XIV
"Mr. President?" A weary Charlie appeared in the Oval Office doorway, and Jed pushed himself up in his seat.
"Hey, Charlie. What's up?"
"Uh... nothing." His young aide stalled too long on finding an appropriate excuse for checking up on him, and just gave up on it. "You've got a couple of minutes clear before your next meeting."
"Okay, thank you." He sat forward. "Charlie, are you all right? You look exhausted."
"I'm fine, Mr. President." He managed to muster a smile. "Zoey's still sick, I've been pretty rushed these past few days."
Jed closed his eyes briefly. "I wish I could offer you some time off," he said sincerely. Unfortunately, with what Leo had just brought him that morning, it looked like all of them were going to be rushed off their feet for the foreseeable future.
"That's okay, sir, I can manage," Charlie assured him, although Jed was less than convinced. He was running himself ragged, and what would happen in a couple of months' time when he had to juggle being a new dad alongside all his other responsibilities?
"It's gonna be tough times for a while, Charlie," he warned with a sigh. "We've got the State of the Union coming up-" Lord, he'd almost forgotten that- "-and somehow I don't think things are going to stay quiet even for that long. The storm's about to break." He nodded slowly to himself. "It's going to be tough... but I think we'll make it."
Charlie's tired smile spread into a more genuine grin. "Wow, that kitten must really be working wonders."
Jed chuckled, and was relieved to realise his breathing had got easier. Perhaps he really was beginning to shake off this infernal cold at last.
"Where is he?" Charlie wondered, scanning the Oval Office, but Jed waved him off with a hand.
"Abbey's taken him off to the Residence, she's always happiest when she's got something to mother."
His son-in-law smirked. "Yeah, I thought she got enough of that looking after you."
"Careful." Jed pointed at him warningly, but smiled as he did it. He ran his hands back through his hair, glad to be feeling a little more energy returning to him. " How is Zoey, by the way?" he thought to ask. His youngest daughter had seemingly picked up the same bug he had; nothing too serious, but still a cause for worry considering she was five months pregnant.
"Oh, she's fine," Charlie reassured him. "Just, you know- I have to keep checking back every five minutes to make sure she hasn't decided she's well enough to start decorating the house or something."
"You should have the Secret Service agents keep an eye on her," Jed advised. " She's too stubborn to just sit back and rest like she should."
Charlie eyed him pointedly at that, but sighed. "That's what I said, but you know she hates feeling like she's in a cage."
"Yeah." He knew the feeling. "Okay, Charlie. Why don't you take a break, go down to the mess or something? I'll be tied up in meetings for hours; I'm not gonna need you here for a while."
"Okay. Thank you, Mr. President." He withdrew.
Jed frowned pensively after him. Whatever he might claim, the boy really was pushing himself too hard. He wished he could think of some way to take some of the weight off his shoulders, but it didn't look like that wish would be coming true for any of them anytime soon.
"I solved it!" Sam strode into the bullpen, hands held high. "I solved the mystery."
Congratulations were conspicuously non forthcoming. He looked around for Bonnie and Ginger, but neither was there. He sidled over to the nearest intern.
"I solved the mystery, Lauren!"
She blinked at him. "I'm Cassie," she reminded him resignedly.
He sidled away from the nearest intern. "Okay."
Sam made his way over to Toby's office, and peered around the door. "I solved the mystery, Toby."
"CJ told me," his boss noted flatly, not looking up.
He shrank a little. "I'm not feeling the love, Toby," he said, pouting.
"I'm relieved to hear it," he said sardonically.
Josh appeared in the doorway.
"Toby won't give me any love, Josh," Sam complained.
"Yeah," he said vaguely. "Listen-"
"I solved the mystery," he explained brightly. "The Swedish Ambassador's watch? I found out-"
"That's great," Josh cut him off softly. "Listen, I need to talk to you guys about something." He pulled the door closed after them, forcing Sam to move further into the office. Toby stopped typing and straightened up.
"What's going on, Josh?" Sam asked warily.
He sighed quietly, and ran a hand through his already mussed hair. "There's gonna be something coming up."
"The president?" he guessed worriedly.
Josh shook his head. "The president's fine. The president's great. This is about..."
"The Vice President?" Toby assumed, and Josh met his eyes, momentarily surprised.
"Yeah."
"Leo met with him last night," Toby recalled.
"What about?" Sam asked Josh.
He grimaced. "I found out the source of the leak," he said grimly. "Selena McGann's being blackmailed by Bridges... over an affair she was having with the Vice President up until six months ago."
Sam let his breath out in an angry rush, and thumped the edge of Toby's desk. " Dammit, Josh-"
"I know."
"What's moving on this?" Toby wanted to know.
"Hoynes had no idea Bridges even knew about the affair. He's talking about resigning, but Leo doesn't want to let him."
"Why the hell not, Josh?" Sam demanded angrily. "Why should we get caught up in this, if he-?"
"He's our guy," Josh reminded him, although Sam wasn't sure he agreed with the truth of it. "We picked him up, and we stood by him."
"We might as well hand the election across to the Republicans," he pointed out. "Cut Hoynes loose now, pick a guy, and-"
"And he'll be the second-choice VP, hamstrung from the start. Besides, we haven't got a guy." Sam mentally ran his mind over high-profile Democratic players, and grimaced. Josh had a point, at that. But still...
"This is different, Josh. We stood by the president, because whatever the president did or didn't do, it sprang from good intentions. This is a sex scandal, and we don't-"
"It's six months in the past, Sam," Josh reminded him. "It's six months, and we've got the ball, and if he comes clean of his own volition before anyone else has a chance to-"
"What, are we gonna ask him to get a divorce, too?" Sam demanded sharply. "Just for the look of the thing?"
It didn't matter about the look of the thing. It didn't matter if he owned up himself, or if it was all ancient history. The sins of the past didn't cut any less deeply.
Twenty-eight years...
"I want us looking at strategies," Josh said, cutting into his thoughts.
"Josh-" he snapped explosively.
"I want us looking at strategies," he repeated, the emphasis pushing up against that fuzzy line of exactly how much authority he had, and what would happen if he tried giving orders. Sam could have mutinied, but he subsided, because he knew Hoynes had been Josh's guy once, the almost thing before the real thing. Five years on, and he still felt guilty for walking away from a campaign that maybe could have made it.
"There's no strategy, Josh," he said, but he said it tiredly.
"Look anyway," he said, and Sam heard a flash of the steely tone that Leo sometimes wielded.
Toby had been silent through much of this, watching them both intently. "Has Hoynes spoken to the president?" he ask, when silence fell over the room once again.
Josh rubbed his face. "He's coming over. He might even be here right now, I don't know."
"Okay," Sam said quietly.
"Yeah." Josh pushed the door open, and headed away. It creaked slowly back into place behind him.
A moment later, the tap of keystrokes resumed, and he looked across at Toby incredulously. "You're still writing your thing for Andy? Now?"
Toby looked up at him over the screen of his laptop, dark eyes impassive. "It doesn't look like I'll have much time to do it later," he said mildly.