Friday:
I flopped on the sofa and switched on the TV, I didn't know what I was watching only that it was some kind of noise that didn't sound sympathetic or patronising, or saying "she'd had a good life". I sat, totally drained. The funeral was beautiful, or so everyone said, I didn't really listen, I just stared at the coffin unable to believe that my mother was actually in there, I was just waiting for her to come rushing through the church doors at any moment apologising that she was late and had she missed anything. I watched my dad every now and again, unsure of how to comfort him and worried about his health. In the last four days he had begun to deteriorate so fast I knew he wouldn't live much longer, which made my heart ache even more, I would have to go through another of these awful days, awful weeks. But he couldn't live without her and his body just didn't have the will to go on. I held his hand the whole morning and stayed close to him the whole afternoon, trying to savour every last second I had with him.
I stared blankly at the TV screen, not realising what I was watching until I heard a familiar voice coming out of the speakers. I focused on the man standing at the podium and realised it was President Bartlet. It surprised me, I hadn't seen him in a long time, or it felt like a long time, and to see him stood there felt like I had just stepped back in time. I turned up the volume, interested in what he had to say. I suddenly remembered the last time I'd seen him, it was my last day at the White House, when I had stormed in to their meeting and screamed at them all before running for the taxi and watching as Josh stood in the car park with a look of disbelief on his face. I had been happy to hurt him at the time, now I just hoped he appeared on the screen with Bartlet, who sounded like he was going to say something important.
****
The Democrats Fundraiser:
"CJ, what's he going to say?" an eager looking guy with a notepad asked as he trailed behind CJ who was gliding gracefully back towards the hall.
"You'll have to listen Rob, just listen." she said smiling as she walked over to where Sam, Toby and Josh stood anxiously. This was a great moment but could also be the worst moment of their careers.
"Hey guys!" CJ said, trying to lighten the mood
"Sshh!" Toby said as he mimed along to the Presidents words. Sam kept bouncing on the balls of his feet and Josh just stood there with his hands in his pockets staring straight at the President, "This is our bit." Toby said quietly and CJ stood next to the three men and lapsed into silence,
"We have a serious problem in this country." the President said, and the room began to get quiet as they realised something was going to be said, "We are letting thousands of our fellow citizens be killed for profits. We are helping murderers make money." he stopped and looked around the room before carrying on, "Several years ago I worked for these people, I made a lot of money from them, I am ashamed to say. In fact I worked with them to cut costs, to make more money at the expense of peoples lives. This is not something I'm proud of, but it was a job and at the time I needed the money. But I wasn't good enough, I didn't make them as much money as they had wanted and I was fired. Some may say I'm bitter about it, that I would love to get back at them, some would say that I'm a hypocrite because now I say that they are evil but while I was working for them I didn't mind it at all. All of this is true. I am a hypocrite, I am bitter about being fired, who wouldn't be? But whether I am the right person to say it or not doesn't make any difference because it has to be said. HMO's are an evil in our society and something must be done about them.
"So why have I suddenly decided to take up this crusade? Why didn't I talk about this during the election, or earlier in my term of office? Well, I knew people would say all the things I just said, I would get called all sorts of things and I was worried that it may damage me and my government, and our chances of making big changes in other areas. Or as the papers will put it, I was worried about the polls." Bartlet smiled and laughed slightly at the audience, "So why did I decide to speak out about this now? Well several weeks ago an employee of mine came to speak with me on this subject. Her mother became ill and first of all she could have been diagnosed much earlier if her HMO had allowed for the tests but then to make things much worse for her and her whole family, the HMO would not pay for a treatment which could have, at the very least, prolonged her life and made it more comfortable. The reason? Too expensive, not worth it. But for this ladies family, for my employee, a few extra months, a year or possibly a cure would have meant the world.
"I am ashamed to say that it took finding about someone dying to wake me up. To make me realise that I had to do something, to stop yet more people dying because of profit margins. So today, I am calling for Health Management Organisations to be made non-profit organisations, run by doctors, to give them government backing and to take out the business men who don't care about patients!" the President cried, the audience began to clap and cheer, the room began to erupt with the noise of people standing. The President smiled and applauded the audience,
"Thank you, enjoy your meal and goodnight." more cheering and more applauding. CJ began to smile as did Sam, even Toby let his lips curl a little into something close to the smile, Josh just stared at Bartlet.
"Do you think she's watching?" Sam suddenly turned and asked Josh,
"God, I hope so." he said quietly still staring at the President.
"Do you think she'll come back now?"
"I doubt it Sam." Sam put his arm around Josh's shoulders,
"Come one lets go eat." but Josh pulled away and turned towards the doors.
"Nah, I'm going back to the office, I have some stuff to do. Get ready for tomorrow." Sam smiled wearily at him,
"Tomorrows gonna be one hell of a day." he said, "but we did good tonight." he said trying to get his friend to at least try and see the bright side.
"Yeah we did." Josh said smiling a little before he opened the door and left the others to go chow down a four-course meal.
Josh barely watched the rode as he drove back to the White House, he was proud of what they'd done but in some ways it was a shallow victory, if they'd done something before now Donna would still be there, he would be able to enjoy the evening and talk to her about all the stupid stuff she seemed to always know, he'd be happy to hear about British poisonous spiders or anything else that popped out of her head. But she wasn't there and she wasn't going to be again, and that was it. The end, nothing more to say. He kept saying it over and over in his head till it was a certainty, a painful one but a certainty nonetheless.
He parked in his spot outside the great white building and headed straight for his office. He looked at the mess and wished Donna was there to help him make some sort of sense from it, his temp was no good, he'd have to replace her. He sat down and began going through several pieces of work at once. Work, his favourite remedy, no matter how shitty life had become, work was always there to fall back on. He just needed some coffee to stay awake…
Josh woke with a start, he could swear he smelled fresh coffee, but was sure he never went and got any,
"Huh?" he mumbled to himself, trying to unstick himself from the mound of papers he had fallen asleep on, then he realised there was someone else in the room. He looked up and smiled,
"I thought you might need something to help you wake up." Donna said quietly, she was smiling and it made the whole room light up
"You brought me coffee?" he smiled back.
"Don't get used to it." she said mock-seriously
"I wouldn't!"
"Good, because this is not going to be a daily occurrence. Though you might get a bagel if you're good."
"Do you have one now?" he said hopefully
"No! I just got off a three hour flight, what do you expect."
"My assistant to do everything she can for my comfort and convenience."
"You got too used to temps." he stood up and walked over to where she was stood.
"They were all useless, they all brought me coffee." and then he kissed her.
