The Early Hours
A/N: This is something I came up with when I couldn't sleep. I think I may add to this in the near future as I think it's the seed for a good story. This is all from Matt Santos' point of view (in case it isn't clear).
Let's just say, the beds in the White House are stronger than those we used on the campaign. Helen is already fast asleep. As for me, I'm still wide awake. It's raining. Raindrops clatter as they strike the large windows in the bedroom. The time is a few minutes past two in the morning a week and a half after my first inauguration. I decide to go down to the Oval, I left something I want to re-read. So I quietly grab a t-shirt, jeans, a dressing gown and a pair of slippers. I go into my dressing room (believe it or not that's a perk of the Presidency, you have a dressing room), change and head downstairs.
It's all a bit overwhelming. Two years ago I was quitting politics. Retiring to Houston and setting up a chain of affordable health clinics. Then Josh turned up. He convinced me to run for President. We were all set to be finished on Super Tuesday. I was the dark horse. The underdog. Somehow we were hanging on with our teeth by the time of the convention. I was told, no ordered b Jed Bartlet to stand aside. To put my backing behind Russell or Hoynes or Baker who had just put himself forward as a candidate from the floor.
Then Will Bailey had the condition of Baker's wife leaked to the press. It was a dirty tactic, designed to get him to withdraw his candidacy. We had the chance to leak it. We didn't, although Josh was eager to. We didn't because I said so. I told delegates to vote with their conscience. I think whatever I said had an effect on the audience because at the end of the night I had 2162 votes and the Democratic nomination.
Josh convinced Leo McGarry to be the bottom half of the ticket. We were trailing Vinick until the San Andreo accident. In the end in November it came down to 30,000 votes in Nevada and so we won the Electoral College with 272 votes. But we lost Leo. He had a fatal heart attack on Election Night.
The funeral was a week after the Election. I didn't decide on a new Vice-President until this January. Christmas came and Helen, Peter, Miranda and I went home to Houston for the holidays with the majority of the thousands of posts in the administration already filled. We returned from Houston in the New Year. Helen was getting the family ready to move into the White House but for transition we stayed in Blair House. Helen was often telling me late at night after the kids had gone to bed about her doubts about if this was really going to work. Me being President and a father of young kids. She also told me about all the fuss that was going to be made over her and the children living in the White House. I think despite my reassurances, she still has doubt but she's got a great chief of staff in Donna Moss.
Donna is a miracle. She's helping Helen and she seems to be Josh's tonic. During the campaign I did notice when Josh met with Russell's "chicken fighter" that he seemed to change slightly. It broke him slightly when he had to refuse her a place on the campaign after we had the nomination. Leo knew and had her quietly placed on the mid-west arm of the campaign for a few weeks. Then Lou Thornton hired her as spokeswoman for Santos for America. After his initial concerns, Josh got over it, after the election I'm sure they were seeing each other.
Josh went out to California to hire his long-time friend, Sam Seaborne as his deputy CoS. Sam worked at the White House until just after Bartlet started his second term. He left to try and get elected to congress in Orange County. He lost and had gone back into the private sector as an attorney. He was still at his firm until Josh persuaded him to return to Washington. Sam accepted on one condition, Josh had to take a vacation. Josh took Donna with him for a week to Hawaii and I was stuck with a guy I had never met staffing me for a week.
So we've had the Inauguration, the Inaugural Balls seem long gone and we're only in the first week of my first term. Helen looked stunning on the dance floor during the Balls in a pale blue silk gown. I even managed to get Peter in a tuxedo and he looked kind of cute. One thing the Bartlet Administration did leave us was Kazakhstan.
We've had no movement from either Russia or China since the last days of the Bartlet Presidency, but negotiations are planned for Geneva in March. In the meantime, I can only hope that our troops are warm this winter, dug in on some remote hillside somewhere in the buffer zone. Bartlet didn't leave an exit plan but I intend to have our troops home as soon as soon as possible with the minimum amount of casualties.
Another thing Bartlet did leave us was advice. Ever member of the senior staff in the West and East Wings left their successor some advice in the form of a letter on their desk. Of course some people stayed on to provide continuity. Institutional memory. Everyone from me in the Oval to the most junior secretary in the First Lady's office had a letter waiting for them on their desk. Even Helen got one from Abigail Bartlet. This was my letter;
President Matthew Santos,
I could drone on in this letter about what you should and shouldn't do as President but I'm not. Every President brings something to the office that is unique. Think of your time behind the desk in the Oval as a large block of marble. Everything you do at that desk results in the stone being carved. Hopefully by the end of your (second – I hope) term that stone should now be a beautiful statue. If not, well think of something else.
Now I'm sorry about Leo. He was my friend too for 30 years. Baker is a good man and will make a great VP. CJ told me that he called the staff together during our final year in office and he said something like this; "we have more power and influence every day we get in the White House we will ever have in the rest of our lifetimes." You've got a minimum of four years or 1460 days. Don't, whatever you do, don't waste it.
It's going to be hard, I know and I'm sorry I left you my mess in Kazakhstan but I'm sure we can resolve it. Don't be afraid to give me a call if need advice. There are few left alive who know what it is like to sit behind that desk. I'm sure no doubt that I will send you suggestions for your first State of the Union and some of your other speeches. You have my full support and I'm sure you'll make a great President of these glorious United States of America.
Good luck,
Jed Bartlet, President of the United States (1999-2007)
I'm currently sat at the Resolute Desk. It's half-past two in the morning and the January rain is still lashing the windows. Secret Service are stood outside on the terrace. I feel kind of bad, dragging them outside in this weather at this unearthly hour. I'm assured though by Ron Butterfield that they are fine with it and see it as a small price to pay to protect and serve their President. I walked through the West Wing on my way down here, the lights were dim. No-one is in the building at this time. The first cleaners start at five o'clock. By that time I'll be long gone.
A quiet West Wing is eerie and remarkably unsettling. Usually it's bustling with staffers and assistants. I've since opened the curtains and look out at the Rose Garden and Pennsylvania Avenue through the trees. All is quiet.
I hear a door shut close by, I hear a kettle begin to boil and a few minutes later the dulcet tones of Bach's Cello Suites drift through the wall from next door. I listen for a moment as the music rolls on. I ask one of the agents outside the door; "Has Mr Lyman entered the building?"
"Yes sir, Yankee-Mr Lyman came through the north lobby about ten minutes ago."
I don't disturb Josh for a few minutes more but then I wonder what he is doing. Surely not paperwork at 2:45am. I quietly knock on the door.
"Come in." I open the door. "Mr President, Sir should you be awake?"
"I'd ask you the same Josh, but for the record, I couldn't sleep. The rain was drumming on the windows in the residence. Sadly, although I'm now the leader of the free world, I still have no influence over the rain clouds."
Josh smiles slightly. "I couldn't sleep either Sir." He's looking at a file, hot chocolate in hand with Bach playing in the background.
"I like the music."
"President Bartlet had Yo Yo Ma play here when he was in office. It's one of my favourites."
"Maybe we should have him return. But seriously Josh, you should be home, asleep."
"All due respect Sir but so should you."
"Yeah, well if I live the White House, I guess I am at home."
Josh chuckles. By this point he has already motioned me to one of the comfortable chairs in his office. After a while we both have a hot chocolate and are talking about general things – family, sport, food, women, old stories... I'm facing away from the Oval so I don't see the silhouette of a woman in her dressing gown in the door way. I'm about to mention my letter from President Bartlet when she interrupts me.
"Matthew Santos, it's three in the morning and you're down here in the West Wing!" says Helen shrilly.
"Good morning Mrs Santos." Josh chirps from his chair. "Care to join us? Can I get you a hot chocolate?"
"Seems we've been rumbled Josh." I tell my CoS. "Helen, I couldn't sleep with the rain." I explain to my wife. "Come on in, have a seat, have some hot chocolate." If there is one thing Helen can't resist it is hot chocolate. "Josh was telling me about some of the shenanigans he was involved in during the Bartlet Administration. You'll enjoy them." Helen looks unimpressed but Josh graciously pours her a hot chocolate.
"I guess I'll have a drink. The only reason I'm down here is that I couldn't sleep and you were nowhere to be seen. I had to ask an agent in the hall where you'd got to. This rain is so noisy. We didn't get this in Houston." She says whistfully as she accept her cup of hot chocolate and curls up in the third armchair.
"Well I suppose that makes three of us." Josh grins.
"So tell us Josh, what shenanigans did you get up to, in the Bartlet White House?" asks my wife.
A/N: This is my first attempt at west Wing Fan Fiction so please be kind. Thank you for reading and please review. I may post more chapters.