Earlier in the evening

CJ

"Toby, he may be at the bottom of that hill, but he can only do so much. So lay off of him. He'll get it done."

He stared at her. "If you are done with telling me how to manage my employees, I would appreciate you leaving and shutting the door behind you."

CJ shrugged and slammed the door behind her. She knew she was wrong to slam the door, but she was angry at Toby for the way he was treating and bullying Sam.

CJ stomped back to her office. "Damn Toby" she said to no one in particular. "Can't you see that Sam is under a lot of stress?"

Josh was passing by and heard CJ talking, but noted there was no one in her office. He stuck his head in her door. "Talking to a ghost?"

CJ jerked her head up. "No. Just to myself."

He entered her office and sat down. "Who do you want to be talking to?"

"Toby. He's giving Sam hell because Leo's giving him hell because the President is apparently giving Leo hell about wanting to see a draft of a speech that the President is going to give next week in Cleveland."

"Oh, yeah, the one to the NEA."

"Yeah, that one. Apparently, Sam hasn't started on it yet because he has apparently a billion other things going on and the President wants to see the first draft of it tomorrow."

"Well, that's going to be kind of tough then, won't it?"

"Yeah, but who wants to tell the President that the draft isn't ready yet?"

"Apparently, no one does."

"Yeah. So instead, they're passing crap down the line and Sam is getting all of it placed in his lap."

"CJ, Sam is a grown man and he can certainly stand up for himself. If he has too much work to do, he can just tell Leo that the draft hasn't been started yet because of his workload."

"JOSH! Do you really think that Sam, of all people, would go over Toby's head like that and tell Leo that the draft hasn't even been started? I DON'T THINK SO!"

"Hey, calm down. I'm just expressing an opinion. Don't crawl all over me for just an opinion." Josh stood up. He didn't need any further crap tonight. His day had been full enough of it already.

"I'm sorry. It's been a bad day with the press. I've been challenged all day with press questions on Qumar and the White House withholding new data on budget deficits. I can't seem to get straight answers from OMB on those questions to give to the press so I have to stand up there and lie to them. I hate to do that and the press knows when I do that. I have asked Leo to straighten OMB out and give me the answers and all he does is say he'll get around to it."

"Why don't you go home? It's a warm evening and a great night to walk home. It'll clear your head and you'll be ready to start again in the morning, which by the way is not that far off."

CJ stood up. "Sounds great. See you in the morning." She grabbed her coat and purse and was gone in a flash.

She got outside and took some deep breaths of the fresh night air. Josh was right. She did feel better outside. The office could get so stuffy at times. It would do her so much good if she walked like this more often.

Her apartment was just six blocks from the White House. Why did she even need a car? She kept it in the employee parking deck more than actually used it during the summer. Of course, when the winter weather moved in, walking was not possible. But with this nice Spring air, walking allowed her to relax between her job and her home.

Because she was reviewing the day's activities in her mind, she wasn't focused on what was occurring around her. She didn't notice the woman approaching her from the opposite direction. She didn't notice the woman pull something from her jacket and point it in the Press Secretary's direction.

CJ heard a sound like a firecracker, then felt something hit her body. A sense of surprise, then she hit the pavement, unconscious.

The woman fled the scene in a black SUV which had been pacing alongside her.

A man, who had been approximately half a block behind the Press Secretary, ran up when he saw her collapse. Seeing the blood stain on her coat, he dialed 911 and reported the emergency, but fled the scene. Whatever had occurred here, he chose not to get involved.