Disclaimer: The Bartlet family, The West Wing, and all other characters are the property of Aaron Sorkin and various television companies. No copyright infringement is intended.
In the Shadow of Greatness
There's one in every family. An outsider. A misfit. An anomaly. That one person who doesn't quite belong.
It's the lone redhead, the poet in a family of math geniuses, the introvert surrounded by sparkling personalities. It's the swimmer whose brothers are all on the honor roll, the middle sibling who is thoroughly average.
In the Bartlet family, it's Ellie.
Ellie, who neither seeks nor welcomes the attention she attracts as the daughter of the most powerful man in the world. Ellie, who makes the short trip from Johns Hopkins to the White House as rarely as possible, who would do anything to avoid being alone in a room with her colossus of a father.
It's not that she isn't proud of her father, of the power he holds and the work that he's done. She's heard the rhetoric before. She knows how much President Bartlet has done for the country, not to mention the Democratic Party.
She respects him for his judgment, his charisma, his ability to sway the crowds. She's in awe of his talent for leadership and his genuine empathy for the people whose lives he touches on a daily basis. He holds his own in rooms full of powerful monarchs and heads of state, influential diplomats and military giants. Every day, he goes head to head with these people, standing firm in situations where Ellie would prefer to shrink in a corner and hide in the shadows.
And Ellie certainly isn't afraid of her father. Of course not. Not at all. Well, not exactly. She knows he loves her, even though she can never completely shake the feeling that she doesn't quite measure up to the rest of the Bartlet clan. But she sees the love. She sees it in his fierce protectiveness, and underneath the awkwardness that stands between them whenever they are forced together. Her father loves her, she knows, but he doesn't understand her.
Ellie isn't like his other daughters, and she's not like Abby, and she's certainly not like him. When Josiah Bartlet enters a room, the world stands up and takes notice. Whether or not they support this president, people can't help but be affected by him. Ellie is as different as it is possible to be. She's spent her whole life avoiding the spotlight that accompanies her father wherever he ventures. Jed Bartlet, however the next years unfold, will grace history books. Ellie craves nothing so much as anonymity.
Her mother thrives in her position. Far from being overshadowed by her husband, Abby Bartlet draws strength from him and uses her fame to further the causes in which she believes. And in return, she provides stability and reassurance in the President's darkest moments, reminding him that he doesn't always have to be the unflappable head of state the public sees.
Elizabeth, too, possesses the strength of personality of her parents. Liz could go into politics herself, Ellie knows. Even without the weight of her maiden name, Elizabeth Bartlet Weston would have very little trouble gathering support. She has her mother's gift of making everyone in a room feel that each comment, each glowing smile, is directed at them alone.
But Liz's devotion is first and foremost to her family. She'll support her husband in his ambitions, but only because he's her husband and, despite his many flaws, she does love him. For her own part, Liz is content to stay out of the world that has been so important to her parents. She wants Annie to have a normal childhood, free from the press with their constant intrusions and breaches of what little privacy the First Family has left, free from the cutthroat world of politics that casts shadows where it shouldn't, onto the personal lives of the Bartlets.
For all her resentment, though, Liz copes well with the pressures of being a Bartlet. She has a husband and children and a career of her own. She embodies her mother's strength, sure of herself in situations that make Ellie's breath hitch just thinking about them. She can go nose to nose with the President of the United States, because she, unlike Ellie, has little trouble remembering that before he was Commander-in-Chief, this man was her father.
Zoey, on the other hand, is in her element. As the President's youngest daughter, she has been closer to the goings-on of the West Wing than either of her sisters. Of all the Bartlet children, Zoey is most like her father. Vibrant and confident, Zoey revels in the attention her father's position brings her, even as she complains about being stifled by the Secret Service.
But then, Zoey has always been her father's daughter. No question about it. Zoey, like the President, embodies great passion. Her personality is one of extremes – overwhelming love and crippling sadness and fiery, uncontrolled rage. Zoey is involved in her father's world, and she wouldn't have it any other way. Her father's title doesn't intimidate her, the way it does Ellie. Rather than being made uncomfortable by the fanfare that accompanies her family, Zoey finds it exciting.
And then there's Ellie.
Ellie isn't afraid of her father. Of course she isn't. Or rather, she isn't afraid of the man that is her dad. She isn't afraid of the economics professor from New Hampshire. She was never afraid of the wise, unshakable pillar of strength that had been her daddy. The all-powerful, all-knowing divine being who could heal gaping wounds with a kiss, shed light on even the most devastating situations with only a hug, and fend off the terrors of the night with his mere presence.
Ellie knows, on an intellectual level, that that man and the President are still one and the same, but that doesn't make her any less uncomfortable in her interactions with him.
That's the real problem, Ellie knows. Unlike her mother and sisters, Ellie cannot separate the man from the office. When she walks into the Oval Office, specifically designed to intimidate visitors, Ellie Bartlet doesn't see her father. She sees the President. The Commander-in-Chief. Arguably the most powerful man in the world. And Ellie has to admit that she might be just a little bit afraid of President Bartlet.
She avoids visiting her father because she hates how awkward, how uncomfortable, how nervous she feels in his presence these days. She longs for a time when she could be in a room with her father without the magnitude of his position looming between them.
Ellie Bartlet is not like the rest of her family. She hates the attention. She dreads the social situations into which she is invariably thrust. She cowers in the Oval Office, shrinks before a man she can no longer equate with the father she once knew.
Ellie doesn't blame her father for the way she feels. Far from it. She hopes he never realizes just how uncomfortable he makes her. Ellie would never publicly voice an opinion that might be construed as anything less than fully supportive of the President. But late at night, to herself, Ellie is able to admit the shameful truth: she doesn't want the President to win come November. She would rather have her father back.
Ellie Bartlet loves her father. She's proud of him. Really, she is. She thinks he's made a fantastic President. Ellie Bartlet loves her father more than she could ever express.
She just isn't going to vote for him.
A/N: Any feedback is more than welcome!