III

"Hey, Donna." Sam gave her a smile.

"Oh, hi, Sam. He won't be a minute, he's just in with Leo."

"Thanks." Sam leaned against the desk.

"How're things going with your mom?" she asked. He shrugged and smiled.

"Better... I think now we're moving in together, she's finally got used to the idea that Steve is going nowhere. She's not gonna be joining any gay pride marches any time soon, but, you know..."

"Yeah."

His smile widened into a more playful grin. "On the subject of moms... how goes the eternal Moss marriage campaign?"

She giggled. "Well, as you can see from my severe lack of potential suitors, Operation Marry Off Donna has not been a great success. Seriously, though, she's backed off a lot. Did I tell you about my sister Jo?"

"She's getting a divorce?"

"Yeah. It shook my mom up a lot. I think she seriously just didn't ever consider that Joletta could be that unhappy. I mean, my mom got married really young, but she's always adored my dad. I guess she didn't realise that sweet, funny caring guys like him are pretty hard to find."

"Yeah, I guess they are." The corners of Sam's mouth curled up into a reflective smile, and Donna tilted her head to regard him.

"You know, don't take this the wrong way, but discussing guys with you? Is seriously weird."

Sam held up his hands. "Hey, whoa! Slow down there. I'm strictly a one man guy."

"Yeah, well, I'm a no man girl," Donna admitted gloomily.

"Donna!"

"Oh. Yeah. Apart from that one." She stood up and hollered. "Yes, Your Majesty?"

Josh came jogging up. "I need my notes on the hate crimes thing," he told her.

"They're in that thing slung across your shoulder that you laughingly call a backpack."

Josh gave her a stern look. "You're mocking the backpack?"

"The backpack needs no mocking. The backpack is a collection of threads held together with buckles."

"This backpack, I'll have you know, has seen me through the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune."

"Apparently, you used it as a shield."

"And how did the notes get into the backpack, exactly?"

"I used my power of telekinesis."

"I see. Could your power of telekinesis possibly get me a bottle of water?"

Donna closed her eyes and held her fingertips to the side of her head for a few moments. Then she looked up. "My power of telekinesis says get up off your ass and do it yourself."

Josh indicated himself. "It appears to have escaped your attention that I am not, in fact, currently on my ass."

Donna gave him a sweet smile. "Then what do you know? You're already halfway there."

Josh went to get himself a bottle of water. Sam asked him "Did Leo say anything about Hate Crimes?"

"No." He paused in his office doorway, looking pensive. "Is it me, or does Leo seem a bit...?"

"Depressed?" Sam finished.

"Yeah."

"Margaret's worried about him," Donna put in quietly. "She says he's been like it for months."

Josh frowned thoughtfully. "You think he's still brooding about not catching these guys?" The three boys who had beaten up Charlie Young had never been identified and brought to justice... and, after three months had passed, it looked increasingly unlikely that they ever would be.

"Maybe." Sam straightened up. "So how about we go get this Hate Crimes Bill off the starting blocks and make sure the next lot of guys don't get away with it so easily?"

"Yeah." Josh shouldered his tattered backpack and started off after him.

"Josh," Donna called after him, memory suddenly sparked.

"Yeah?" He turned back.

"Charlie called in earlier. Asked if you had a few minutes to see him at the end of the day."

"Charlie?" Josh frowned. "I thought he wasn't supposed to come back to work until Monday?"

Donna shrugged. "He just asked if you had a few minutes."

Josh's brow wrinkled, then he shrugged back. "Okay." He headed off after Sam.

"CJ! CJ!"

"Chris?"

"Any comment on the British Prime Minister's condemnation of the current administration's stance on foreign aid?"

Sigh. Well, at had been a bit too much to ask that this particular story might slip under the radar.

"I think 'condemnation' is a little strong, Chris. Naturally, in the interest of international cooperation, we're happy to listen to input on our domestic policies, and we'll be holding meetings with the British Ambassador and a representative from the International Relations Committee over the next few days to see how we can better coordinate our efforts to bring aid to developing countries. Also, I would remind you that under this administration the foreign aid budget has seen none of the cuts it faced in previous years, and that we proposed several increases that were voted down in the House."

There, a nice hefty chunk of boring information to shut them up on that front. She looked around for somebody who might ask about something different.

"Rick?"

The young reporter still held his arm a little stiffly from where he'd been clipped by a bullet in a hostage situation several months ago. That whole incident had given him a new perspective when the secret of Josh's PTSD was revealed, and his support of the administration through that had given CJ a certain fondness for him.

His habit of asking well thought-out, incisive questions that she could actually be expected to give an answer to didn't hurt, either.

"CJ, the new amendments to the president's Hate Crimes Bill, uh..." he consulted his notebook, "the 'Discrimination on the Basis of Sexuality' section... is it true that the administration is looking at repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell?"

Ah, something controversial that they actually wanted out in front of the public.

"Well, Rick, I can confirm that if the bill were to go through as it stands, the current military position on gays and lesbians in the service would become untenable. The president's keen to see an end to institutionalised discrimination in all sections of society and yes, that would include military recruitment."

Dennis raised a hand. "CJ... with this radical new legislation and the controversial Sex Education pilot scheme, is the administration at all concerned about President Bartlet's increasing reputation as 'the sex president'?"

CJ tried to bury her urge to snicker at that, and didn't quite succeed. "Dennis, I think I can honestly say that that's a conversation I don't anticipate having with... anybody, ever."

The press corps grinned with her at that one.

"Okay, folks, that's about all for now. See you at the next briefing."

Katie Jackson caught up with her as she descended the podium and headed out. "Oh, hi, Katie. What do you need?"

"I just wanted to thank you again for the exclusive," Katie said with a smile. The president had reluctantly accepted there was no way his daughter and her fianc were getting all the way to their wedding without speaking to at least one reporter, especially after the attack on Charlie. He'd asked CJ for a list of those who'd done them favours lately, and Katie's name had come up.

"The president appreciates you not dropping the hammer on Sam Seaborn," CJ told her.

Katie shrugged self-consciously. "It was on the news-stands eight days later, CJ."

"Sam appreciated the time." If Katie had taken her vague suspicions about his relationship with Steve straight to the front page, the two men would have been hit with the media barrage when they'd only been together less than a week, and the administration caught completely flat footed. The extra time had given Sam a chance to break the news in his own way - and even then, he'd left it too late to inform his parents. The damage that had done to his relationship with his mother was still slowly healing.

Any thought of parents these days sent CJ's mind back to her father. He'd been gone three months, and she still missed him painfully. His not entirely unexpected death had come on the same night Charlie had been put in hospital, and the chaos afterwards had given her time to grieve but not to really think about the sudden huge gap in her life. She hadn't realised quite how much she'd leaned on him, even as he slipped further and further away from reality, until he suddenly wasn't there anymore.

She realised Katie was still hovering. "Seriously, Katie, it was very much appreciated in several quarters," she nodded.

"I just feel like still I owe you something," Katie frowned.

"Next time we do something spectacularly stupid? Don't print it," CJ suggested.

The journalist grinned at the unlikelihood of that. "Well, I thought you might like to know that I've heard some rumours from a publisher friend about a book on the president's childhood."

"The Rogers thing?" CJ shrugged it away. "Yeah, I've heard of about it. We get about fifteen unofficial biographies every year, it's not a thing."

Katie gave her a look. "Like I say, I've just heard some rumours, but... I think you should probably see about getting an advance copy of this one."

She left, and CJ stood in thought for a moment. Then she went to find Carol.

Sam frowned at the list of names set out before him. "One question; what do all these people have in common?"

"They're all liberal Democratic members of Congress who've sided with us before and aren't doing it now?"

"Amazingly, I knew that much."

"Also, they're all just about to walk in that door so I can ask them why the hell not." Josh stood up as they entered, and did the rounds shaking hands. "Ted, hi. Sarah, Patrick, Jason, nice to see you. Paul. You all know Sam Seaborn, of course?" Another round of handshakes.

"Okay." Josh pulled out his chair and sat down. "Well, I think we're all friends here, so let's make this simple and straightforward." He looked at the five Congressmen. "You voted with us on Healthcare. You voted with us on tuition incentives. You voted with us on Sex-Ed, debt relief and the budget... you're our guys. What the hell is going on?"

They all shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.