Title: Fallen (Part 2)
Author:S A Martin
Synopsis: As Josh and Leo's relationship deteriorates, Jed
decides it's time to act.
Characters: Josh, Leo and Jed
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Anything up to S5, Disaster Relief.
During senior staff on Monday morning nobody could miss the tension between Josh and Leo. After Leo had cut Josh off for the third time, and it looked as if Josh were in danger of saying something to Leo that he definitely shouldn't say in the Oval Office, Jed decided to intervene. "Right, everyone. Thank you. Leo, Josh I need to see you alone."
Once the others had left, Jed studied his two most senior advisors and wondered whether he'd get away with banging their heads together. He walked around his desk and sat down, while Leo and Josh stood awkwardly on the other side. "Who wants to go first?" Jed asked.
"Sir?"
"I could lock you in a room together until you sort this out, but I need you both doing actual work." Jed looked at Leo. "I told you on Saturday that Josh hasn't spoken to me about anything other than work." He turned to Josh, "Which is something we need to discuss, because you damn well should have spoken to me."
Jed watched as Leo looked angry and Josh shifted from foot to foot. "Neither of you has anything to say? Fine, then I suggest you both try to find a way to work together. Leo I need to talk you. Josh go and help Angela sort out Chet and 829."
Once Josh had left, Leo turned to Jed. "I don't want Josh involved with 829."
"Well Angela doesn't seem able to sort it on her own."
"Then Toby can help."
"And while Toby's doing that, who's dealing with communications? Maybe CJ could, and Josh's intern could have a go at press briefing, while Josh sits in his office and organizes my itinerary for next month, because that's really where his talents are most needed." Jed glared at Leo. "I want Josh helping with 829."
"Yes, Mr President. Was there anything else?"
"Have you made an appointment?"
"It's not that easy, Sir. Where exactly would I go?"
"If you really wanted to, Leo, you'd find somewhere. What happened with you and Josh this weekend?"
"We talked."
"I can see."
Angela glanced at Josh as he skimmed through the file. She hoped he was there to help and not just to prove something to her, himself or Leo. And that was another thing, "What's wrong with Leo?"
"How would I know?" Josh shrugged and turned a page. "Why has Daly suddenly agreed to everything?"
"I appealed to his sense of party loyalty," Angela told him.
Josh smiled, "You offered him our support on welfare?"
"Yeah," Angela smiled back. "So Leo?"
"Why do you keep asking me? You've known him longer than I have."
"I thought you'd known him since you were a kid?"
"He worked for my father, I didn't really know him." Which wasn't completely true, but at that moment it felt like he'd never known Leo at all.
"OK," Angela agreed. "You up to speed then?"
"Yeah. Let's see if I can remember the way to the Hill."
"Josh."
"Mr President." Josh stood as Jed entered his office that evening.
Jed sat in the visitor's chair. "Sit down and stop looking so worried. I understand why you didn't tell me, I want to know what you think we can do to help."
"He has to want help, Sir, and at the moment he doesn't."
"Sometimes we have to force help on people, Josh. You didn't want to speak to Stanley," Jed pointed out.
"Due respect, Sir, that was different. You can force him to go to as many meetings and have as much therapy as you want, it won't make any difference if he's going to go home and have a drink, or ten."
"I know," Jed sighed. "You and him fight?"
"Just a little."
Jed nodded, "I told him I'd worked it out on my own."
"It wasn't that, Sir. We started fighting as soon as I mentioned it to him. Mallory told me last weekend."
"Who else knows?"
Josh hesitated; if he told the president about Donna then he was going to have to tell him how she knew, but he realized he had to tell him. "Donna. She was at my apartment when he turned up. She could hardly not notice he was drunk."
"Leo didn't leave The Residence until almost 2am, Donna was at your apartment late."
"Yes, Sir," Josh agreed.
Jed frowned at that, but then reasoned that Josh and Donna were both consenting adults who weren't breaking any laws. "I'm glad," he smiled. "Make sure you look after her."
"I couldn't do anything else," Josh assured him.
"Anyone else know about Leo?"
"Angela knows something's wrong, but I don't think she knows what. I'm pretty sure he can't hide it from Margaret."
"They've both known him a long time, I suppose they know the signs. You and Angela may not get on, but you both have a concern for Leo's welfare in common. Don't look like that, Josh. I don't know what he said to you, but you still care about him."
"You sound like Donna, Sir. What do you suggest we do?"
"I have no idea. I don't know what made him quit before, do you?"
"I didn't know him that well then, he was my father's friend. I got the impression that he just decided he didn't want to carry on living from drink to drink."
"I suppose things have been building for a while now." Jed knew he had been off-loading his worries and frustrations onto Leo, seeing as Abbey wasn't speaking to either of them. He suddenly wondered who Leo talked to. In the past he knew he talked to Josh or Toby. But Leo and Josh had hardly spoken for weeks and Jed had noticed the atmosphere between Leo and Toby, in fact there was an atmosphere between Leo and just about everyone.
"Does he still go to the meetings?" Josh asked.
"Not since Hoynes left, no. The others didn't like Leo attending. Once John left they started a new meeting and didn't invite him."
"That sounds pretty immature," Josh commented. "I wish I knew what to suggest, Sir."
"You think Stanley Keyworth would talk to him?"
Josh smiled at that. "I think Stanley's going to need his own office here soon. I can call him. Shall I tell him why?"
"Tell him I asked him to speak with Leo, don't tell him about the drinking, not over the phone."
Once Jed had left, Josh phoned Delta and checked the availability of flights from LA the next day. Then he called Stanley's office.
"Hey, Josh. How've you been?" Stanley had been expecting this call for weeks now. He knew Josh had seen his counselor since the kidnapping, but he'd still been surprised not to have heard from him.
"I'm fine, you?"
"I'm good. If you're fine why are you calling?" Stanley's tone was amused and questioning.
"The President asked me to call you. He'd like you to come to Washington."
"You know, until I first saw you, no one had ever used the words, 'the President asked me to call you'. Who does he want me to see, or is that a secret until I get there?"
"Leo."
Stanley could hear the reluctance in Josh's words. "Can you tell me why?"
"Not until you get here. Can you come?"
"Yes. Hang on a few minutes." Two minutes later Stanley returned to the phone. "I can come tomorrow if I can get a flight."
"That's not a problem, I checked with Delta, they've got seats."
"Where'd you want to meet?"
"I'll collect you. There's a flight gets in a 6?"
"I'll see you then."
The following evening Josh left Washington's National Airport with Stanley, and drove him back to the White House. "Does he know I'm coming?"
"The President's telling him about now."
"How do you think he'll react?"
"Badly, which is why I volunteered to collect you," Josh smiled.
"You want to tell me what's going on?"
"He's drinking."
Stanley sighed. That was what he had been expecting, but he had still hoped he was wrong. "I'm not a alcohol counselor, Josh."
"You're a trauma specialist."
"You think he's drinking because of Zoey?"
"I think that was the start, I think things have been building since then."
"No," Leo told Jed.
"I can make it an order, Leo."
Leo glared at Jed. "Yes, Sir, you can. When?"
"Josh is picking him now."
"Josh. I should have known."
"Stanley helped him."
"Well, yes, he's a trauma specialist."
"You're going to sit and talk to him. You're meeting in the Residence."
"Who else knows he's coming?"
"If anyone sees him they'll assume he's here to see Josh."
"Who knows?" Leo repeated.
"No one. We're just trying to help, Leo. I'm assuming you want help."
Leo stared down at his desk and then back up at Jed. "Yes," he said quietly.
"Good. It'll be OK you know."
"Are you an AA counselor now?"
"I'm everything, Leo. Why are you drinking?" Stanley asked.
"It's been a bad few months."
"You've been through bad times before and not drunk. Rosslyn, the MS disclosure." Stanley knew why those were different, but he wanted Leo to tell him.
"I know."
"What was different this time?" When Leo didn't answer, Stanley prompted him. "Who'd you talk to, normally? After Rosslyn, who'd you talk to?"
"Rosslyn was different."
"You care less about Josh than Zoey?" Stanley asked, his voice reflecting the doubt he felt at that.
"No. But I knew where Josh was. Hell, I could stand and watch the surgery. I knew there was a high chance he could die, I just didn't believe he would."
"Where you alone?"
"Was I alone?"
"After Rosslyn and during the MS disclosure."
"I'm not alone now."
"Who'd you talk to?"
"After Rosslyn?" Leo asked, Stanley nodded. "Everyone, the president, Abbey, Toby, CJ, Sam, even Josh's mother and then Josh himself. I don't see...?"
"And the MS disclosure?"
"The staff I guess."
"Josh?"
"Yeah, and Toby."
"So what happened with the staff when Zoey went missing?"
Leo considered that question. What did happen to them? "Toby was caught up in writing and the twins, CJ was dealing with the press," Leo replied.
Stanley was pretty sure there was more to it than that. "What about Josh?"
"He was fixated with the president stepping aside, with how it looked, with a Republican takeover."
"He was annoying you?"
"You could say that."
"So you were on your own?"
"I'm the chief of staff. At the end of the day I'm always on my own."
"No, I don't think that's true. You always have the senior staff and you always have the Bartlets. This time you had none of them."
"So I can blame my drinking on Zoey's kidnap and the staff?"
Stanley gave a humorless smile. "No, you know that isn't how it works. How are the president and first lady?"
"They're fine," Leo lied. In truth Abbey still refused to speak to him. As for Jed. He couldn't get back into the game, he was fixating on the little things, the things he thought he could have an immediate effect on and he was missing the bigger picture. So the big things fell to Leo. It may scare the public to know that Leo, drunk or sober, was the one running the country and had been since the kidnapping ended.
Stanley hadn't expected an honest answer to that, but he did to his next question. "And the staff. How are they handling the situation?"
"The staff?"
"Yes. CJ?"
"CJ's fine." CJ's not been herself since she found out about Shareef, since Christmas. Leo knew she thought he'd been too hard on her, but he had to be.
"OK. What about Toby?"
"Toby pissed at me about Josh and Will, other than that he's OK." Toby thought that Leo was ignoring his advice, Leo was well aware of that. But Leo thought Toby's judgment was clouded by his desire to take a step back from the day to day speech writing, that was why he hadn't wanted to loose Will.
"So they're both fine then?" Stanley commented. "What about Josh?"
Leo expression hardened. "Josh is pissed at me for bringing in Angela Blake to take on some of his work. Josh thinks he should be able to do what he wants and get away with whatever he does."
Stanley noted with interest the sudden anger that came into Leo's voice at the mention of Josh. He wanted to probe a little deeper into that one. "I'm not sure that's true, Leo."
"You don't know him, not like I do."
"When you called me in to talk to Josh, the Christmas after Rosslyn, I got the impression that he was more than your deputy. You were genuinely worried about him, not just for how his work would suffer."
Leo sighed. "I've known him a long time, his father was a good friend. That doesn't mean he can manipulate me."
"You think he wants to?"
"I think he spent the entire time Zoey was missing fretting about how it looked in the press, about our polling figures and how to get the Republicans out of the Oval Office."
"You don't think he was worried about Zoey?"
"If he was, he hid it well."
"Perhaps he did."
Once Leo left Stanley, after promising to talk to a counselor of Stanley's choice, he decided to take Stanley's advice and talk to Josh about the kidnapping.
"Do you have a minute?"
Josh looked up from his computer. "How you doing?"
Leo closed the door and sat down in the visitor's chair. "Who's idea was it to call Stanley Keyworth."
"It's what you would have done if it was one of us."
Leo decided on the direct approach. "When Zoey was missing, what were you thinking?"
"What was I thinking? I don't know," Josh shrugged.
"It looked like you were thinking about opinion polls and who was in charge of the country."
"It did?"
"If you'd mentioned the president taking back power one more time I swear I'd have hit you."
"You still met with Angela and got some polling data. She told you what I'd been telling you."
Leo shook his head. "She'd never met Zoey, Josh," he replied angrily. "You're suppose to be her friend."
"I am her friend," Josh replied. "But there was nothing I could do."
And there it was; with those seven words, or more accurately the tone used, Leo realized what was going on in July. 'There was nothing I could do'. Nothing but throw himself into work, which Leo knew was Josh's escape from the things that scare him, from things he couldn't control.
Josh hadn't finished though. "You really think I didn't care. God, Leo, I was right outside the club. We were stood talking to Wesley when he was told. I knew before you did. But what could I do?"
"I know, I'm sorry."
Josh shrugged and changed the subject back to Leo. "What did Stanley say?"
"About Zoey?" Leo asked, momentarily thrown by the shift in the conversation.
"About you."
"I haven't had a drink since Saturday night. I almost did on Sunday, but Donna phoned and then Mallory came round, then the president phoned and I came here."
"Good. What did Stanley say?"
"He's arranging for me to see someone."
"How many times?"
Leo didn't pretend not to understand. "Three. Strangely the first was after Zoey was found. I bought a bottle of whiskey on the way home. Then after the fireworks on the 4th. Then last weekend."
"Not in between?"
"I've only got drunk three times. Not that I expect anyone to be proud of me for the only part. Who else knows?"
"Me, Donna, the president, Mal and Margaret."
"Not the staff?"
"No, none of them know. They know something's wrong."
"How?"
"You don't seem to have noticed how close to the edge they are, that's not like you."
"They're doing fine," Leo protested.
"Oh come on. CJ's been angry since Christmas. Toby wants to take a step back and widen his portfolio. Will gave up on us and left. Angela does seem fine though."
"And you?"
"Me? Yeah I'm just great."
"Angela's..."
"Staying. Yes I know. Actually some of this stuff," Josh indicated his desk, "is quite interesting. Some of it we should have done years ago. The problem is though, that while I may have time to look at it, no one else does. Still, it keeps me off the streets."
Leo felt a small twinge of guilt at Josh's tone of voice. "I had to do it, Josh."
Josh nodded. "I may have told Donna it'd be fine, but I was half expecting to be fired."
"So I did you a favor," Leo smiled.
"Not quite how I'd have put it, but okay."
"Josh, what I said last weekend, about you and about Noah, I didn't mean it. He was a good friend. I would never try and damage his memory."
"No one could." Josh didn't want to talk about his father, not with Leo. "How do you feel?"
"Honestly? Crap. It'll pass, I'll be alright." As Leo watched Josh though he couldn't help but wonder whether they'll be alright, whether they can ever reclaim their friendship.