Please see Chapter 1 for general info and disclaimers.

*~*

"Oh my God, I think I'm gonna puke."

"What?" Sam asked, snapping his cell phone shut. "Did you say something?"

Jenn brought an ice-cold hand to her feverish forehead and brushed away some of the beads of sweat that had gathered along her hairline. "I'm sweating like there's no tomorrow, but I can't feel my hands. Is that normal?"

Sam's smile was strained, but he tried to sound as reassuring as possible when he stated, "Perfectly. Don't worry, you'll do fine."

Jenn scanned the controlled chaos unfolding before her and tried to calm her nerves by taking a deep breath. There were only about five minutes left until they would go live on the air, and the entire studio was bustling with activity. Yards of cables were strewn haphazardly along the floor, and Jenn counted three stationary cameras and one roving camera blocking her view of the set. She was accidentally jostled by a crewmember as he attempted to maneuver around her, and this propelled Sam to reach out and steady her. "I didn't think there'd be so many people here," she whispered as she disentangled herself from Sam.

"Don't be nervous. You'll do fine."

Jenn turned to face him and laughed. "Do you realize that that's like the hundredth time you've said that to me since we got here?"

Sam chuckled and shyly shrugged. "Well, I do think you're going to do fine. But it also looked like you could use the affirmations."

Jenn sighed and was about to agree when she spotted an attractive man in a black suit step onto the set. "Is that Matthew Durkin?"

Sam followed her gaze and then nodded. "Yeah, that's him."

"How old is he? He looks like a kid."

Sam raised an eyebrow and glanced at Jenn, a person who, in her own right, could pass as a 'kid.' "He's old enough. Now be nice. He's coming our way."

Matt was smiling broadly as he approached them. "Hi, Sam," he greeted warmly, holding out his hand, "it's been a long time."

"Yes, it has, Matt. How's it going?" The two men clasped hands and shook vigorously.

"Can't complain."

"And your sister? How's Denise doing these days?"

"Good. She got married a year ago to an investment banker in Boston. And she's about to make me a very proud uncle. Her due date was ten days ago, so we're all just kind of waiting for the baby to pop out."

"Oh, wow. Be sure to tell her congratulations for me."

"Sure." Turning his attention to Jenn, Matt again flashed his wide grin. "You must be Jennifer. I'm Matt Durkin."

"It's nice to meet you, and please, call me Jenn." She shook his hand and prayed that he wouldn't notice how clammy it was.

"Well, it looks like we're about ready to begin. Why don't you go get comfortable on the set? The chair on the right's mine, so you get the chair on the left. I'll be there in a minute."

Jenn looked uncertainly at Sam, and he nodded his approval to the suggestion. As she started to walk in front of him, he touched her arm and leaned towards her to murmur, "I'll be right here if you need me, and don't forget: you're going to do fine."

Jenn chuckled nervously and looked like she was about to attend her own execution, but she turned towards the set and didn't look back.

Both Sam and Matt watched Jenn travel the short distance to the barren set, which only possessed two armchairs on opposite sides of a small table.

"She's younger than I imagined she'd be," Matt remarked with a tinge of surprise in his voice.

"Funny, that's what she said about you." Sam turned to face Matt and said, "Look, I want you to understand that—" just as Matt said, "My producers and I want to thank you for picking our show for Jenn to make her debut on."

"Oh, uh, sure," Sam mumbled, momentarily taken aback. "We wanted to be positive that she wouldn't get hung out to dry by some overly ambitious television personalities."

"Well, you came to the right place then. I must admit that you guys raised a few eyebrows when we got that call from C.J. saying that she wanted to book some mysterious guest for my show but that she couldn't tell us who that person was yet. Things got a little clearer when we received that list of questions, but we definitely got the whole picture after the President's announcement last night."

"Yeah, Matt, about that list…"

"Oh, don't worry about it, Sam. It's all taken care of."

"Well, that's great, but I still need to make sure that we're all on the same page. You only get to ask Jenn the questions on that list. Understand?"

"Yeah, Sam. I told you, it's taken care of. You're lucky we're so accommodating over here."

Sam's eyes grew large as a chill ran up his spine. "What are you saying, Matt?"

"Oh, don't start sounding like that. I was just saying that you guys might want to be a little more careful about the number of demands you put out there. With the President's MS admission and now this, the administration's hardly running at a hundred percent. And demands aren't usually taken very seriously if people don't believe the demander has the cojones to back them up."

"Was that a threat?" Sam demanded with a frown.

"Oh, God, no. You took my comment all wrong. I just meant it to be a little friendly advice. After all, we're almost family." Matt placed a firm hand on Sam's shoulder to emphasize his point.

"Yeah, we're really not," Sam asserted as he pulled away from Matt's embrace.

Matt stared at his arm, which was left hanging in mid-air, and dropped it back down to his side. "Okay, I may have overreached there, but seriously, you have nothing to worry about. We're going to do this interview and she's going to come out looking great and I'm going to come out looking great. It's a win-win situation for us all."

"And you're going to stick to the list, right?"

"Of course. Goes without saying. Sam, you really should— Oh, I'm being beckoned. Gotta go."

Sam looked in the direction of the set and saw a petite Asian woman signaling Matt by pointing at the watch on her wrist.

"See that girl with the braids?" Matt asked as he pointed out the woman Sam was already looking at. "Well, her name's Angie and she's one of the producers. If you have any problems during the interview, she's the one you should speak to. See you in thirty."

A heavy nugget of dread settled and grew in his belly as Sam watched Matt scurry away.

As Matt slipped into his chair and clipped a microphone onto his lapel, he flashed Jenn another one of his disarming smiles. "Relax," he urged her lightly. "I don't bite, I swear."

A nervous giggle gurgled up from her throat and Jenn's hands unconsciously fluttered up to her neck. "I'm sorry. I'm just—"

"Don't worry about it. I know this can all be pretty overwhelming at first. But once the cameras start rolling, a rhythm will develop and you'll find yourself just going with the flow."

"That's good to know."

"And don't let the cameras intimidate you. The way to know which camera angle is being shown at any one time is to look for the one with the flashing red light. So, if you ever want to speak directly to a camera, you should look for that flashing light. But I'd recommend that you keep your eyes on me. Unless you know for sure which camera angle is being used, you'll just end up looking lost searching for that light."

"Okay."

"Is there anything you need before we get started?"

"No, I'm fine. Thank you."

Matt reached across the table and gently patted her hand. "Don't be nervous. You'll do fine."

"That's what Sam keeps telling me."

"Well, Sam's a smart guy. And it's not like you don't know what questions I'll ask you. No worries. We'll just have a little chat and have some fun while we're at it."

Jenn smirked at the comment. "I highly doubt that."

"Well, regardless of whether or not you do, you look great, and that's half the battle right there."

"That sounds frighteningly narcissistic."

"Yeah, well, welcome to the world of television."

"Okay, people," a middle-aged man with a headset shouted as he paced in front of the cameras, "we're on in five."

"Ready?" Matt asked as he straightened his tie and smoothed out the front of his jacket.

"Yeah."

"Five," the headset man began to count. "Four. Three. Two."

Right on cue, Matt looked directly at the camera closest to him and said, "Hello. I'm Matthew Durkin, and I'm glad you could join us for another edition of Full Circle."