Authors Note: yeah, I know,
it's been a while. I've been having some trouble with these scenes, but
I'm over the bump now and while I started my josh and donna fan fic,
even though I swore I wouldn't until this was done, I am finally able
to press along with this epic. Expect more to come soon. Also I don't
own these people so place TPTB don't sue. And um feedback is nice.
Chapter Twenty Five – Pictures of You
It was near five in the afternoon by the time Gracie had unpacked her things from Manchester, settled in, and made her way to the West Wing. Mallory had pestered her into eating a sandwich, but she barely made it through the entire thing, opting instead to pick it apart and eat only the tomato and lettuce.
As punishment, Mallory had given her three more sandwiches with instructions not to return to the residence until they were delivered to and consumed by Huck, Josh and Sam. Laughing at the task, Gracie made her way through the White House on a quest to first and foremost, find her boyfriend. Her boyfriend... she smiled to herself thinking of Huck once again in that way. Evan was now merely an after thought. She thanked the stars above for her being mindful enough to tell him she'd be too distraught to want to see him that day, after just getting back from one of the worst nights of her life. He never needed to know that instead of Manchester being the most horrible experience she could have imagined, having lost Jed, the evening she had spent with Huck had made her happier than she'd been in a very long time.
She did call Evan though, and told him she was back, she was alright, and they made plans to walk the mall together the next day. She'd break it to him softly, in hopes that they could remain friends. She wouldn't let Donna's words, still lingering in her own thoughts, surface far enough to be spoken out loud. Not unless... no she knew Evan, the hurt, the shock, he had felt when she told him, he couldn't have made that up. Donna was just being cautious. It was her job.
When she finally got to the office outside of the Oval, Huck and Margaret's space, she was surprised to find it empty. It wasn't that she was surprised by Margaret's absence; she had opted to stay in Manchester just for the remainder of the evening to help out and comfort Abbey and Leo. More she was surprised at Huck's disappearance and more so, the wide open door of the completely empty Oval Office. Where was her father?
Her question was soon answered when she heard a collective gasp and continued yelling coming from the direction of Josh's office. Gracie darted through the Oval and found Josh, Sam, Huck and Ryan, staring at Donna's briefing on the television in front of them.
Donna scanned the press corps, shooting questions at her like a firing squad, looking carefully, hoping her choice wouldn't be one she'd later on regret.
"You," Donna pointed to an eager reporter in the back. "In the black shirt who I've never seen before..." she finished with a smile.
"Miss Moss," the reporter began before Donna cut her off.
"If we want to be technical its Moss-Lyman, but there's no Miss here, and its Donna," Donna interrupted with a smile.
The eager reporter looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yes Ma'am," the reporter smiled. "I'm Laura Dugan, from the Post, my question..." Laura paused, looking down, flipping a few pages on her ledger, and then looking back up. "There are allegations that the President knew of the attacks on the French Embassy, that he had warnings, NSC documents that he just ignored," Laura cleared her throat nervously. "Any comment on that?"
"Allegations..." Donna made a face. "Nasty word," Donna responded all too quickly. She could only imagine what Josh and Sam were thinking, even saying out loud as they watched in the other room. "As far as I know the President was never give any of these "alleged" warning, documents. I am his voice, therefore the President is truthful with me and you should all trust that he wouldn't lie."
"There are documents though," Laura continued. "I've seen them. In fact, I have a copy of one right here."
Donna paled. She could have sworn that she heard yelling from somewhere not too far away. Donna watched every movement as her assistant, Adam, walked swiftly to the reporter, took the document and brought it to her. She scanned it briefly, fought down the urge to scream then, looked back up at the corps, who had, for the first time since they entered the White House for Sam's administration, fallen completely silent.
"Well..." Donna began carefully. "I'll um..." she could feel herself for the first time stumbling over her words. "I'll brief again in a couple of hours," she exited the room as quickly as humanly possible to the questioning shouts of just about every member of the press.
"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Gracie asked as she watched Huck pace through the room; pulling files, gathering faxes, sorting papers, with a frantic sort of calm that she recognized all too well. For a moment he didn't answer and she thought that maybe he hadn't heard her. "Huck?" she asked again, this time slowly, inching towards a particularly inviting spot on his desk where she contemplated taking a seat.
They both sat down at the same time and Huck smiled.
"Gracie," he began slowly. "You know better than to ask me those questions."
"I'll just ask my dad then," she responded pointedly.
"That's fine," he began just as seriously. "You just... you know that I can't..."
Gracie sighed.
"Yeah, I know," she responded quietly. "It's just... I mean sometimes we can talk."
"Yes sometimes we can, but other times, not so much. You know how I feel about this, all of this. You know that this job is important to me."
"I know," Gracie responded with an apologetic nod. She smiled a smiled that he hoped she saved only for him.
"You are going to get me into SO much trouble," he laughed and she just smiled again. Huck sat back in his chair and moved to rest his feet upon his desk but stopped when he saw three wax paper wrapped squares sitting on his desk calendar. "What the..." he sat up examining the packages.
"They're sandwiches," Gracie responded with a giggle. "Mom made them. She insisted you, dad, and Josh eat something because she knew you'd be too busy to think about that sorta thing yourself. She also made Donna a salad, but I dropped that off before the thing."
Huck smiled as he picked up the square marked with his name.
"I love your mom," he replied with a smile as he opened up a tuna salad sandwich, his favorite.
"Yeah," Gracie responded proudly. "I think we'll keep her," she added with a grin. For a moment she watched Huck as he devoured his sandwich, then her eyes fell on something else. Having known Huck her entire life she knew that he was rarely what one would call sentimental. Not by standard definition at least. So it surprised her to find pictures on his desk with well-chosen frames and everything. While Huck ate, Gracie studied the pictures with contentment. Her eyes welled quickly with tears as she felt herself falling in love with him just a little more.
The first picture was one she'd recognized immediately – date, time and place. It was of Gracie, Huck, and Molly. They sat on an oversized brown sofa, sprawled out on top of each other in one big heap. Each of them wore jeans, sneakers, and "Seaborn for America" t-shirts. They were laughing, sitting underneath a sign that read Old Executive Office Building. The reason for all of the laughter, Gracie recalled, was the shock in Molly's tone as she learned that the OEOB and the Old Executive Office Building were one in the same. Molly had told Huck, Gracie and Josh, who had taken the photograph, much to their amusement, that even though she knew that the Seaborn for America transition offices were located in the OEOB, she never put two and two together. She even admitted to unsuccessfully googling OEOB to try and figure out what all of the fuss over some stupid letters was all about. Her reaction was what Huck and Gracie fondly called having a Molly moment. That was January twelfth; sometime late at night, after a youth fundraiser held in D.C. that the three most visible youths of the campaign trail had been honored to attend.
The next of four pictures Gracie remembered just as well, as a round of fresh tears threatened to spill. It wasn't the memory that made her sad; so much as the thought of what she could have lost. She was ridiculously happy in the picture, sitting on the steps just off the east room, after the final inaugural ball, marking the beginning of their term in office. Her dress, Oscar De La Renta couture, was a dream. She remembered feeling like a princess in the red ball gown as she remembered Huck's commenting that when she walked she looked like she was floating on air. In the picture he had been sitting on her dress. But there was so much of it that she hadn't noticed until now, looking at the photo, her first sight of it. The moment was as happy as it was sad. In a sea of red fabric was Huck, looking exquisite in his black tux and Gracie sat behind him, her bare arms slung over him, her head peeking over his shoulder. It was a defining moment in their relationship. A day later she dropped the news that she was going to Italy. A day after that, Huck had promptly broken up with her.
Gracie smiled as her eyes momentarily turned to Huck, sandwich in one hand, computer mouse in the other, as he clicked away, doing something she was sure was of the utmost importance. Her gaze then made its way to the next picture. This one made her smile even wider with a pride she'd never in a million years be able to explain. This picture, in a dark cherry oak frame was of her father, Toby and Huck, taken by one of the White Houses official photographers the same night as the picture with the red dress. Sam stood between the father and son, his arms slung over both of their shoulders and they were all smiling. Gracie remembered watching the photograph being taken like it had been yesterday. In that moment she knew that she was going to have to hunt down the White House photographers and find the proofs from that night and discover what other treats they had been hiding.
The fourth, and last photo in the line tugged at Gracie's heart in a different manner. It was an old photograph, Huck and Molly were about seven or eight and they sat on a love seat smiling in the arms of their mother. Gracie didn't remember much of Andrea Wyatt and Huck and Molly rarely spoke of her with more than a few words but she knew, deep down, that Huck had missed her each and every day of his life. Although CJ had been with the twins a majority of their life, acting as a surrogate mother, she had never overstepped her boundaries. And although Gracie knew that Huck regarded CJ with the deepest respect and love, she knew that CJ would always be CJ and Andrea would always be mom. That's just how Huck worked. She looked over at Huck, comparing the young boy to the grown up man who sat before her and smiled.
"Do I have mayo on my nose?" he asked staring at her staring at him.
"What?" she asked still momentarily dazed. He laughed, shaking his head.
"Where'd you go just now?" he asked with a soft smile. Gracie shook her head slowly.
"I was just... I was looking at your pictures," she finished with a smile. Huck smiled back, blushing slightly.
"Yeah I..." he turned to glance at them himself. "Donna yelled one day, said my space wasn't personal enough so I went through some boxes..." he laughed. "Talked to the guy with the camera at the ball and..." he smiled turning back to her. "What you see is what you get."
"I think they're fantastic," she responded smiling back.
"Yeah," Huck nodded. "Me too."
Donna took her time walking from the Press Room to the Oval where she was summoned immediately upon stepping down from the podium. She couldn't even remember what she'd said before she left to the shouts of a now agitated press room, she just knew that things, at least for the next couple of hours, were not going to be pretty. When she entered the Oval the remainder of the Senior Staff was waiting for her, each and every one of them somber in their own right.
"What's next?" Donna asked, collapsing onto the couch next to Zoey. No one said anything in reply. Donna looked around to low eyes and hung heads. The night wasn't going to end well.
"I didn't lie," Sam said finally. "If we learned anything, anything at all, the first time around we learned you do not lie. And I didn't lie."
"We know," Josh replied softly.
"It looks pretty bad Sir," Charlie commented quietly. "I saw the document... it's... they're pretty authentic looking to me."
"We need to..." Zoey began quietly. "We need to start painting a picture of this administration as trust worthy, noble, honest... we need..." she laughed bitterly. "This is our first big thing," she shook her head. "I don't know what we need. Maybe we should call CJ and Toby."
"Zoey," Ryan whined. "We can handle this."
Donna shook her head.
"I'm not so sure," she added softly.
"Donna?" Josh questioned.
"Maybe Zoey's right," Donna suggested.
"Guys come on!" Josh began slightly astonished by what he was witnessing. "We can handle this, we're not armatures, we've handled stuff like this before, its just the situation that's different. We can't..." Josh ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "We don't need outside help, we just need to figure out exactly what it is that is going on and fix it," he paused talking a good look around the room. "Now here's what we're going to do."
"CJ wants you to come over for dinner," Huck said suddenly. He had been working on his computer while Gracie sat at Margaret's desk reading a book the office of protocol had left on Presidential procedure.
"What?" she asked looking up.
"I said CJ wants you to come over for dinner," he paused and smiled. "Tonight."
Gracie smiled back.
"Sure. What time?"
"Well that's the thing... she said I should just bring you along when I come home, and we'd order Chinese or something, just as long as it was before midnight but who knows when I'm going to be getting out now that there's the thing."
"Oh," Gracie began softly. "Well I'll talk to my dad."
"Gracie..." he shook his head. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're not saying 'Dad, Huck needs to get out of work early so that we can have dinner.' I already told you, we can't let this get in the way of me doing my job," he sighed when he noticed her frowning at him. "Look, I know your dad almost as well as you do and I know that when you ask him to do something, he complies, he'd walk over hot coals for you. I don't want you using those powers over him to make him let me go home when he needs me to be here," he laughed when he saw her smiling. "Come on, you have to make this a little bit easier for me."
"I'm trying," she giggled. "Its just your so cute when you're all defensive."
He rolled his eyes.
"What time is it?" he asked staring at the door to the Oval where the senior staff still sat strategizing.
"Seven," Gracie replied with a dull sigh.
"Well I'm sure CJ watched the briefing and if she isn't on her way over, she'll be calling soon, I'll tell her to make sure to order for you."
Gracie smiled.
"But of course."
Chapter Twenty Five – Pictures of You
It was near five in the afternoon by the time Gracie had unpacked her things from Manchester, settled in, and made her way to the West Wing. Mallory had pestered her into eating a sandwich, but she barely made it through the entire thing, opting instead to pick it apart and eat only the tomato and lettuce.
As punishment, Mallory had given her three more sandwiches with instructions not to return to the residence until they were delivered to and consumed by Huck, Josh and Sam. Laughing at the task, Gracie made her way through the White House on a quest to first and foremost, find her boyfriend. Her boyfriend... she smiled to herself thinking of Huck once again in that way. Evan was now merely an after thought. She thanked the stars above for her being mindful enough to tell him she'd be too distraught to want to see him that day, after just getting back from one of the worst nights of her life. He never needed to know that instead of Manchester being the most horrible experience she could have imagined, having lost Jed, the evening she had spent with Huck had made her happier than she'd been in a very long time.
She did call Evan though, and told him she was back, she was alright, and they made plans to walk the mall together the next day. She'd break it to him softly, in hopes that they could remain friends. She wouldn't let Donna's words, still lingering in her own thoughts, surface far enough to be spoken out loud. Not unless... no she knew Evan, the hurt, the shock, he had felt when she told him, he couldn't have made that up. Donna was just being cautious. It was her job.
When she finally got to the office outside of the Oval, Huck and Margaret's space, she was surprised to find it empty. It wasn't that she was surprised by Margaret's absence; she had opted to stay in Manchester just for the remainder of the evening to help out and comfort Abbey and Leo. More she was surprised at Huck's disappearance and more so, the wide open door of the completely empty Oval Office. Where was her father?
Her question was soon answered when she heard a collective gasp and continued yelling coming from the direction of Josh's office. Gracie darted through the Oval and found Josh, Sam, Huck and Ryan, staring at Donna's briefing on the television in front of them.
Donna scanned the press corps, shooting questions at her like a firing squad, looking carefully, hoping her choice wouldn't be one she'd later on regret.
"You," Donna pointed to an eager reporter in the back. "In the black shirt who I've never seen before..." she finished with a smile.
"Miss Moss," the reporter began before Donna cut her off.
"If we want to be technical its Moss-Lyman, but there's no Miss here, and its Donna," Donna interrupted with a smile.
The eager reporter looked like a deer caught in headlights.
"Yes Ma'am," the reporter smiled. "I'm Laura Dugan, from the Post, my question..." Laura paused, looking down, flipping a few pages on her ledger, and then looking back up. "There are allegations that the President knew of the attacks on the French Embassy, that he had warnings, NSC documents that he just ignored," Laura cleared her throat nervously. "Any comment on that?"
"Allegations..." Donna made a face. "Nasty word," Donna responded all too quickly. She could only imagine what Josh and Sam were thinking, even saying out loud as they watched in the other room. "As far as I know the President was never give any of these "alleged" warning, documents. I am his voice, therefore the President is truthful with me and you should all trust that he wouldn't lie."
"There are documents though," Laura continued. "I've seen them. In fact, I have a copy of one right here."
Donna paled. She could have sworn that she heard yelling from somewhere not too far away. Donna watched every movement as her assistant, Adam, walked swiftly to the reporter, took the document and brought it to her. She scanned it briefly, fought down the urge to scream then, looked back up at the corps, who had, for the first time since they entered the White House for Sam's administration, fallen completely silent.
"Well..." Donna began carefully. "I'll um..." she could feel herself for the first time stumbling over her words. "I'll brief again in a couple of hours," she exited the room as quickly as humanly possible to the questioning shouts of just about every member of the press.
"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Gracie asked as she watched Huck pace through the room; pulling files, gathering faxes, sorting papers, with a frantic sort of calm that she recognized all too well. For a moment he didn't answer and she thought that maybe he hadn't heard her. "Huck?" she asked again, this time slowly, inching towards a particularly inviting spot on his desk where she contemplated taking a seat.
They both sat down at the same time and Huck smiled.
"Gracie," he began slowly. "You know better than to ask me those questions."
"I'll just ask my dad then," she responded pointedly.
"That's fine," he began just as seriously. "You just... you know that I can't..."
Gracie sighed.
"Yeah, I know," she responded quietly. "It's just... I mean sometimes we can talk."
"Yes sometimes we can, but other times, not so much. You know how I feel about this, all of this. You know that this job is important to me."
"I know," Gracie responded with an apologetic nod. She smiled a smiled that he hoped she saved only for him.
"You are going to get me into SO much trouble," he laughed and she just smiled again. Huck sat back in his chair and moved to rest his feet upon his desk but stopped when he saw three wax paper wrapped squares sitting on his desk calendar. "What the..." he sat up examining the packages.
"They're sandwiches," Gracie responded with a giggle. "Mom made them. She insisted you, dad, and Josh eat something because she knew you'd be too busy to think about that sorta thing yourself. She also made Donna a salad, but I dropped that off before the thing."
Huck smiled as he picked up the square marked with his name.
"I love your mom," he replied with a smile as he opened up a tuna salad sandwich, his favorite.
"Yeah," Gracie responded proudly. "I think we'll keep her," she added with a grin. For a moment she watched Huck as he devoured his sandwich, then her eyes fell on something else. Having known Huck her entire life she knew that he was rarely what one would call sentimental. Not by standard definition at least. So it surprised her to find pictures on his desk with well-chosen frames and everything. While Huck ate, Gracie studied the pictures with contentment. Her eyes welled quickly with tears as she felt herself falling in love with him just a little more.
The first picture was one she'd recognized immediately – date, time and place. It was of Gracie, Huck, and Molly. They sat on an oversized brown sofa, sprawled out on top of each other in one big heap. Each of them wore jeans, sneakers, and "Seaborn for America" t-shirts. They were laughing, sitting underneath a sign that read Old Executive Office Building. The reason for all of the laughter, Gracie recalled, was the shock in Molly's tone as she learned that the OEOB and the Old Executive Office Building were one in the same. Molly had told Huck, Gracie and Josh, who had taken the photograph, much to their amusement, that even though she knew that the Seaborn for America transition offices were located in the OEOB, she never put two and two together. She even admitted to unsuccessfully googling OEOB to try and figure out what all of the fuss over some stupid letters was all about. Her reaction was what Huck and Gracie fondly called having a Molly moment. That was January twelfth; sometime late at night, after a youth fundraiser held in D.C. that the three most visible youths of the campaign trail had been honored to attend.
The next of four pictures Gracie remembered just as well, as a round of fresh tears threatened to spill. It wasn't the memory that made her sad; so much as the thought of what she could have lost. She was ridiculously happy in the picture, sitting on the steps just off the east room, after the final inaugural ball, marking the beginning of their term in office. Her dress, Oscar De La Renta couture, was a dream. She remembered feeling like a princess in the red ball gown as she remembered Huck's commenting that when she walked she looked like she was floating on air. In the picture he had been sitting on her dress. But there was so much of it that she hadn't noticed until now, looking at the photo, her first sight of it. The moment was as happy as it was sad. In a sea of red fabric was Huck, looking exquisite in his black tux and Gracie sat behind him, her bare arms slung over him, her head peeking over his shoulder. It was a defining moment in their relationship. A day later she dropped the news that she was going to Italy. A day after that, Huck had promptly broken up with her.
Gracie smiled as her eyes momentarily turned to Huck, sandwich in one hand, computer mouse in the other, as he clicked away, doing something she was sure was of the utmost importance. Her gaze then made its way to the next picture. This one made her smile even wider with a pride she'd never in a million years be able to explain. This picture, in a dark cherry oak frame was of her father, Toby and Huck, taken by one of the White Houses official photographers the same night as the picture with the red dress. Sam stood between the father and son, his arms slung over both of their shoulders and they were all smiling. Gracie remembered watching the photograph being taken like it had been yesterday. In that moment she knew that she was going to have to hunt down the White House photographers and find the proofs from that night and discover what other treats they had been hiding.
The fourth, and last photo in the line tugged at Gracie's heart in a different manner. It was an old photograph, Huck and Molly were about seven or eight and they sat on a love seat smiling in the arms of their mother. Gracie didn't remember much of Andrea Wyatt and Huck and Molly rarely spoke of her with more than a few words but she knew, deep down, that Huck had missed her each and every day of his life. Although CJ had been with the twins a majority of their life, acting as a surrogate mother, she had never overstepped her boundaries. And although Gracie knew that Huck regarded CJ with the deepest respect and love, she knew that CJ would always be CJ and Andrea would always be mom. That's just how Huck worked. She looked over at Huck, comparing the young boy to the grown up man who sat before her and smiled.
"Do I have mayo on my nose?" he asked staring at her staring at him.
"What?" she asked still momentarily dazed. He laughed, shaking his head.
"Where'd you go just now?" he asked with a soft smile. Gracie shook her head slowly.
"I was just... I was looking at your pictures," she finished with a smile. Huck smiled back, blushing slightly.
"Yeah I..." he turned to glance at them himself. "Donna yelled one day, said my space wasn't personal enough so I went through some boxes..." he laughed. "Talked to the guy with the camera at the ball and..." he smiled turning back to her. "What you see is what you get."
"I think they're fantastic," she responded smiling back.
"Yeah," Huck nodded. "Me too."
Donna took her time walking from the Press Room to the Oval where she was summoned immediately upon stepping down from the podium. She couldn't even remember what she'd said before she left to the shouts of a now agitated press room, she just knew that things, at least for the next couple of hours, were not going to be pretty. When she entered the Oval the remainder of the Senior Staff was waiting for her, each and every one of them somber in their own right.
"What's next?" Donna asked, collapsing onto the couch next to Zoey. No one said anything in reply. Donna looked around to low eyes and hung heads. The night wasn't going to end well.
"I didn't lie," Sam said finally. "If we learned anything, anything at all, the first time around we learned you do not lie. And I didn't lie."
"We know," Josh replied softly.
"It looks pretty bad Sir," Charlie commented quietly. "I saw the document... it's... they're pretty authentic looking to me."
"We need to..." Zoey began quietly. "We need to start painting a picture of this administration as trust worthy, noble, honest... we need..." she laughed bitterly. "This is our first big thing," she shook her head. "I don't know what we need. Maybe we should call CJ and Toby."
"Zoey," Ryan whined. "We can handle this."
Donna shook her head.
"I'm not so sure," she added softly.
"Donna?" Josh questioned.
"Maybe Zoey's right," Donna suggested.
"Guys come on!" Josh began slightly astonished by what he was witnessing. "We can handle this, we're not armatures, we've handled stuff like this before, its just the situation that's different. We can't..." Josh ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. "We don't need outside help, we just need to figure out exactly what it is that is going on and fix it," he paused talking a good look around the room. "Now here's what we're going to do."
"CJ wants you to come over for dinner," Huck said suddenly. He had been working on his computer while Gracie sat at Margaret's desk reading a book the office of protocol had left on Presidential procedure.
"What?" she asked looking up.
"I said CJ wants you to come over for dinner," he paused and smiled. "Tonight."
Gracie smiled back.
"Sure. What time?"
"Well that's the thing... she said I should just bring you along when I come home, and we'd order Chinese or something, just as long as it was before midnight but who knows when I'm going to be getting out now that there's the thing."
"Oh," Gracie began softly. "Well I'll talk to my dad."
"Gracie..." he shook his head. "No."
"Why not?"
"Because you're not saying 'Dad, Huck needs to get out of work early so that we can have dinner.' I already told you, we can't let this get in the way of me doing my job," he sighed when he noticed her frowning at him. "Look, I know your dad almost as well as you do and I know that when you ask him to do something, he complies, he'd walk over hot coals for you. I don't want you using those powers over him to make him let me go home when he needs me to be here," he laughed when he saw her smiling. "Come on, you have to make this a little bit easier for me."
"I'm trying," she giggled. "Its just your so cute when you're all defensive."
He rolled his eyes.
"What time is it?" he asked staring at the door to the Oval where the senior staff still sat strategizing.
"Seven," Gracie replied with a dull sigh.
"Well I'm sure CJ watched the briefing and if she isn't on her way over, she'll be calling soon, I'll tell her to make sure to order for you."
Gracie smiled.
"But of course."