Perspectives: Continuity: 365 Part 1 (2nd Edition)
*Authors note: usual disclaimers if you've seen or heard about them on TV then they belong to Warner Brothers, NBC, and Aaron Sorkin and if you want to archive then let me know where. This is an AU post administration story set in the universe of a story series that I'm still pondering. Feedback is more than welcome. Political/General/Drama/Angst, all, J/D
*This is my first work of fan fiction, and has been sitting on my hard drive since December. It is still a work in progress, so many elements are still in flux and I will periodically be revising old chapters. I think I have enough of a start on this story to opening it up to feedback which is the primary reason I'm posting on this site. So please feel free to let me know what you think, particularly if you have constructive criticism as to how to improve my writing or the piece in general. I won't guarantee I will incorporate all of your comments but I will defiantly read them and give them serious consideration.
*Thank you to all of you who have already given me your reviews and feedback, it has defiantly helped encourage me to spend more time working on this story and helped me to focus on specific problems to work on as I continue to write and edit my work. Special thanks to SB and Blue Oyster Cult.
*I am looking for Beta Readers, and would love to hear from interested parties. I would especially like to hear from other writers who have posted stuff before so I can get a sense of where they are coming from. However seeing as my obvious lack of any grammatical skills whatsoever is one of my primary problems, anybody with a strong command of grammar and punctuation who could help me improve the readability of my writing, (while still maintaining my colloquial style and original message), and is willing and able to help proofread and edit my work as well as provide feedback in shaping the direction of the stories would be a welcome asset in this venture.
*I have rewritten large portions of this chapter and added a huge chunk of new information. I don't think my language or mention of sexual activity is anything that the average American 13 year old is exposed to so I have not changed the rating yet. Considering that this story contains massive terrorist activities, I would have thought someone would have mentioned that need already do to the violent nature of the content. If I offend anyone I apologize, this is as bad as it is likely to get. If enough people think I need to change the rating I will.
*Chapter 1 is now 4 times longer so if you have already read the first version and are tempted to skip ahead I would advise against it. In the flavor of all those episodes where random conversations and exposition happen while people deal with nervous tension when lingering around till they can fill their role, I added a scene that helped establish Margaret and the Russells in more depth. Seeing as the Russells get killed off in the first chapter really didn't have any where else where I could establish their relationship with people with out the rosy tint that we give to relationships with people once they pass on. The way this new administration comes about, the Russell legacy is something that will weigh down on them their entire term, I thought it only fair that I clue readers in right away to how much turmoil they caused in the lives of our characters in the past couple of years, and how they might have inspired an environment of treason. I also thought it would be fun to have up tight Leo try and hold a conversation involving porn in the White House with Margaret and not have a coronary, 'cause really what better way to pass the time while waiting to hear if a man is still alive than by talking about the porn flick his wife was in.
*It was a choice to avoid naming the people they were discussing till the end of the chapter, please let me know if that makes it too hard to follow.
**** Continuity Chapter 1 ***
*** 365 Part 1 ***
December 21, 2007 9:45 AM EST home of Leo McGarry just outside Chicago Illinois
"Sir you need to come with us right now!" secret service special agent Grumman said as he burst in to the room followed by 4 others, startling all three people in the room.
"What's going on?" Berryhill asked, out of shock more than actually expecting an answer.
"Explosion at the house, sir. POTUS is still unaccounted for, so we need to get you airborne as soon as…. What? Shit. Ok we'll hold until you get an alternate route secured, and Mike I need full backup, here, now! We're taking VPOTUS down to the bunker for now but I want to get him on the move ASAP." As soon as he finished talking into his sleeve, he was pulling the vice president to his feet. "Sir, two explosions were just reported at O'Hare, we are going to go down to the basement now, there is an old bomb shelter down in the basement we updated to serve as a bunker when the last president stayed here for the convention last year. There are secure phone lines down there and we need to minimize your vulnerability as much as possible."
"Fine" Berryhill agreed following the agent's rather physical direction when he noticed that neither Leo nor his secretary had made an effort to follow them. "But this man and his aide come too; he is a trusted advisor and friend. More importantly this is still his home."
"Fine sir but we need to move now." Grumman said as he was pushing he protectee "Bill would you help Mr. McGarry and his aide to the bunker please."
December 21, 2007 10:05 AM EST bunker underneath the home of Leo McGarry outside Chicago Illinois.
As an agent was wheeling Leo's chair into the bunker another was on the phone with someone from the FBI headquarters and from the Secret Service headquarters discovering that there had now been 14 confirmed explosion sites including the one at the white house, 7 major Airports, Langley, the main broadcast studios of CNN, NYSE, Epcot Center, and 3 prominent hotels including the most recent attack of a suspected car bomb destroying a large portion of the hotel the Vice President was staying at for the conference that brought him to Chicago. Celia Berryhill who often elects to stay home from this trip and had been moved from the navel observatory to a more secure location; however a large portion of the Vice President's staff were still unaccounted for.
The only information they had about the White House attack was a small detonation occurred in the third floor sitting room in the east wing of the White House at 9:43 AM EST both the president and the first lady as well as 3 agents were in the room at the time, the first lady was on her way GW hospital and was considered to be in and the President had still not been reached and was believed to be trapped underneath a large section of the ceiling that had caved in from the blast. The roof fell at angle leaving an air pocket where they could hear at least one person still breathing slow labored breaths and crying soft voiceless syllableless cries of pain. So there was still hope that President Russell was still alive. Unconfirmed reports had started coming in from witnesses stating that there was a small object flying rapidly towards the residence just before the explosion.
Agent Grumman was silently thanking every deity he had ever heard of that the Vice President had made this unscheduled early morning visit to this old friend, while he was arranging for more security around the perimeter of the estate. Since Mr. McGarry had been the White house chief of staff for the majority of the previous administration so plans were on file with federal and local law enforcement on what steps to take to secure the compound. The agency still had relatively up to date outlines for guard placement and patrol routes since the last president had stayed at this location during the Democratic Party National Convention less than 16 months. The task made considerably easier by the security wall that surrounded the perimeter of the considerable estate. Still he had asked for national guardsmen to assist in patrolling the grounds. He had also asked for a judge and television camera crew to be brought here quietly just in case the President did not survive the attack on the White House.
This was a relatively good site for their purposes, especially since the closest airport was still considered to be a highly volatile location. There was question to whether a plane could even take off with the damage done in a collision on one of the runways after the control tower went down during the second explosion. He was even more grateful that he had agreed to this impromptu excursion after hearing about the bombing of the Vice President's hotel where they would have otherwise been. "Oh shit" he heard through his ear piece alerting him to the seriousness of what he was to hear next: "They got the OEEOB. Repeat explosion at the Old Eisenhower Executive Building. We just gave the all clear to go back in."
With nothing to do but wait for more information Christopher Berryhill was trying to comprehend the facts that he had just received. In under a half hour the country had been brought to a screeching halt. A large number of the people that he had come to depend on for guidance were lost. He still didn't know if he was even still the Vice President. For lack of options while they sat in this poorly lit, industrial yellow cement room, he started to think about what he should be doing. Normally there would be half a dozen people giving him scenarios, options and advice, instead he was just one of two old men sitting in the corner watching all the activity in the room knowing he wasn't a part of it. The secret service agents were not able to advise him. They were struggling with being able to brief him on what was happening out there, and frankly they had other priorities that they needed to focus on at the moment. He felt like he should be doing something, if only someone would tell him what he could do. All he could think to do was turn to his friend and say, "Who do I go to now?"
Leo thought for a minute considering the gravity of what his friend had just asked. His first thought was to say that he would be there to help his friend though this, and though he would do what he could. He knew he wasn't physically up to the job anymore the cancer was progressing more rapidly now. He was already relegated to a wheel chair, (on good days), he needed considerably more rest than he ever did before, and the ever present oxygen tank never more than 3 feet away from him was all the evidence anyone needed to see to know it couldn't be him. The most optimistic doctors had given him a year but most were saying less than three months.
One person came to mind almost instantly, and he wrestled with the idea of whether to say it or not. Would he be up to it? Would Chris allow him to do the job his way? Was there anybody else who could fill the gargantuan shoes that they would have to fill? Was he letting his personal feelings that were causing his hesitancy to admit the absolute truth? There was only one person that he trusted with the mantle to lead the team of people whose burden it would be to rebuild the country after this tragedy.
He knew that it was not going to be the simplest job getting him to take it again. Hell even getting through to him was going a challenge. Even if Leo could get him here he was going to need help and no one knew how many of the current people were still around to rebuild. "I think it important that we find out whose left as soon as possible but I could probably give you a few names if you wanted to make some discrete calls outside of the current staff to assist with key areas. Angela Blake is competent, and will be fine while the President recovers. But I think we both know who you need to bring in, (if you're going to have a chance to do any better than an Ok job over the next few months), but we need to handle it right."
"Do you think we can get him to change his mind? We've tried to bring him in several times already. Hell I think Russell even offered him my job, I know for sure he was offered both of his old offices, in addition to personally offering him a cabinet level post. I asked him to lead my staff. Russell said he was even offered the flexibility to write his own ticket as far as hours and responsibilities. As a matter of fact I wouldn't be surprised if Bob still is actively trying to recruit him. I know he still has Angela on a month to month contract even though we are nearly a quarter of the way through the term.
"What about his partner in crime? Why didn't you actively recruit her."
"Well that's where things get murky. Up until earlier this month she was in grad school. We may have talked to her about a mid level position in my office before the convention, but she seemed more interested in finishing school and being with her family. She certainly hasn't approached us about coming back and we're not pursuing her. Bob doesn't like her. There probably are some other reasons for that, but up until recently I thought that he didn't want to piss off his wife. Christine hates her with a passion; to the point where she tried to get the secret service to kick her out of White House during a party. You heard about this right?"
"Not all the details. They've been pretty tight lipped about the whole thing. I knew there was some sort of incident right before the before the election, but then things cooled down after the inauguration. Then something happened after thanksgiving that provided an excuse to make a clean brake from the administration without fallout from anyone in the DNC. You know that they come as a pair; so if there is something I should know, you probably should fill me in here. Is this going to be a thing? "
"It starts off simple enough, ever since that whole business the majority of your people avoided Nancy like the plague till well after the convention. The "sisterhood" as you all call it was particularly spiteful. Anyway even though she had made efforts to improve her dynamic with Christine, she still was looked at as an enemy. So naturally she became the first lady's favorite person to unload on when ever she had the chance. She seemed to take it in stride and was always and polite with the First Lady until about two weeks before the election when she called her a "frigid, dried up, crotchety old prissy wind bag who couldn't tell accurate polling data from her own husbands dick, but seeing as [she] never bothered to try and find either one " and told her that "if [she] wanted to blame someone for the fact that another 'girl' showed up in the paper describing 'her torrid love affair with Bingo Bob' then [she] should learn how to open [her] legs as well as [she] opened [her] mouth, and if [she] really felt that the campaign would be better off if [she] took a more active role and [she] was unwilling to keep [her] husband out of 17 year old girl's beds, then [she] could at the very least stop getting in offensive drunken shouting matches with leaders of organizations representing large and important volatile voting blocks like women and college students, at least not in front of the press.
Then she said that if [she] and [her] husband were that unhappy with the job the campaign team was doing then all they had to do was draft a letter saying that they were willing dissolve the contract that they had with any staff member who was willing to terminate their relationship with Russell for America without incident, then arrangements would be made immediately for that delivery of the gerbils to take over the campaign and [they] would never have to see each other ever again." But that everyone knew there was "no chance of that, because while good ol' Bingo), would plummet in the polls faster than you could say lost cause. If it weren't for the party loyalty of the people working on the campaign or the fact that President Bartlett had guilted his staff into taking an active role in the campaign in the first place, Bingo would have been lucky to get a job whoreing himself out as a lobbyist for the mining industry, much less have a having a real career in politics, say nothing of the presidential nomination."
"What? Really she said… our..." Leo sputtered out before braking out in a deep projectile coughing fit, before calming himself down from his pride filled animated state which had cause the coughing fit to begin with. Margaret came over and used Kleenexes collect all the mucus while he expelled the excess flem that was in his throat, and was helping him clean up some of the mess when he started talking again "Are you sure she said all that? That doesn't sound like the kind of thing she would do."
The Vice President wanted to finish the story, having allowed himself a moment to savor this memory, rather than dwell on the day's events. After exchanging a series of glances with Margaret while she started rubbing circles on Leo's back, where she communicated Leo was going to be ok if he kept going, he continued. "It happened all right, I was there. About 3 AM the night before the VP candidate debate a very drunk Christine Russell came blustering over to where a few of us were finishing up some notes for the debate, and immediately targeted her with a barrage of obscenities and objectionable filth that would cause murderous rages in most people. As Christine kept after her we all tried to politely get her to change gears, she just politely took it. She dismissed the efforts some people made to remove Christine from the room; saying that it was better that she got it out and say her piece. She knew that it was not going to help if the future First Lady yelled like this at one of the regular staff that the campaign could not afford to demoralize any further, or worse yet risk having her do this with someone else in front of the press, again. Also I think she might have been waiting for an opertunity to have it out with her, with out it affecting the campaign."
Margaret handed some pills to Leo as well as an open bottle of juice. "Here take these, and I want you to drink the whole bottle. Otherwise I'll have to ask the Vice President to find someone else to play with while you're on time out."
Leo looked at the pills bitterly and then grudgingly took them followed by several large sips of juice, when he had finished about a third of the bottle. He motioned for his friend to continue the story.
Margaret gave an amused but stern look at the Vice President to stop him from proceeding, seeing that Leo was trying to avoid drink all of the much needed liquid. "Leo don't you even try and press your luck with me today, you're already getting out of nap time, because of today's excitement. If you go overexerting yourself or stop following doctor's orders that keep you in the game, then you can't play. I'll personally make sure that the only information you get from anyone working with the government is what the weather is like outside your hospital room. And you Mr. Vice President it's bad enough I let you two get each other all riled up, if I see you let him off the hook with his food, meds, or fluids, or if you in any way let him bend the rules then I'm taking my ball and going home. Do we understand each other?"
Leo quipped "To hear her talk it's hard to believe she works for me, and not the other way around" before starting to drink more of the fruit flavored fluid.
Berryhill smirked at Leo's comment until he met Margaret's glare. It was clear what was being said, Leo was going to try and help him, but he was not at all a well man and he was going to have to be limited to what he would be allowed to do. That Margaret was going to let him come out of retirement, despite the fact that it would only speed up his already quickly approaching end; knowing that it was who he was, and what he needed to do. That being said, this was not the same Leo McGarry as the man who was Jed Bartlett's war time consigliore up until a few years ago or even the man who helped them gather support for a piece of legislation a couple of months ago. This man came with strings attached, and rule and guidelines that would have to be adhered to. This man needed boundaries and accommodations, and that was going to get more and more restrictive as time went on. This man was also his friend and one of the best political minds of his generation; who would difficult to say no to, even though it was in his own best interest. This man would be a great asset whose contribution would far out way all of the difficulties and pain bringing him in would mean.
As Leo continue to work on his juice Margaret was still waiting for and answer. "Do we understand each other Mr. Vice President?"
"Yes, Margaret I won't let Leo off the hook on stuff like this."
"And you'll ensure that your staff does the same?"
"That's fair, but certain things are going to be hard to shuffle around."
"We will have to sit down within the next few days and figure out some rules, until then we'll all just have to wing it and trust each other that we are doing our best under the circumstances to look out for his best interests." Then noticing that Leo had finished about two thirds of the juice said: "But that's later, and as long as Leo you keep working on that juice, I don't see any harm in listening to gossip about a catfight over outdated polls and old porn."
Leo eyes widened at that, but was even more startled by the Berryhill's response.
"Thank you Margaret, but I haven't gotten to that part yet."
"What in… this is turning into quite the story. What confuses me though is how come my assistant has heard it and I haven't?"
"She called me the night it happened, pissed at herself for losing her temper, and still angry about some of the things the first lady said. She needed to vent. She was also calling to check on you, remember how you were in the hospital the week of the VP candidate debate. You were pretty out of it then, and by the time you were well enough for this kind of news there was bigger things to up date you on, like election results and the like. Besides you never like it when I try to update you on gossip, and the problem seemed to go away, so there was never much point in telling you."
"Ok. Don't think that you're off the hook for this one yet, but I'll let it go this once. Anyway, how does pornography enter into this?"
"Well I was just getting to that. After about 15 minutes straight of Christine's barrage of abuse one of the campaign staff asked if she had a point with all of this. As a response Christine laid out that day's newspaper in front of us, as well a worn file folder, and responded "this is the point to all of this." Now you remember how the campaign was randomly blindsided by girls that Bob slept with selling their story and creating a series of sex scandal, well the morning before my debate the banner headline of the Denver Post read "17 Year Old Girl Pregnant with Vice President's Baby". Kelly came up with probably the most brilliant example of trumping the truth with a juicier story that I have ever seen.
'Yes, Bob Russell is the father of the child The Russells have been trying for years to conceive a child with out success. While they love their adopted children very much, they decided to make one more attempt. Acting on the advice of their fertilization specialist, they made arrangements with the girl to act as a surrogate host for their embryo through invitro fertilization. The Russells have known this girl and her family for several years through their church, and are doing everything within their power to help ensure that the fetus has the best chance to develop through the full gestation period, because as many of you know there is a high rate of miscarriages with this process as often the body will reject a fetus that does not contain the mother's DNA. Because of this high failure rate a decision was made to wait until the third trimester to make an announcement, rather than have a potential personal tragedy be played out in the media. This is a personal and private thing for everyone involved and her family has asked us to convey their request that you please respect her privacy. Police have started an investigation into how confidential medical records were obtained by the reporter from the Denver Post, particularly since this is not the first time this reporter illegally obtained information to write biased articles in an attempt to slander the Vice President. The Denver Post is one of the 100 largest papers in the country and has given its full endorsement to Vice President Russell's campaign since the early primaries and we have the utmost faith that they will hold their own investigation and take appropriate disciplinary action.'
After the brilliant spin, (complete with a plausible explanation for the termination of the pregnancy), and the family being paid off, and the abortion scheduled; it was handled and we actually managed to pick a couple of points in the process. We gained a few more after we regretfully announced that the girl had had a miscarriage, and the deeply saddened candidate was still going to continue his push for the rights of American families despite this personal setback.
But just because it was handled for the media, didn't make it easier for the wife, who knew that she had no part of any invitro fertilization process, but instead her husband had cheated on her again. What's even worse he had gotten her pregnant reminding her yet again of her inability to have children."
"What does any of that have to do with..."
"I'm getting there. Christine then pulled the top sheet of a polling data summery, and started going off on how it wasn't fair that she had all these embarrassment's in front of the media without doing anything causing such a drastic plunge in her husband's approval rating; 'and this uneducated slut secretary slept her way to being one of the most influential women in America, and managed to weasel into position without hardly a scratch. No the press couldn't go after one of the infallible Bartletteers, because they might pull out another cancer patient or hostage situation, or if worse came to worse that lying egghead ringleader might have an MS attack and have to take another break from playing president and leave the country in the hands of the Vice President which according to this poll 73% of the voters [thought] is a fate worse than communism. It just isn't fair that she not get slapped around in the media, in fact it's not fair that she not be slapped around in general.' That was when the First Lady slapped her."
"You mean she actually hit her."
"Yeah, well that was when she had had enough, she simply stood up eye to eye with the First Lady and win a soft cold voice took her to town with that stuff I mentioned earlier."
"Ok, but I'm still not seeing how pornography enters into this."
"It comes in after Christine not knowing she was beaten coming back with. 'I'm not going to let one of the Bartlett Harlots talk to me like that.' Christine really never got along with 'The Sisterhood' ever; and after that thing with Ellie things got even worse. Sisterhood aside apparently Christine never thought to highly of President Bartlett either and knew that that was on of her buttons. Actually from what I gather it was Christine's favorite button to push because it would almost always elicit a small visible involuntary response.
Well anyway that was when the finishing blow came she picks up the polling data and thrusts it in the Christine's face and starts in with: 'Will you please look closely at the date on this poll and tell me what it says. It says that this poll is exactly 365 days old. That would put it what? 3 months before we had the first primary, maybe even closer to 4? And not that it is any of your business but I have slept with exactly 5 men in my life, one of whom I married. I let you have this last rant because I have had it up to here with you and I wanted to let you get it out of your system because as of this minute you are done. Do you here me? Done. I have held something back for the last several months because I actually thought I wanted your husband to win this election. But if I hear you bad mouth President Bartlett ever again, or for that matter say anything for the next to weeks with out first clearing it with at least 2 members of the campaign's communication staff, or ever call me a slut or any other reference along that line I'm going to give CNN and every major network some footage that will make me and 85% of the rest in this country look down right virginal. Any problem you may have conceiving isn't do to some genetic curse is it Mrs. Russell? No it's because in your younger years you had your uterus scraped out to the point where there just is no lining left to hold an embryo. But that's not the piece de la resistance no you were young you made mistakes that happens. Ladies and Gentlemen you all knew that Christine Russell fancied herself as actress, but she keeps forgetting to mention one of her film credits, in 1967 while attending Colorado State University, she had the staring role in an untitled student film that makes most of today's porn films seem tame.
Now I don't think I could classify myself as sexually promiscuous as some women, but I admit that I was no virgin bride either. The only married man I've slept is the one I married, and he is the only man I've slept with since. I had a long term committed relationship in college and I had few other relationships all consensual, all un-photographed, and the only time I've ever been pregnant was when I had my daughter. All told I've had sex with 5 men in my entire life. In that movie viewers could see you sleep with 5 men in what the first 7 minutes, maybe 10 if you limit your definition to vaginal intercourse? But I haven't called you any names, or made any judgments or unfounded accusations. I think I've been more than polite to you despite receiving no similar courtesy from you. And I have never physically attempted to assault you in any way, and have no intention to now. But I am fed up with your abuse of me and the staff. I am tired of you throwing votes away with making incendiary comments in front of the press. You have officially exhausted my patience with your comments against President Bartlett.
Up until now I have tried to help your husband's campaign despite it being completely outside of my job description and that no one has offered to pay me for the things I've been asked to do. I have done this out of loyalty to the party and to the people who have put so much work into get him polling at 53% in the most recent polls, despite all the bimbos he's fucked and people you have insulted. But right now I'm not even sure I'm going to vote for him, and I'm certainly done busting my ass trying to help him. So I don't think I care if it costs you the election any more, I certainly don't care what it does to whatever shred of reputation you have left. So unless you want to see your ass on CNN, (and I do mean literally right there in living kodacolor, Jell-O and all), you might want to consider an attitude change.' After that she wished me luck with the election said goodnight to every body and left."
"Is there really a tape?"
"I don't know, but she sure went white and left in a hurry."
That was when Margaret who had been quietly making lists of things that needed to be done, and preliminary rules for Leo's care, chimed in with: "It's not a tape really it's more like a reel."
"How do you know?"
"We watched it. Who do you think timed the count?"
"Who's we? Who all has seen this thing?"
"Well that would be me, CJ, Donna, Ginger, Lynette, Rachel, Susan, Janice, Bonnie, Katie, Maddie, Millie, Abby, Zoey, Tanya, Sandy, Ellie, Danny, Charlie, Ainsley, Nancy, Debbie, Sherry, Joey, Kenny, Pam, and Bill, oh and the boys of the Colorado State University Tau Kappa Epsilon chapter in 1965, and probably the 1966 pledges to that same chapter."
Leo started processing that bulk list of names, while being used to that particular quirk of Margaret's, it was still something that astounded and annoyed him, "Ok that's a lot of people and three of them in the immediate family of the President at the time. What did you do throw a lets watch porno in the White House party?"
"Sort of, it was a bachelorette party."
"A batchelorette party? But you listed guy names in there."
"Well Charlie found the equipment that allowed us to screen it, Bill was the projectionist, and Kenny was there because Joey was there."
"You screened this in the theater? Wait a minute you mentioned another guy's name. Who was this Danny? Concanon made himself scarce well before we were considering Russell."
"Well he was the one who got the film."
"Let me get this straight you arranged for a screening of a pornographic movie staring the Vice President's wife, in the White House theater, with the majority of the First Family, White House senior support staff, other people who work at the White House, a Republican, and A senior reporter for the Washington Post!? Tell me how any of this sounded like a good idea!"
"That reminds me, we need to check your blood pressure in a little bit."
"Forget about the blood pressure for a moment woman! Because if you don't have a damn good reason, in the next 30 seconds, its not going to matter!"
Margaret looked around at the secret service agents who had now directed their attention at the yelling man in the wheel chair. "Calm down Leo. I have a good reason. I didn't arrange the entertainment CJ did, and since it was Bonnie's party and she was the one that suggested it I think it's only fair to blame her for watching it the second time."
"Second…Time! .... … OK I need a moment. … … Okay. … Now I want you to tell me from the beginning the story of this party."
"Back to 1965, or do you want me to skip ahead to when Danny was made aware of the film's existence?"
"Danny. Start with Danny."
"Danny Concanon was doing a little guest lecturing at Colorado State University while researching his last book, around the time Russell was confirmed. As he tells it he was sitting in a bar working on some notes, when footage of Russell being sworn in appeared on the TV. A couple alumni were sitting at the bar and recognized Mrs. Russell. 'Hey isn't that Christine Laseter?' 'Well it seems that she's Christine Russell now.' 'Seriously? ... Hunh now don't that beat all, one of those Chi Zetas is now the wife of the Vice President of these United States. What do you bet he doesn't know what she was like when she was here? Damn what a fine piece of ass!'
Danny went over to them and said he couldn't help overhearing that they knew Mrs. Russell while she was a student here. 'Knew her? I think we her body better than she did ain't that right boys.' Danny bought them a few rounds and heard drunken stories of bravado & testosterone. How did he put it something like: 'stories of debauchery on a scale that I have never heard of before, and I used to write about politicians for a living. For crying out loud, if I believed half the stuff I heard I would be trying to see if I could get commission for brokering their deal with "Hard Copy".' Then they told this about how she and a couple of her friends helped out at a recruiting party for new pledges one year, and one of them remembers how one of the guys in the frat was a had an uncle who was a big wig at Kodak who gave him one of those new super 8 camera setups, and a ton of film. 'Remember we used to show those films about once or twice a month until the guy graduated at the end of that year.' 'Did he take the film?' 'No he left it for the house, but nobody had a projector for it so we just hung on to it for a while and then put it in a time capsule since we couldn't watch it, and we figured it represented the times.' 'Oh yeah, too bad, it's probably worth something now, but no one will see it again till 2067.' 'What's to stop someone from opening it?' 'We all swore an oath. More importantly it's buried in the house archives. Someone would have to have access to the them, which is pretty much limited to the active members living in the house, know what they are looking for, and willing to spend hours searching for the right box, and who would want to do that?'
Well when Danny finally left the bar he went directly to his office and emailed one of his students who lived in that fraternity, and the personnel director at the Washington post. He then went shopping online and bought a dozen super 8 film cartages from that time period. The next day he met had a meeting with the student he emailed. Apparently he was a struggling student who showed a lot of promise, and had asked for a reference for some of the summer internships he was applying for. Danny offered him a deal a guaranteed good grade in class and a internship at the Washington Post, (which was far more prestigious and better paying than any of the internships he had a chance of getting on his own), in exchange for working as his research assistant and access to the TKE archives."
"So Danny bribed a kid to help him grab the film?"
"Yeah, after days of digging through a huge storage room and having the kid look for useless information Danny found the box. After breaking the seal he found 9 cartridges and some other stuff. He sent the kid to go get some soda and swapped them with the blanks he bought. They re sealed the box and finished their research. The kid doesn't know that they were stolen and it's unlikely that anyone will know. If anyone asks they'll find out that the only person doing research in there recently was a reporter, and if they actually existed then why didn't the reporter publish the lucrative story?"
Berryhill looked at Margaret with amusement as he asked the obvious question: "Why didn't he?"
"Because he felt bad about his role in that whole thing with Zoey, and CJ had gone out on a limb to help him risking serious repercussions, and he wanted to make amends by quashing the story. He wasn't even planning on letting CJ know what he did. But about a year later when that stuff started to get really bad with Andi, and after it became known that Mrs. Russell made her second attack on Ellie's research, he finished his book and came back to DD. After Several brush offs he finally managed to sit down with CJ and talk things out. After letting her know where he stood on things, he gave her the cartridges as a sign of good will. He told her what was on them and only asked that if they were ever viewed that he could be there for the first screening so he could see what was on them."
"Where are they now?"
"Well you know how CJ occasionally talked about getting information from the sisterhood's house of blackmail? Not so much a house as much as a series of safety deposit boxes, It's safe."
Leo couldn't help but grin at that. "And That Mr. Vice President is why we never cross the sister hood. … What I'm curious about is you said things got better then between the two of them everything went to hell."
"Yeah their relationship seemed to improve and they managed to tolerate and be civil to each other most of the time. Someone even managed to convince the First Lady to offer her the position of COS to the First Lady, which triggered the big blowup."
"Well anyone who knows her could have told you that that wasn't going to go well. What was the fallout?"
Christine got into a snit and the Russells crossed her off the list of people cleared to attend the Kennedy Center Honors Reception with out telling them. When they showed up they were let in since they had the invitation and they were known to the guards. She was then stopped by the secret service, and had to go through a long process of figuring out what had happened. Since the invitation was for him and a guest and she had been thoroughly vetted they let them in. Later Bob escorts them into another room, shouting was heard and then they left right afterwards. That was how they left things when they left for their vacation. They became persona non gratis at the White House and I don't think that they really care."
"Did you know anything about this?"
Margaret paused for a moment picking her words. Leo knew this meant she only did this when she was avoiding actually revealing any information, because usually she would blather on ad nauseium, giving every fact that the photographic memory could recall. "All I'm going to say is this. The First Lady wasn't the sole person in that family that had a grudge with her, and they didn't make up their minds on the whole California thing till the 8th."
Berryhill looked at the two perplexed: "What's on California?"
"What have you heard about next years California gubernatorial campaign?"
"Not much except whomever we run is going to lose, that actor is still to popular. We won't take that state back unless he decides to leave politics or that amendment he's been pushing gets past and he ends up running a national campaign, why"
"Have you heard that Senator Sam Seaborne is assembling an exploratory committee?"
"No. Is Seaborne going to ask him to run his campaign?"
"He's going to approach them to run his campaign as equal partners and then stay on as his COS and DCOS, because he knows that is what they are, a team. The only chance of getting him by is by getting her. And with him comes the backing of Frank Pierce and better than even odds of getting the spin power of the Zeiglers. And that is the start of a team that will put someone like Seaborne in the white house in seven years. Frankly Sam knows that fatherhood is to big of a draw for his old friend to not make it a family effort, he has already had a successful 25 year career and he wants her to have the same opportunity."
"Isn't Seaborne like one of his oldest friends and Zeiglers former protégé wouldn't he be able to get them any way?"
"Well that and the Blessing of Josiah Bartlett might be enough to get him despite the fact that he knows he would do more good for his country by going back to D.C. right now. We don't know how bad we're bleeding right now but its bad and it's probably going to get worse much worse. Even if everybody survives and honestly you need to be prepared for the certainty that they all won't and of those who do survive not all of them will come back, and to be perfectly frank you are going to need even more help than you had before to get this country past this. If I could be there with you for all this I would, and I will do what I can, but we both know you are going to need the best people to reunify the country. I can help you get him and because the country needs him right now I will, but you have to make me a few promises otherwise I'll let you try again on your own and work on a list of alternates. "
"What do you mean by promises?"
"Well Jed and I both think of him as a son, but we aren't going to be around forever. If I bring him in I want your personal assurance that he's going to be taken care of, that his family is going to be taken care of. That you're going to give him the freedom to do his job on his own terms, and that no one is going to bail on him when something goes wrong. I made that mistake a couple of times and it always came back to bite me in the ass. Things are going to happen but you need to have faith that he will be able to pull through. He always has. You should let him bring some people in, he is furiously loyal and he has a lot of good people who are just as loyal to him. And finally that you will listen to his advice and truly give it the consideration it deserves."
"Are you sure he's worth putting that much on the line for?"
"Well the way I see it is I'm over anyways, and that's a very freeing place to negotiate from. If you mean if I think playing hardball is what's best for the country, no I don't, He like a son to me and if I brought him in only to be chewed up and spit out then I'm not doing what's best for him or the country."
"Sir I'm sorry, but they just recovered President Russell's body. Sir there is a judge on his way to swear you in then we have arranged for a helicopter to take you to your plane we can arrange to transport Mr. McGarry as well."
Berryhill looked at the agent for a second then remembered to continue breathing, then he turned back to Leo "All right, do what you need to do, set it up quick, this is going to be a huge job and I need the best, but since he is only able to work part time right now, I guess we are going to have to settle for Josh Lyman."
TBC
"Oh my god! Leo… Leo you're going to try and bring him back in, aren't you?"
