The glass of coke was ice cold in her hands, its bubbles bursting on the surface gave a low repetitive hum that was easily ignorable over the sound of television. She had ordered it out of a need not desire, requiring caffeine but having no time to wait for a cup of coffee to cool. She was late, noticeable by the fact that her shirt had been buttoned incorrectly with a telltale uneven balance at the bottom, further exposed by the fact that she hadn't even remembered to grab the light grey blazer that matched the skirt she had donned.

She should be moving right now, running across the polished floors to the secure and quaint named Blue Ivy Room, which her team had booked out for the day. A chance glimpse upwards to the television as she had waited for her coke now had her rooted. Had she only people gazed or turned her grey-blue stare outwards to the murky morning view of the hotel grounds then her day might have taken a different turn. One quick flick of her eyes upwards to the large screen sitting on the back wall on an unseen frame and her day was ruined.

Cadence McGarry just stood watching the news, unaware that she was the mimic of a statue with her rigid stance and unblinking stare. She was glad that the breakfast crowd were gone so there weren't many people to talk over the news showing on the television. She swallowed hard as she stared, ignorant to her hands turning numb as she held the cold glass with a vice grip as if it was the only thing keeping her anchored right now.

There on the screen was Tom Landis, her Tom, only he wasn't. Her Tom was strong, confident, unruffled and easygoing. This Tom was pale, his unusual almost clear blue eyes wide with shock and edged with grief. He was staring outwards at nothing, no longer seeing the bold journalist who had caught him off guard. It was last night's footage but this morning's news.

"I..." Tom bowed his head and a dozen cameras flashed, their white lights making him appear ghoulish as they caught his moment of stunned sorrow on their lenses.

He clenched the wooden podium he was standing at until his knuckles almost turned translucent, all the while the clicking of cameras filled the air drawing attention to his silence.

Cadence watched on as if it were live footage, feeling every moment of Tom's puzzlement and pain as the silence stretched out.

Tom released the podium, turned away and walked off slowly, head still bowed as he moved with a very real weight on his shoulders.

The press shrieked after him, accusations and questions as microphones darted out like beaks delivering pecks.

The footage ended and the newsreader returned to the screen. She was young, a poised, dark auburn haired woman in a fancy dark suit with a pink shirt. Cadence immediately felt a rise of revulsion for the woman, it was ridiculous she knew as the woman was just doing her job but in this moment Cadence despised the woman for helping bring attention to her boyfriend's moment of pain.

"It is unclear who is responsible for the leak," the newsreader addressed the camera calmly, "however the Democrat challenger for the Senate seat of Virginia, Judge Laurence Markway, did have this to say."

The camera brought up footage of Judge Laurence Markway, standing with a serious face as he addressed a collection of reporters unflinchingly. Reporters and their microphones bobbed and up and down before him like a collection of sea lions waiting for him to toss them a fish.

"When we seek to take on these roles in which we are representative of the public we must be prepared to offer certain things in exchange for their faith and trust in us and that is honesty, morality, selflessness and an unwavering sense of justice. The moment we try to enter into this role with secrets the bond between ourselves and the people is broken. We have to be prepared to stand before our constituents and have them know all that we are and all that has happened in our lives to makes us who we are. After all, if they do not know us how can they trust us to represent them?"

Cadence finally snapped to attention with the judge's heavy handed words and shook her head angrily. He was giving a rehearsed speech not a spontaneous response.

"Mr Landis should have been open and honest with the good people of Virginia, our people, and if he felt they were going to judge him poorly for his history well," Laurence paused and looked mournful for a moment, "then he should have recognised that as a lack of faith in himself for his own constituents and not attempted running for Senate."

"Bastard," Cadence muttered under her breath.

The young woman stepped away from the bar and headed from the room in a deliberate, fast paced walk, abandoning her untouched coke. She was awake now and fuelled by rage and she knew she had to act on it before she lost it to the despair that was threatening to creep up and pull her under.

She headed for the Silver Rose Room instead of the Blue Ivy Room she was scheduled to be at. The Silver Rose Room was an easy spot with two agents standing on either side of the door watching warily.

Cadence sucked in a deep breath and reached calmly for the buttons at her shirt. She fixed them hastily, smoothed the shirt down and tucked it into her skirt before flinging her loose hair over her shoulders and finger combing it down as best she could.

She reached for the laminated pass swinging about her neck and held it up to the black suited duo on guard for inspection. Sure they recognised her but protocol was protocol.

One gave her a nod whilst the other opened the door on the right for her.

The murmur of voices inside drew to a sudden silence as six pairs of eyes looked over curiously to see who was intruding on the meeting.

Cadence entered the room, head held high and shoulders back, trying as hard as she could to appear calm but she couldn't help clenching both her hands as they swung by her sides. She didn't single anyone out, instead looking to the president, his vice, and the Chief of Staff collectively.

John was an unexpected surprise and for just a moment Cadence almost lost her nerve. She told herself that maybe this was better because at least she wouldn't have to do her speech twice except, as she caught a memory of warm lips pushing up against hers hard, she wondered if she would even get the speech out once without faltering.

Last night seemed a lifetime ago in the wake of this morning's news. After the power had come back on and the storm had started to move away, they had all retreated back to bed. John, worried for Cadence given her minor outburst, had been good enough to escort her back to her room and even taken the time to enter it and give it a personal inspection to see that her electric was working too whilst his agents waited outside.

Of course John had decided, since he was there, he may as well give Cadence a thorough inspection too. It had been such a terrible line it had made her laugh, just as John had intended, and suddenly her fears had slipped away and before she had known it John was kissing her.

Cadence shook off the memory, only grateful that she had come to her senses before John could do any more last night than slip a hand under her vest top to grope at her exposed breasts.

"I am giving my notice," Cadence informed them in a voice void of emotion, "I would apologise for its shortness but I think you must look to your own people to blame for that."

"Cady what are you talking about?" Leo demanded as he took a step towards her, eyes aghast as he frowned.

"You know, no matter how often Tom tried to sway me to the Republicans I always stayed Democratic and the reason for that was you two," Cadence continued to talk in a clipped manner as she fixed a steely stare upon John and Jed, deliberately avoiding her father's confused stare.

John and Jed stood side by side, it was an illusion as the lines in John's brow and the frown cutting across Jed's face indicated that Cadence had interrupted an argument between them. One which, judging from Leo standing just to Jed's right until he had moved towards Cadence, Leo had been about to interrupt.

"I thought that you two always believed in playing fair," Cadence said, "that you actually had faith in yourselves and trust in the people to choose who they wanted without needing to be misled with dirty tactics."

Cadence shook her head in dismay. "Now I realise I was naïve and I no longer have any faith in this system."

"Cadence what do you mean?" Jed demanded quietly.

The president studied the young woman with concern, he could see the hurt in her stare but he had no idea what was the cause for it.

Jed, John and Leo had been in the Silver Rose Room since half seven this morning, a meeting called impromptu by Jed who wanted to be sure that John knew what he should be saying today when he headed to a political rally in Austin. What had started with good intentions had turned into petty sniping between the pair with references to John's lost votes in his own states and Jed costing voters with stupid remarks about hats.

"Tom was prepared to play fair and he was fully prepared to have to deal with any awkward questions about his past, he knew it would be likely happen and he always said so long as they came to him and not Henry then he would deal with it," Cadence remarked. "To be ambushed with a one-sided accusation about it however, that is not the same and it was one hell of an accusation."

Cadence's mouth turned downward to a frown as she felt tears burn at her eyes and filled with rage for herself. All she could see was the image of Tom, head bowed with despair as he walked away from the press podium in defeat, too overwhelmed to even attempt fighting back.

"An accusation about what?" Leo snapped. "Cady what in the hell are you talking about?"

"You must know," Cadence accused icily, "and if you don't I assume it's because you're happy for other members of your party to carry out the dirty work so long as they keep the taint from you. You're the head of the party," she addressed Jed solely this time, "this could not have happened without your sanction in some form."

Cadence raised her right hand warily to stay Jed from answering. "I know sir that politics is a battlefield, I knew it would be difficult for Tom and that you would come at him with everything you had but I thought even if he is a Republican he would still have your respect, that you would grant him the fair fight that he deserved. I never thought he would get knocked out before he even had a chance to show what he's capable with by a filthy, low blow that he couldn't have ever seen coming."

Cadence lowered her hand and shook her head. "He sat up for so many nights preparing himself to discuss his past you know and it was far from easy for him, he never talks about it. He knew someone would ask but that's not what happened, he just got blind sighted with horrible accusations. The reporters had already made up their minds before they attacked him about it and it was a God damn attack!"

Cadence felt her cheeks turn wet as the tears escaped and she looked to Jed not with anger but instead with hurt.

It was the pain in her eyes that kept Jed from admonishing her. Leo's mouth parted to yell at her for cursing but Jed raised his hand slightly in a gesture for Leo to stay silent and let Cadence continue.

John watched on with a stunned expression, just as confused as Jed and Leo about what was going on. He hated that she seemed to be as mad at him as she was with Jed and felt a familiar anger for Tom who once again had come between John and Cadence and this time without even being here.

"This wasn't just politics, this was personal and it will have done damage to him long past the senator run. I never thought you would think any seat, Senate or otherwise, would be worth that."

Cadence continued to frown at the men as she tried to will the tears back.

"I know you need to get the House and Senate back and I had speeches and appearances prepared for John- the Vice President," she corrected hastily as her stare darted to him briefly betraying a moment of fluster, "so that we could try and win support here to help with that. I worked hard you know," she added angrily, "because I thought we were the people who could always say when we were running for the presidency that we were doing it right and honest, and now I feel like a fool."

"Cady," Jed addressed her gently, "I have no idea what has happened that you have lost your faith like this. You need to explain it because believe me, I am still the man you thought I was and no matter what I would never compromise my values or beliefs for votes because that's not fair to the people."

Cadence shook her head miserably. "Just check the news sir. I have to go, I have to get a plane to Virginia, Tom needs me and he's always been there when I've needed him so I'm not going to let him down. This job might be worth this kind of pain for all of you but it's not for me, I learned that the hard way, if it's Tom or the job then it's Tom, I always thought that was clear."

Candence turned away from them and retreated from the room despite the protesting call of her father. She quickened her steps, hurrying back to her hotel room so she could pack and get a flight booked asap.

Josh was full of rage as he looked to a startled Sam and weary Toby in the small sitting room they had secured for discussion. Toby had his laptop open on the rectangular desk before him and was trying to ignore Josh and respond to e-mails from his staff whilst Sam kept shrinking back in his seat with each wild outburst from Josh. At least Sam thought they were wild until C.J entered the room.

The press secretary flung open the double doors with an air of theatrics, striding in with a cursing Simon in her wake.

"I told you to let me go first," Simon snapped, "you don't know who could be behind a closed door."

C.J ignored her angry bodyguard as she halted in the centre of the room and folded her arms.

"When was someone going to enlighten me about Judge Markway's mouth?" C.J snapped sardonically as her blue gaze roamed across the room scornfully. "It's always good for the press secretary to learn things from the press," she added with ire. "Oh no wait, it's supposed to be the other way round!"

She threw her hands up into the air and let out a heavy sigh before glowering once more at the men. She didn't even seem to notice that Josh was the only one standing and currently looking at her in surprise.

"Guys what is going on?" C.J demanded despairingly.

"Apparently Judge Markway figured the way to win the Senate sear was to tell the world Tom Landis got his family murdered," Josh snarled as his own anger returned.

C.J raised her eyebrows as she turned to face Josh in surprise. "And, did he? Gotta say, dark horse Landis," she added.

"What? No!" Josh snapped angrily.

C.J folded her arms again as a cool anger slipped into her blue stare. "Well a judge isn't going to just make something like that up. What do we know?"

"Apparently very little," Toby commented sardonically. "Although I don't see why we are even concerning ourselves with it, Judge Markway is on our team, he's not the one who came out with the story, and if he gets the seat then good but we have a little thing called the Presidency to worry about, that's a little more important."

Josh turned a glare upon his co-worker. "Oh sure Toby, let's forget things like truth and morals so long as we get seats!" he shouted.
Toby sighed and slammed his laptop closed pointedly before looking up to Josh with a tired stare.

"Josh what is with you and Tom Landis? Do you keep forgetting he's a Republican? It's like you...want to go picnicking or flower picking with him or something, I don't know!" he babbled irately with a wave of his hand outwards to Josh.

C.J let out a snort of amusement at this, raising her hand to her nose almost instantly in embarrassment at the sound.

"Flower picking?" Sam echoed as he looked over to his boss in bafflement.

C.J lowered her hand as Toby continued his tirade at Josh. She gazed down at Sam scathingly.

"That you query but not the picnicking?" she sneered.

Josh was yelling back at Toby but to Sam and C.J it was just white noise.

Simon took up a position against the wall, eyes on the ajar doors with a forlorn look as he saw escape so close and yet so far.

Sam shrugged. "Mallory and I have gone picnicking, I can see that but not flower picking."

C.J laughed. "Wait, wait," she said with a wave of her hand. She then gestured over in Josh's direction. "You can see him and Tom Landis picnicking together?"

Sam leaned forward to peer past C.J to Josh who was waving his hands about wildly as he yelled at Toby.

"Not right in this moment," Sam retorted calmly.

"What the hell do you care if he's out of the running?!" Toby snapped. "That is a good thing! He. Is. A. Republican!" Toby sounded out each word sharply before yelling the latter as if it were a curse word. "If we can get the Presidency and the Senate then it's an improvement and a win, for us!"

Josh shook his head as he lost his energy for the quarrel and reached up to push back his mess of dark curls.

C.J observed Josh calmly, tilting her head slightly as she tried to envision him sitting on a red and white chequered blanket beside Tom Landis.

"I can't see it Sam," she said as she glanced back to her colleague. "But I can't see you and Mallory doing it either, you seem like the type who'd freak out at nature."

"I would not!" Sam protested.

"Please, one little bee and you'd be squealing like a girl," C.J taunted him.

"That's a Toby thing to do not me!" Sam continued to argue.

"Toby wouldn't even go," C.J pointed out.

"Toby," Josh attempted to address his colleague in a reasonable manner, "we ask the people to support us because we're ethical and we actually believe in things like honesty, if we say we're moral and then act otherwise why would they vote for us?"

"Oh relax," Toby admonished him, "there isn't any evidence the judge was the leak, nor will there be, he's not a stupid man."

"Just a second," C.J interrupted with a wave of her hand, "once again, is it true or not? I need to know that, I'm getting questions about it, what we know, what we knew, what we think and yes, Toby, if we think someone on our side leaked it on purpose to sabotage Tom so that does matter a little."

C.J stepped closer to Josh and Toby and glanced Josh's way.

"Josh is right, it doesn't look good to the American people if this is how we're going to try and get votes. Even if it is true, we shouldn't have been the ones to say it, it suggests we don't think Judge Markway can get the Senate seat based on his policies, instead it seems that we have to smear Tom rather than sell Markway."

"So it's true then."

C.J turned in surprise whilst Josh whirled round a little more dramatically as the president's quiet voice caught them off guard. As C.J had left the doors wide open with her dramatic entry, the president had been able to enter with a quiet ease accompanied by Leo.

Josh looked to his leader with concern, reading the heavy woe that weighed down his dark blue eyes.

"I did not think our people were like this," Jed said quietly, "and as their leader that is troubling."

Jed glanced to Leo with dismay. "On that Cady may be right."

Jed turned back to his team quickly. "What do we know about this."

"Apparently very little," Josh repeated Toby's words scornfully, glancing to the Communications Director scathingly.

Toby raised his hands up to push them through his thinning, dark hair before he slapped them down on the table loudly. He had stood to attention upon the president's entry and remained awkwardly on his feet behind the desk he had been sitting at.

"I'm sorry sir," Toby said as he looked to Jed, "but I don't understand this. We have a campaign to be getting on with and we are here in Texas to net some sorely needed support. Why are we concerning ourselves with a potential lead on a seat in the Seat? Yes, maybe unpleasant tactics were involved but isn't that politics?"

"It's not our politics Toby," Jed answered sombrely. "If I win this race but lose my integrity then it's still a loss to me and if someone in my party has thrown away their integrity well that's the same as losing mine because they represent me and the people that I am running for."

"Sir, Landis is a Republican, we don't want him to win," Toby protested.

Jed looked back at Toby firmly.

"No Toby but he deserves to fight us at our best not our worst. I want this looked into, immediately, we may have already lost Cadence over it and I'm not prepared to accept that loss either. It was hard enough to try to get her back here and after everything she suffered for my daughter that is not a debt I have finished paying."

"It might be too late sir," Sam piped up. He was reluctant to voice his thoughts but no one else was saying it. "The way Tom left, if he doesn't announce a dropout soon it won't matter, the polls will have plunged. He...he had no fight in him."

Sam resisted saying that Tom had looked like a loser on the news, he didn't want to call the man that, Sam didn't like Tom's political beliefs but he did respect him.

"He looked like a man who was just accused of getting his family murdered," Josh corrected through gritted teeth as he gave Sam a glare.

Sam winced again, swallowing back the urge to tell Josh that they were on the same side in this.

"Someone get me the story on that," Jed ordered, "the real story, not whatever one-sided tall tale was leaked last night and find me the leak too. That story wasn't anywhere until the reporters confronted Tom with it, someone gave it to them and told them exactly what to do with it."

Jed turned to Leo again. "Leo, I want Markway on the phone now."

Leo sighed as he felt Sam's sentiments on the matter. "Alright sir but it won't be enough and we can't go out there as if we're now trying to save Tom's career prospects, how would that look?"

"Leo, what I want is to make it right so that Tom has the fair fight he deserves in this, that's it. I'm not looking to tell the American people to vote for him, I just won't have us responsible for ending the fight before it's begun, that suggests fear on our part and a lack of faith in ourselves. We haven't just wronged Tom with this, we've done damage to us as well and I want Markway to know that so get him on the phone now!"

Josh tensed and Sam jumped slightly at Jed's raised voice.

Leo was unfazed, he understood that at some point Jed had let himself slip from President Bartlet into Jed the man who considered himself family to Cadence. Leo knew that his daughter's words had cut through Jed, wounding him and worse, shaking him to his core. Leo felt a little anger to his daughter for it, they certainly didn't need Jed losing faith in himself now but if Markway had done what they all thought he had and set Tom up to be ambushed with accusations about getting his family murdered, well Leo couldn't exactly blame her for her anger towards Jed as the head of the party who had done this damage to Tom.

It had taken Cadence over eight hours of travel to get to Alexandria, Virginia and locate Tom's current location. She was tired, frazzled from her three hour flight during which she had clutched at the arm rests, quaked, shut her eyes and even cried when they had hit turbulence. She couldn't even remember boarding, she had just moved in a rush driven by a desire to see Tom and had only realised what she was done and was already up the air and it was too late to do anything about it.

The panic attack had come of course and she had to take one pill because anymore and she would be incapacitated and vulnerable and then had come another realisation- she was alone.

Cadence had rushed off from Texas without a goodbye to anyone else or an explanation. Mike Casper wasn't informed because Cadence just hadn't been thinking of any of that, all that was in her mind was getting to Tom as soon as she could.

At the airport she had used her credit card to order up a private car and driver, she didn't need the stress of driving or a taxi driver. She wanted some security for herself and tinted windows and a driver with a steep cost could offer her a little of that.

She had tried several times to get Tom but either he was avoiding her calls or her messages weren't being passed along. Cadence didn't know and it just made her worry grow. She had had to call round several hotels in Alexandria city before confirming his.

The entire day passed Cadence by in stages of transport- walking, running, flying, and driving, and all she kept thinking was that it was one of the worst days of Tom's life and she wasn't there for him.

Cadence didn't bother greeting anyone in the hotel once she arrived, she already knew Tom's room number so she just rushed into an elevator with her small suitcase in hand before anyone could chance a look her way. She was relieved to be alone in the elevator, quite certain she had spied a small group of reporters lingering hungrily in the lobby.

The elevator pinged and its brass doors slid open granting Cadence exit to the fourteenth floor. She hurried out, wheeling her case along royal blue carpet as she headed down the right keeping a keen eye out for room 116. She passed one waiter pushing a trolley and a young couple hurrying to the staircase but otherwise the corridor was mercifully quiet. Either the press pool didn't know which room Tom was in or they were somehow being kept away.

Cadence paused outside room 116 and stared up at the brass numbers with a sudden sense of dread. Surely Tom had to guess she would come but she hadn't been able to actually assure him she was on her way and she didn't even know for certain if he was in residence.

Cadence swallowed hard and knocked the door.

She considered calling out until she heard footsteps on the other side and was surprised when she heard a hand at the handle. It seemed careless answering the door without knowing who was there, was Tom expecting someone?

The door was pulled open to reveal an unkempt Tom Landis wearing a bloodstained white shirt and brown trousers. His eyes were reddened with grief and fatigue, his dark hair askew with his uneven fringe unnaturally held back with sweat, and his skin was verging on grey save for the darkening crimson smears under his nostrils and about his chin. He leaned against the door with one hand, unsteady on his feet as body bobbed forwards and backwards slightly. In his free hand he held an almost empty whiskey glass.

Cadence's eyes filled with horror before she could mask it, she had expected him to be upset but not so drunk and dishevelled.

"I thought you were room service," he said bluntly.

Tom turned away from her and headed back into the room with clumsy footing. He headed for the bed, collapsing back onto his wrinkled sheets with a sigh. Sitting up against the propped up pillows, he reached to the bottle of whiskey resting on the cabinet beside the bed, placed beside a phone which had its receiver discarded to one side. The bottle, a pricey brand, only had a quarter remaining.
Tom lifted the bottle, refilled the glass, burped carelessly and then sorted before rubbing at his nostrils in irritation causing flakes of dry blood to escape to the bedsheets.

Cadence stepped into the room, taking care to close the door behind her. She abandoned her suitcase by the door and took a deep breath as she tried to summon up some bravado. She knew she had to be the strong one now and it was not a position she was used to.

"Tom this isn't the answer."

"Nope." Tom raised the glass before he gulped half of it down.

Cadence stepped up to him and reached down a hand to him, gently running it through his dark hair.

"I've been here Tom, it only numbs the pain for a little while and then after it's so much worse."

"Worse huh." Tom gazed down at his glass dully. "Worse than getting your family murdered."

"You didn't do that Tom."

"I did though Cady," his voice cracked slightly, "I did, you know I did."

Cadence dropped down to a crouch immediately as she heard his voice begin to break. She reached out and seized the glass, plucking it from his unresisting grasp and depositing it back on the cabinet.

Tom grasped at his face with both hands and started to let out loud, heavy sobs.

Cadence rose up again, moving herself quickly round to the other side of the bed. She got onto it and moved up beside Tom quietly. Without a word she wrapped her arm over his shoulders and gave him a gentle squeeze. She knew she had to let him get it out, realising that he had held his grief in all day, keeping it at bay with drink and she was grateful that she had at least gotten here in time for that.