Fanfic: Tentative Duet
Tentative Duet

Jane Harper

RATING: PG
SYNOPSIS: The pas de deux begins .. and it's tough to pirouette when you're on wheels.
ARCHIVE: Anywhere. HTML version available on request.
DISCLAIMER: All the characters here except Sarah belong to Evil Genius A. Ron Sorkin and his corporate partners. Sarah paid me off to get her a date, but otherwise no cash or other negotiable instruments changed hands, and I only do this 'cuz I love TWW, so don't sue me, OK?

The celebration of Jeff Breckenridge's confirmation by the Senate was in full swing by the time Sarah got there. Staffers had spread out through most of the West Wing in small groups of three or four and were sharing the joy of the Administration's latest "Day of Jubilee." Josh and Donna were the center of attention, however, since it had been their job to spearhead the effort to secure approval for the President's nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. She started over to congratulate them but was waylaid by someone bumping into her chair.

"Whoops, sorry, Sarah," Toby Ziegler said from above and behind her. As she turned to say hello, a canapé landed in her lap.

"Thanks Toby; no, I haven't had dinner." She looked up and winked.

As he sauntered away, Toby called back at her, "Sam's looking for you!"

Sarah made her way over to Josh and Donna and hugged them both. "Congratulations!" she said.

Josh nodded and pointed to Donna; "She's the one who deserves all the credit, she bird-dogged it while I was .. uh .. indisposed."

"Josh!" Donna slapped his arm playfully. "That's not true and you know it! Most of the work was done … beforehand."

"Well you both deserve a round of applause!" Sarah insisted.

"Another round .. that sounds good," Josh echoed, getting up from the sofa. "Donna?"

"No thanks," she responded.

"Sarah?"

"Just a diet soda, if you would please Josh?"

"Sure." He wandered off in search of the bar, then stopped and turned around. "Hey Sarah, I forgot .. Sam's looking for you!"

"That's the second person who's told me that," she responded to nobody in particular. "I wonder what's up?"

"Why don't you ask me?"

Sarah turned to see Sam Seaborn standing at her shoulder. "Good idea! What can I do for you, my friend?"

"No, it's what I can do for you," he retorted. "'Scuse us, please, Donna?"

The lithe blonde nodded as Sam steered Sarah toward a quiet corner.

Once they were apart from the others, Sam sat on the arm of an overstuffed chair and leaned down toward Sarah, whispering conspiratorially. "This is going to come as a shock to you, probably." He began.

"You're pregnant?" Sarah guessed, laughing.

"That would come as a shock to everybody, most of all me!"

"OK, what?"

"My boss wants to ask you out."

Toby wants to date me? Sarah was shocked. That might not be too hard to take, I guess; at least he's a nice Jewish boy …

Outwardly she showed no response. "OK."

"OK he wants to ask you or OK you'd go out with him?"

"How did you find this out, Sam?" Sarah started to get suspicious.

"Mallory told me."

"Oh." I didn't know Mallory and Toby were friends… she thought. "Small world, eh?"

"You could say that. Anyway, I didn't want you to be surprised when he brought up the subject. He's … well, it's been a long time between dates for him, so he's real nervous."

"Sam, are you being catty? I can't imagine him nervous about anything."

Seaborn laughed. "Well, when you get to a certain age…"

"Shaddup about me being old, kiddo!" Sarah retorted. "I'll hit you with my cane!"

"Anyway," Sam continued, "we now return you to your regularly scheduled party."

"Josh went off to get me a soda," Sarah noted. "Any idea where he went?"

"I'll see if I can find him, and if I can't, I'll find you a cold … Gewürztraminer?" Sam laughed, remembering their first meal together.

"Nah, I'm on the wagon these days. Just a soda is fine." She and Sam took off in opposite directions.

Wait a minute, she thought, coming to a sudden stop. Toby says Sam is looking for me. Sam tells me Toby wants to ask me out. What the hell is going on here?? She emerged from her reverie to see Josh standing over her with a highball glass full of soda and ice. "Thanks Josh. Before you go back to Donna, can I ask you something?"

"I'm all yours," he said, smiling widely and leaning up against the archway where Sarah was sitting.

"Do you know anything about Toby wanting to ask me for a date?"

Josh choked on a mouthful of his drink.

"I'll take that as a 'no'," Sarah said.

"Is that what Sam wanted to see you about?"

"Uh huh."

"Oboy." Josh rolled his eyes. He stood and silently wandered off.

Sarah saw the First Lady come in and waved at her boss. As Abbey was making her way across to congratulate Josh and Donna, their paths crossed long enough for her to whisper in Sarah's ear: "Did he ask you yet?"

Sarah let out a long sigh of feigned exasperation. "Why am I the last one who gets to find out that Toby wants a date? No, ma'am, he hasn't."

A flash of confusion passed across Abbey's face, followed by a smile and a shrug, and she continued toward where Josh and Donna were holding court. She, Josh, Donna, and Leo chatted briefly before they went off in separate directions.

To Sarah's surprise, in one corner of this part of the Mansion stood a gorgeous Steinway baby grand piano. She pushed the piano bench to one side and opened the keyboard, beginning to play a Bach prelude, softly. She was lost in the intricacy of the music until she heard someone clearing his throat. The sound was coming from The White House Communications Director, who had plunked himself down onto the bench.

"I had no idea you could play," Toby began. "Don't stop on my account."

"I don't have too much chance to practice. All I've got in my apartment is one of those awful electronic things that only has three and a half octaves." She found a key that was slightly off-tune, and flinched visibly.

"Even the most gorgeous instrument requires a tuneup occasionally," Toby observed.

Sarah made no response, returning to the Bach. She wanted to give him an opening big enough to stumble through . . .

. . . but he sat there quietly, eyes closed, swaying slightly, listening intently.

"Toby, you OK?" she finally asked.

"Yeah, why?"

"Somebody said there was something you wanted to talk to me about . . ."

"I don't think so . . . if there was, it couldn't have been very important. But play on, please!" He returned to examining the backs of his eyelids and floating in Baroque heaven.

Just as Sarah got to the end of the prelude, a voice called out across the room.

"Toby!"

Ziegler opened his eyes as a rain cloud crossed his face. "Who's interrupting Bach???"

Josh and Sam beckoned to Toby enthusiastically. "You've gotta see this!"

He rose slowly and started across the room. Midway, Leo stopped him briefly and murmured something.

"Leo," Toby replied coldly, "that is none of your damn business." He continued toward where his youthful and enthusiastic colleagues beckoned.

McGarry's eyebrows furrowed together, and he shook his head. Before moving further, he buttoned his suit-coat and straightened his cuffs. Sarah had started to play again, this time something much newer than J. S. Bach. Leo stared off into space briefly as if to try to place the tune.

Sarah looked up, and smiled, and began to sing softly with the piano.

"The last time I saw Richard was in Detroit in '68, and he said/ All romantics have the same fate, someday/ Cynical and drunk, and boring someone in some dark café .."

"Toby gets Bach, and I get Joni Mitchell?" Leo asked, unbuttoning his jacket again and sitting down on the bench Toby had just abandoned.

Sarah stopped playing, and answered with an acappella: "But we were so much older then, we're younger than that now."

His head cocked slightly to one side and one eyebrow went up. "Are you drinking?"

"No, you've managed to convince me that I don't need to tempt fate," she responded. "It is too easy to switch addictions, especially once your drug of choice is illegal."

"You never mentioned; what was it?" Leo asked, leaning in so that they could speak privately in the crowded rooms.

"Quaalude. I was the 714 queen. I had a shrink when I was 18 who decided there was nothing wrong with me that a scrip for 100 soapers wouldn't cure." She laughed softly. "I was the most popular kid in the dorms that year!"

"And that was what, ten years ago?" McGarry smiled impishly.

"I knew it, you have kissed the Blarney stone!"

"Actually I have," Leo responded. "Comes in handy for a politician."

"I suspect so." Sarah started playing again. "My old man/ he's a singer in the park/ he's a walker in the rain/ he's a dancer in the dark . . ."

"I'd like to meet him sometime," Leo said.

"Who?" Then, understanding, Sarah stopped playing. "There isn't one. Not now, at any rate."

"I won't say I'm sorry to hear that," he responded. "Have you eaten?"

"No, why?" Sarah remembered something Sam had said: Mallory had mentioned that Seaborn's boss wanted to take her out. She began to smile as she put two and two together.

"Well," Leo started, "I was . . . I thought . . . there's a new kosher deli . . ." He stopped, laughing at himself. "You in the mood for a pastrami on rye?"

"With mustard?" Sarah closed the keyboard and turned toward the door.

"What the hell, you only live once." He guided her chair through the room and into the hallway.

As they passed the First Lady, Abbey kissed Leo on the cheek and muttered something at him. As they reached the elevator, he shook his head, smiling.

"What was that?" Sarah asked.

"She said I should have you home by midnight. You have a busy day tomorrow."

They stepped into the elevator, laughing.