III

"Hey, S- Hey!" Josh retorted indignantly, as a paper aeroplane bounced off his shoulder. Sam grinned innocently up at him from where he was lounging on one of the tables in the communications bullpen. "Don't you have work to do?" he demanded.

"We should be so lucky," Bonnie observed wryly in passing.

Sam shrugged. "They cleared our schedules for the wedding."

"Yeah, but... the country still exists, right?"

"It does, I just don't have to care about it until Monday."

"So you're making paper aeroplanes?"

"Bonnie gave him the paper," Ginger explained. "We thought if we gave him something to play with he might stop back-seat typing."

"You couldn't get one of Toby's rubber balls?" Josh smirked.

"I asked him, but he growled at me," Sam admitted. He stretched and dropped down from the table. "What's up, Josh? Have you got your speech done yet?"

"Almost," he replied automatically. Sam gave him a sceptical look.

"Josh, you have got to let me tackle it."

"I can do it!" he insisted.

"The wedding's tomorrow!"

"It's almost done!" 'Almost', in the sense of, well, he had some of it, right? Sort of.

Nearly.

Toby arrived and walked through the bullpen without bothering to acknowledge any of them.

"He hasn't written his speech yet," Sam blurted, exactly like a fourth-grader tattling to teacher.

Toby gave Josh a look. "Let Sam write it."

"I can do it!"

"Let Toby write it," Sam shrugged as a counter-offer.

"No!"

"Exactly when did I volunteer?" Toby demanded. He disappeared into his office and closed the door behind him.

"He's in kind of a funny mood," Ginger supplied. "I think it's what with Andy being at the wedding and everything."

"That was a funny mood?" Josh wondered. "'Cause that looked pretty much like regular Toby to me."

"So if you don't want help on your speech, why are you here?" Sam asked, absently winding strips of paper around his fingers.

"Come work with me on the land-use thing over lunch," Josh urged.

"I can't," Sam shook his head.

"Oh, 'cause you're so busy now?"

"I promised Steve I'd go home to help him with the last-minute packing."

Josh gave him a disbelieving look. "Sam... you are perfectly clear that we're going to be in New Hampshire all of a day and a half?"

He smiled and shrugged. "Yeah, well, somebody needs to tell that to Steve."

Josh rolled his eyes, and stomped off to badger Donna instead.

Zoey was bouncing off the walls. She couldn't eat or sit still, she was so nervous. And if it was this bad today, how much worse she was going to be tomorrow? On her w-

No. No. Bad idea. Avoid the W-word. It wouldn't do to start thinking about the ceremony and the dress and the crowds and all the cameras, and-

Help.

"Hey Zoey!"

"Hi, Zoey!" Deanna and Annie came bounding in. Her niece and her future sister-in-law - ack, don't go there, scary thoughts - had met a couple of times at various gatherings, but spending the last few days together in the New Hampshire hotel, they'd bonded as only a pair of giggly teenagers could.

God, the age gap between them suddenly seemed scarily huge. She was getting married tomorrow. She wasn't a kid anymore. She wasn't a girl. She was going to be a wife. And wife, sooner or later, tended to lead to mother, and- red alert. Red alert. Abandon thoughts. Panic attack!

The two girls didn't seem to notice her sudden deer-in-the-headlights look, or else they'd just grown resigned to the fact that she was going to be wearing it for the foreseeable future. They squirmed over to sit to either side of her.

"Are you nervous?" asked Annie brightly, and Zoey gave her a disbelieving look.

Deanna wrinkled her nose. "It's only Charlie," she shrugged.

"Yeah, but I've got to marry him in front of all those people."

"Yeah, well, it's only the cameras in the back," Annie shrugged with the indifference of somebody who'd been in the glare of the media spotlight since she was eleven. "Other than that it's mostly family." That, to the Bartlet brood, encompassed close friends as well as simply blood relatives.

"Oh, and that makes it easier?" Zoey demanded.

"Hey, you'll have us between you and them. Any trouble, and the bridesmaids are kicking ass." They all giggled, while Zoey reflected that it was most probably true. Between these two, CJ and Donna Moss, a more tough-as-nails cadre of bridesmaids had probably never been seen.

"Didn't Ellie want to be a bridesmaid?" Deanna wondered, perhaps following the same train of thought. Annie and Zoey snorted in tandem.

"Ellie, doing girly wedding stuff? Forget it," Zoey explained. "Anyway, she'd've hated it if I'd even asked her. She hates getting dragged into family stuff."

Damn it, why did her middle sister always have to make things difficult all the time? This was supposed to be her and Charlie's wedding, not 'Ellie vs. Dad Chapter 432'.

"I think Ellie's boyfriend's kind of a jerk," Deanna admitted tentatively.

"Oh, is he ever," Annie agreed instantly. "Did you hear him last night, bitching about everything? Why would she bring a guy like that?"

"I know exactly why," Zoey said darkly. She scowled. "She's trying to pick a fight with dad again."

Deanna frowned in disgust. "That really sucks. This is supposed to be your special day!"

"I know." Zoey brightened up. "Which is why I'm putting you two on Ellie duty. She looks like starting trouble? Beat her up."

"Okay."

"Sure."

They answered in cheerful stereo, and then exchanged a look and burst into peals of giggles again. Zoey joined them, and the anxious constriction in her chest eased just a little.

This wasn't so bad. She could do this. Getting married wasn't the hardest thing in the world, was it?

She could do this.

CJ hopped smartly up to the podium, grinning at the sea of eager faces. "Howdy folks! All right, as I'm sure you're aware, the big news item today is going to be the figures on crop subsidies in-"

"CJ!" The howl of protest was universal.

"Okay, okay," she relented, laughing. "Wedding news. Okay, as you know, Zoey Bartlet and her sisters are already in New Hampshire with the First Lady and the sister of the groom. The president will be flying out at the end of today, along with those members of the senior staff who are attending. The Vice President will be in DC during the ceremony, and he'll have a direct line to the president at all times, although hopefully that won't have to be used - you know how embarrassing it is if your pager goes off in the middle of a church."

They all chuckled easily with her. This weekend, the press had other ways to make their living than baying for blood.

"The full wedding schedule will be available tomorrow morning; it's no good begging for advance copies, folks, the security team are keeping it under wraps. And may I take this moment to remind you that the media guidelines have already been laid down." She swept the room with a stern gaze. "Let's not have anybody going Rambo for an exclusive, please? The president loves Charlie Young dearly, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't be happy for an excuse to rip somebody's head off."

The ripple of amusement that passed through the room at that had a slightly more nervous edge to it. The president's protection of his family from media intrusion was well-documented, and nobody was ready to take him on when he was already antsy from giving away his youngest daughter in marriage.

"Okay guys, that's the bare bones of it, but let me guess... you've got questions."

The forest of hands that sprang up didn't disappoint.