Title: 1984
Pairings: None
Spoilers: Set sometime before Sam left.
Characters: Senior Staff and the President.
Rating: K
Summary: All fear is subjective. Little humour/drama ficlet. Working knowledge of Orwell's 1984 would help, but hopefully the fic can be read without it.
Archive: Just ask.
A/N: Unbetaed, sorry. And if you've read my Fairytale Series, a new part will be up within a week, I think. I had the idea for this ficlet a while ago, but I only actually wrote it recently, when I was trying to get back into a West Wing voice. Hope someone else likes it.

'Sam. Please tell me you didn't...?' Josh looked at Sam disbelievingly.

He had just walked into the room, looking half-asleep. 'Didn't what?' he asked, yawning.

Josh sighed. 'You did, didn't you?'

'Josh...'

'You read the book again.'

'Oh.'

'Oh,' Josh agreed.

Toby looked over at the two of them from his speech, shrugged, and looked back down.

'I just... I don't get it!'

'Don't get what?' Sam asked agreeably.

'Why...?'

'It's a good book. And I like to be scared.'

'But every time you read it you don't sleep. I mean every time.'

'And how exactly would you know that, Joshua?' CJ asked, waltzing in to the Oval Office. 'And where are the President and Leo?'

'They're in the Situation Room. We were told to wait,' Josh answered.

'Okay, and what about Sam?'

'Look at him!'

CJ looked at Sam with a gaze of curiosity that turned to concern. 'You okay there, Sam?'

'I'm fine,' he answered mildly. 'I just didn't get a lot of sleep.'

CJ was sympathetic. 'Nightmares?'

'He gives himself nightmares!' Josh exclaimed in frustration. 'Every time he reads it...'

'Reads what?'

'You know Orwell?'

'No, Joshua, having attended a public school and then a non-Ivy League university, of course, I have no idea who George Orwell, author of Animal Farm and 1984, could be.'

'Little defensive there, CJ?' Josh asked. 'And it's 1984.'

'1984 gives you nightmares?' CJ asked.

'What's more,' Josh interjected before Sam could answer, 'it isn't even the rats!'

'The rats aren't what scares you?'

Sam still wasn't allowed to answer. 'And it isn't the ending either!'

'Josh,' CJ pointed out patiently, 'I'm asking Sam.'

Again, it wasn't Sam that answered. 'Newspeak.'

Sam looked up, a wide smile crossing his face. Of course, it would be Toby who understood.

'Not you too!' Josh exclaimed.

Toby nodded, meeting Sam's smile with a look of understanding.

'It's the appendices!' Josh tried again. 'It's only mentioned in the book a couple of times, because it's not supposed to be the scary part.'

'Everyone's scared of different things, Josh,' CJ said reasonably.

'I know that,' he answered. 'I don't like fire, and I'm finding more and more that guns can be scary too. And I can extend that to, I don't know, drowning, bears, spiders, plane crashes... but not being able to use all the words you want? Is your desire to use four words when one will do really that strong?'

'It's not...' Sam sputtered.

'Sometimes one doesn't do, Josh,' Toby corrected. 'Which is why the President has Sam and me working for him, and not just "war is bad" Lyman.'

'Hey!'

Sam was placating, but only a little. 'See. You know that that isn't right. But that's what it would be. Though it would actually be "war is ungood". The whole concept was designed to strip other meanings from words, and strip the language to its bones. It wouldn't be possible to be subtle or ambiguous, or...'

'Wouldn't that make it easier to write?'

'It isn't possible.' Sam said. 'We form our thoughts in words. And even now one word can mean seventeen different things. Even something that should be simple. I mean... I love you, I love my Mom, and my Dad, and Toby, and CJ, and Leo, and Donna, and the President. I love my country, I love democracy, I love Charles Dickens, I love apples. If the word only had one meaning, how do we express the others? And if we can't express the thoughts, how do we convince other people? If "free" just means not tied up, how do we explain why slavery is wrong? If equal only means the same, how do we say that people are born equal?'

'Sam...'

'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.'

'Sam…'

'That becomes crimethink. One word.'

'Sam…'

'I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.'

'Sam!'

'Tonight, what began on the commons in Concord, Massachusetts, as an alliance of farmers and workers, of cobbles man and tinsmiths, of statesmen and students, of mothers and wives, of men and boys, lives two centuries later as America.'

'My name is Josiah Bartlet, and I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States! But enough about me.' Jed Bartlett was standing in the doorway.

'Good evening, sir,' Sam said, calming down.

'So what were we talking about?' The President asked, walking into the Oval with Leo trailing behind. 'Sam seemed a little excited there.'

'Orwell's 1984, and things we're afraid of,' Josh answered.

Leo nodded, 'The rats, right?'

'No,' Josh sighed.

'Newspeak,' the President answered.

Josh began pounding his head on the table.

'Josh?' Leo asked in surprise.

'I'm surrounded by lunatics. Everyone but CJ.'

'I don't know, Josh,' CJ answered, grinning. 'Sam was pretty persuasive.'

'How, in the name of all that's holy, does a word thing give you nightmares! What do you dream of?'

'Thoughts I can't voice.'

Josh sighed and gave up. 'You're such a geek.'

'You're the one in the minority, Josh, maybe you're the geek?'

'You just recited verbatim the Declaration of Independence, the "I have a dream" speech, and the President's acceptance speech for the Illinois primary.'

'Okay, it's me.'

'Yup.'

FIN. Feedback would be lovely!