Josh, then Mrs Arnold, then Janet, then Josh; that was the pattern of Sam's day. He accepted the routine which amazed Josh as based on his few meetings with Mrs Arnold he was sure a daily visit from her would drive him to distraction. After a couple of weeks, Sam added a new feature to the routine, a phone call to CJ.

His first call came after he had looked at the files that he found in his briefcase which had been put in the back of a cupboard in the spare room. He spent ten minutes explaining to CJ why she had to make sure that Congressman Garner was seated nowhere near Governor Calley when the President attended the DSCC Dinner. CJ thanked him for his advice and assured him it wouldn't be a problem. She then went straight to Toby.

"Sam just called."

"He did?" Toby put down the piece of paper he was holding and gave her his full attention.

"He wanted to make sure I kept Garner and Calley apart at the DSCC Dinner."

Toby frowned. "The dinner that took place over two months ago?"

"Yeah."

"That would have been good information to have two months ago."

"Yeah," CJ agreed remembering only too well the time it took to explain Garner's refusal to shake hands with Calley which was wrongly interpreted as a sign of disapproval of Bartlet's presence at the dinner.

"So he's, what, checking where we're up to?"

"No, I think that in terms of where we're up to, Sam's still in September."

"It's November."

CJ nodded. "Not for Sam."

When she left, Toby picked up his diary and flicked back to the weeks before the accident. He looked at all the addresses, speeches and remarks Sam would be thinking they still had to write. It was about this time of year he and Sam would start thinking about the State of the Union. Toby blew out a deep breath as he thought about going through that process without him. He wished Sam wouldn't keep disappointing him like this. Just when he had managed to convince himself Sam was nearly back, he'd do something like this. He wished Sam had phoned him, not CJ.

By the beginning of the second week of Sam's calls to CJ, she wished he was calling Toby too. She put the phone down after assuring Sam she would tell Josh not to meet with Bill Henney without getting the Market Access Committee onside first, and let her head fall to the desk. "Carol!" She sat up again on hearing the door open. "Get Josh and Toby here the first five minutes they have."

After her meeting with Josh and Toby, CJ went with them to Leo's office for what should have been a short meeting about final arrangements for a trip to California. It was Margaret who dropped the bombshell.

"The President's double booked!"

Leo looked up at her and frowned. "Double booked? How does a president get double booked?"

"I guess the same way anyone does. Two events have been put in his diary for the same afternoon, except, when it's a dentist or something it's a lot easier to deal with because the two events probably aren't in different states." Margaret ended her explanation by putting the diary on Leo's desk. "It's a bit of a problem," she added as if everyone in the room wasn't already aware of that.

Leo put his glasses on, reached for the diary and sat down. "Okay so it comes down to who we want to offend the least."

"I like this game," Josh announced. "No, wait, I like the 'who do we want to offend the most' game."

"So what are the choices?" Toby asked.

"We can offend the Workers of the American Cord & Webbing Company in Rhode Island, or we can offend Senator Boxton in California."

"Do we need any cord and webbing?" Josh asked.

"We can probably afford to offend Rhode Island more than we can Senator Boxton." Toby looked to CJ for his thoughts.

"Can we? What will make a better headline, senator snubbed or 254 workers snubbed?"

"They're both pretty lame headlines," Josh pointed out.

Leo leant forward and clasped his hands. "I don't know, I think we have to go with the Senator on this one. We can reschedule the factory tour."

Toby raised his eyebrows. "CJ's right. It won't play well if we don't do the factory tour. This one could be biting us for some time. We've already cancelled the Milwaukee trip and you know how that went down."

"It'll just cause a little noise, Toby, we can deal with that. Boxton's noise could be kinda more damaging in the long run."

"No one's gonna care about us missing a dinner date. A lot of people are gonna care about us standing up over two hundred workers. Is there something going on here that I don't know about?"

"There's nothing going on. The President's going to California. I can smooth things over in Rhode Island when I get back. It's not as if-"

"Ah!" Toby, smacked his forehead. "I know what's going on."

"Well, you're the only one who does!" Leo said, annoyed at being interrupted so dramatically.

Toby stuck his hands in his pockets and turned to Josh. "Leo thinks we should go to a dinner for a senator over all the positive media attention not to mention political gain a trip to the Cord webbing whatever, could gain us, which isn't in California." He looked at Josh knowingly. Josh looked at CJ in confusion.

CJ glanced at Leo who was beginning to turn a little red. "I am a woman and unlike men we are able to be both incredibly intelligent and yet sensitive and in-tune with life's softer moments. Leo's choice is one not driven by intelligence but by a stronger force. A force that no man can reason with."

Josh looked at Leo and was amazed to see the man he admired so much looking what Josh could only describe as sheepish. "CJ, would that force be the force of love?"

"It would, Joshua. Leo's heart is being pulled towards California where Claire Seaborn is no doubt pining away as we speak."

Josh nodded. "Love is a beautiful thing. What man can say he is wiser than a man in love when love itself is merely -"

"If I look up in the count of three and see anyone in my office the next thing they'll be doing is packing their joke book in a cardboard box while being watched over by a secret service agent!" Leo's redness was now caused by anger and CJ, Toby and Josh had probably not moved as quickly as they did to scramble out of his room for quite some time.

Later, Toby smiled to himself as the President's schedule arrived on his desk. The Cord and Webbing factory tour safely back on the agenda.

Josh was tired when he arrived at Sam's that night. He knew the plan: CJ would arrive, followed by Toby. Josh and Toby would go to a bar while CJ stayed with Sam and then they would both return and continue with the plan. It was a good plan as plans went. Not one of their best but then none of them were firing on all cylinders at the moment. Josh was worn out, Toby was fretting over the upcoming State of the Union and writing it without Sam and CJ was wearing herself out trying to keep all of them going.

None of them were as tired as Sam though. He seemed to be more exhausted as the days wore on and he continued to recover. To Josh it seemed that every step he made with his mental recovery was at the cost of his physical progress. Maybe that was how it was meant to be. The body could only heal one thing at a time and Josh decided he would rather have a worn out Sam than an energetic shadow of him.

He'd had a shower and grabbed something to eat before CJ arrived. She walked into the living room, hugged Sam and then pulled a file from her briefcase. Sam watched as she moved a chair in front of him and sat down.

"What's going on?" Sam asked as Josh joined them.

"I'm giving you a private press briefing." CJ explained.

Sam raised his eyebrows to Josh as if suggesting a private briefing from CJ was something a lot of men would happily pay for. Josh was so happy to see Sam with an expression that wasn't one of fear, confusion or indifference that he didn't see CJ's hand coming up to slap his head. "Ow! What was that for? Sam made the face!"

"You were nearer," CJ explained.

Once Toby arrived she hurried the two men out of the apartment and started to attempt to bring Sam up to speed with three months of events in one hour.

She started by showing Sam his diary. Telling him when he went into hospital and showing how the pages were blank not long after that. She explained what had happened with all the things he had been working on before the accident. Sam showed a mixture of surprise, resignation and pleasure as she continued to update him.

Occasionally he stopped her when he didn't understand or if he didn't remember what it was she was talking about. They stopped for coffee after a while and sat in silence.

CJ knew that she was on shaky ground. They were still being advised not to talk about the accident and whilst Sam now knew that he had been in hospital because of an injury to his head, he didn't know how the injury had happened. They had been told they could start to talk about work but they had been warned not to try to force memories or test Sam in any way. CJ looked at him sitting forward on the sofa staring into space. She wondered if bringing him up to date was a good idea or not. There wasn't much he could do with the information and it might be upsetting him to realise just how much he'd missed.

"Sam, do you want to carry on?"

He nodded. "Yeah, it's just weird to think all this happened while I was in hospital. I don't understand why I don't remember it, why I didn't watch the news or read a paper and why you didn't tell me all this back then."

If the ground had been shaky before it was trembling now. Toby had told CJ about his conversation with the doctor about denial. Josh had said a few times that he was worried by some of the things Sam was saying and he was becoming convinced Sam was going to have a hard time accepting his brain injury. Looking at her friend now, CJ had to agree.

"We didn't tell you because we didn't want to worry you with work stuff. We just wanted you to concentrate on getting better."

"You should have told me! You could have been keeping me up to date all this time. Don't you want me to come back to work, is that it? Do you think I can't do my job anymore?"

"God, Sam, no! No one thinks that! We can start giving you things to do if that's what you want. I can phone you every day and keep you in the loop. Toby thinks you-"

"I don't care what Toby thinks!" Sam looked at CJ as if surprised she would think he did.

"Okay." She nodded slowly not sure why Sam had said that and not particularly keen to find out. "Do you want me to carry on?"

Sam nodded and scooted over so CJ could join him on the sofa. She finished and placed the file on the table then reached for Sam's hand.

"Why don't I know all that," he waved a hand in the direction of the file. "Why can't I remember? I know things, I mean I'm the man people come to when they want to know things aren't I?"

CJ squeezed his hand. "You're the go-to man, Sam."

Sam smiled despite his frown. "I used to be. I remember..."

"What do you remember?"

"Me."

CJ had promised herself she would remain detached tonight. She knew getting upset wouldn't help Sam. She bit at her lip and forced her tears back. She couldn't think of anything to say so instead she reached forwards and pulled Sam into a hug. They only broke apart when the sound of the door opening heralded Josh and Toby's return.

"We have food from the finest pizzeria in DC!" Josh announced as he walked through the room on his way to the kitchen. Toby followed, catching CJ's eye and nodding towards the kitchen.

"How did it go?"

"Amazingly well considering Sam clearly thinks he only doesn't remember things that happened when he was in a coma."

"Told you!" Josh said as he placed four plates on top of the boxes and went into the living room.

Toby looked helplessly at CJ and because she remembered what Sam had said about him and she knew how shattered he would be if he'd heard it, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before following Josh out of the room.

Sam ate little and said even less. Josh kept up a steady stream of chatter about the bar they'd been to and how he'd beaten Toby at pool but then he too fell silent. CJ gathered the empty boxes and went to make some coffee asking Josh to help her.

"Have you spoken to Dr Graham recently?" she asked as she filled the coffee machine.

"Last Tuesday. Sam's got an appointment tomorrow and I said I'd go with him. Well, I promised Claire I would. Someone needs to be with him or, you know."

"He forgets everything that's said."

"No, it's not so much that he forgets anymore it's more like he hears what he wants to hear. This is why I was, as is usually the case, completely correct in my theory about Sam's denial."

"They don't call you Modest Josh for nothing."

Josh smiled. He reached up and brought down four cups. "I'll tell you something else; I think Sam's going to remember the accident soon, I hear him at night, calling out. He'll remember and when he does he'll have to rethink this whole, 'I think I must have tripped and knocked myself out' theory."

"Is that what he believes?"

"He doesn't believe he nearly died in car crash that's for sure." Josh watched the last of the coffee drip into the jug. "The other night he told me that he was going to sue the hospital."

"What for?"

"He thinks the medication he's on is causing him problems with his short term memory." Josh shrugged and shook his head. "I'm going to talk to the doc tomorrow, see what he says."

CJ sighed and leant against the counter. "God this is just a nightmare." She rubbed at her eyes and then went back to pouring the coffee but Josh stilled her hand.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Didn't we just summarise the main points?"

"There's something else. What happened tonight?"

She turned to face him. "Nothing, it was okay. Sam listened, made a few comments and got angry when I told him about the Fair Play Committee."

Josh raised his eyebrows. "I'm glad I didn't have to tell him about that one! What else?"

"It's probably nothing. I was trying to persuade him that we want him back at work and I was going to say about Toby wanting him to start looking at State of the Union memos but he interrupted me. He said he didn't care what Toby thought."

"Oh," Josh said with a frown.

"Yeah. It was more than that though it was the way he looked at me as if it was ridiculous to even suggest he would care what Toby thinks."

"What did you say?"

"I said 'okay' because I really didn't want to hear what he might say if I pushed him."

Josh linked his hands and rested them on his head. "Not good. There's absolutely no way that can be good."

"He said he remembers me."

"He's known who you are for weeks."

"No, I meant he said he remembers who he was. He remembers him." In some ways it was a good sign but Josh just looked incredibly sad. "I want you to know that I kissed Toby earlier because he looked sad and if I wasn't carrying this tray right now I'd kiss you too.

"They don't call you emotionally demonstrative CJ for nothing."

"Open the door," CJ ordered and Josh held it open for her and followed her back into the silent living room.