God Save the Republic - A Mike Pence Fan Fiction - Chapter 3

He watched the coffee drip, drip into the carafe. He took the phone into his hands as Karen came around the corner.

"Who are you calling, dear? It's four in the morning."

He'd tried to sleep again after the dream, but it was not to be.

"Jeff."

"Flake?"

"Karen, I'm going to resign as vice president."

"Oh."

A long pause followed. He dialed.

"Err... hello? Who is this?"

"Jeff, it's me. It's Mike. Pence."

"What the-"

"I need to resign."

"You're god-damned right you do. This administration is a powder keg."

"I just... I wanted you to be the first to know."

"To make sure I don't say 'I told you so' too loudly?"

"Something like that."

"You've got my blessing. Or whatever the hell you're calling me at four a.m. to get. I'm going back to sleep."

Click.

The coffee'd finished. He poured a cup for himself.

"Coffee?" he offered.

"I was planning to go back to sleep. But not much chance of that now."

"It'll be alright, honey."

"When did you decide this?"

"Last night. I was planning to write my resignation letter when you came down."

"Do you think this is too sudden?"

"I have this strange feeling that there's another shoe about to drop. And I think I need to get out of the way and let it happen. When I'm standing next to him, people feel like things might end up normal somehow, but what he's doing, what he's probably done to get here... it's not. It's not normal. And it's not going to be. The man's out of his depth."

Another long pause followed. He poured her a cup of coffee. Added one spoon of sugar and a healthy heap of milk.

"I love you, Karen."

"You're doing the right thing, Mike."

Finally, he sat next to her. He sipped his coffee. She sipped hers. And he was at peace with his decision.

An hour later, he arrived at the White House, well ahead of most of the staff, aside from a few ambitious interns and a few senior staff who probably hadn't been home. He wanted to give Reince Priebus a heads-up, and then he could sit down and write out his formal letter of resignation. As he stopped by Reince's desk to let the secretary know he was in, he felt a hand on his shoulder. Startled, he turned, and there behind him stood Reince.

"Mike. Step into my office."

"Reince. Good morning. I didn't-"

"Now."

Reince pulled him ahead, closing the door behind him.

Thrown off, Mike began to stammer. "Did Jeff call you?"

"Jeff who? Sessions?"

"Flake."

"Why the hell would... no."

Sirens sounded. They were close. Leaving from the residence? Mike thought of his dream. He felt like he was falling.

"Mike. The president is dead."

"What? How?"

"He'd... I don't know. I don't know. I went to check on him. He's normally up early, looking for me. So when he didn't, I... there was a syringe."

"No."

"I don't... I don't know what it was. Something... maybe something to help him sleep. I don't know."

But Mike knew. He heard the voice in his head: "This is propofol. It will make you sleep. And then it will make you die."

Read the rest of the series here: Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 4

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