Hello all, obviously I don't own any of this!
Sam hung back until everyone else had left. Leo, seemingly oblivious to his presence, sat signing some papers and making notes for amendments on others.
'Leo?'
'Yeah.'
'I just wondered, I have a thing- I have a note here from you saying that you want a 3,000 word position paper on 'the advantages of cleaner air' by two o'clock?'
'Yeah?' Leo didn't look up.
'I mean, cleaner air is good, right? That's our position.'
'Sam-' began Leo wearily.
'I'm just saying, It's not like we're going to come down on the side of higher carbon monoxide levels for elementary schools-'
'Well then, Sam. I guess it won't take you long to write the paper.'
There was a pause.
'Leo, am I being punished for something?'
'Margaret!'
'It's just it feels like I'm being punished for something-'
At that moment Margaret bustled in, all fiery-haired efficiency, gathering up the papers Leo had just finished with and pointing out more for him to sign, before breezing out again. Leo took off his glasses and focused his attention for the first time entirely upon Sam.
'Sam, I'm the chief of staff to the world's most powerful man, I have a republican congress, a liberal agenda, popularity ratings in the forties and a hostile media breathing down my neck, why on earth would I want to waste my time with punishing you ?'
'Because I said I'd take Mallory to the theatre last night, and I had to stand her up to finish the Kaplan brief, which in a kind of way was your fault when you think about it, what with you being the one who told me I had to finish the Kaplan brief…'
'Sam,' said Leo flatly, 'take a look at my face.'
Sam did.
'I'm going to go back to work now.'
'Well Amen to that, Sam.' said Leo, as he stood up, straightened his suit, and moved to open the door that lead to the Oval office.
President Bartlett looked up from the briefing notes he was studying as he heard Leo enter, and looked at him questioningly over his reading glasses.
'You punishing Sam?'
'Oh, yeah.'
'Good for you,; said Bartlett turning back to the paper, before making a quick note in the margin and closing it with a satisfied thump, 'Us over-protective fathers have to stick together. I'm thinking about forming a union.'
'How did it go with the governor?
'He's pissed, but not nearly as pissed as he's pretending to be. He'll be okay, but it's going to cost us some time in Idaho before the mid-terms.'
'Could have been worse.' suggested Leo philosophically.
'Could have been better, I could have passed a law banning Josh from talking the day after my inauguration.'
'I'm not sure, but I think there may be an amendment dealing with that sort of thing.'
'This job's all about the small print isn't it?'
'Mr. President?'
Bartlett put his hands in his pockets and smiled, gently.
'I want to speak to Toby.'
Josh cut a forlorn figure as he left Leo's office and followed CJ towards the press room.
'So this is what happens now? I make a joke and the leader of the free world has to spend his morning on the phone to Idaho? Just because some potato farmers don't like me?'
'Check our approval ratings, Josh. Nobody likes you, hadn't you noticed?
Josh sighed, and turned towards his office 'I'm going to sit under my desk for a while.'
'Well just don't talk to anyone while you're down there.'
'Yeah, right.'
CJ watched Josh walk away for a moment; he looked like a dejected schoolboy, head down and hands in pockets. She almost called after him but she sensibly quashed the urge. She braced herself as she turned towards the press room and the inevitable fall-out. He'd bounce back soon enough on his own, unfortunately.
She spent the rest of the walk to her office with her head buried in memo papers, so lost in thought that she was actually at her desk before realizing with a start that Danny was sitting in the chair opposite her.
'How do you get in here?'
'So, Josh in trouble over the Idaho thing?'
'Seriously, is there a secret passage that I don't know about?'
'Because if he isn't, he should be, that was a little-league move, and you can't afford it, CJ, not right now.'
'Did you break in to my office just to slap me around or was there something I can do for you?'
'No, I broke in to your office to ask you to come to dinner with me; the slapping around thing was just small-talk.'
'Honest to god Danny, when you say things like that I don't know if you mean it, or if you're hoping to confuse me into winning you a Pulitzer.'
'Honestly, sometimes I don't know either.'
'That's what I thought.'
'There is one way we could both be sure,'
'Oh yeah, how's that?'
'Come to dinner with me.'
'I think we both know that's never going to happen.'
'Is the president worried about the approval ratings?'
'We'll bounce back, Danny-
'Listen, CJ the wind is blowing out there and it's pretty cold. Things keep going the way they are and you'll be a lame-duck presidency before you get into your third year.'
'Gee Danny; this how you get all the girls to go out with you, your sunny Californian optimism?'
'Yeah, well y'know, that and the small talk.'
'It's amazing that you're still single.'
'Well I don't get out as much as I should.'
'You could start by getting out now.'
'Brunch? I make great Bruschetta.'
'Goodbye Danny.' CJ held the door open, Danny didn't move.
'Potato salad?'
'Danny!'
'You seem very calm about this whole Kaplan thing.' Danny said it innocently enough, but his eyes were dancing as he said it.
CJ closed the door again. When she spoke her voice was like diamonds.
'What Kaplan thing?'
As CJ had predicted, Josh was well on the way to bouncing back, even as he got to his office. Donna met him at the door, effervescent with mischief. This was going to be a good day; Josh was in just the right amount of trouble for her to have a little fun at his expense-
-and she had to admit, he did look cute when he was feeling sorry for himself.
'You've your 9.30 on the hill and calls from the leader of the house, the minority leader, the DFC and the VP's office.'
'Finally! Something real to do, the business of government, Donna, amongst all the nonsense of the political y'know, bun-fight, the wheels of Democracy never stop turning.'
'Most of the calls are about the potato blunder.'
'Look, listen, okay, right, A. It wasn't a blunder, it was a joke, which absolutely anyone who doesn't spend their life talking to-' Josh flailed for the right word, '-tubers, would have understood, and B. IT WAS A JOKE.'
'Seriously though, you don't like potatoes? I never knew that about you, you like potato salad-'
'Donna.-'
'Or is it the people who grow the potatoes, because if it is, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with that-
'Donna!'
'It not that you dislike the people of Idaho in general, is it?'
'Don't you have some high-level executive typing to do or something, know somewhere else?'
'9.30 on the hill!' called Donna, grinning as she left Josh's office.
He called her back, suddenly struck by a thought.
'Donna.'
'Yeah?'
'Listen -Donna, you think I'm funny, right?'
'Am I under oath right now?'
'Never mind.'
'9.30 on the hill.'
Donna gleefully made her way out, almost running into Sam on the way,
Josh looked up dourly at Sam,
'Listen if you're here to make potato jokes, I promise you, I'm not in the mood.'
'Something which you apparently have in common with the great state of Idaho- but no, I'm here about something else,'
'Listen, you think I'm funny, right?'
'You going out up to the hill?' Sam asked, as Josh bustled around the office grabbing memos and files, stuffing them into his backpack as he went.
'Meeting with Kaplan. Seriously, you don't think I'm funny?'
'You brought the house down at the Press awards, you mind if I walk out with you?'
'You wrote that speech.'
'Well, I'm not saying you don't need help- Hey, I think Leo's punishing me.'
'Why?'
'He's got me writing a position paper on why we're against gassing people on principle.'
'That might cost us some votes in Texas.'
'I'll be sure and bring that up.'
'I mean, why is he punishing you?'
'I stood Mallory up last night.''
'I wouldn't worry about it.'
'You don't think he's punishing me?'
'Oh, he's definitely punishing you; I just don't think worrying about it will help.'
'You think I'm in trouble?'
'I would say absolutely yes.'
'Well that makes me feel a lot better.'
'Then my work here is done.'
They had reached the lobby, Sam turned back into the West Wing, as Josh headed out to the hill. Sam's mind had already turned to the position paper he had to write, and despite himself he started to get a little excited about the possible implications. Even on its' worst day, in trouble with the boss and laden with 'busy-work', five minutes working here was still better than a lifetime in corporate law. As soon as Sam entered the bull-pen he called to Bonnie
'Hey, I'm going to need all the statistics we have on industrial emissions and respiratory illness, and get me someone from Health and Environmental affairs on the phone as soon as we can.'
Bonnie didn't move-
'Sam quick, you're going to want to see this,' she gestured to the TV which constantly streamed CNN into the room, he recognized Kaplan immediately, but struggled for a moment to make out what he was saying, when he finally did, his eyes hardened.
Behind him all the phones started to ring.
