FRIDAY'S CHILD

Classification: Post-ep vignette, Leo POV, J/D friendship
Spoilers: "Evidence of Things Not Seen" and the Rosslyn arc.


***

I'd like to say that this is just another Friday night melting into just another
Saturday morning at the White House. But it isn't. We've had to deal with both
the Russian President and a homegrown lunatic in one evening, so it's been more
interesting by far. In the "may you live in interesting times" sense of the word.

Usually, I flourish in interesting times. But given that the events of this
night broke up the first poker game we'd managed to organize in six months, I'm
not flourishing so much as fuming. You have any idea how hard it is to find
decent deli in this town?

The poker game aside, we really did flourish here tonight. Chigorin's been
appeased and our satellite photos will make it home safely. My daughter, my
girlfriend, and even my ex-wife have phoned in to ask about the shooting. Zoey's
asleep in the Residence and Will's in an airplane somewhere en route to
Cheyenne. Ed and Larry have taken CJ out for a drink. For all her bluster about
catlike reflexes, she's got a pretty bad case of the shakes and she keeps going
on about making an egg stand on end while no one was watching her. Toby's...I
don't know. Gone home, I suppose.

Debbie Fiderer, who will be taking home more money tonight than she would in a
month, is waiting with me in my office while Jed gets his blood pressure taken
for the third time. She's no Delores Landingham, but she's a tough and dedicated
woman who takes nothing off anybody. Like Margaret in that respect.

Speaking of Margaret, she's nowhere to be seen although her purse and lunchbox -
she actually carries a lunchbox to the White House every day, can you believe
it? - are beside her desk. Debbie tilts her head toward Margaret's personal
effects. "She went to the Mess."

"Margaret? She never eats there. She won't even drink their coffee."

"She went to get something for Donna."

"Donna couldn't go to the Mess herself?"

"Not while Josh is on the phone," Debbie replies, shooting me a look that
clearly tells me I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed.

Maybe I'm not, because the one thing I'm sure of is that I don't understand one
word of this conversation. "She can't leave while Josh is on the phone?"

Her expression changes from flinty to exasperated. "He's calling California."

Of course, I think, rolling my eyes at my own stupidity. Someone should've
checked in with Sam, who's still in his home state, nursing his wounds by
working with the DNC out there. "He must've been out of his mind with worrying,"
I comment.

Debbie's eyebrows shoot up into her hairline. "I can't imagine he'd care all
that much."

"The hell? He wouldn't care all that much?" I have to struggle to keep my voice
down, lest Jed come bursting in here with the sphygmomanometer hanging off his
arm and his physician in tow.

"I mean, he'd be concerned like a good citizen, but--"

"Sam's more than a concerned citizen, Debbie."

"I'm not talking about Sam, Leo. He's not the only guy Josh knows in
California." Debbie doesn't say the name, but it hangs in the air between us.

Stanley Keyworth.

"Dammit." Next thing I know, I'm walking away.

I pause in the hallway, letting my eyes adjust to the reduced light, replaying
the scene from earlier when Toby and I told Josh about the shooter. He had just
stood there. There was no change in his expression. He didn't ask a question or
offer an opinion. The only sign that he'd heard us was when he clasped his
clipboard to his chest like a shield.

"It's over, Josh," Toby had said quietly but with so many layers to those three
words. His gaze seemed focused on the clipboard, on Josh's fingers gripping it
by the corners. Not meeting Josh's eyes, giving him a few relatively private
moments to collect himself.

None of that had registered. I can't believe it didn't occur to me before. Not
until just now, until I remembered Toby's murmured words, did I stop to think
that Josh's siren song might be playing somewhere deep in his mind.

I stride quickly down the hall toward Josh's bullpen. Donna's not there and the
whole area is dark. Are they done with the call? Or are they just somewhere
else?

The door to Josh's office opens and Margaret walks out. She sees me and
immediately puts one finger over her lips. Ssh. Don't say anything.

I nod at the door. Margaret leaves it ajar, just enough for me to be able to
look in without being seen, and pats me on the shoulder in our long-standing,
silent "I'm leaving" signal.

Josh's office is dark except for the cold, greenish light from his computer. He
has a cup of something in one hand and the phone in the other. He takes a sip,
listening intently to whatever Stanley's telling him, then passes the cup to
Donna and shades his eyes.

She holds the cup in both hands, inhaling the steam before drinking from it.
After a moment she offers it back to Josh, who holds his hand up, palm outward,
and starts talking softly into the phone.

Donna takes a few steps backward and turns slightly, so I get a look at her
face. She's as rumpled and disheveled as Josh, and the sickly green light makes
her look even more worried.

It's a strange thing, this connection or whatever the hell you'd call it that
goes on between them. Sometimes it's amusing, sometimes it annoys the crap out
of me, but sometimes it's almost, I don't know, fierce.

Leo, I need to talk to you about Josh, she had said more than once, two years
ago, and I'd blown her off the first couple times until Josh came in and yelled
at the President. The next time, I'd listened and connected Josh to the only
shrink in the world tough enough to outfox him. To make him look inward -
something neither Josh nor I particularly enjoy.

His mind may be looking inward tonight, but no matter where Donna stands or what
she does, his gaze stays on her. Looking outward.

"It's kind of eerie, isn't it?"

Toby's voice almost makes me jump out of my skin. I turn to him, scowling
upwards as we step far enough away to have a quiet conversation that won't
disturb Josh. "God almighty, Toby, don't do that."

"Sorry," he mumbled. "I was looking for you. I wanted to…" He trailed off,
looking away from me and shaking his head, one hand indicating Josh's office. "I
didn't know where Donna was, and I wanted to make sure, you know, he was…"

"He's talking to Stanley Keyworth," I fill in for him.

Toby relaxes a little, even smiles for just a second or two. I suspect we share
some serious guilt about not catching on last time until Josh had put his hand
through a window. "Okay, then," he says, nodding. "Listen, I'm about to go home.
I can walk you to your car, if you want."

"Nah, I'm good." I wave Toby off and turn my attention back to Josh. He's got
that look on his face, the one that he makes when he's said something funny and
he wants the rest of us to know he's the smartest guy in the room. Donna's
smiling, too, but she looks wary. Protective.

Christ, but the guy was almost as big a mess this Christmas as he was two years
ago. We'd ended up spending Christmas Eve getting the roof of the Church of the
Nativity fixed, talking about Toby and his father, which Josh called his
"Christmas Mitzvah." He'd kept pulling out his cell phone, turning it over in
his hands, sometimes opening it, but never placing the call.

If I'd asked, then he'd have said he just wanted to make sure she got in safely.
He'd already blown his cover with me, though, so there wasn't any point. I just
watched him pass the phone from hand to hand, slip it in his pocket and back out
again as he paced the floor and barked instructions into the speakerphone on his
desk.

He's not pacing now, though. He's perfectly still, the phone pressed to his ear.
Watching Donna and being watched by her.

I'm being watched, too, this time by Jed, who walks up beside me and nudges me
with his shoulder. "I was so worried about CJ and Toby and Will - I didn't even
think about Josh," he whispered. "He's okay?"

"He's fine, sir."

Josh laughs, then covers the mouthpiece and repeats whatever it was to Donna,
who snickers and says something back to Josh that makes him laugh even harder.
Jed grins. "That's a great sound, Leo."

"Yes, sir." I couldn't agree more.

Josh seems to want the coffee but Donna won't give it to him, wagging a finger
at him and probably telling him that he'd be up all night on a caffeine high.
Josh leans back in the chair, glowering at her, but she's indifferent to his
sulking.

It's at moments like these that I know Jed misses Mrs. Landingham more than
ever. I glance at him, and his eyes are far away, seeing another feisty spitfire
telling her boss what's what.

He shakes himself out of it. "I'm going to bed, Leo. Go home, would you?"

"Yes, sir. In a minute."

He shoots me a look, then turns around and heads for the Residence, head down,
hands in his pockets, already lost in thought about what's next.

What's next? I don't know. But Josh is folding up the cell phone and slipping it
into his pocket while Donna fidgets with some stuff on his desk, so if I don't
get lost right now then they'll bust me for, you know, giving a damn what
happens to them.

The first few steps ache a little in my bad hip, as they always do. I wait for
just a moment, turn back just one more time. Josh is still sitting, his face
turned up to Donna with such a look on his face - my God, the look on his face.
He's got hold of her by the wrist and he's saying something that makes her lean
over and put her arms awkwardly around his neck. Then she starts for the door
and I have to move myself out into the lobby and pretend like I'm doing
something important.

Donna emerges a minute later, wrapped in a sweater, carrying a purse and one of
those small canvas bags Mallory can't live without. She's startled to see me at
first, then smiles. "Good night, Leo," she says brightly as she passes me.

"Good night, Donna," I respond, returning her smile. She cocks her head to one
side for a second as if wondering what the hell I'm so happy about, then she
nods at me and murmurs something in greeting to the guard who's letting her out.

Josh appears a few minutes later. Papers are sticking out here and there from
his backpack - good God, do we ever give him anything classified, and if so,
could we stop it right away? He looks tired but calm, and his hands hang loosely
at his sides. "Hey, Leo, sorry about the game."

"Ah, it's not a problem. We'll try again next Friday."

"Okay." He hoists his backpack further up and we head for the door together. Out
the window we see Donna saying good night to the guards at the gate. She turns
around, spots us, and gives us a little wave of the hand before heading off into
the night.

"Josh?" Josh turns around, rocking back and forth on his heels. "How're you
feeling?"

He shifts his weight again. "I…uh…I talked to Stanley Keyworth tonight."

"I thought you might," I say, trying to sound nonchalant.

Josh swallows and looks away. "I didn't have an episode. For a minute I thought
I would, but it didn't come. And that guy, Joe Quincy? He told me something."

"What's that?"

His eyes slide shut as if he's reading the words. He's a terrible speaker. "I
made a joke about the music thing, and he said that most people don't believe
the story and the people I'd like, don't care."

"Well, God knows I don't care."

Josh's face lights up as he starts to laugh. "Yeah, Leo, every day I can tell
how much you don't care." He puts his hand on the doorknob but I stop him.

I wave a hand at the exit, at the gate. "She's a good girl, Josh."

He blinks at me for a second, his mouth slightly open. "I…wouldn't argue, but on
the other hand I wouldn't call her that if she had a sharp, blunt, or heavy
object nearby."

"Yeah, yeah," I say, chuckling. "I said 'girl' to Jordan once and I'm lucky to
still be alive."

Josh doesn't say anything, but there's that smile again, and the old sparkle in
his eyes that reminds me so much of his father that it hurts. Just as I come to
grips with it, Josh says, "Good night, Leo," and takes off.

So it's just me tonight, headed back to the office, where I survey the remnants
of our attempt at a poker night. Someone's removed the bottles and cups and put
foil over the leftover food, but there's something about the smell of roast beef
and beer and the felt lining of the poker chip box that makes me feel as if the
party's still going on.

"She was born on a Friday."

Josh is leaning into my office, one hand on each side of the door jamb. I put my
hand on my chest. "Between you and Toby, how I've managed to avoid a heart
attack is just--"

"Donna was born on a Friday. 'Friday's child is loving and giving,' or so she's
always telling me," he says, continuing his non-sequitur despite the death glare
I'm shooting at him.

"Be that as it may, Josh, I was born on a Saturday and I have to work for a
living, so I'm…what the hell are you doing back here, anyway?"

He shrugs and hangs his head. "Is there any roast beef left?"

Like glass, this guy. Well, I'm going to make him work for it. "Depends on
whether you've read the report from Treasury."

"It's in here…somewhere." Josh twists around as if he could get into his
backpack by sheer force of will. "I've read it, so I get roast beef. And rye
bread. And a beer."

So much for working quietly. Ah, but this is better, anyway. "What day were you
born on?" I ask as we uncover the food and find a beer for him and a soda for
me.

"I was…Tuesday."

"'Full of grace?' Seriously, Josh, your mom should get her money back."

One side of his mouth curls upward. "Well, I'm sure it was Wednesday, somewhere,
when I was born," he quips.

We're going to be here for a couple hours at least, so we take off our jackets,
loosen our ties, pull out a report we're not really going to talk about anyway,
and raise glasses to a good girl - woman, I hear Mallory, Jordan, Abbey, and
Margaret correct me all in unison. To a good woman, then, who was born on a
Friday that melted into a Saturday, born to flourish in interesting times.

***
END
***

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