"And so now you're pissed because you actually have a reason against firing him, right?"
Jed rolled his eyes at Leo.
"At least he's one less concern of mine right now."
"You have concerns, Mr. President?"
"Of course I have concerns, Leo. Shouldn't I?"
"Should you?"
"Yes, I should. And I do."
" 'Having concerns' isn't enough to save the nation."
"It's a start."
----------------
Someone knocked. CJ walked to the door.
"That's probably Toby."
It wasn't Toby.
"Danny. Hi."
CJ turned to Sam in what he thought was a sheepish manner. But he understood; He'd leave.
CJ would thank him later, though he really didn't have to sprint out of her office like that. Now she and Danny were alone. She wasn't sure if that's what she had wanted, but that's what she got.
"Danny, how are you?" He looked torn between wanting to ask her questions and hugging her.
"I'm glad you're ok, CJ."
Then again, he always looked like that.
"Do you want to sit down?"
Maybe he seemed a little paler than normal.
"Yeah, I was having a hard time finding out anything..."
Okay, so he would choose to ask questions first. That's okay, it didn't matter.
"...And no one could tell me if you were all right or not."
Oh. Well, she could hug him now. That would be okay, wouldn't it?
"Danny, I... It's good to see that you're okay, too."
She hugged him. CJ was glad he was here.
She'd have to remember to thank Sam.
----------------
"Thank you Mr. President."
"I'll see you later Charlie."
"Yes, sir."
Charlie looked at the other two. "So what do we do now?"
"We move. I left Danny with CJ in her office, so we can find him there. If not, then he should still be in the building."
Toby looked at Sam, "We're not plotting an assassination or espionage, Sam. You do know that, right?"
He shrugged. "It sounded cool."
Charlie shook his head at Sam.
Toby looked at the two. "Let's go and claim control of the one thing we can control today."
They both nodded.
"You've got to love the manipulative, manipulating Press."
----------------
Josh was giving blood. Donna was in the other room waiting for him to finish. He knew she'd be out there whispering, praying that he was ok. He smiled at the thought. Of course he'd be ok, but Donna would never believe that until she saw him for herself.
Her scream kind of pulled him out of this state of contentment. The nurse seemed a trifle disturbed, too.
Josh shrugged, "She must really, really not like needles, I guess."
Donna walked in then and apologized to the nurse. She was several different shades of red.
"Josh... That... that was your pager. It's Joey."
She handed it to him.
"And don't even say anything. Women are allowed to scream."
Josh smirked. He wouldn't - couldn't - argue with that.
----------------
"Mr. President, we'll be landing in fifteen minutes."
"Thanks, Steve."
"Yes, sir."
His staff had a plan; The Press was taken care of. He had a plan; The terrorists would be taken care of. The nation had a plan; The victims were already being taken care of.
He sighed because he knew that there were still many things to be done. Even without considering the rebuilding and moving on, the healing alone would be a very slow process.
"Sir, we're landing now."
"Thanks, Steve."
And yet, time didn't seem to be going slow enough.
----------------
Leo followed the President and the First Lady off the helicopter and onto the White House lawn.
"Well, here we are, Mr. President. It's time to get to business." "What Leo?" He yelled over the roar of the blades, "Of course I know it's not Christmas!"
Leo shook his head. "Nevermind."
"What?"
Leo sighed and rubbed his forehead. The President was right, though.
It certainly wasn't Christmas.
----------------
"Mr. President..."
"Charlie! Good to see you again."
"Thank you Mr. President but I..."
"I'll need your help later on."
"Okay, but I wouldn't..."
The President reached the door to the Oval Office.
"I wouldn't go in there..."
He opened it.
"...If I were you."
Jed picked his way through the mass of emotion that was choking the room and finally found his daughter.
"Zoey."
Wait. What was that look she just gave him? Jed should be able to tell - he did have two others daughters and a wife, after all.
"Are you okay, Zoey?"
She hugged her father, and he held her.
"I tried to talk to you, and they wouldn't let me. And I come here and they say they have to check to make sure I don't have any explosives strapped to me anywhere and they've been checking everyone - but I'm the President's daughter so it's kind of pointless because I would never do that - and when they're done I come in here and you're still not home. I just wanted to see my parents."
"You know, your parents are the First Lady and President of the United States."
She rolled her eyes, still hugging him.
"I thought your mother tried to call you girls. Charlie!"
Charlie looked in. "Yes, sir?"
"Where's my wife?"
"The First Lady should be in shortly."
Abbey brushed past Charlie and walked into the room. Jed transferred Zoey from clinging to him to her mother.
"I thought you called her, Abbey."
"I tried honey. They couldn't find you." She was answering to Zoey.
"I tried to call you, but they wouldn't let me speak to you."
Jed decided to let them have some time, so he dismissed himself out of the Oval Office and nearly collided with CJ.
"Mr. President, I need to speak with you quickly and then speak to some people."
"What do you need?"
He followed her into the miraculously vacated Mural Room and closed the door.
"Sir, we have reports that there were explosions over Kabul around 2:30 AM, their time."
"It wasn't us."
"You're sure?"
"Well, if it was us, I sure didn't authorize it."
----------------
"I feel so sorry for that man."
"Who?"
"The news anchor."
"Him?!"
"Yeah."
"And... no one else?"
"Josh... Of course I feel sorry for other people. We've been in the same vicinity all day, so you know how I've been reacting. I alternate from wanting to sit down and cry, to having goosebumps that practically refuse to go away, to... I don't what else, Josh."
He kept his mouth shut.
"I was just saying that I feel sorry for him - he's been doing this the entire day, no break. He can't go home and talk to his family about this, he doesn't have anyone to talk to about it. He just has his own mind and a teleprompter. And the latter doesn't listen."
Josh nodded.
She yawned in spite of herself.
"It's been a long day for everyone, Donna."
