His Driving Was Erratic

Disclaimer: The characters of West Wing do not belong to me in any way shape or form

Spoilers for Celestial Navigation

A/N: So, everyone, remember how in Celestial Navigation, Bartlet's Supreme Court nominee Roberto Mendoza gets arrested for drunk driving? Well, this is told from the POV of the watch officer who arrested him. The town Mendoza was arrested in was Wesley, Connecticut. I'm from the Midwest and know nothing about Connecticut, so please forgive any regional mistakes I make.

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I've lived in Wesley my entire life. When you live in a small town, you get to know the people. You know everything about them. You know who their parents are and where they live and where they went to school and who their friends were growing up. You know who the kids are and what their grades are and where they all live.

You know what cars they all drive.

And because you know what cars they all drive, you know when a car enters town that doesn't belong there. And of course because you know all the people in the town, you want to keep them safe. After all, if you don't keep them safe, everyone's going to know who to blame.

Me.

So then I have to listen to Old Lady Moore complain to me about how she has to hire someone to repair her fence and how the hooligans she hired aren't that much better than the hooligans who broke it in the first place. And those weren't Wesley hooligans who broke her fence. They came from some other town where they don't educate people like we do in Wesley and so why didn't I keep the outsiders from coming in and messing up our nice little town?

So next time I see a car that I don't recognize coming thru town I follow it closely to make sure it's not more hooligans. But the fellow's driving is erratic. I don't care what that White House Suit says, that man's driving was erratic.

So I pull him over. I pull him over because his driving is erratic. I'm not a racist. I don't even realize he's one of those fellows until I come up to his car window. Then he refuses the breathalyzer. What am I supposed to do? Let him continue endangering Wesley? No, I have to arrest him.

It's a Friday. Judge Reeves always goes fishing with his boy on the weekends. So, there's no way we can post bail for the fellow until Monday. It's safer if he's in a cell. For everyone. Because he could hurt someone.

Because his driving is erratic.

But then the Suits come. And I can tell right away they're politicians. Come in on a Friday night in full suits with an air that just suggests that they know they're more important than us.

Well it's my police station. I can't give them the upper hand. What kind of authority would that make me?

But then my officer sees Mr. Bearded Suit's picture on the front page of the paper. So now I have to treat him with the "respect that his position constitutes"

At least, that's what the Governor told me. They had the Governor call me to tell me to cooperate with the Suits. The President's Suits.

Then Mr. Bearded Suit goes back to talk with the prisoner…the judge. And I'm left with Mr. Four-Eyes Suit. I try to explain my side to him. He dismisses me with some explanation about why the priso– judge couldn't possibly have been drinking. Well how was I supposed to know that? His driving was erratic. And he refused the breathalyzer. It was a logical conclusion.

Then Mr. Bearded Suit comes out and makes me apologize. Make me apologize in front of one of my men like I'm some misbehaving kid. And then he tells me. I have to get in my squad car and apologize to the judge's son.

Like it's my fault his driving was erratic.

The End

I'm not sure how much I like this. It's a little different from my other fics and I feel like it's almost a little too removed from the WW universe. Anyway, please review and tell me what you think.