IV

"Mr. President?"

"Toby."

Toby shuffled somewhat awkwardly inside the Oval Office. He knew Leo wouldn't approve of him going directly to the president with this, but Leo was thinking defensively, and Toby knew that if they were ever going to get anywhere, they needed to break out of that cycle. He only hoped that he could convince the president of the same.

"Sir, did you read my notes on the Sex-Ed thing?" he began.

"I did," the president nodded slowly, tapping the briefing paper. "And I agree with every word." He hesitated. "Toby, you know we can't do this right now."

"Mr. President-"

"Toby, we need all the friends we can get right now. We can't afford to offend the Christian right."

"The Christian right are not our friends," Toby pointed out.

"No, they're not," the president agreed with a hint of a smile. "But right now, they're busy being somebody else's enemies, and we need it to stay that way. We don't want to alienate anybody."

"Yes we do!" he had to blurt out. "Yes we do, because this is what we believe is right, and fair, and proper, and it's time we stopped ignoring that to bolster our approval ratings!"

"Toby, we need those approval ratings!" the president thundered. He pushed up out of his chair and started to pace. "Toby, I was elected by the American people, and I need the American people to support me." His tone changed, became almost pleading. "I need them to trust me."

Toby looked down at the carpet and marshalled his thoughts. "This..." He let out a sigh. "This is a good thing. It's not gonna be a popular thing, but it's a good thing. And that ought to be enough." He met the president's eyes.

"It ought to be," the president said softly. "But it isn't."

On the flight back to Washington - complete, of course, with stop-off in Atlanta - Josh had time to get worried. "I handed in my letter of resignation!" he remembered.

In the seat beside him, Donna gave a tiny smile. "It got mislaid."

He stared at her. "That was an official government communication, Donna! You could go to prison for... mutiny."

She raised a single fine eyebrow at him. "Mutiny, Josh?"

Josh ignored that. "Leo won't take me back."

"He will."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because I say so."

"You're the boss of Leo now?"

Donna smirked. "I have a direct line to Margaret. He'll do what I say, or his lunch will pay the consequences."

"That's quite the little dictatorship you've got going over there," he observed.

She grinned. "You didn't really think it was the president running the country, did you?"

"This all rather begs the question; why do you need me at all?"

"Oh, I don't. I'm just using you as a beard in case there's a possibility of jail time."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

They were silent for a while.

"So why are you doing this?" he asked suddenly.

"Two words? Blackmail material." Apparently the time for pandering to Josh's fragile emotional state was over.

Actually, he was somewhat relieved. Not that supportive-Donna wasn't a Very Good Thing, but it did rather tend to tilt his perception of the world off-balance.

"Is this leading up to a request for your birthday off work?" he asked.

"Hell no. I fully expect to be kept busy five AM. 'til midnight, Joshua."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." She pulled a face. "Some way of keeping my family out of state would also be good."

Josh cracked a grin. "Your family's coming to see you?"

"My mother. And probably at least one of my sisters. Plus brother-in-law." She couldn't have looked more disgusted if said sister was bringing along some daytime talk show guests.

"Family should always stick together, Donnatella," he preached loftily, secure in the knowledge that she couldn't call him on it when she'd just seen him spending quality time with his mother.

Donna glared at him. "Would you like to be shipped back to Florida zipped inside your own suitcase?"

Actually, when contrasted with the thought of what might be awaiting him back in Washington, that really didn't sound like such a bad deal.

"Sam." Steve's face lit up with a smile as he approached.

"Can we talk?" Sam suddenly felt overly self-conscious, newly aware of the number of eyes in the bar that had been there all along.

Steve's expression suddenly tightened, but he drained the last of his beer, and straightened up. "Sure. Come on." Sam fought a ridiculous urge to glance around to see if anyone was watching them.

Way to act un-suspicious, Samuel.

They got out into the street, fairly quiet at this time of night. "Is this okay?" Steve asked a little sharply. "Can we talk here? Or would you like to sweep the area for bugs?"

"No, this is- we can- can we start walking?" It was as much a way to marshal his thoughts as any desire to be inconspicuous.

"Oh, good idea. That'll fool the CIA and their gay-detectors," Steve snarked. He ran a hand through his hair, something Sam had already picked up was a defensive gesture. "Listen, Sam, if you-"

"No," Sam cut him off quickly. "No, I just- I wanted to- Give me a minute, okay?"

Steve stopped him walking with a hand to the centre of the chest and gave him a twisted smile. "Sam. If you're breaking up with me just... do it a bit faster, okay?"

"No!" he protested quickly. "I'm not, I'm just-"

Steve nodded slowly, sticking his hands into his pocket. "You just want to keep it a secret." From the wry twist to his mouth, it was a line he'd heard before. Living in Washington, he probably had.

But Sam didn't want to take that line. He didn't want to be that guy. "No! I don't want to do that either." He looked Steve in the eye. "I hate secrets," he said earnestly. "But I'm saying, my job, it could get, it could get-"

Steve rolled his eyes. "I'm not totally naïve, Sam. I've seen what the newspapers do to people." They started walking again.

"Yeah. But it looks even worse from the inside." He wasn't sure Steve quite understood the magnitude of this. Sam had told him that he was in politics, quite high up in politics, but he hadn't spilled exactly how close he was to the president. He'd been trying to avoid his work, not talk about it. "And I'm just, you know... If you'd rather not have to go through that with me, I totally understand."

Steve smiled at him. "Sam. You're a great guy. And you know what? That usually goes 'You're a great guy, but'... I have no buts. You're a great guy with no buts. Well, a great guy with one butt, and, indeed, a guy with one great butt... and now I'm beginning to sense that we're wandering away from the original topic of conversation."

Sam couldn't help smiling back. "So you don't want to break up with me."

"No, Sam," Steve grinned. "I want to chain you to the doorpost so nobody can steal you."

"I think they'd probably miss me at work."

"They'd get over it." He smiled quietly. "Sam. You're worth it. I know that. The only question here is whether you think I am."

Sam looked him in the eye. "I just... all I know is, everything at work's going to hell, and for the first time in a long time I don't feel like I'm going with it. I want this. I think I need this."

"Well, okay then," Steve said quietly.

"Steve, I-" he burst out.

Steve stopped him again, this time covering his mouth to stop him speaking. "Shh. It's okay, Sam," he said earnestly. "Really."

Sam sighed. He wanted that to be true, he really did, but... He struggled to explain. "I just want... I just want to live, and have people find out... when they find out. It ought to be that simple."

Steve shrugged. "Let's make it that simple. Hell, if they come after us, we can take 'em."

He raised an eyebrow. "Can we?"

"I can take anyone. I hold the comprehensibility of their computer instruction manuals in my hands."

"You're just drunk on the power there, aren't you?"

"Hell, yeah." Steve smirked. "So can I tell everyone I'm dating a big shot politician?"

Sam hesitated for a fraction longer than he wanted to, and covered it by talking fast. "Yeah. Yeah, sure."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Sam. I'm not gonna get a magic marker and write your name all over the bathroom wall. We're grown-ups, okay? We're dating. I don't need to jump you in the middle of the street to prove it."

"Okay."

"Yeah."

There was a brief pause, during which he couldn't help noticing that their walk had somewhere along the line started heading them in the direction of his home. "So you're not gonna jump me on the way back, then?" he asked.

Steve grinned wolfishly. "Well now, that depends just depends on how fast you start walking."