Five o'clock came and found Donna, C.J and Toby gathered in the outer office of the West Wing. They hadn't had a chance to all get together since leaving the Oval Office the previous afternoon. The President came out of the office behind a line of advisors, and Josh. The advisors greeted the Senior Staff members and Donna politely and continued their own discussion out the door.

"Ah, you made it," the President said, with mock surprise as he surveyed the group.

"I think I have some information for you," Toby said neutrally. But he looked sideways at Josh, who was looking sideways at him.

"Josh and Sam were trying to find a way to overthrow the government," C.J said, trying to draw the two men out of their standoff.

"Does that mean you're not going to look at those statistics for me, Josh?" the President asked.

"No, sir, I will," Josh said, wanting desperately to know what was going on here. The President waited. "I'll go and do that now."

"Thank you, Josh."

Josh knew dismissal when he heard it.

He said, "Thank you, Mr President." But he cast a speculative glance over the assembled group before he left.

The President looked at his aide.

"He's in the situation room, sir," Charlie said.

The President nodded and lead the group silently out behind the secret service agents. Charlie didn't need to look speculative.

Leo knocked politely on the First Lady's office door. Max opened it and Leo look expectantly at the young man.

"Good Afternoon, Mr McGarry," Max said.

"Max, call me Leo," he said, yet again. "Is Abbey in?"

"Yes, sir, the First Lady here. She should be out of her meeting soon."

"We hold the same positions, Max, call me Leo," Leo said. He'd even managed to train Charlie out of it.

"Due respect, sir, you're Chief of Staff to the President. I work for the First Lady, I talk to Josh."

"I've know you since you were fourteen," Leo said.

He was tired of having this argument with this man. But he was also on edge about this meeting with Abbey, and he didn't mind taking it out on her staff.

The meeting broke up and Abbey was there before Max had to reply. She waved the people off with false smiles and grimaced at their backs.

"Leo! Come in, come in," Abbey said, waving him through. "Hang on, is this bad news?"

"I don't know," Leo said.

Abbey sighed and lead him through to her office.

"What is it Leo?" she asked, softly demanding everything he knew.

"You heard about Charles Owens's death?"

"Jed told me, he said that they didn't know what it was but there were several complications."

"Yeah. The President was meeting with Toby, C.J and Donna when I took it to him."

"That's an odd group, isn't it?"

"Yes. Josh came to ask me why they were meeting, he saw them just now. I couldn't tell him anything, but he was worried."

"Leo," Abbey said his name as a warning. Whatever was going on, it wasn't his place to ask her. But she knew he would.

"I know why you left, Abbey. And I helped you then. I need your help now."

"I can't do that, Leo," she said immediately. And he knew that she'd already thought of it.

"Abbey," he said, the tone that said 'this is Leo.' "I'm not asking you find out what's going, but I need to know how bad it might be. And if anything at all is effecting the President's judgement on other things, I need to know what I need to compensate for."

"No you don't, Leo. I don't care how difficult it gets for you, it's the President. It's his job to ensure the security of this country. And sometimes it's going to be necessary for you not to know things so you can do your job."

Leo got the distinct impression that they were talking about two distinct issues at the same time. He had one card left to play.

"I didn't ask for anything, or any explanation when you ran to me, Abbey."

"I don't believe you," she stated calmly, but Leo could hear the disgust. "If it's bad, I'll protect you."

"I don't need your protection."

"You might."