XV

TUESDAY:

Carol arrived and proffered the day's stories without bothering to conceal her wince. "Jackie Grant?" CJ assumed.

"And Edgar Drumm."

Oh, great. Even those media bloodsuckers who'd been banned from the White House and one step shy of getting slapped with a restraining order were crawling out of the woodwork now. She pushed up her glasses and held out a hand. "Give me Drumm."

Carol gritted her teeth as CJ read - her boss's reaction didn't disappoint.

"Cycle of Abuse Continues - is Jed Bartlet the wholesome father figure he pretends to- Okay, somebody get me a baseball bat. Get me one now."

Carol remained prudently silent while she continued reading.

"Ellie- he went to Ellie? Oh, the president's going to blow his stack. We don't need this right now. We don't need this any time, but we do not need this right now." She looked up, meeting her assistant's eyes incredulously. "He flat out accuses the president of neglect and emotional abuse! Flat out! This is- I don't even know what this is. I don't even know what this is because my brain is leaking out of my ears trying to hold this article and reality at the same time."

"Ellie didn't call," Carol pointed out hesitantly, probably not wanting to get the no doubt harassed young woman into trouble for failing to stick to established press protocols. But right now CJ had no interest in gunning for Eleanor Bartlet.

"Yeah, well, she's probably had twenty-five reporters chasing her a day, and she thought she didn't give him anything." CJ grimaced. "She didn't give him anything. The guy hits her with a question so mind-bogglingly crazy she probably just stares at him for fifteen minutes, and he comes away with 'President's daughter suspiciously quiet when asked about her father's neglect'. Poor kid's probably kicking the hell out of herself for not coming up with an instant rebuttal... it's not her fault."

CJ sat back in her chair and let out a heavy and heartfelt sight. She'd been in the office a grand total of twelve minutes... already, she wanted to get back home and crawl into bed.

She sat back upright, and gave Carol a weary smile. "Now give me some good news?" she asked with a wry twist of a grin.

"Uh... the legitimate press won't go near Jackie Grant's insinuations with a twenty foot pole?"

"Okay, good. Now tell me that ninety percent of the gutter press have spontaneously decided to become legitimate?"

Carol smiled sympathetically. "I'll go get coffee."

It was going to be a hell of a day.

"Josh." Donna gave him a worried frown. "You went home straight after your meeting last night?"

"Oh, I-" He rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Sorry, I should've- sorry."

"That's okay," she shrugged quickly, although she would have bugged him for hours about it on a different day. He must look as drained as he felt.

"I'm... really fine, Donna," he told her earnestly.

She looked him in the eye. "No, you're really not," she said matter-of-factly. "But you have staff in five, so-"

"I'm on my way," he nodded, grabbing folder and coffee together in one less than graceful move. He felt Donna's worried eyes burning into the back of his neck as he left... so he didn't look back.

He was the last to arrive for senior staff; Leo gave him a distracted nod, and Sam squeezed his shoulder briefly as Josh slumped into the chair beside him. He lounged bonelessly, knowing he couldn't manage to look alert but at least aiming to shoot for 'conscious'.

"Okay," Leo began brusquely. "There's some trash in the papers today - Jackie Grant, but we knew that. Also, Edgar Drumm's been up to his old tricks."

"Who'd he get?" Toby mumbled, as Sam let out a disgusted huff and shook his head.

"He went after Ellie at the hospital - didn't get a comment, but he went ahead with the story anyway. He's roped some crackpot academic into giving him some quotes on 'cycle of abuse' and is trying to sell that the president neglected and shut out his girls." Leo's usually brisk and impassive tone wobbled a little into the territory of contempt.

"Oh, come on," Josh protested disbelievingly, stretching back in his chair. Surely even Edgar Drumm knew better than to try and hang a story off such a ridiculous premise.

"The entire country knows Jed Bartlet's always been a brilliant father," Sam objected, frown lines gathering above his glasses.

"I know they do, but the entire country's got a selective memory," Leo reminded him. "Now, I want this whole thing kept way off the president's radar. Let him know Drumm's trash-talking if you have to, but he doesn't have to know what he's selling, and he sure as hell doesn't need to know the guy was hassling Ellie. I don't want a repeat of yesterday's debacle."

It was easier, somehow, to retrofit the president's reaction to the press briefing into the mould of righteous anger over a question that should never have got through. That made it their mistake, a failure of their defence net, and therefore something they could fix.

Better that, than to remember the look in the president's eyes, and know that it was nothing to do with their actions at all, but the fires of an internal suffering they could do nothing to ease.

Leo glanced across at CJ. "I'm not expecting an insurrection in the press room after yesterday, but if they do-"

"Oh, I'll slap 'em," CJ agreed firmly, with just enough of a dangerous spark in her eye that it was uncertain whether she meant it literally.

"Good. Josh, what are you doing?"

The question caught him out, and he had to fumble for a response, his schedule blurred and faded from his mind. "I've been, uh- I was meeting with Stuart Walters about funding for the USFA, but-"

Leo shot him a glare that would have been steely if it wasn't tempered with a flicker of concern. "That's not a priority right now."

"No." Josh studied the floor between his shoes. He thought CJ might be looking at him, but he didn't raise his head to find out.

"Sam, you've got Gareth Vance again?" There was an edge of challenge in Leo's voice, ready to warn him to take care of it, but the Deputy Communications Director spoke firmly.

"I've got it in hand."

"Okay. Toby, work with CJ. Like I say, I don't think we're gonna need a response to the Drumm article, but have one. And CJ, be prepared to keep dodging on the president's upcoming engagements. There's no way he's ready to face the press yet." Leo sighed, and his voice dropped. "I'm not sure if he will be," he admitted softly.

CJ followed him out of the meeting and into his office. As he sat down, he rested his chin upon his palm and gave her a silently eloquent look.

Perhaps not eloquent enough, or else she was, as usual, ignoring his signals.

"Hey there, Tobus, how's it going?"

"You were at the meeting," he reminded her flatly. She gave him a look.

"I meant-"

"I know."

She was silent for a moment, and then sighed. "I'm sorry... I'm sorry I spoke to Andy about Zoey's pregnancy, without knowing..."

He shrugged an eyebrow, as expansive an expression of forgiveness as he needed. "The youngest daughter of the leader of the free world is expecting a honeymoon baby. Odds are she would have found out eventually."

"Yeah, but I just stumbled right in there and- Well, I messed up your plan for breaking it gently." CJ eyed him sideways. "You had a plan, right?"

"Yes. I called it 'Project Cowardice'."

She smiled briefly, but then turned earnest. "Toby, seriously, we've all been insensitive. Babbling on about pregnancy stuff, when you-"

He took umbrage at this attempt to usurp one of his major qualities. "I know insensitive. I'm a certified wielded of insensitive. Insensitive requires a finely weighted balance of knowing, and not caring."

CJ gave him a slight nod that said she would accept that argument but still reserve the right to beat herself up over it, and then smirked at him. "They give you a certificate for that?"

"Yes, but I handed it back and told them I didn't like the colours."

CJ moved across to him, and lightly kissed him on the top of the head. "I'm sorry, Toby," she said softly, and this time she wasn't talking about anything she might have said or done.

He met her eyes for a moment in silent acknowledgement, and then they went back to work.