Rating: PG
Author's Notes: This is actually a scene from And Let That Be Our Legacy, but I loved it so much that I decided to pull it out and post it on it's own. It's a scene between Jed and Leo, set a few months after the end of the Bartlet administration, which in my universe went seriously AU around season 3. Mallory and Sam are married, and so are Charlie and Zoey. I love this so much, I suppose, because I wrote it shortly before 'Requiem' aired in the US. It's a tribute to the friendship of these two men, I think...
Leo eyed the remains of his breakfast, then folded the newspaper over to the next page. Very occasionally, Abbey allowed him (or Jed) access to the more cholesterol-laden forms of breakfast, but this wasn't one of those mornings.
Besides, reading about how the Republican President was settling in, while much more interesting, didn't exactly increase his desire to finish off that grapefruit. There were limits to what a man could take.
"Harrumph," his companion declared.
Leo looked over the top of his newspaper. "Something wrong, sir?" he inquired.
"You calling me that," Jed grumbled in deflection.
"All right, all right," Leo conceded with mock exasperation. "Something wrong, Jed?"
"President Glenallen Walken," came the disgusted response. "'We must cut taxes to stimulate an economy coddled by eight years of a Democratic President.' Oh, really? He forgot to include the little fact that I was an economic President. I'm an economist. The economy sucks because Congress couldn't be bothered to pull their heads out of their--what are you laughing at?"
"You," Leo managed, still chuckling.
"What?"
"Need a microphone?"
"Yes. Charlie!"
"He's not around 24/7 anymore."
"Oh, that's right. He's an expectant father now. I shoulda built a dungeon."
"He would have just stolen the keys."
"I should have shipped his ass off to Siberia while I had a chance, then."
"Still want that microphone?" Leo asked with a smirk.
"Nah." Bartlet folded his own paper over again, grumbling.
"What are you yelling about, Jed?" Abbey inquired, stepping in.
"Walken insulted the economy," Leo provided, looking up.
"Well, that would do it," she said, raising her eyebrows a little, with an even smaller smirk.
"Yeah."
"And how was Charlie supposed to help you with that, Jed?" she continued.
"He was supposed to get me a microphone," came her husband's response.
"You ever going to get over that, pumpkin?"
"No." He peeked up over the edge of the newspaper with a glower before resuming his reading. Abbey sighed and rolled her eyes, turning to Leo.
"I ate a healthy breakfast; don't look at me like that," he objected.
"I didn't say anything," Abbey retorted.
"You were about to," Leo insisted, turning another page. The former First Lady folded her arms. Leo mentally ducked. "You want to go for a walk, sir?"
"Mmmm."
"Mr. President."
"Stop calling me that."
"Jed, a walk?" Leo pressed.
"Hmph."
"That process whereby we both avoid being punished by your wife, who, while not the First Lady any longer, still has considerable resources at her disposal, including control of our diets?"
Jed looked up. "Oh. Of course. I was about to suggest just the thing. A nice long walk around the farm."
"Yeah."
"Out you go," Abbey shooed.
"I'm not done yet," her husband protested.
"You are now." The two men glanced up and hastily put their newspapers aside, standing.
"We're just two old men, Leo," Jed griped fifteen minutes later.
"Yep."
"It's not cold out," came the preemptive declaration.
"It's freezing," his friend declared. "Unnatural."
"Nah."
"You're driving your wife insane, Jed."
"You're driving both of us insane, Leo. I can see you fidgeting to go do something from another floor, never mind when we're both in the same room."
"I'm just taking a little R & R, sir."
"Will you stop that?"
"I could go visit Sam and Mallory, but..."
"Calling me 'sir' and 'Mr. President'. I'm just Jed, Leo. Just plain Jed, two-term President from New Hampshire."
"Okay."
"Stop smirking."
"I wasn't smirking!" Leo denied.
"With your voice."
"You and your powers of reasoning..." Leo shook his head.
"Are not to be mocked," his friend advised. "Leo, we're just two old men being bossed around by my wife. What are we doing here?"
"It's only April, and you're bored already?"
"Aren't you?"
"Maybe a little. Not enough that I don't like it." Leo pulled his coat a little closer.
"I could be teaching."
"Yeah."
"I don't want to teach, Leo. I want to do something."
"Plant a garden."
"Hmph."
Leo hesitated. "You could do that other thing."
"So could you."
"It'll mean more if it's you. You're instantly recognizable. I'm not."
"True," Jed conceded, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I don't want to wait too long, or people will forget. I don't want to do it too soon, or people will think too much about the fact that I just left office."
"Mmm," Leo agreed.
"We never got to do what we wanted," Jed mourned.
"That's true of a lot of things."
"I really wanted to do this. The bill was a big step, but it was anti-crime at heart, not pro-education."
"As the authors intended, Jed. We're still far ahead of where we were when we went into office."
"We didn't know then what we know now."
"Yeah." Leo paused, waiting. "Well?"
"You don't think the prestige will be diminished by the fact that I'm a former President now instead of a current one?"
"I think the intent and the potential are still the same," Leo said, turning to him. "No matter how many schools take advantage of it, this is still an extraordinary thing, a thing no one else has done. You're encouraging something that's too frequently suppressed, Jed."
"Yeah." Bartlet took a deep breath and let it out, gazing at the field. "Yeah."
Leo grinned.
"What are you gonna do?"
"Be an old man for a while."
"Leo..." Jed griped.
He sighed. "I don't know. I may go back to the party. They could probably use the leadership..."
"Leo..."
"I'm not going back to DC." That was delivered with definite finality.
"Not even to visit Mallory and Sam?"
"That doesn't count."
"Okay."
"You rolled your eyes."
"I did not," Jed objected, all innocence.
"Did too."
"Leo, you're bored."
"Yep," Leo confessed, looking around. "Yeah, I can't get used to this."