XVII
WEDNESDAY:
The president gradually came awake, with all the grace of a sleeping bear rudely startled out of hibernation. Abbey smiled fondly at him, and brushed an errant curl of hair from his forehead.
He smiled back. "Hello."
"Hey, babe." She gave him a pointed look. "Hungover?"
Jed frowned. "I wasn't drunk," he protested.
Abbey had to laugh aloud at that. "You keep telling yourself that, sweetheart."
He pouted. "I had two glasses of champagne!"
"On top of your cough medicine and the pills?"
He had the grace to look chagrined. "I forgot about the pills... but I was stone cold sober!" he insisted. "I was fully in charge of my faculties."
"You were cuddling people and talking about getting Charlie to rewire the lighting system," she reminded him.
"I'm friendly!" Jed protested. "And the lighting in that ballroom is appalling. In fact, I've a good mind to-"
Abbey sighed. "Jed..."
"All right, all right." He looked down. "It was the cold medicine."
She gave him a sad smile. "Jed... you know your tolerance to alcohol is not what it used to be."
He hesitated for a beat, then breathed out heavily. "Yeah."
"You shouldn't really be drinking. Especially when you're not well."
"It really is just a cold," he said softly, meeting her eyes.
"I know. But honey... you have multiple sclerosis, you haven't slept a full night through in five and a half years, and 'just a cold' is not the same thing as it was when you were seventeen."
He let out a long, heavy sigh. "Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah."
She stroked his hair.
"Did I embarrass myself last night?" he asked, grimacing.
"Nobody noticed," she assured him, pressing a gentle kiss to his forehead.
He met her eyes sharply, not believing that. "You said-"
"They know you're not well, babe," she reminded him. "The only ones who noticed are the people that love you, and they don't care."
He smiled wryly, but said nothing. Abbey leaned her head against his shoulder.
"You know you'll always have your good and bad days," she said gently. "We're here to pick up the slack. Don't worry about it, okay?"
"Okay." He smiled at her, and pulled her close for a kiss.
"Okay." Leo shuffled papers and looked around at the staff. "Let's try to keep this short. It's supposed to be a light day, so let's see if we can hold off on having a disaster until at least eleven o'clock?"
He noticed he was one staff member short.
"Toby's off working on the thing?"
"Yeah."
He nodded. "And Sam, you're working on-?"
"The other thing," he supplied in a helpful tone of voice.
Leo gave him a look. "I'm so glad we have these meetings."
"Oh, and I'm pleased to report I've got my groove back," he added chirpily.
"Well, good, 'cause we were worried there," he said sardonically. "Josh, you're still chasing McGann?" His deputy nodded.
"McGann's the leak?" Sam wondered, forehead wrinkling.
"For sure," Josh agreed.
"That doesn't make sense," CJ frowned.
"No, but it seems to be true. Keep me posted on that," Leo ordered, still wondering what game Selena was playing here. "CJ, you're briefing at two?"
She nodded, and then abruptly blurted "Danny asked me out to dinner." Josh and Sam exchanged schoolboy smirks.
"CJ-" he warned, without real rancour. Having any of your staff fraternising with the press was never good news, but CJ was a professional, and Danny was a good guy, so far as reporters went. If it wasn't going to be any trouble, he wasn't about to make it his business.
"It's a business meeting! We're re-establishing ties," she insisted hurriedly.
Sam grinned. "Is that what you kids are-?"
"Stop that thought right there, Sprinkles." CJ glared at him until he nervously dropped his gaze.
Josh looked like he was gearing up to make a smart remark, but was forestalled as the door from the Oval Office creaked inwards, followed by a rather worn and fragile- looking president.
"Mr. President." It was Leo's turn to smirk.
His old friend gave him a baleful look. "Leo." Sam and CJ both hid grins of their own. "Everything in hand this morning?" he asked briskly, seeking to shift the subject before it started.
"Everything's just fine," he agreed, denying him that escape route. "Feeling better, sir?" he asked innocently.
Jed pointed a stern finger at him. "I'll have you know, I was perfectly sober last night."
Leo gave him a look. "You told me I was adorable last night," he reminded him, eyebrows raised.
The collected staff snickered.
Jed narrowed his eyes... and then abruptly broke into a wide smile. "Oh, Leo. You are adorable." He leaned forward to give his Chief of Staff a casual kiss on the cheek, and then swanned out, smirking. "Keep me posted," he called airily over his shoulder.
Leo glowered at the rest of the room. "First person to say anything is fired."
Any attempts made to disguise their amusement were not visibly successful.
"You will be clearing out your desks. Get out."
They filed out. As soon as the door fell halfway shut, he heard a burst of sniggering outside it.
It was going to be one of those days, he could just tell.
"Ashley?" she guessed, giving the young man a bright smile. He looked up and grinned in response, obviously recognising her voice.
"Ah. The real Donna Moss, I assume?"
She smirked. "You rumbled Josh's cunning disguise, then?"
"I applied my considerable deductive powers to it," he said dryly. Donna snapped her fingers in mimed frustration.
"I told him he should have gone with the blonde wig."
"Well, that would have cinched it," he agreed, leaning back in his chair. "I suspect I know the answer to this, but... what can I do for you, Miss Moss?"
She gave him a slightly apologetic shrug. "Josh orders, I obey." She handed across the document she'd been asked to prepare. He took it, and flipped through for a moment before looking back up at her.
"What's this?"
"Senator Joseph Bridges, chapter and verse. Every dirty deal he's ever been caught out in, and plenty more he wasn't." When it came to the lowdown on the opposition's more unsavoury elements, Josh's information was among the very best. He might not understand the concept of 'organised' in ninety-nine percent of daily life, but at keeping track of other people's strengths and weaknesses, he was a pro.
"And I have this because...?"
"He wants you to know who you're dealing with."
"I'm not dealing with anybody," he said lightly, but his gaze was steady and locked on hers.
"Your boss is. Josh knows it, and he knows you're covering for her. And he thinks that whatever it is, you're too smart to be mixed up in it."
He smiled wryly at that. "Oh, and Josh Lyman is never wrong?"
"Josh Lyman is often wrong. I just smack him around the head until he gets over it."
He raised an eyebrow. "They didn't teach me that manoeuvre at secretary school."
"You got gypped."
"Guess so. Miss Moss-"
"Donna," she corrected quickly. The West Wing's attitude towards formalities was contagious. Nobody stood on ceremony, because with the president in the building, everybody else's title started looking a whole lot less impressive. Those who were important didn't need a special form of address to make it known.
"Ash," he smiled in return. "Donna - would you ever betray your boss's confidence?"
"No," she answered simply. She looked him in the eye. "But you know what? My boss is often short-sighted. He's frequently insensitive. There are times when he's outright moronic. But I also know that whatever else he might be, he's always, always looking to do the right thing. And maybe you should ask yourself if your boss is doing that."
He held her gaze for a moment, then tipped his head in acknowledgement. "I'll read the file."
"Thank you."
Donna turned to leave, and then doubled back.
"Incidentally, would you, by any chance, be interested in giving a home to a very sweet black-and-white kitten?"
Ash looked completely befuddled for a moment, and then laughed. "Thanks, but- I'm on a secretarial wage. If I was to have cat food in my house, it's not entirely outside the realms of possibility that I would end up eating it."
"Okay." She smiled at him. "Thanks."
She left him sitting looking down at the file in his lap with a thoughtful expression.
