Vice President Theodore Roosevelt removed his spectacles and rubbed at his eyes with the fingers of one hand. He glanced at the small clock sitting on his office's mantle to see that it was just after midnight.

Placing the small glasses back on the bridge of his nose, he moved to pick up his pen, and promptly knocked his inkwell over, ruining the papers he'd been working on for the past couple of hours.

'Perhaps this is a sign that I should retire for the night,' he thought a bit ruefully as he surveyed the damage done to his sleeve. Only now did he realize how thirsty he was, and decided that a glass of water would serve him well.

Thusly decided, Roosevelt stood and made for the door. The kitchens were just down the stairs, if he remembered correctly.

"You're leaving?" a furious voice demanded. "B-...But you can't!"

"Watch me."

Roosevelt stopped just beyond the kitchen entrance to observe the hushed argument happening between the president's personal secretary and what appeared to be one of the many interns that roamed the halls during the day.

"You're not going anywhere." George Cortelyou folded his arms with an air of finality. "I won't allow it."

The bespectacled young man turned away, stuffing an assortment of bread, fruits, and dried meat into an old rucksack. "You don't have the authority to order me around, Georgie."

"McKinley does. I'll go wake him up right now and you'll never be able to leave here, again."

"I'll be gone before he even has his slippers on," the blond retorted flatly. "He can't order me around if I'm not here."

"Why, you-!"

"It's not as though he'll actually care," the lad continued, his voice almost too old for his age. "Everyone like him-Hell, even I like the guy for his personality. But he doesn't listen to me. Thinks he's got all the answers in the damn world while I'm practically screaming into his ear that everything is not alright. I'm wasting my time, here."

The secretary was working his jaw, but no words came out. Roosevelt had never seen the eloquent man at such a loss for words, before. The mysterious young man turned away sharply, slinging his sack over his shoulder. In his retreat, he bumped straight into the curious Vice President, who hadn't thought to move away from the door.

Roosevelt staggered back slightly at the unexpected impact. "Apologies, er…"

An enigmatic smile. "Alfred F. Jones, Mister Vice President. Don't plan on seeing me again."

Cortelyou regained the ability to speak, and made a grab for the boy's collar. "Wait!"

Jones quickly pushed past Theodore and faded into the shadowed hall. The robust man blinked a few times into the darkness, not quite willing to believe his eyes. 'I must be more tired than I thought.'

George Cortelyou reared on Roosevelt angrily. "Why did you let him get away?"

The Vice President frowned. "There are plenty of interns-we have neither a reason nor the right to keep this one here."

"You don't-…You don't know," the secretary realized. "No one ever told you…" He pinched his nose in exasperation, and made a small noise of frustration. "That wasn't an intern!"

"Then who was it?" Theodore asked, wondering whose desertion could possibly cause such vexation in the usually composed man.

"You just let the United States of America leave the White House!"

And thus begins another semi-historical, multi-chapter undertaking of mine. That conflict that the last few historical one-shots have been hinting at? THIS…IS…IT.

HISTORICAL NOTES-

The Vice President lived in the White House up until Walter Mondale and Jimmy Carter's administration. So yes, Theodore Roosevelt would've lived in the White House even before becoming the President.

President William McKinley and his administration was, by most accounts, very well-liked. However he was also very friendly to big business and monopolies (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, and J.P. Morgan) at a time when America desperately needed social and labor reforms. So I figure that America would pick up and kind of latch onto this because he was becoming very heavily industrialized by now, and more acutely feeling the effects of industry on his lands and people.

So...yea? Nay? Tell me in a review!

Later dudes. ^J^