And in this moment, Mary realizes what he wants, and what he'll never ask her for.

Because at the end of the day, Bash goes home, and the White House is important to him, but it is not his life. He wants other things, things like kids and marriage and houses in Vermont, but Mary is the Presidency, and she doesn't know how to want other things.

LIST OF THINGS MARY IS NOT PREPARED TO GIVE UP:

- The Presidency

- Sebastian

LIST OF THINGS MARY MIGHT ACTUALLY HAVE TO GIVE UP:

- The Presidency

- Sebastian

They attend a gala thrown by Governor Resthin, and Mary's talking to Senator Jane Wilds when Sebastian comes up to her, flashing mega-watt smiles with dimples and blue eyes and god, she can't even pay attention to it right now, but he's almost like a sunrise, all beauty and light, happening in flashes of pink and gold.

"Mary," He says quietly, into her ear. "It seems that we've lost the itinerary. Would you mind coming to help look?"

It's Stuart Campaign Code (SCC) for Liza's going rouge, and it almost makes Mary want to cry, how often this happens.

"Of course," she murmurs, and then turns to Senator Wilds and her husband. "Senator, weren't we just discussing how fond your husband is of horses? Sebastian, in fact, adores them as well, and he's superbly talented with riding."

"Yes, I am a fan of equestrian pursuits," Sebastian says with a smile, but the look he gives her clearly says if you leave me here, Mary Stuart, we will be having words later tonight.

She grimaces inwardly, and says, "Well, then, perhaps you two could chat, while I check on the itinerary? Excuse me."

She walks away before she catches his glare.

The Liza situation is resolved, but when Mary enters Sebastian's hotel room later that night and finds him knitting, she knows that her problem-solving is not over.

"Bash," she says calmly. "Why are you knitting?"

"I figured, if you're going to treat me like your 20th century housewife, then I might as well act like it," he spits, and Mary's heart sinks.

"Bash-"

"Here's the thing, Mary," he says, and his voice is dangerously quiet. "I am not your housewife. I am not your plus one, and when you win this god-forsaken election, I am not going to be your First Lady, or whatever the hell the male equivalent is. I am your Chief of Staff, and last time I check, making small talk with people's husbands while you go handle the big issues is not in my job description."

She's taken aback. "You know I didn't mean it that way."

"I know," he says. "But that doesn't mean that's not how it is."

"It doesn't have to be," she murmurs, going to him and taking the yarn. "You are a strong and independent man, and you don't need me to complete you. You're not my housewife, I promise."

"When," he says, looking up at her, "Did we switch stereotypical gender roles? 'Cause I thought I wore the pants here."

She knows he's joking, and that's good, because if he can joke then he's not all that mad at her.

"You wear a skort," she replies. "You know, the skirt with the shorts under it?"

"Did you just tell me I wear something most commonly frequented by preschoolers?" He smiles, but it soon fades.

"Speaking of preschoolers," she says tentatively, "I saw the way you looked at that little boy earlier."

"Well that doesn't sound creepy at all," he snorts, and she laughs nervously.

"You know what I mean, Sebastian," she says, and his eyes soften. "Is that- something you want?"

"What, kids?" He says, and he's trying to sound nonchalant, but she can tell his body is tensing. "Eventually."

"You can't lie to me, Sebastian," she says, and it hurts her that he'd even bother trying. "Is eventually ten years from now? Or two months?"

He hesitates, and she knows.

"Sooner rather than later?"

"Look, Mary," he says. "I'm not trying to push you into anything, or pressure you, or whatever. But if the goal here is my complete honesty, then yeah, I want kids. And yeah, in a perfect world, I'd want them sooner rather than later. But right now, I have you. And that's more than enough."

"You understand why I can't?" She asks nervously. "At least not right now? At least not for the next four years? You understand that I couldn't...be pregnant, be a mother, and be a politician at the same time."

"I understand," he replies. "Really, I do."

"But...?"

"But, I can't help but wonder what happens when four years turns into eight. And then after that." He sighs. "I don't want you to give up anything, okay? I want to you to light the world up as your stage and kick ass in every single thing you've ever wanted to do."

"But I don't want you to give up what you want so I can be happy," she protests. "What's fair in that?"

"It's not supposed to be fair," he says. "If love was fair, everyone would do it."

She falls silent after that, but she sits there, imagining her stomach rounded with his child.

It's a scary thought. But also kind of a beautiful one.

Later that night, though, when he's almost asleep, she rolls over and asks him, "Bash? What is going to happen to us? If I get elected?"

He turns to look at her, takes her face in his hand, and says, "I'll make you a deal. If you want to pretend this didn't happen, I suppose I'll go along with it. And if you don't, if you love me like I love you, then I'm going to stand with you, and we can raise our middle fingers to America together."

"I always wanted a man who'd flip off the general populace for me," she says, and he smirks.

"Only for you, darlin'. Only for you."

Two weeks later, Mary Stuart wins the presidential election, and becomes the first woman to hold the office of President of the United States.

Three weeks after that, she's going through Sebastian's bags, searching until she finds the ring she knows he has on him.

When he comes into the hotel room, she's sitting in a pile of his clothes, the diamond solitaire sparkling in the winter light, and she says, "I'll make you a deal."

"What's that?" he asks.

"Marry me. Um, I don't have anything choice to offer you, other than that, but-"

"You're an idiot if you think I need one, Mary," he says, with a broad smile. "You're all I need."

Two years into her first term, Madame President and her husband raise their proverbial middle fingers to the world and announce their first pregnancy.

(Mary knew she would never be able to put her dreams above his for long.)

fin.