Title: Since last May
Author: Sharon
Spoilers: Season Four and before.
Disclaimers: Not mine, end of story.
Archive: I'm not likely to say no, but please ask.
Summary: What happened between last May and now to make my life so content?
Paring: Read & take a guess. If you feel that you can't read ahead without knowing the pairing, feel free to email me.
Notes: A huge thanks to Christine & Julia for being the amazing beta queens that they are.
Feedback: Is always appreciated but never expected.
Chapter 1
***
January 2003
***
Inauguration preparations are almost finished, and in any case, I'm not needed to watch over the last minute adjustments. So, I'm packing up and getting ready to go home. Donna left hours ago, but who can blame her? She's run herself ragged, what with working on said preparations, preparing for school, and working her new job title.
Donna was promoted.
Not by me.
After all the promise she showed during the campaign, I would have promoted her, but considering she stopped working for me in May, it really would not have been my place to. And anyway, Hannah beat me to it.
So now, we've won re-election, and are in our second term. I'm working in a White House where Donna no longer reports to me - which is actually great by the way - and the entire Senior Staff is getting ready to fight the battles that we chose to ignore in the first term, in favour of making it to the second.
Yeah, so... Back to Donna not reporting to me, being great... I know, I never thought I'd hear me say that either.
The reason for this?
Simple, Amy reports to me, and the relationship between them is... Amy didn't have an opinion in regard to Donna until she started working for us. The less said about that the better. Donna reporting to Hannah stops me from being in the middle of any possible disagreements. That said, Amy likes Hannah less than Donna. Pretty much because Hannah chooses to place more importance on issues raised by Donna and constantly ignores Amy's input and opinions.
That, and they have a history.
Hannah, by the way, is the campaign manager we hired after things with Bruno were - lets just politely say - not working effectively. Well, technically, he was doing a good job, however, none of the senior staff felt any confidence in him. So we made a change. Bruno's good, but Hannah's better, she's a brilliant strategist, but not only that she works with us: Leo, me, CJ, Toby and Sam. She got us elected, made it a team effort and Leo hired her as an addition to the Senior Staff, not that there was any doubt he wouldn't.
It took a lot of convincing by Leo to get her to join the campaign. She took a years' sabbatical from politics, and really just wanted to quit. But for someone who had been absent from the political scene for a long time, she knew exactly what was going on, where and how, plus she had more favours owed to her than Leo collected in a lifetime.
I first met Hannah when she was about 10, but only really got to know her when Chris started chasing her. Just for those wondering, yes, that would be my roommate from Harvard. Also known as Amy's ex. See the history? Leo and the President have known her all her life. The President happens to be her Godfather, although she has a greater bond with Leo. She sees him as a father figure and he sees her as a daughter. He has Mallory, but she had always been closer to her mother. With Hannah he's more paternal, he's closer to her. For one, he gave her away when she got married to Chris, and was also there when she lost him. But more than that, she lost her father when she was young and Leo was always there in place of him. She goes to him for guidance and shares his passions.
Why all this information on Hannah? Again simple, she is part of this administration and my life now. I mean, she's always been apart of my life. But now, she's physically in it and we've never been closer.
Things started with a not-so-simple conversation with Sam - who by the way has known her for about as long as I have, just through different avenues - and ended here. With me, headache free and on my way home to my beautiful fiancé, seriously loving life.
Seriously.
Although, the fiancé part? Nobody about that knows yet.
With the exception of Hannah, Leo and The President.
And I still haven't exactly proposed yet.
I kind of need help with the proposing thing, it obviously has to be special and so I'm stuck. That and the fact that, I'm not sure we're ready for this. I would normally ask Donna, but for this… I can't. I do actually value my life. Asking Donna for help is like giving CJ an invitation to beat me senseless.
Why? I don't understand either.
But seriously, loving life, it could not get any better. Well, yeah it could, for one she could say yes, I could be President and blah, blah, blah.
Seriously.
Loving.
Life.
What happened between last May and now to make my life so content?
TBC…