I don't own the West Wing characters, nor do I claim to. So no suing, please - I have exactly $10.05 to my name.
This takes place in the future, after the second term of Bartlet's Presidency. Everything from the first and second seasons is fair game in the spoilage territory.
"You've Got To Want It"
by Rebecca A. Anderson
sniggles@claudia-jean.net
May 2001
Black was the color of the day. Flags all over the United States flew at half-mast. Old friends who had lost touch gathered to remember a brilliant man. A flawed man. A man who had given them chances at new life.
Josiah Bartlet had died peacefully in his sleep after suffering a stroke several days before. It was as if his body had given up on housing his intellect, his soul, and had merely shut down, allowing that brilliance to escape away to the farthest reaches of heaven itself. Who knew - maybe President Bartlet was at that very moment annoying God Himself with facts about the migratory patterns of the Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua'a. Try saying that three times fast.
The funeral was small and private - only friends and family. His Senior Staff, after the White House, had scattered to the four corners of the earth - literally. Leo had stayed close by the Bartlets, as was to have been expected. Sam had run for a seat in the New York state House of Representatives - and had won. Josh and Donna had gone in search of the next "Real Thing", and as far as anyone knew, they were still looking. Toby had helped win a Senatorial and a Gubernatorial campaign, and was at present, thinking about retiring. Abbey had settled down into a life of caring for her husband as his MS began to switch course, and making sure that those pesky grandkids kept out of his steaks. And CJ had stayed close to the Bartlets as well, having stayed on as a mouthpiece for the former President and his wife.
Things were... different, that was for sure, when they met for the lying-in-state in Washington. They had changed, every last one of them.
They were married, or emotionally involved, whereas before... nothing. They were different, older, wiser... stranger. More eccentric. As if that hadn't been bad enough in the White House!
Sam had married, after much struggle and more than a few knock-down, drag-out fist fights, Mallory O'Brien, much to Leo's delight. It was a never-ending source of amusement for him to torment his son-in-law - especially in front of the grandkids.
Josh and Donna had seen fit not to get married, but to live together outside of the bounds of matrimony. They never had been a conventional couple - why start there? They had adopted two children - one as a small baby, one as a grumpy teenager who needed a good kick in the pants. One day with "Uncle Jed", and said teenager was as good as gold.
Toby was seeing Caroline Johannsen, a computer programmer, and lived in New York, where he spent a lot of time working on a book he would never finish because he could never get it just right. No one could capture Josiah Bartlet in words, though Toby delighted in trying. He and Caroline were due to become parents for the first time in about four months.
Leo had found a widow named Mary Tobin down the country road from the Bartlets, and they had been married for three years. Mary adored Mallory and Sam, and their children, and had been one of Abbey's close friends for years. They lived happily in Mary's cottage within a stone's throw of the Bartlets.
And CJ...
CJ had never yet found someone to her liking for the founding of a relationship, so she remained unmarried, not living with anyone but Jed and Abbey, and certainly not sexually involved. Every Christmas, she would fly home to California to see her family, and the journey back to New Hampshire would always be like a new homecoming for her. Her life was truly entwined with the Bartlets, and she wouldn't give that up for anything.
After the lying-in, everyone headed over to the White House, where they had been invited for dinner by President Hoynes. It was hard to be back in the place where they had built so many memories. It was hard for everyone.
Dinner was strained and long, no one quite able to articulate their feelings at being back in this oh-so-familiar setting. But as they left, they exchanged addresses and phone numbers, promising to call or write - something that they may or may not have had any intention of doing.
Abbey and CJ went back upstairs to the White House Residence, where President Hoynes had insisted they stay during the lying-in. Sam and Mallory, and their children, and Josh and Donna, and their children, went back to their hotel, as did Toby and Caroline. And Mary and Leo went out for a walk on the Mall before heading for their hotel.
The next day found them all heading home. CJ, Abbey, Leo, and Mary escorted the body of a brilliant President back to New Hampshire, where he was buried on a hill on the farm property. Sam and Mallory went back to work, Sam at the New York Statehouse, Mallory at a public school in Albany. Josh and Donna went back to Michigan, where Josh was trying to talk Aaron Pittenger to run for Governor, and Donna was trying to teach secretaries to type. Toby and Caroline went back to New York, where he went back to work on that book that he could never seem to finish, and she went back to her programming.
As the next few months passed, things began to change, for all they stayed the same. Leo and Mary decided to move to Florida when Abbey announced her intent to travel the world until she died, and to serve as the head of the Red Cross. Donna quit her job when she was passed up for a promotion, and Josh finally convinced Pittenger to run - only to find out about all of his indiscretions. Sam decided to run for the New York state Senate, and Mallory went back to school nights to get her Masters' in elementary education. Toby gave up on trying to perfect his book and sent it off to a publisher to be published as-was, and became a stay-at-home father, delighting in his ability to change his daughter's diapers and give her a bath. And CJ began to entertain thoughts of going back to California.
But everything changed completely when the wall of silence finally broke. CJ called Toby to complain about how her life was suddenly going nowhere fast. He listened sympathetically, then told her to remember it had taken him nearly eight years to write a book that wasn't even going to sell very well. His advice was to step back and look at what she wanted.
So she sat in Jed Bartlet's private study late one night, behind the desk, just thinking. She had made a difference in the White House. She had been one of the ones to help make the world a better place. Or so she hoped. She had enjoyed that feeling.
And then she remembered something Jed had told her one night. She had been watching the news with Jed and Abbey, listening to what new disasters had been sprung upon the earth, when Jed said, completely out of the blue, "You know what I've learned in life, Claudia Jean? You've got to want it. Everything you aim for - you've got to want it badly enough to work your ass off to get it." And then there had been no more on that subject, ever. It was strange, the way his mind had deteriorated near the end. He would say things out of context, and she could tell that it infuriated him not to be able to say what he wanted to. But this... this was a message.
She did want to make a difference.
She searched through her address book and found Josh and Donna's phone number, and dialed. An hour later, they had a strategical plan all laid out. And the first thing on that plan was to talk Toby out of retirement.
Two weeks later, everyone was sitting around the Bartlets' huge oak dining room table, staring at CJ expectantly. Abbey, Leo, Mary, Sam, Mallory, Toby and Caroline... Josh and Donna already knew what was about to come.
CJ smiled nervously, then tried to launch into a carefully scripted proposal, but stopped, and said, "Y'know, you all are family, and I can say anything." She took a deep breath and said, "I'm running for the Senate for the state of New Hampshire."
The shock around the room was nothing short of incredible. CJ? Run for the Senate? CJ? Eaten alive by the political monster? CJ?!
"Josh and Donna have agreed to help me run my campaign, I already have contributions from EMILY'S List and several other women's groups lined up - I can do this. But I don't want to do it without all of you," she explained. "If nothing else, I just need your support."
Support was something she received more than ample amounts of from her friends. When the election was over, and she was safely back in Washington, back in the middle of the fray of politics, Josh was her Chief of Staff, Donna was her Press Secretary, Toby was her Director of Communications, and Leo was her policy advisor. It was a heavy team - one she was glad to have.
Four years later, CJ Cregg, Democratic Senator from New Hampshire, announced her intent to seek the Vice-Presidency of the United States, alongside Daniel Biggs for President. Sam had lost his seat in the New York Senate, and joined CJ's campaign team next. Then Abbey stopped traveling, and sat back to watch her friend come, see, and conquer. Mary took over as CJ's secretary, and Caroline even knew something wonderful was coming.
When Vice-President Claudia Cregg announced her engagement to Senator Hansen from New Hampshire, the press was abuzz. The wedding was a huge public circus, basically, but all that mattered was that she felt the spirit of Josiah Bartlet with her, egging her on, daring her to be better than she was.
When President Biggs died in office, Claudia Jean Cregg stepped up to the plate to bat for him and what he - what they both - had believed in.
She was the first woman to be President of the United States.
Black was the color of another day, not long after she was inaugerated for her first term in her own right. Leo McGarry, former Secretary of Labor, former Chief of Staff for President Bartlet, and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Cregg, died of complications following surgery. His last words to his President, his protégé, his friend... were: "You've got to want it. And when you want it enough, it falls in your lap."
Two full terms. And a partial.
CJ Cregg had made a difference.
After she left office, it was different. They all stayed in touch, in fact, couldn't bear to be apart for long. They mourned together when they lost, first, Abbey, then Mary. And then when they lost one of their own - Toby was killed in a car wreck after being struck by a drunk driver - they came together again.
CJ Cregg, former President of the United States, took the podium to deliver his eulogy. She looked down at the speech that Sam had prepared so carefully for her, then folded it back up and put it in her jacket pocket before beginning to speak.
"Once, a long time ago, a man I love dearly and respect more than anyone else, told me 'You've got to want it'," she started, her voice beginning to tremble. "Toby Ziegler made me step back and take a look at what I wanted. He was my best friend, even if I never said it enough. And he stayed by me when I made my mistakes. Sure, he reamed me a new one if I made an idiot out of myself publicly, but he was always there in the meetings, saying 'You've got to look at what you want'. Toby was... an incredible man, a wonderful man, and I thank him every day for everything he's done for me. Ladies and gentlemen, life is what you make of it. And you've got to want it."
She stepped down from the podium and went back to her seat, where she cried for the cameras, and wept from the heart.
After her husband died, time found Claudia Jean sitting on the hill, talking to the man who had pushed her and egged her on, never letting her back down. She talked to Jed and Abbey every day, and the day she died, she whispered to Tate Lyman, "Anything in life.... You've got to want it."
She wanted it.
She took it.
And life was good.
Finis
This takes place in the future, after the second term of Bartlet's Presidency. Everything from the first and second seasons is fair game in the spoilage territory.
"You've Got To Want It"
by Rebecca A. Anderson
sniggles@claudia-jean.net
May 2001
Black was the color of the day. Flags all over the United States flew at half-mast. Old friends who had lost touch gathered to remember a brilliant man. A flawed man. A man who had given them chances at new life.
Josiah Bartlet had died peacefully in his sleep after suffering a stroke several days before. It was as if his body had given up on housing his intellect, his soul, and had merely shut down, allowing that brilliance to escape away to the farthest reaches of heaven itself. Who knew - maybe President Bartlet was at that very moment annoying God Himself with facts about the migratory patterns of the Humu-humu-nuku-nuku-apua'a. Try saying that three times fast.
The funeral was small and private - only friends and family. His Senior Staff, after the White House, had scattered to the four corners of the earth - literally. Leo had stayed close by the Bartlets, as was to have been expected. Sam had run for a seat in the New York state House of Representatives - and had won. Josh and Donna had gone in search of the next "Real Thing", and as far as anyone knew, they were still looking. Toby had helped win a Senatorial and a Gubernatorial campaign, and was at present, thinking about retiring. Abbey had settled down into a life of caring for her husband as his MS began to switch course, and making sure that those pesky grandkids kept out of his steaks. And CJ had stayed close to the Bartlets as well, having stayed on as a mouthpiece for the former President and his wife.
Things were... different, that was for sure, when they met for the lying-in-state in Washington. They had changed, every last one of them.
They were married, or emotionally involved, whereas before... nothing. They were different, older, wiser... stranger. More eccentric. As if that hadn't been bad enough in the White House!
Sam had married, after much struggle and more than a few knock-down, drag-out fist fights, Mallory O'Brien, much to Leo's delight. It was a never-ending source of amusement for him to torment his son-in-law - especially in front of the grandkids.
Josh and Donna had seen fit not to get married, but to live together outside of the bounds of matrimony. They never had been a conventional couple - why start there? They had adopted two children - one as a small baby, one as a grumpy teenager who needed a good kick in the pants. One day with "Uncle Jed", and said teenager was as good as gold.
Toby was seeing Caroline Johannsen, a computer programmer, and lived in New York, where he spent a lot of time working on a book he would never finish because he could never get it just right. No one could capture Josiah Bartlet in words, though Toby delighted in trying. He and Caroline were due to become parents for the first time in about four months.
Leo had found a widow named Mary Tobin down the country road from the Bartlets, and they had been married for three years. Mary adored Mallory and Sam, and their children, and had been one of Abbey's close friends for years. They lived happily in Mary's cottage within a stone's throw of the Bartlets.
And CJ...
CJ had never yet found someone to her liking for the founding of a relationship, so she remained unmarried, not living with anyone but Jed and Abbey, and certainly not sexually involved. Every Christmas, she would fly home to California to see her family, and the journey back to New Hampshire would always be like a new homecoming for her. Her life was truly entwined with the Bartlets, and she wouldn't give that up for anything.
After the lying-in, everyone headed over to the White House, where they had been invited for dinner by President Hoynes. It was hard to be back in the place where they had built so many memories. It was hard for everyone.
Dinner was strained and long, no one quite able to articulate their feelings at being back in this oh-so-familiar setting. But as they left, they exchanged addresses and phone numbers, promising to call or write - something that they may or may not have had any intention of doing.
Abbey and CJ went back upstairs to the White House Residence, where President Hoynes had insisted they stay during the lying-in. Sam and Mallory, and their children, and Josh and Donna, and their children, went back to their hotel, as did Toby and Caroline. And Mary and Leo went out for a walk on the Mall before heading for their hotel.
The next day found them all heading home. CJ, Abbey, Leo, and Mary escorted the body of a brilliant President back to New Hampshire, where he was buried on a hill on the farm property. Sam and Mallory went back to work, Sam at the New York Statehouse, Mallory at a public school in Albany. Josh and Donna went back to Michigan, where Josh was trying to talk Aaron Pittenger to run for Governor, and Donna was trying to teach secretaries to type. Toby and Caroline went back to New York, where he went back to work on that book that he could never seem to finish, and she went back to her programming.
As the next few months passed, things began to change, for all they stayed the same. Leo and Mary decided to move to Florida when Abbey announced her intent to travel the world until she died, and to serve as the head of the Red Cross. Donna quit her job when she was passed up for a promotion, and Josh finally convinced Pittenger to run - only to find out about all of his indiscretions. Sam decided to run for the New York state Senate, and Mallory went back to school nights to get her Masters' in elementary education. Toby gave up on trying to perfect his book and sent it off to a publisher to be published as-was, and became a stay-at-home father, delighting in his ability to change his daughter's diapers and give her a bath. And CJ began to entertain thoughts of going back to California.
But everything changed completely when the wall of silence finally broke. CJ called Toby to complain about how her life was suddenly going nowhere fast. He listened sympathetically, then told her to remember it had taken him nearly eight years to write a book that wasn't even going to sell very well. His advice was to step back and look at what she wanted.
So she sat in Jed Bartlet's private study late one night, behind the desk, just thinking. She had made a difference in the White House. She had been one of the ones to help make the world a better place. Or so she hoped. She had enjoyed that feeling.
And then she remembered something Jed had told her one night. She had been watching the news with Jed and Abbey, listening to what new disasters had been sprung upon the earth, when Jed said, completely out of the blue, "You know what I've learned in life, Claudia Jean? You've got to want it. Everything you aim for - you've got to want it badly enough to work your ass off to get it." And then there had been no more on that subject, ever. It was strange, the way his mind had deteriorated near the end. He would say things out of context, and she could tell that it infuriated him not to be able to say what he wanted to. But this... this was a message.
She did want to make a difference.
She searched through her address book and found Josh and Donna's phone number, and dialed. An hour later, they had a strategical plan all laid out. And the first thing on that plan was to talk Toby out of retirement.
Two weeks later, everyone was sitting around the Bartlets' huge oak dining room table, staring at CJ expectantly. Abbey, Leo, Mary, Sam, Mallory, Toby and Caroline... Josh and Donna already knew what was about to come.
CJ smiled nervously, then tried to launch into a carefully scripted proposal, but stopped, and said, "Y'know, you all are family, and I can say anything." She took a deep breath and said, "I'm running for the Senate for the state of New Hampshire."
The shock around the room was nothing short of incredible. CJ? Run for the Senate? CJ? Eaten alive by the political monster? CJ?!
"Josh and Donna have agreed to help me run my campaign, I already have contributions from EMILY'S List and several other women's groups lined up - I can do this. But I don't want to do it without all of you," she explained. "If nothing else, I just need your support."
Support was something she received more than ample amounts of from her friends. When the election was over, and she was safely back in Washington, back in the middle of the fray of politics, Josh was her Chief of Staff, Donna was her Press Secretary, Toby was her Director of Communications, and Leo was her policy advisor. It was a heavy team - one she was glad to have.
Four years later, CJ Cregg, Democratic Senator from New Hampshire, announced her intent to seek the Vice-Presidency of the United States, alongside Daniel Biggs for President. Sam had lost his seat in the New York Senate, and joined CJ's campaign team next. Then Abbey stopped traveling, and sat back to watch her friend come, see, and conquer. Mary took over as CJ's secretary, and Caroline even knew something wonderful was coming.
When Vice-President Claudia Cregg announced her engagement to Senator Hansen from New Hampshire, the press was abuzz. The wedding was a huge public circus, basically, but all that mattered was that she felt the spirit of Josiah Bartlet with her, egging her on, daring her to be better than she was.
When President Biggs died in office, Claudia Jean Cregg stepped up to the plate to bat for him and what he - what they both - had believed in.
She was the first woman to be President of the United States.
Black was the color of another day, not long after she was inaugerated for her first term in her own right. Leo McGarry, former Secretary of Labor, former Chief of Staff for President Bartlet, and Deputy Chief of Staff for President Cregg, died of complications following surgery. His last words to his President, his protégé, his friend... were: "You've got to want it. And when you want it enough, it falls in your lap."
Two full terms. And a partial.
CJ Cregg had made a difference.
After she left office, it was different. They all stayed in touch, in fact, couldn't bear to be apart for long. They mourned together when they lost, first, Abbey, then Mary. And then when they lost one of their own - Toby was killed in a car wreck after being struck by a drunk driver - they came together again.
CJ Cregg, former President of the United States, took the podium to deliver his eulogy. She looked down at the speech that Sam had prepared so carefully for her, then folded it back up and put it in her jacket pocket before beginning to speak.
"Once, a long time ago, a man I love dearly and respect more than anyone else, told me 'You've got to want it'," she started, her voice beginning to tremble. "Toby Ziegler made me step back and take a look at what I wanted. He was my best friend, even if I never said it enough. And he stayed by me when I made my mistakes. Sure, he reamed me a new one if I made an idiot out of myself publicly, but he was always there in the meetings, saying 'You've got to look at what you want'. Toby was... an incredible man, a wonderful man, and I thank him every day for everything he's done for me. Ladies and gentlemen, life is what you make of it. And you've got to want it."
She stepped down from the podium and went back to her seat, where she cried for the cameras, and wept from the heart.
After her husband died, time found Claudia Jean sitting on the hill, talking to the man who had pushed her and egged her on, never letting her back down. She talked to Jed and Abbey every day, and the day she died, she whispered to Tate Lyman, "Anything in life.... You've got to want it."
She wanted it.
She took it.
And life was good.
Finis