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make-a-little-mischief · 3 years

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PART ONE

Flashback to July 2021: Mary watches The Nutty Professor for the first time - the catalyst for her ongoing love affair with Jerry Lewis.

Flashforward to now: Mary has sufficiently re-watched, analyzed, and absorbed The Nutty Professor and now has an irrepressible need to talk about how great it is, and with that, she says in her best Rafiki voice, "IT IS TIME....”

So let’s take a wild, wonderful venture into the kooky, colorful, complex world that Jerry Lewis created and put on screen back in 1963. Let me be your tour guide as we forage the frames, scour the scenes, and traverse the triumph of comedic cinema that is The Nutty Professor. There are so many treasures, both big and small, and the landscape is simply starry with the kind of rare brilliance that only Jerry Lewis can impart.

As with the majority of Jerry’s movies, despite some preconceived notions and expectations, this will be far more than just a superficial exploration of a silly sixties comedy. It will be a genuine, in depth tribute to one of the defining movies of the past, present, and dare I say incalculable future. While I would not be considered ranking among the likes of the Eberts and the Roepers - hi, Mary - not a professional movie critic, how do you do - I feel that I can offer an engaging and insightful perspective - and will do so with a bit more appreciation and a lot more kindness.

This journey I want to take you on over the upcoming series of posts is meant to be informative and thought-provoking - full of “ooh”s “aah”s and “mmhmm”s - and we will definitely also have some fun along the way. I love this movie and I want to celebrate it all - from the technical to the artistic to the “I really love that” moments. My aim is to cover every interesting element, every pertinent particle that makes up the very CELLuloide of the movie. I am charged up and ready to get a (hopefully positive) reaction. So without further ado let’s light the fires, get the liquids flowing, set the test tubes spinning, and fill our beakers up to the brim with a hearty serving of Jerry Lewis’ The Nutty Professor - it’s gonna be a real gas.

I say, that was sort of a corker.

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***Mary would also like to take a moment to recognize her sister Lauren for introducing her to Jerry and to The Nutty Professor, and her dear mum Lisa for holding the record (at least in our house) for "most repeated viewings of The Nutty Professor to the point that she probably can tell you how many times Dr. Warfield's face twitches in the first scene with Professor Kelp" - both of whom contributed some marvelous ideas and observations for this series. Brava to you both.

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Now-

*dramatic music plays*

IN THE BEGINNING….

*dramatic music intensifies*

DUM DUM DUUUUUMMMM………………….

*crescendo and silence*

There are opening credits, so let’s talk about them.

Starting with the title of the movie because it’s simple, it’s genius, it’s perfect.

And it’s also a “hidden in plain sight” easter egg.

The word “nutty” carries two meanings here -

Zany, bonkers, goofy, a little “out there”, maybe a little overexcitable, basically everything describing Professor Julius Kelp as a character; it’s his energy

The 60’s slang for cool, hip, awesome, a word “one of the in-crowd” might say, someone like Buddy Love; it’s also his energy

Gasp! The call is coming from inside the house! Or in this case, the twist of the movie is covertly implanted into the title! Jerry, you smart cookie, I see what you did there. I love it so much that I even used it as inspiration for the title of this series of posts - “Crazy Chemistry”. “Crazy”, as in: “outrageous”, “wild”, “impressive”, or the ‘60’s slang for “cool”; then of course “chemistry” pointing to the appeal and charm of the movie and how effectively all of its components work together, or you know, “chemistry” as in, chemistry, the thing Professor Kelp does and teaches.

Ok now that I’ve thoroughly explained the joke, let’s move on and get into the opening title sequence.

There are a few things happening throughout that serve the purpose of setting up character and plot. Jerry provides the viewer with some simple but effective visual storytelling aids that plant important seeds for entering the world of the movie. One is a repeated focus on the character Stella who eagerly watches Professor Kelp perform experiments for the class.

We don’t know who she is yet but from the shots of her that single her out from the other students it is hinted to the viewer that she is someone of importance. We also get a sense of her as a character - she seems invested in learning, she is fascinated by Professor Kelp and what he is doing, and she is very attentive to him. The shots of Stella imply that there is either presently or that there is the potential for a connection between her and Professor Kelp. Stella is immediately framed as not only someone of importance in general but also as my mum suggested, “it hints that it’s ‘about her’ in the sense that this is a love story and she is central to that playing out”. All of this is inferred in just a few short clips with nothing but facial expressions and simple blocking.

Speaking of Professor Kelp, we also learn a bit about our main character during the title sequence. First, he’s a little bit clumsy.

Second, he is very knowledgeable about chemistry and he’s a bit of a performer for his students.

He is also hidden from sight of the audience in every shot; we don’t see all of Professor Kelp until about three and a half minutes into the movie. There’s an air of mystery and anticipation around the character - What does he look like? What are we going to see when his face is revealed?

Little do we the audience realize that this is all foreshadowing the Jekyll and Hyde twist later on in the movie. There are certain specific crossover traits in both characters that we first see in Professor Kelp. Additionally, as pointed out by my sister Lauren: “the same technique of shrouding a character in mystery, hiding them from view of the audience, building anticipation, and then finally revealing them is used later on with Buddy Love”. When you rewatch the movie you see all of the ways in which Jerry sets up the twist and the character of Buddy, starting from the opening credits. More on that in a later post…

Continued in part two

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truthisgoldenau · 5 years

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Character Bio: Pierce Graves

Born: January 1st, 1963

Race: Caucasian

Sexual Orientation: Pansexual

Tattoos: Full sleeve on his right arm, a mix of circuitry and gears and machine pieces. Matching set on his left leg.

Height: 6'0"

Personality: Can play at being nice when he wants, or if he genuinely is okay with the person he's talking to. Mostly an asshole, doesn't really give a shit about people.

The Graves lineage has been in Spring Valley for only a few generations, known as the family with icy eyes and chilled personalities. Henry Graves managed to escape that, gaining the ice blue eyes but not the abrasive personality his father was known for.

Pierce wasn't so lucky.

Born the very first day of 1963 to Henry and Jamie Graves, Pierce was quiet from the beginning. Jamie constantly worried something was wrong with him- grandfather Mortimer always assured her in his blunt way "He's fine it's a family thing".

He was also curious at a young age, constantly wandering off once he was old enough to walk and causing both his parents endless amounts of worry. He'd sit still when watching his grandfather fix things without an issue, and that gave Henry an idea.

When Pierce was about 4, Henry brought home a toy robot for him. Jamie was worried that the toy was beyond his age range and that he'd get hurt, but Henry assured her he'd be fine. It'd give him something to do that would maybe keep him occupied.

And it did- after awhile they had to keep putting the tools in the home out of reach so that Pierce wouldn't try to take the damn thing apart. He'd always stubbornly tell them he just wanted to know how it worked, and they'd respond "When you're a little older". That only held out for a year until even Mortimer told them to let the "damn kid" have the tools, "he's driving me nuts by asking me when he's over here".

By the time Pierce started kindergarten, he already knew how to read and write and take apart not only the toy robot but the small radio he had in his room. Kindergarten bored him; he wanted to be at home figuring out how things worked. He never really made friends, but he was fine without them.

At age 6 he discovered he had an unusual ability while fixing his toy robot, one that startled him but meant for a moment he seemed connected to the machine. He didn't know how to explain it and when his mom came running to the sound of him yelling in pain, he didn't tell her that anything had happened.

At age 9 he almost caused the same connection between his mom and a stove when he was startled while trying to steal cookies. Though he'd been practicing the ability, he hadn't known until then that he could use it on other people.

A better person would have not only kept it to themselves, but would have never used the power on anyone maliciously. A better person would have decided it was better to learn how not to use it as a reflex in bad situations.

Pierce Graves was not the better person.

He was a trouble maker, learning how to fight at a young age when the older kids in the neighborhood used to call him slow because he'd just quietly observe things. He got beat up a few times, to the point Jamie and Henry started to really worry for him. But he learned from these fights and one day after Pierce came home with a smug grin and only a few scratches, the parents of the boys showed up to complain about how badly their kids had been hurt. Pierce shrugged it off to say they deserved it.

The knowledge that he could connect other people to machines if he focused hard enough? It became his new secret weapon.

He could usually get away with using that power on someone for a few seconds to gain the upper hand- the connection wasn't without pain and it caused a distraction that could give him an opening. The other kids at school started whispering that he was some kind of evil creature. Pierce didn't care.

When Pierce was 11, his grandfather died of a sudden heart attack. It was the first time Pierce lost anyone, since the Graves family and Jamie's family weren't very large families to begin with and Jamie's parents were already gone to begin with. It was a bit of an emotional blow to Pierce- he'd expected his grandfather to always be around.

Pierce got into more fights in middle school, this time purposely trying to get bigger, tougher kids to throw hands with him. He got his ass kicked a lot, but eventually got exactly what he wanted. A test run to see how many individuals he could use his power on at once. It was 3 at first. Later he'd get more. But it was a good start.

By high school he was known for being incredibly smart, good with machines, and being a huge ass to everyone. He somehow beat up the leader of the school's "biker gang" which was really just a bunch of seniors with hand me down motorcycles who thought they were cool. This earned him a few friends, particularly when he figured out how to do some quick fixes for their bikes (which they usually paid him for).

He also got money for fixing things around the neighborhood he lived in. Word was if a machine was broken, Pierce could either fix it, stare at it long enough to figure out what was wrong with it and then fix it, or at least rig it in a way that it could then be taken to someone who actually could fix it.

At the age of 16 with all the money he'd saved, he decided he wanted tattoos. His "biker" buddies had graduated but he still wanted to look tough, and why not, it was his money, he could do what he wanted with it. His dad had told him he'd pay the other half of a used car if Pierce found one he wanted but Pierce didn't care if he had to ride the bus till he either graduated or dropped out. So he designed his own tattoo made of circuits and gears and other miscellaneous machine pieces, went to a somewhat seedy tattoo place in the main area of Spring Valley, lied about his age, and got a good portion of his design tattooed. The bus system to get back home to Summerton meant a long round about way where usually the trip would take an hour, and Pierce ended up misjudging exactly when he'd get home.

He got home late, to parents who had no idea he hadn't been at school, and who immediately realized their son had not only skipped school, but had gone into the city to get tattoos they didn't approve of. It nearly broke the family- Jamie was devastated at first, Henry was pissed, and Pierce kept defending it as his right to do what he wanted with his money. At a certain point he just decided he was done and left.

For 3 days.

It nearly drove his parents mad to not know where their son was, but it was a decision by both of them not to send anyone after him. Give him some space. They overreacted and it caused him to overreact.

So when Pierce showed back up they ended up having a civil conversation about it. It wasn't the complete fix that any of them really wanted but it was a temporary truce of sorts.

At least for awhile. Not too long after Pierce turned 17, Henry got a call at the dealership he worked at from jail. From a very sheepish sounding Pierce who had gotten arrested for stealing when he was supposed to be in school.

So Henry had to go bail him out because the last thing either of the two of them wanted was for Jamie to find out.

While Jamie never did find out about the whole thing (the shop owner ended up not pressing charges since everything was accounted for after the arrest), Henry had a talk with Pierce along the lines of "I know you're better than this. Can you please fucking try harder to be better than this. You're driving us crazy. If you can make it to your graduation next year without anymore bullshit, I'll buy you a motorcycle. Is that what you want? A bribe? Does that get through to you?"

Unsurprisingly it did. Pierce spent the next year and his half trying his damnedest to stay out of trouble. And trying to earn money through fixing things again. It was a bit of a welcome relief to his parents, and if Jamie seemed concerned about her son's change in attitude, she didn't voice it.

Pierce barely managed to graduate on time and true to his word Henry gifted him with 1981 Honda CB900F motorcycle in purple.

Pierce gifted them by moving out.

"I found an apartment out closer to town. And a job at that gimmicky mouse place with the robots. They might, MIGHT let me fix them. You guys deserve a break from me."

While neither of his parents wanted to say it to their son's face, it was a bit of a relief although a little bittersweet that so soon they'd be saying goodbye.

They helped him move into his new apartment, and Pierce started working as a dishwasher - at the newly opened Chuck E. Cheese.

(Pierce applied to two places with robots in the Spring Valley area when looking for work. One was Chuck E. Cheese, which had opened a year before. The other was a place called Fredbear's Diner, and he didn't even get an interview for that job.)

For 3 years he worked at Chuck E. Cheese. He only ever got to fix their animatronics once- corporate had their own technicians they sent out to maintain the mechanics, and didn't trust some kid who said he had tech experience. But their technician didn't show up one day and they desperately needed a fix, so the manager remembered that Pierce had mentioned mechanical experience on his resume and asked him to come up with something.

When the corporate technician was able to stop by to fully fix the animatronic, he said the temporary solution was enough to actually hold it over without a problem until it needed more extensive repairs.

In 1984, Pierce's only friend at the Chuck E. Cheese, his manager Janet shoved a newspaper ad in his face.

"That Fredbear's guy is hiring a mechanic. If you don't apply I'm firing your ass so that you have no choice but to apply."

It wouldn't even have taken the threat to make him do it. Though it wasn't talked about much at work because Fredbear's had been a rival business, it was well known in Spring Valley for being a friendly place to visit and work. The owner was apparently some rich guy, and if the rumors were true, he'd only closed Fredbear's when his parents died because they left him a ridiculous amount of money and he was planning to open an even bigger restaurant.

Pierce immediately applied for the job and desperately hoped he would get it this time. Or at least an interview. He didn't even mention to his parents that he was trying to get a job at a place where he could maybe work with animatronics on a regular basis out of fear of jinxing the whole damn thing.

So he nearly died when he actually got a call from Frederick Fazbear offering him an interview.

"Yeah I can make it that day, where at?"

"The new building, it's mostly done and all the animatronics are here so I'd like to show them off."

Of course that would be the day that Pierce barely made it out of work on time, didn't have time to change, and showed up to an interview for Freddy Fazbear's Pizza in a Chuck E. Cheese work uniform.

Frederick Fazbear was a man of good humor though, and seemed unconcerned about the uniform, the tattoos ("are you kidding, why the hell would I judge tattoos, my wife keeps having to talk me out of getting more!") Or even the fact that he couldn't even say he'd ever worked on machines like this before. In fact, he was so laid back that Pierce was concerned that this man had successfully run a business, but he sure as hell seemed exactly like the 'rich guy who just wants to have fun with his money' person that everyone talked about.

Fred showed him the animatronics and told him "there's a few quick fixes some of these need at the moment, they might be new but some have loose joints and such that I'd have to fix anyways so see what you can do, I accidentally schedules another interview overlapping with yours so I'll be back when I'm done with that yeah?" And left him to it.

It wasn't even that difficult to fix everything that needed to be fixed, and he even found a few things he didn't expect Fred had even noticed. By the time Fred came back, Pierce had gotten as much as he could in working order. Fred seemed genuinely surprised, and said he'd call later in the week about the job.

A week never went by so slowly but just when Pierce was beginning to suspect Fred might have found someone who wasn't a 21 year old with no real experience fixing animatronics, he got the call saying he was hired as the mechanic for Freddy's.

In the remainder of 1984, Pierce ended up getting the go ahead to come up with a gimmick for the extra animatronic Fred had accidentally gotten, and the pieces for Foxy the Pirate fell into place, although the suit pieces would have to be commissioned and the programming set up. Not that Pierce didn't figure out how to program the things- he'd taken to reading everything about computer programming he could get his hands on in the last few years and knew enough to work from there.

There was one animatronic that Fred told him would not be in the line up by the time they opened. Spring Bonnie, one of his two originals from the diner, had been damaged heavily during the move because the moving company forgot to tie him down and the springlocks had malfunctioned and destroyed both the suit and the endoskeleton.

"Those springlocks were always finicky and we stopped wearing them as suits because they were too dangerous, I shoulda just had Henry take them out. The plan is to one day get this in working order again, but no rush."

(Henry Emily was the mechanic at Fredbear's, but turned down returning as mechanic for more animatronics to move back to Hurricane, Utah with his wife and kids.)

Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opened in December of 1984 with a huge crowd on opening day.

Foxy was introduced in the middle of 1985.

Pierce was the only mechanic for all the animatronics, keeping up with every problem both mechanical and computer wise, as well as fixing any of the arcade machines in the building when they were on the fritz. It wasn't for lack of trying that he remained the only mechanic either; there was nobody else that Fred checked out that he felt he could take a chance on.

Pierce thoroughly enjoyed what he was doing though even if the extra time he spent on Spring Bonnie meant he often lost track of time and worked till the very late hours of night on it. After an incident where someone tried to break into the place at night only for Pierce to scare the shit out of them, Fred hired a night guard to watch the place. It sure as shit didn't stop Pierce from working late and sleeping in the booths, but word got out that between the night guard, the "spooky" free roaming animatronics, and the mechanic who would definitely fight you, it wasn't worth it to break in.

It was by accident that Fred discovered Pierce had the powers he had. Mainly because Pierce found it easier to find and fix problems if he connected himself to the damn machine in the first place, and that didn't come without certain trade offs. Although the animatronics were certainly the most stable connections he'd found. Fred surprised him one by night by coming back to stay, learned about the power, and ... Shared that he also had the same abilities that he'd never learned how to use. Pierce promised to teach him how to use it because dear God, that was dangerous to not know how to use that power.

Despite the fact that Pierce was friendly with Fred, he never really got on those terms with anyone else. After all, he'd bullied the day guard Jeremy in high school (why pay for comics when you can steal them from the local adopted ginger kid, right?), one of their servers was a sweet little Christian woman who was so concerned about Pierce's salvation that he just straight up tried to ignore her, and the prize counter kid thought he was super punk but Pierce could see through the act. Not to mention they ended up getting in a fight at a poker game between employees and Pierce broke the kid's arm. Somehow nothing ever came of that except everyone just avoided him more.

In August 1987, 3 things happened.

Fred Fazbear and his wife became parents to their twin boys on the 8th.

Pierce came down with the flu between the 7th and the 14th.

And a different health and safety inspector came by than their usual cheerful fellow.

This inspector deemed Foxy the Pirate as a dangerous animatronic, stating that parent complaints called out the seemingly overly sharp teeth and hook as being a risk to children, since the animatronics were free to move among the crowds. Jeremy, in charge of taking her around for the day since both Fred and Pierce were gone and they had no official co-owner, tried to argue that the animatronics had never hurt any kids, that their mechanic had even rigged special motion sensors I them to make sure of this, and that no one had ever called Foxy too dangerous before, but this inspector wasn't having it.

She gave him a document stating that Foxy had to be off the floor by January 1st, 1988 at which time any modifications would have to be filed and inspected before the animatronic could return. She told him to relay the message to Fred that it was because of their safety record they were even being allowed to have the animatronic finish out the year.

Fred stopped by a few days later with his wife and boys in two to show them off, and Jeremy relayed the news then. Pierce still hadn't returned.

Fred told Jeremy he'd relay the news to Pierce; Pierce would only listen to him about this most likely.

As expected, the news didn't go over well. Pierce considered Foxy to be his- Fred always agreed to that. The fact that the Mangle wasn't too dangerous added to the bad mood the news put Pierce in, and Fred didn't want to argue with the man about it. He was tired from his newborn sons and had only come into the building to talk to Pierce.

"I can throw some modifications on him now, then when they come back in January we can skip all the bullshit and get him back out before he even has to stop being around!"

"Pierce, they have to do this a certain way-"

"Fuck that!"

"Goddammit Pierce, for five seconds just shut up! You're not to do anything regarding Foxy besides minor repairs until after the new year, do you understand?"

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I'm done arguing about this. If they say Foxy is a danger, it's a danger. I understand your point that we could get it out of the way, but the last thing I want to worry about it trying to get Foxy fixed. I already pay you too much overtime as it is to fix Spring Bonnie, the last thing I need is you fucking adding to the ungodly amount I pay you by coming up with fixes for Foxy."

"Oh, so first you thank me for pouring every ounce of spare time I can into your goddamn pet project but the moment mine needs to be fixed, suddenly I'm overpaid? Is that it?"

"I didn't mean it like that-"

"Sure you didn't. I've been working my ass off trying to get that fucker back up and running to the point that I never want to see that goddamn thing again but I still spend hours of my life trying to get it in working condition while fixing all your other goddamn animatronics, begging you for some goddamn help and the only guy you get is some spooky motherfucker who we had to fire within a week. And now you decide that I'm paid too much? Now you decide that me throwing in the extra effort isn't worth it? Would it be better if she'd found Freddy dangerous? Or Chica? Maybe we should go throw some springlocks on her, maybe then she'll shut down the whole damn place, AND I CAN FINALLY STOP COSTING YOU MONEY!"

"I've been trying to find help. No one has any experience. You don't realize how hard-"

"I didn't have any experience either, and yet you trusted me. At least, I thought you did. Apparently I was wrong."

And after that, the friendship between Fred and Pierce completely dissolved. Not that Pierce stopped doing his job, but every now and then, animatronics would seem just a little bit off. Or their joints would be a little bit loose. He still worked late but not that late and Sam the night guard told Fred that it no longer seemed like Pierce wanted to be there.

Between juggling his kids and his job, Fred kept figuring it would blow over.

Fred had to interact with him to tell him that Katherine O'Malley, one of their most well known regulars, had asked for the Foxy birthday show for her son Finn. It would be the last birthday show Foxy did, and seeing as it was for a regular, Fred wanted it to be special.

Pierce agreed to set up something special.

The real plan was to just... Mess with Fred a bit. Freak him out. Maybe scare him. Pierce had these interesting abilities to connect people to machines, and well, the animatronics were good anchors. You attach a person to an animatronic, the animatronic will act more human.

It wasn't like it was hard to slowly turn the AI levels down on the Toy animatronics, since they'd also be on stage that day. It wasn't like it was hard to have the Puppet set up more like an animatronic and less like just a jack in the box. It wasn't even hard to set up cues in the birthday show for these other entities to be nearby; it wouldn't even be unusual if he played his cards right.

Sure, Fred kept asking him about why the Toy animatronics seemed like they were less enthusiastic and slower to react. Sure, Damian the prize counter kid kept giving him odd looks when he went over to check his adjustments to the Puppet. Sure this whole idea was petty and might get him fired, but he kind of didn't care.

On November 13th, 1987 the entire plan was in motion. The show started without a hitch, as Pierce expected. And he was all set to finish off the set off when Foxy went through his preprogrammed routine to move closer to Finn.

Except that instead a smooth fluid step forward and kneeling down, the animatronic seemed to catch on something and fall.

In the split second pause before the screaming began, Pierce lost focus enough from the unplanned accident to go ahead with the rest of his plan, and not long after Finn started screaming on stage, it was echoed by more pained screams from the rest of the building, and the Toy animatronics appearing to freak out.

He meant to drop the connections. Foxy had just grievously harmed a child, something he hadn't expected, and his reaction was out of pure shock. He meant to drop the whole petty revenge scheme.

Until he the pain hit him and he realized his arm was very suddenly and surprisingly encased in gold. His leg the same, both leaking red from the gaps where the springlocks tightly locked into his limbs.

He somehow retreated into Parts and Services, trying to figure out what was happening, trying to reason this as not being real, when an equally gold hand came into his field of view.

"Need a hand?"

Spring Bonnie was awake. Spring Bonnie was alive. Spring Bonnie was offering to help him up.

This was real. Fred had retaliated. And he

Had no options.

He took the hand offered and disappeared. ("C'mon Springtrap, we have to leave." "My name is Spring Bonnie!". "You're a springlock death trap, so I'm calling you Springtrap.")

To everyone else, it appeared as if the loose board on stage at the Freddy's was intentionally set up by the mechanic to get back at his animatronic being deemed dangerous. He was the only suspect in their case, although no one was so sure what had been done to the kids beyond Finn. No one understood why an unfunctioning animatronic also disappeared.

And Fred never told a soul that he knew exactly what had happened.

And for the next 18 years, Pierce Graves was considered a missing person by society.

#this one got really long i'm so sorry #the lore #fnaf au

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nerdgurl22 · 8 years

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Election Night 92′ - Part 9

This is a transitional chapter before we ramp it up here folks. There will be a lot of historical dialog in the next few chapters and it will be a lot to take in so I wanted to fluff so to speak before it gets to heavy. I hope you enjoy.

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Tuesday, January 19th, 1993 the day before his Inauguration as the 42nd President of the United States, and Washington, D.C. was a buzz, the anticipation was palpable. The start of a new young administration lead by the 3rd youngest (46) man to to step foot in the Oval office as Commander in Chief, 2nd was John F. Kennedy (43) and 1st was Theodore Roosevelt (42). Kennedy and Jackie's dynasty was known as Camelot and for Bill and Hillary they were known as proud Lions. So many similarities had been drawn to two men, having met each other only briefing when Bill a member of Boys Nation visiting the White House on July 24th, 1963, but for Bill it was one the most amazing points in his life, to shake the head of his idol... the President. Jackie and Hillary drew similarities as well, both young, strong women married to charismatic men with a deep abiding love to do great things for their country. Another comparison that was drawn was they would both be pregnant while First Lady, however Jackie's ended with much sorrow as after only a few weeks their little boy would not survive being born pre-mature. Many young people who would come of age under the two terms of William Jefferson Clinton would say that Bill and Hillary were their generations JFK and Jackie.

Hillary was concerned about that night's festivities, they had a concert to attend and she didn't want to be in the heels she picked out for too long. Her ankles were getting a little larger which is why her Inauguration gown would cover them completely. She wasn't self conscience with how she looked, her belly getting bigger by the day and she was glowing. She just wanted to make sure she was taking good care of herself, this boy though was not making it easy on her. He didn't like her sleeping longer than about 5 and half hours before he would wiggle and jolt her awake, Bill would wake up every time she moved in the slightest. "It's ok honey, he is apparently done sleeping." He would smile at her glowing face and kiss her belly where his son was growing in what seemed like rapidness. He couldn't believe how big she was getting but he loved it, as trite as it sounded coming from a man but she was even more beautiful pregnant, her cheeks were more rosy, her eyes sparkled a little more and there is something to be said for watching the love and light of your life carry your child so gentle, even though her back was beginning to kill her. Her red dress for the concert accentuated her hips and her belly as well and as soon as people saw her enter the area with Bill on her one arm and Chelsea on the other the crowd roared. The woman would be the First Lady tomorrow at noon and here she was glowing and pregnant, and it gave the people more to be excited about with this new administration. Taking their seats with Al and Tipper to their right the amazing concert began, and all the stars wanted to play for the new young democrat lion, Michael Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Barbra Streisand, all his favorite jazz artists and many celebrities showed up to welcome the new couple. When Michael Jackson sang about a young friend of his who died of AIDS, Hillary was so moved she was sobbing, her hormones playing no roll she was genuinely moved. Bill was sitting their so proud and just basking in the whole night but what he didn't tell Hillary was he had a surprise for her.

When Bill won the Democratic Nomination they were then given their secret service code names and as protocol everyone in the family gets a name but the letters all have to be the same. Bill chose the letter E, and they gave him Eagle, Chelsea was Energy because she was so full of it all the time, Hillary's was special and chosen specifically by Bill, Evergreen. It was his favorite Barbra Streisand song because every time he heard it he thought of Hillary. Well when Barbra came on stage she sang a few songs for Bill and then she spoke about how he had wanted her to sing his favorite song when they were at her home for a fund raiser during the General campaign, she didn't sing it that night but promised him she would sing it for his Inauguration. So he called Barbra about two days before to ask her to address it to Hillary and really surprise her. As Barbra told the story on stage Bill took her hand in his and leaned over to kiss her cheek and whisper in her ear, "I love you much my girl." She smiled as she took in his eyes and then turned back to Barbra as she addressed Hillary. "Mrs. Clinton, the President-Elect wanted to dedicate this special song simply for you. He is so proud of you and so in love with you. And I have to say... we are damn proud to have you as our new First Lady as well. This is for you both." With that Barbra throws a kiss toward Hillary. Bill never broke his contact with her right hand and she even placed her other hand on top of theirs because she was so overcome with love and emotion that her husband would do something this amazing for her even though this was all about him.

Upon entering Blair House after the night's fun was done, Hillary slipped off her shoes and was ready to take Chelsea to her bedroom to get her ready for bed. Bill saw her so exhausted put his hands on her shoulders and begin to massage her, without hesitation she leaned back her head on his chest and shut her eyes. "Baby, you sit down and rest your feet, I will get Chelsea ready for bed." All she could do was smile, here is her husband about to become the most powerful man in the world and he must be a ball of nerves but for the past month he has been so sweet, caring and making sure he helps Chelsea at night so she can get more rest. It warmed her heart, it was a little thing he was doing, but she loved the little things about him. How when he would stare deep into her eyes his jaw would always clinch, how when he gets excited or passionate in a speech a vein will pop out of the left side of his neck, how the back of his hands showed his strength and veins, his wrist elegant but manly, the way his glasses would rest on the tip of his nose when he was reading but looked up to see her, or how before she was pregnant his hands around her waist would fit all the way around. It was always the little things, the things that people didn't noticed but she always did. The things that made her fall even more in love with him by the minute. She was a strong, independent woman no doubt but she was different with him in private, sometimes being what some would call subservient in a way. He is the only man who has ever made her knees weak and would be the only person who she would let see her without her shield to protect her. This man, this beautiful man that all those years ago saw her as she is not what he wanted her to be, this beautiful man who wasn't scared of her smarts, wit, and power. In fact just the opposite, that drew him closer. Of course he was attracted to her beauty, her eyes behind those big glasses that he actually really loved, she never let people get as close as he was allowed to get, even on their first date walking through the Art Museum she opened herself up to him in a way that surprised even herself.

He would be the only one that had her heart until their beautiful baby girl was born 5 years after they married. Bill never judged her like many have about her looks, about not taking his name at first, being to aggressive or too intelligent. He loved her because of those things, her fierce independence... not taking his name never bothered him. It bothered his mother of course, but then again almost everything about Hillary annoyed her. He knew why she didn't want to take his name, she wanted to fail or rise on her own merits not on the back of his name, plus what did it matter really? She would come home to him every night and lie beside him in their bed so for him it was never an issue. That all changed after Bill lost his re-election for Governor and then ran again, she decided that it was time and she never wanted to be the reason he failed at anything. Bill tried to explain to her that it wasn't her fault, but he couldn't always protect her from the articles about his 'unconventional wife'. She had developed a pretty thick skin over the years at least on the surface when people were watching but what no one would ever see was how it would affect her in the soundless darkness alone with her thoughts. When all the hurtful words would hit her right in the heart not so much about her looks, people have their own tastes she would tell herself. No, it was the stories during the campaign about their marriage being what one paper called 'A Marriage of Convenience that she was only with Bill to further her own ambitions. She had left a campaign party early to head back to their hotel room, she didn't tell Bill, the article in her purse and she went into the bathroom shut the door and reread the articles headline and the article over and over again. She turned the light off and she curled into a ball leaning against the wall crying uncontrollably, and the cold bathroom tile providing her some strange comfort. Bill when he realized she was gone was a nervous wreck, he finally found out she went back to the hotel and went to her right away. When he stepped into the room only one light was on but he didn't see her at all, his heartbeat was thumping in his ears from running down the hallway and then it broke the sound in his ears. That faint sobbing he had heard before, when she lost their baby, when she overheard his mother one night tell him he made a huge mistake in marrying her... his heart sank in his chest. He slowly opened the bathroom door the hallway light illuminated her on the floor and he rushed to her.

She never questioned his love for her and he never questioned her love for him. They knew their truth and that would get them through anything that would be thrown at them. From the moment he almost reached out to touch her shoulder that one day leaving class and he pulled back stopping himself because he knew once he started with her he wasn't going to be able to stop. From the moment she put that book down and walked the entire length of the law library while he stared at her hips, shoulders, lips and the way her hair bounced as she walked with confidence towards him. From the moment she finally said 'Yes' to his 3rd marriage proposal and a week later she was finally his wife. From the moment he took her away to Bermuda to get her worrying mind to relax after they still hadn't gotten pregnant and then 6 weeks after they got home they were given the news that it had finally happened. From the moment she helped him come out of his funk after losing his re-election campaign for Governor and sprung into action changing who she was to help him. No matter what she was his rock, his driving force, his biggest cheerleader and he couldn't get the articles to stop. No matter how hard he tried. In those moments he couldn't protect her when the words would rip through her soul.

Bill comes back downstairs to get her and take her to bed, tomorrow is going to be a extremely long day. Church, Inauguration, Congressional lunch, Parade and then the 11 balls... he had already agreed to the 11 balls before he knew she was pregnant so he wanted to make sure she was well rested. A gentle hand lands on her shoulder and rubs it, "Sweetheart." A soft southern draw washes over her, and she tilts her back and peeks open on eye to see him standing there looking so handsome. "Hmmm." Bill just smiles down at her, "Let me get you in bed my love, we have a busy day tomorrow and you are going to need all the rest you can get." he comes around the couch and lifts her up and guides her up the stairs and into the bedroom, he helps her get undressed and slips her into her nightgown that now accounts for her growing stomach. He slowly lowers her into bed and kisses her forehead then moves his way to her belly kisses it and whispers to his growing son, "Listen son, do your dad a favor. Let your mamma rest tonight, she is really going to need all her strength for tomorrow. I love you both. Goodnight my boy." He looks up at Hillary and with a smile on her face she is fast asleep, he pulls the covers over her and gets his tux off and hangs up her dress. He then looks at her asleep and heads into the washroom to wash his face and brush his teeth, he looks at himself in the mirror and takes a deep breath. "Are you ready Bill?"

Laying the towel on the sink he comes out of the washroom and climbs in bed next to Hillary, he laid on his side for a few minutes watching her sleep so tranquil and then he drifted off. In less that 9 hours he will become the most powerful man in the world.

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Thank you all for continuing to read this story. I will post Part 10 a bit later.

#billary fanfiction #billary #billary clinton #hillary clinton #bill clinton #hrc2020 #imwithher #imstillwithher #love trumps hate #evergreen #teambillary #teamhillary

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