Sorry for the delay. My computer has had some serious issues, but hopefully its not going to be screwing up again for a while. Kudos to all my great reviewers, I love you guys!
Disclaimer: Still don't own them. Sigh. I'm not really sure who does now that Sorkin left, but it's definitely not me.
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"Knight to E5," Liz announced as she carefully placed the little white horse head on the square.
Jed looked up from his desk. "And I honestly didn't think you could take any longer to move after your last one," he teased. "I went over and signed three important things while you were thinking."
"What were they about?" asked Liz, who recently began taking every opportunity to learn something new.
"I really couldn't tell you," he replied. He strode over to the chessboard, scanned it momentarily, and then announced, "Rook to H3." He placed the piece on the board and returned to his desk, while Liz once again began analyzing the board. A few minutes passed in complete silence until Jed, without looking up from his papers murmured, "Take your time. See the whole board."
"You know, sir," began Liz, "from the few times I've played with you I've noticed that every time you say that I know I'm going to lose the in the next two or three moves."
"Yeah," replied Jed, still slightly preoccupied.
"So, I'm just supposed to sit here an figure out how I'm gonna lose?"
"Yeah."
Liz sighed, returning her attention to the board. "How reassuring."
There was a knock at the door, and, without waiting for a reply, Leo, Josh, Toby, Sam and CJ came into the office. "Don't mind her," Jed told them, gesturing toward Liz. "She's learning how she's gonna lose."
Liz half-listened in on the meeting and half-paid attention to the chessboard. It had been three weeks since her first meeting with Jed Bartlet, and now she had adopted a routine. After school, she took the bus down to the campaign headquarters, and generally had her homework completed within the hour. For the rest of the time she hung around, listened in on impromptu meetings and watched CJ's press briefings, acquiring quite a bit of respect for nearly every member of the senior staff. She remained isolated at school, so she didn't have anyone to brag to about Josh's position. It wouldn't matter—most of her school was Republican anyway. Jed usually didn't have meetings after six, so it was then she reported to his office for a chess lesson, which was usually accompanied by a lesson on Latin, or the crop cycles of Nebraska, or whatever. Liz pretended to have as little interest as the rest of staff in these things, but in truth she found them slightly fascinating, and she could always scare most of her fourth grade class when she brought such things up during class discussions. The current meeting concerned the Illinois primary, which was tomorrow. Most of the things they were discussing were things Liz had already heard, so she turned her full attention back to the chess game.
As the meeting ended, and Liz knew she would be leaving soon, she carefully moved a piece she figured would protect her king, at least for a while. Wrong idea. Jed slid his bishop forward, announced "checkmate," and gave her a cocky smile.
She calmly replied, "good game." She still was nowhere near comfortable teasing him the way he teased her.
"You're going to see your first considerably hectic day tomorrow," Jed remarked as he wandered back over to his desk and Liz began to straighten up the chessboard. "Though I suppose your first day could come pretty close."
"I know. I'm trying to get Josh to let me stay home from school tomorrow." She finally started calling him Josh, since he had taken Leo's strategy and began calling her Elizabeth. For all intents and purposes, it worked.
"And that just isn't happening," Josh added, while still buried in his papers so he couldn't see her scowl.
"And I somehow find myself agreeing with Tom," Jed added while busying about the room doing God knows what. Leo gave him an appalling look, and there was total silence until Jed caught on a few moments later. "Your name isn't Tom, is it?" he asked, looking at Josh.
"No," Josh said calmly, as if this was nothing out of the ordinary.
And it wasn't. In the past three weeks Liz had observed Jed Bartlet's inability to remember names. Or so he claimed. He had always remembered hers with ease, but dictated that he only forgot the names of his staffers because there were so many of them who all did the same thing. "What's the point of trying to learn the names of all these campaign people who are going to leave as soon as I lose?" His remark had been lighthearted, but it reminded Liz that this situation was only temporary.
"His name is Josh," she reminded Jed after the others had left the room.
He looked up, startled out of his reverie. "Oh, right."
Liz frowned at his indifference. How was it possible that a man that Josh and Leo praised daily could be so indifferent to the people who were really going to make him great? "Good luck tomorrow," she called as she headed for the door.
"Thanks, but its not going to happen," he called with a wry smile.
"Sure it will. You got New Hampshire," Liz reminded him as she always did whenever he got on the idea that he was "not worthy" or whatever.
"Yes, but as Leo constantly points out, my family founded the state."
Liz shook her head. "See you tomorrow."
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Liz scrambled out the door of her elementary school and sprinted toward the bus stop. Despite whatever misgivings she might have about Jed Bartlet, he had just won the Illinois primary, so off to the Bartlet for America headquarters she would go.
"Liz." A car pulled up beside her, and it only took Liz a moment to realize that it was Josh in the front seat with a grim look on his face.
Liz stepped off the curb and got in. "What's up?" He didn't reply for a moment. "We won, didn't we? Or was today not a normal day?" she added, allowing herself a small smile at their running joke.
Josh didn't laugh though. "Listen, I'm going to have to have you stay at the shelter for a few days. I have to go up to Connecticut."
She started to put two and two together at his grim look and the revelation that he was going to his family home. "Josh, what's up?"
"My father died."
One would think that Liz would know exactly how to reply to such a statement, what with her own experience and the living with a bunch of kids who had almost all lost at least one parent for four years. But the knowledge that absolutely nothing could be said to make him feel better changed her mind, and she simply settled for an "I'm so sorry."
The other thing that he had told her started to impact her as well, and she looked up at him. "So I'm going to the shelter?"
He nodded. "Yeah, I packed some stuff for you, but it should only be for two or three days." He stopped at a red light and turned to look at her. "I'm really sorry about leaving you like this. I just didn't think a funeral was a good time…"
"Yeah," Liz nodded eagerly. "I get it. You're right."
They pulled up to the St. Anne's Children Shelter, and Josh got her suitcase out of the back. Once they got her all settled in, he turned to look at her, and Liz saw for the first time how hard it must be for him to be holding it together. Just for her. He paused, looking bewildered for a moment, then leaned down to give her a quick, awkward hug. "Thanks, kiddo. I'll see you in a couple days?"
Still reeling from the sudden display of affection, she nodded, and with that he was gone. She couldn't help but stare after him, wondering about the hug and why he did it, and thinking maybe, just maybe…
"Liz! Back already?" A voice taunted from behind her, and she turned around to glare at the boy down the hall.
"Eat slugs, Jim! It's just for a few days!" she shot back.
Jim merely laughed. "Rejected huh? It's ok, nothin' to be ashamed off. Everyone is. Getting' your hopes up, kid?" he snickered, dancing down the hall.
Liz was silent for a moment. Jim's barb had brought her back to reality. He had hugged her because he felt guilty.
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An hour or so later, Liz was watching CNN in one of the rooms. "Governor Bartlet's victory today has nearly sealed his candidacy over John Hoynes. It won't be a question over who's going to be accepting the nomination this summer…" She glanced away from the TV has she heard a bunch of cars pull up. Thinking nothing of it, she turned her attention back to the TV until Molly, the woman in charge of the kids, came in. "Liz, some people are here." Rolling her eyes, she got up and walked out of the room, only to find several people, among them…
"Governor Bartlet! Leo! What are you doing here?" she asked, unable to keep the grin off her face as she notice the looks of disbelief on the other kids' faces.
"Oh, just stopping by on the way somewhere. We figured we were going to miss you for the next couple of days so we just wanted to check up on our favorite preteen." Liz smiled happily. They came? They came for her?
"Yeah, without you around he's just going to be bugging the rest of us more," Leo added as he reached down and tousled her hair affectionately.
After doing the traditional hand-shaking, speech-giving, charisma-emitting stuff, Governor Bartlet called Liz over and leaned down to tell her, "Listen, this was kind of sudden for Josh, and I'm sure you aren't sure how to act around him, so just, you know, be natural. Keep him grounded and make sure he doesn't bury himself in his work." He waited until she nodded before continuing, "He'll be fine." Pausing he then added, "You were right. I guess I'm not too bad at this. I'll need him around pretty soon. And I don't plan on forgetting his name anymore." Liz nodded, and kept nodding even as he walked away. The irrational part of her fought the urge to cry. 'He needs Josh around,' she thought. 'Not me.'
'Surprise, surprise,' she reminded herself. 'What else is new?' Walking back to her room, she resolved not to over analyze anymore, nor to see things for more than what they were. 'I'm leaving at some point. I'm just going to make the best of the situation. I don't know, maybe even learn something.'
Nevertheless, for the first time in four years, she allowed a small ray of hope to envelop her, that maybe, just maybe, the world was not out to get her.
"Governor!" she called, before she could stop herself. Suddenly, she ordered the wary part of herself to shut the hell up, and called, without stuttering, "Go kick some butt."
He grinned. "You just wait 'til the convention."
The brief, and somewhat politically motivated visit (nothing says compassion in political leaders than visiting underprivileged children), was still an incredible boost for her substitute for a social life at the children's shelter. The looks she received from the other kids suddenly boosted her a tad higher in whatever social structure that they had going on there. She started to get the feeling that she was different, she was special, that she had this opportunity, even if it was at random, and she could, possibly, use it to get out of this hole.
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Two days later, Josh returned from Connecticut after his father's funeral. He brought Liz greetings from his mother, Sara, which itself was weird. Liz was nowhere near thinking of Josh as any kind of father figure, and Josh's mom greeting her was weird, because it seemed so grandmotherly.
He grinned when he saw her, which made her wonder, for the umpteenth time, how she should act around this man who had just lost his father. "You ok?" she asked him quietly when she couldn't come up with anything else to say.
He nodded. "Yeah, I'll be ok. Kinda knew it was coming." He paused, looking somewhat uncomfortable, and then added "I don't really want to talk about it."
Liz nodded. "Yeah, ok. That's cool." She shook her head. This was going to be harder than it looked.
Josh suddenly smiled wryly. "I'll be keeping busy. We just got nailed a nomination."
"Yup," Liz agreed. "We gonna kick some butt on Super Tuesday?"
He gave her an amused look. "You bet." Long pause. "A few days away finally start giving you some enthusiasm?" Liz blushed, and Josh decided not to press her sudden perkiness any further.
"So, what happens then?"
Josh grinned, yet again. "We bring out the big guns."
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A/N: I realize I may have some of the dates in Chapter 1 off, but humor me. Obviously, this is a little AU. The next chapter is going to skip to the convention. I'll try to update more often.
-Crazileigh