Saturday July 6, 2002. Washington DC – 7.15am EST

After being sent home by Leo, CJ, Sam and Toby had, in fact, migrated to CJ's apartment where they'd sat talking until the early hours. At around six, CJ came to and remembered looking at her watch last at around 4.30… 90 minutes sleep had been, frankly, more than she expected to get that night, but she couldn't help wondering if she'd be feeling better if she'd not slept at all. Her head was throbbing and as she pulled herself up out of her chair and headed in search of some Advil, she blearily noted that Sam and Toby were still asleep at either ends of the sofa.

CJ had woken them up and then sent them home to get cleaned up sometime around dawn. Taking the same opportunity she showered and changed and headed straight back into the office.

As she walked through the eerily quiet Operations bullpen she noticed that Josh's office door was now closed – it hadn't been the previous night. Testing the handle out of curiosity she found it locked and she couldn't help feeling that that was a disturbing development. Hurrying to her own office, she dropped her laptop and bag down on her sofa before heading over to Leo's. Margaret was already there and informed her that Leo was in and had meetings all morning, but that he wanted the senior staff to meet in the Oval at noon.

CJ couldn't help feeling rather deflated at this news – she had hoped that there would have been some developments in the short time she'd been away from the office – that something would have come up for her to do or deal with that could help Josh or help resolve this whole confusing situation. Feeling defeated, she was heading back towards her office when she saw Toby and Sam shuffle through the bay doors.

"Hey," Sam said wearily as he saw her.

"Hey, Spanky."

"I really wish you wouldn't call me that."

"Too bad."

"Weren't we here just a moment ago?" Toby grumbled as he walked into his office and flicked on the light.

"Aren't we always here?" CJ sighed, moving to lean against the doorframe.

"Yeah," Toby agreed quietly. They looked at each other for a few seconds before Toby spoke again. "Do we go and see Leo, or what?"

"I've just come from there," CJ sighed. "Margaret said he's in meetings until noon. We're to meet in the Oval for a briefing then." She paused and lowered her voice, conspiratorially. "Did you know that Josh's office is locked?"

"No - really?" Toby raised his eyebrows.

CJ raised her own in response.

"So where does that leave us?" Sam asked.

"I really have no idea," CJ sighed again. "I'm gonna…." She jerked a thumb over her shoulder in the general direction of the lobby and her office.

"Yeah…" Toby sat down at his desk, looking for all the world as though he had no idea what he was doing there. Sam simply nodded and headed in the direction of the coffee machine.

Just before noon, the three of them gathered in the Oval to await the President's arrival.

They hadn't been there long when the door from the portico opened and the president walked in, with Leo right behind him.

"Good afternoon, sir."

"Please sit." The three staffers took up places on the sofas as Leo and the President sat in the two carver armchairs nearest the desk. "Leo told me what you discussed after leaving the office last night. Would it surprise you to know that I was coming to a similar conclusion myself?" When they shook their heads, the president smiled. "And Abbey doesn't like my deductive reasoning skills," he joked. "About two am this morning, I had reason to find myself in Josh's office and, well, I'll spare you the details, but I started thinking later that there was some sort of clue there as to what had set him off. " Jed eyed his staff carefully, seeing shock and surprise on their faces in varying degrees.

"And then it hit me. I know Leo told you that Danny's conversation with Josh lasted for all of 47 seconds. And I kept thinking – that's not a lot of time for Josh to be told something he decided was so important that he needed to drop everything and head off to Egypt. But – supposing it wasn't the phone call that had him running off – supposing the phone call had simply been a precursor? What if the phone call had been 'hey I'm sending you an e-mail'? So this morning at 5am I had a meeting with Leo and Ron Butterfield. Ron had taken Josh's hard drive to see if Danny did indeed send him an e-mail."

Bartlet paused, waiting for his words to sink in.

"Ron had the administrator unlock Josh's account. but the e-mail wasn't there - he'd deleted it from his PC and the server. He even forwarded a copy to his private account before he left, so all we know right now is that there was an e-mail and an attachment. Ron's people resurrected the e-mail – all it had in it was a time and a date. But the attachment… well I know even less about these damned things than you do, except they always foul up when you need them the most. We've had to send it over to Mike Casper and his team at their lab. The report should be back sometime this afternoon."

He took a deep breath, knowing that what he was about to suggest was probably going to come as a bit of a shock.

"I should also tell you that I spoke to Stanley Keyworth this morning."

CJ's head jerked up immediately. "What did he have to say?"

The president shook his head gently. "He said that considering the symptoms we've started to notice, yes, it's quite possible that Josh is having a relapse."

CJ looked stunned. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words were forthcoming. She looked helplessly at Sam.

"What did he suggest?" he asked.

"That we get him to speak to someone as soon as possible."

"That's going to be a little difficult, sir, seeing as he's on the other side of the world right now."

"Yes - but in under an hour he's about to walk back on to American soil."

Leo knew that comment was coming, but the others didn't. You could have heard a pin drop as a stunned silence settled over the room.

"Sir - just what are you planning on doing?" Toby asked.

As Chief of Staff, and Josh's direct superior, Leo took over at this point. He knew it had unsettled the President enough to have to give the order in the first place, without having to go over it again.

"When Josh arrives, the embassy's staff has been given instructions to treat him as though nothing is wrong. We don't want to stir anything up too soon, and he's going to be allowed to make his phone call from a secure line. If anyone is going to tell him this, it's going to be me. The decision has been made for Josh Lyman to be relieved of his duties as Deputy Chief of Staff until his mental state has been properly evaluated. He's going to be taken to the American University Hospital for that evaluation and any necessary treatment."

A silence, even heavier than the one before, descended on the room, making the atmosphere feel almost suffocating. When CJ finally spoke, she felt as though she had been silent for hours, although in reality, it had been merely a few seconds.

"Oh, my God," she breathed, her eyes filling with tears of shock as she addressed the president. "Sir - you can't be serious? You can't ..."

"What choice do we have?" Sam muttered. CJ looked at him in amazement.

"What?" She flicked a swift glance at Toby to make sure that her ears hadn't deceived her. "What did you say?"

"We don't have any choice, CJ" Sam said, louder this time.

"SAM! Oh, my God, you too! I would have expected something like that from Toby… but you? You're his friend for God's sake!"

If Toby felt any chagrin at CJ's implication, he chose to let it pass, remaining silent as Sam went on.

"Yes, CJ, I am his friend," Sam snapped, his voice cracking. "And that's why I know we don't have any choice in this." Sam rose to his feet and started pacing in a fair imitation of Josh. "CJ, you weren't in here three days before Christmas two years ago. You weren't in this room when he lost it. I don't want this to happen, God knows I don't! I want Josh to be back here, and safe, and the person he has always been." The calm Seaborn resolve crumbled before them. "I want my friend back, CJ! And if the way to do that…. if it means we have to protect him from himself, then I say do it. I love him like a brother, CJ – and I want to help him. You have to believe that." Sam sat, now physically shaking, slowly clenching and unclenching his hands.

"CJ," the President said gently, "We all want what's best for Josh - and if that means we have to look out for him when he can't look out for himself," he sighed, "that's what we need to do. I didn't want to give that order, but I have to consider all the options, and at the moment, it seems as though this is the best available."

"Yes, sir. I know, but… I just keep thinking… could we all be over-reacting here?"

"CJ, I keep thinking that every moment. But until we see evidence to the contrary…"

There was a knock, and Charlie appeared in the doorway.

"Sir? Josh on line one for you."

Jed clenched his teeth and stood up. Walking back to his desk, he sat down and punched the conference call button on the phone, despising himself for what he was about to do.

"Josh?"