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“Pierce believes in a different kind of world to us. We believe that peace is attainable, but you have to fight for it, you have to negotiate. The world isn’t perfect, and people aren’t perfect, and the only thing you can do is make the best of what you have to work with. Pierce, on the other hand, would happily kill every single person on this planet that opposed his views and attain peace that way. He doesn’t agree with the way my mother runs this country and he would do anything to see her good name smeared in dirt. He’s tried before. He was unsuccessful. But God help us all if that man ever runs for president.”
“Why would anyone vote for him if that’s what he’s like?” Chris asked.
Jamie looked at him and raised his eyebrows. “Well, they elected him Mayor of New York, so why not?”
Chris’s frown deepened and they drove the rest of the way in relative silence.
At the VA, however, Jamie was a dream.
The second he stepped out of the car, people recognized him and cheered. Jamie smiled and waved, he shook hands with veterans, he gave hugs, he sat and listened to them and was genuinely interested in their experiences and views on Pierce’s announcement.
Chris was amazed at how he could have been so wrong about another person. Jamie had transformed in no time at all from a sullen and bratty twenty-five year old to a genuine and passionate human being, radiating warmth and charisma and openness. The cameras all loved him, light bulbs flashing as reporters crowded outside of the rooms into which he went in and out; cameras rolled and zoomed in on his face as he talked with veterans. Chris understood why this was so important to Jamie. Just like he had latched on to Chris the minute he had discovered they had served in the same unit, he felt like these soldiers were his brothers and sisters, that they all had shared experiences that were worth hearing, worth helping.
“That kid is unbelievable,” a familiar voice said in Chris’s ear, and he turned around to see Andy Watson grinning at him.
He grinned back. “He is something else,” he admitted.
The cameras started flashing again as Jamie moved to the podium. A hush fell over everybody present, the only noise being the cameras clicking.
“Well,” Jamie said with a small smile. “When I turned on the news this morning, I never expected to hear that the governor of this fine city wanted to cut funding for your counselling. I was mad, I admit. And then I realized that he just doesn’t understand, and I guess that isn’t his fault, because nobody understands. Nobody exceptus. We’re the only ones who know what it’s like to be a soldier, what it’s like to go over and fight in another country for people who don’t have the means to defend themselves from tyranny. We understand each other; we know the burden that each of us carry home with us and carry with us every day. He’s just like our families, like the guy at the store, our waiters, our doctors. They know, but they don’t get it.
But your counsellors, the guys who work here, they are just like us. They have been through the same things we’ve been through and that makes them more qualified to help us through it than private institutions. Because when you’re out there, you trust that the soldier beside you has your back and you have theirs. That feeling doesn’t go away once you’re home. If anything, you’re more in need of trusting somebody to have your back.
This is why this place is so important. And it’s why I will assure you that this place willnotclose. You have given a lot in service to your country, and it is your country’s duty to take care of you. So, we will.”
The place erupted as Jamie finished his speech. Everybody leapt to their feet, cheering and applauding, and light bulbs blinded Chris as every camera in the place went off.
“I think he just single-handedly saved this place,” Andy murmured to him.
Chris thought he might be right.
* * * *
Jamie’s heart was hammering. He hadn’t intended to make a speech—it had just sort of happened. He wasn’t even entirely sure what he’d said, but it must have been good enough to warrant such an amazing reaction from the veterans. Jamie smiled, nodded, and moved away from the podium, heading towards Chris..
“Christ, I haven’t done anything like that in a while!”
Chris chuckled. “Geoffrey Pierce is shaking in his shoes.”
Jamie laughed before turning his attention to the man standing slightly behind and to the left of Chris. “I take it you’re Andy?”
The man beamed at him and held out his hand in greeting. “I am! And you, sir, need no introduction at all. That was some speech!”
Jamie absently rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah? I just said what was in my head.”
“Nah, that one came from the heart,” Chris replied. He was also grinning widely, and Jamie felt himself glow with the validation.
He rubbed the back of his neck again. “Er…okay…anyway, we should probably get going.”
Chris nodded and turned to say goodbye to Andy. Jamie even invited Chris’s friend to the house in the Hamptons at the weekend for a boy’s night, complete with beer and burgers and some poker, which Watson happily accepted.
In the car, Jamie kept glancing at Chris, only to find his Secret Serviceman smiling idiotically.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing. I just don’t know how you did it. You walked in there and changed everything. All those people turned up today to protest something that was almost a certainty, and then you show up and make one speech, and suddenly everything has changed. Your appearance had made sure that Pierce can never shut the place down because it’s all over the news, all over the country. There would be a nationwide uproar if he were to try now. And that’s all because of you.”
Jamie laughed and ran his hand through his hair, his cap having long since been relegated to the back seat. “No, it’s not. It’s because of who I am. It’s always because of who I am. Nobody would have paid a blind bit of notice otherwise.”
