"Good news!" Sam popped into Josh's office.
"What?"
"First you have to acknowledge that I'm the best Deputy Chief of Staff ever to serve in the White House."
"Will you settle for you're better than Calley?"
"Better in your eyes than a Republican who once had a fling with Donna? Fine, I'll take it." Sam sat down. "Anyway, I just got back from a meeting with Senator Bryant. He's on board with the Medicare bill."
"Really?" Josh's face lit up. "Maybe you are the best Deputy CoS ever to serve around here."
"No, still only second best," Sam conceded with a smile.
"What got him off the fence?"
"Well, with the economy in the tank in Michigan, and the number of uninsureds through the roof, it wasn't actually that hard. I showed him our polling that has support for universal health care in Michigan at 56%, and assured him that the President would remember his vote on this when election time rolls around…"
"Good work," Josh told him. "Four more votes and we're at 50. Can you believe it? This thing might actually happen. Man, how many decades have Democrats wanted…" his voice trailed off as something on the television caught his attention.
Sam turned to see what he was looking at. Josh grabbed the remote and turned the volume up.
"Some startling allegations are being made this afternoon about a White House staffer," the news anchor began. "Bruce Lamb, who coincidentally is the cousin of Wisconsin Congressman Sean Lamb, is claiming he had a one-night encounter with, and subsequently paid for an abortion for, Donna Lyman, Chief of Staff to First Lady Helen Santos."
"What the…" Sam gasped quietly.
All the color drained from Josh's face. He slowly got up and walked toward the television. Sam put a steadying hand on his shoulder.
"We're just getting this in," the reporter continued. "Let's go now to a press conference by Mr. Lamb currently underway." A man speaking at a podium appeared on the screen.
"I met her at a bar about seven months ago," Bruce Lamb told reporters, "She'd definitely had a lot to drink, and I could tell she was flirting with me, but I didn't imagine she was actually interested. After all, everyone knew she was engaged to Josh Lyman. She started to leave the bar, and I didn't want her driving herself home in that condition, so I offered to take her. While we were driving, she started to light up a joint. I asked her not to because I didn't want my car smelling like pot smoke. But I was surprised, you know, that someone in her position used drugs. She indicated that she uses heavier stuff pretty often as well. That's when she asked me to take her to my place. I asked her what about Josh, and she just laughed. So we went to my apartment, and well…I'm not proud of what I did, sleeping with another man's fiancée, but it happened. And then about two and a half months later, she told me she was pregnant, and that it was mine, and asked me to pay for an abortion. She said it was too risky for her to write a check to the clinic herself, and that if she took out enough cash to pay for it, Josh might ask questions. So I did. And I saved the invoice, which I have here." He held up some paperwork.
"Did you ever ask for proof that you were the father?" a reporter asked.
"No," he responded. "I had no way of knowing if I was or not, but I figured there was a chance I could be, so that was enough. If she wanted an abortion, I didn't mind paying for it."
"Why are you going public with this now?"
"Because it's been bugging me ever since. I mean, people's sex lives are their own business, but if she's using drugs while in such a high-level position at the White House…well, I just figured people had a right to know."
By the time Bruce was finished, Josh was breathing heavily, trembling with rage.
"Josh-" Sam began after a moment of tense silence.
"Son of a bitch!" Josh yelled, hurling the remote in his hand across the room.
"Josh, what-"
"The son of a bitch. The blackmail didn't work, so this is what's next." Josh began pacing around his office. "He's destroying her credibility so she won't-"
"So she won't what?" Sam began to look frightened. "Josh, what the hell is going on? What does Donna know about him?"
"And he gets his goddamn cousin to do his dirty work for him." Josh ignored Sam's question. "What a piece of…I have to find her." He headed toward the door to his office, nearly running into Lou as he did so.
"Just tell me it's not true," Lou practically barked at him.
"Of course it's not true!" Josh exploded. "Jesus, Lou, is that what you think of her?"
"Josh," Sam put a hand on his friend's arm. "This isn't Lou's fault."
"Where did he get that invoice he gave to the media?" Lou asked.
"How the hell should I know? Probably a Photoshop job or something. I have to find Donna."
Josh stepped out of his office and walked down the hall in the direction of the East Wing. He soon came across Donna standing by herself, watching a TV screen that was set up near the hallway. Almost immediately, he could tell she was crying.
"Donna."
She turned toward him, and he walked over to her and pulled her into his arms.
"He forged that invoice…he's just making things up…" she choked, burying her head in Josh's shoulder.
"I know, I know," he whispered, stroking her hair. "We're going to fix this. Don't worry."
"I hate him. I hate him so much."
Josh didn't think he'd ever heard Donna say she hated anyone before. "Me too."
He held her for a few minutes until she had composed herself.
"Come on. We're going to fix this," he repeated, nudging her gently in the direction of his office. "It's going to be okay."
She nodded and walked with him back toward his office.
"Hey everyone," she glanced around at Sam, Lou, and now Otto and Jennifer, who had all congregated in the office.
"Hey Donna," Sam reached out and rubbed her arm consolingly.
"Okay," Lou sighed. "We have to come up with a way to handle this."
"The White House does not comment on the personal lives of staffers," Jennifer suggested their standard response.
"The allegation of drug use makes that one harder," Lou responded. "We don't comment on whether she's one of the mythical one in three White House staffers who's on drugs?"
"Lou," Josh shot her a warning look. He was in no mood for jokes right now.
"Sorry."
"Donna." They all turned to see Helen Santos walk into Josh's office.
"Mrs. Santos," Donna suddenly felt fresh tears spring to her eyes.
The First Lady walked over and gave her a hug. "I just heard. When you weren't in your office, I figured you were probably here."
"Mrs. Santos, it's not true, none of it."
"I know that, Donna. Of course."
She swallowed hard and looked at her boss, thinking of the embarrassment this scandal could cause the White House, and the First Lady in particular. She took a deep breath. "I didn't do what he said I did, but I know this could be an embarrassing story that could hurt the President's agenda, and that's the last thing I want." Her voice shook slightly. "You'll have my resignation-"
"Don't even finish that sentence," Helen interrupted her. "You think I'm going to let you resign because some idiot goes on TV and spreads lies about you?"
"I appreciate that, Mrs. Santos, but…"
"No buts. You're not getting out of this job that easily."
Donna managed a smile. "Thanks."
"Donna, look," Lou chimed in, her voice firm, "if we're going to be able to do damage control on this, we need to know what we're dealing with. You have to tell us what's really going on with this Congressman."
"She doesn't 'have' to tell you anything, Lou," Josh snapped.
"Josh, I get that this is hard for you, but if in this situation you can't be a Chief of Staff instead of a husband, maybe you should step out of the office while we discuss this."
"You're asking me to leave my own office? Do I need to remind you that I'm your boss?"
"You're so cute when you pull rank," she snapped back.
"Stop it, both of you," Donna interrupted. "Josh, Lou's right." she took a breath, and then continued. "Sean Lamb was an old boyfriend of mine back when I lived in Wisconsin. He was abusive, which was why I left him, and now I guess he's afraid I might decide to go public with it, so he's trying to stop me."
"Oh God," Sam sighed.
Lou bit her lip. "I'm sorry, Donna, I really am."
"It's okay. I mean, it was a long time ago. But anyway…that's why he's doing this."
"But why his cousin?" Sam pondered. "Why would he get someone with an obvious connection to him to make these allegations? Unless his cousin was the only person he knew who was sleazy enough to…"
"No," Josh's face was grim. "He wanted the connection to be there. That way, if she were to go public about what he did, it would look like retaliation."
"What a complete jerk," Otto shook his head.
"Okay," Lou sighed. "First, we need to get high-resolution images of that invoice he turned over to the media. I'm sure it's on the internet by now. Hopefully the idiot is bad enough at forgery that we can take him down that way. Meanwhile, Donna, I think you should issue a statement denying the story. And Jennifer, your response to the press should simply be that we take Donna at her word."
Donna nodded in agreement. The impromptu meeting in Josh's office ended, and Mrs. Santos put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as they headed back toward the East Wing.
"Don't worry, Donna. We'll get through this."
She nodded numbly. She couldn't believe this was happening. What had she done to him, anyway? She hadn't caused any trouble for him during his campaign. He had no reason to believe she ever would have. And yet, for no other reason than apparently just to put his mind at ease, he was willing to ruin her life.
She realized she had meant what she had said to Josh earlier. She hated Sean.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"You know, it's been tough going lately for those of us in the late-night comedy show business. There hasn't been a good, juicy White House sex scandal since Vice President Hoynes resigned. But just when we all thought might have to resort to coming up with clean, tasteful jokes, along comes Donna Lyman!"
Donna blinked back tears as she watched the Tonight Show monologue. She still couldn't believe this was happening.
Josh, who was sitting next to her on the sofa, grabbed the remote and turned it off. "You don't need to listen to that."
"I might as well. Everyone else in the country is going to. I'm going to be the butt of every late night comedian's jokes for…well, I don't even want to know for how long."
"Donna…"
"That's what I am now, Josh. A blonde, pot-smoking bimbo. I'm never going to be taken seriously in politics again."
"That's not true."
She stared silently for a moment at the blank television screen. "I have to resign."
"You already tried. Mrs. Santos wouldn't let you, remember?"
"She was just being nice," Donna turned to look at him. "But this story hurts her too. People are going to talk about why she would have a seedy character like myself working for her. The National Review already has a column on their website saying she should fire me, that it's un-First Lady like for her to be associating with someone like…" her voice broke off as a lump formed in her throat.
Josh wrapped his arm around her. "Who cares what The National Review says, anyway?"
"Lots of people. And it hurts the administration, too. The President doesn't need this kind of distraction while he's trying to pass his Medicare plan."
"Listen to me," Josh kissed her on the forehead. "Once we prove this guy is lying about you, the public is going to be so outraged that the President's approval ratings will go up. You'll probably help him get votes for the Medicare bill."
"How are we going to prove he's lying?"
"Lou already has people analyzing that invoice. If they can prove it's a fake…"
"And if they can't?"
"They will."
"I could have stopped this. If I'd told people during his campaign what he did, I could have stopped him from ever getting elected. And you know, there were times when I thought about it, but I just didn't think it would be worth it. If I'd known he was going to do this…"
Josh was quiet for a long moment. "You still could…if you wanted to."
"Go to the media?"
"Yeah."
"You said it yourself. It would look like retaliation."
"Maybe. But it might be worth it. He's so afraid of being exposed – give him something to be afraid of."
"Josh, if I did that, it would be all they'd talk about on cable news for a month. The media loves soap opera crap like that. I can't imagine the President would be all that happy about me turning a few bad news cycles into a full-blown White House melodrama."
"Donna, you should have seen the President when he heard about this. He was livid. I think he was almost as mad as I was. Believe me, he'll support anything you want to do to get this jerk."
"I couldn't prove anything anyway. It would be his word against mine."
"What about the hospital records from when you went to the ER?"
"That wouldn't prove he'd caused the injuries. I…told the hospital I fell down some stairs," she admitted with a twinge of embarrassment.
"And they bought that?"
"Not really, I don't think, but since I wouldn't tell them anything different..."
"Donna, do you think you're the only woman he's done this to?"
"Probably not. Why?"
"If you came forward, others might too. I bet he knows that and that's exactly what he's afraid of."
She looked at him. "Is that what you think I should do?"
He was quiet for a moment. "I don't know," he finally concluded. "It's just…one possibility, that's all. I just can't stand the thought of this guy getting away with what he's doing."
"I know," she sighed and leaned against him.
