Perspectives: Continuity: 365 part 4 (Second Edition)
See Authors notes in 365 part 1
Blue Oyster Cult I just saw your note, sure I'd be glad for the help. If any one else is interested as well let me know.
Sorry it has taken me so long to post but the real world has been kicking my behind and after breaking my foot and watching to many pizza commercials I have been researching a story I want to work on in Chipmunk's Twilight Universe. You will be able to see in on her site once I have enough done on it to be able to post part of it. You can also see all of her great stories there. She has created a wonderful Leo and Margaret universe and along with Spitzthecat's Joshua Monologues is in my opinion one of the all time best West Wing Fan Fic Series of all time.
Yes I know this ends abruptly but I figured it was better to get something out there than not post anything till I had the rest of the on the ground stuff done.
I have had the hardest time posting this so I apologize if you tries to read this chapter earlier and found it lacking content.
Continuity Chapter 4
365 Part 4
December 21, 2007 12:32 AM EST Beach in front of the Grand Wailea Resort, Wailea Beach Maui, Hawaii
Josh went into master strategist mode, his skin irritation from his wetsuit only served to sharpen his abilities. "Ok, I think my wife and I need to discuss this with each other before we go too much further and we probably will need to talk to Sarah as well. Mom you might want to change and then I would appreciate it if you would head up the effort to come up with a comprehensive list of key players and what their status is. I want to know where they are and the condition they are in. If they can't be accounted for I want to know what efforts are being made to find them, where they were last seen, when, and what they had scheduled for today."
"Key Players?"
"Yeah you know elected officials, key advisors and staff members of the last few administrations, heads of major PACS, party leadership of the major parties, etc. Admiral Grey will have someone arrange for you to have a temporary staff here as well as work space and whatever communication resources you need. You are going to work with White House Operations, as well as FEMA and the other involved agencies. I'm pretty sure Angela already has Ed and Larry on this, as well as a large chunk of the communication and legislative affairs staff doing most of the leg work. You are primarily going to focus them, familiarize yourself with that information, and dispense it in an understandable format when called upon for it. You are going to be our liaison with the placement effort as well as ensuring that some of our people don't get over looked. But we're not going to worry about phase two and three yet, I just want a preliminary list as soon as you can have it. Just make sure you have it in less than an hour. I also want you to sync up Donna's planner thingy and have the white house switchboard make preliminary courtesy calls to all the contact numbers for everyone in the secure SFC & SFA files and locate them so we can have a call sheet ready when I can get to it. Also we are going to need to make arrangements to include anyone who isn't already in the NCA command and control evacuation system in the process. We are going to want most of them to end up at the same place we do but not all of them.
"You don't want much from your mother do you? This is what I get for letting Noah bring him to the office to often."
Donna smirked, "Just wait till Danny's book comes out his highness's ego is going to need its own castle. Oh and Adriana, Jed and Abby are in the SFA directory we are going to want to put her on our call sheet but I assume we already know where she is and don't need anyone to disturb her any more than need be today."
Fitz, who had been mentally checking things off his own mental checklist couldn't resist smirking at mention of the unpopular subject. "That's right I forgot we are in the presence of the all powerful kingmaker. Grey I don't know if you covered this in your briefing but this is one of the few men to ever receive an executive order to agree to let a Pulitzer Prize wining author write a book about him."
"Hey first of all, I don't think the phrase 'all powerful' is in the title, though it's not a bad idea. Secondly instead of talking about the book shouldn't we be making sure this administration is around long enough to let me out of it? Ok, Fitz it's pretty obvious we are back in the game for now. I don't want you to reenlist quite yet, but it's probably best if you remain a civilian for the moment. I don't know how involved we will be come February, a lot of that will depend on our families, and what happens in the next few days. But if I'm going to do this I would really like it if you would consider staying on for awhile. This country is going to need strong leaders who can communicate well with the white house senior staff. Seeing as you are the only one of us who knows how to change the carpet in the Oval, we would all be better off if you can show us how that is done with out making too much of a mess. If I need to I'll even change my shampoo for you. All kidding aside, I know how you talk and frankly I think you could be an asset in helping us come back from this and showing those who did this to us exactly how much we value our freedom. Even if I am not running things, I'm sure that this administration will find you invaluable. Talk it over with your wife, while they find you some more appropriate clothing. When you're ready I would like you to get caught up on what's been going on since you've been out of the loop. I would like to get your take on the situation at a briefing in one hour. Particularly where you feel we are most vulnerable internally and what our priorities need to be to shore things up. Specifically what steps we need to take to prevent further damage to our command structure."
"Admiral unless you have other pressing information that we need to hear before we leave you, I think my wife and I need to talk some things out. I need you to oversee the local arrangements. Admiral Fitzwallace is going to need an appropriate uniform; and appropriate staffing requirements are going to need to be met. Also check on how many seats there are in the plane, we are going to need enough room to fit: Admiral Fitzwallace and his wife, my family and myself, Margaret, you, and possibly a few key members of your staff. I want a complete update of what's going on and what precautions are being taken in one hour. I want you to put together a presentation covering the same material I asked Admiral Fitzwallace to cover as well. I want to see your two different viewpoints and where the similarities are. Also this will help me assess your briefing style, which will help with their communication down the line. I assume you have people packing our stuff. We are going to need our phones and her planner as well as a change of clothes. Also if we can arrange for someone to look after Sarah I would appreciate it, though we are going to talk to her sometime soon. Is it possible to arrange a place where we can get a shower, and have a bit more privacy then the public showers? Also it would be a sign of good faith as people who a trying to recruit her for a top level executive position that you might want to check up on the rest of my wife's family and do what you can to make sure they are reasonably safe. After we talk where do we find you?"
"We have set up a command center in the parking circle; I'll probably be out there. I'll have someone set you up in one of the changing rooms in the spa. I would assume that you'll be dressed and have your decision ready by 13:45?"
"I think that is probably a fair amount of time." Josh said grabbing his wife's hand and checking her watch. "I assume Leo has directed you to notify him as soon as I'm available to receive his call."
"Yes sir, as a matter of fact he's waiting to talk to you right now, my aid has a secure satellite phone already tied in to the planes switchboard. He wanted to talk to you when your wife before you made your decision. If you're ready to take the call now the rest of us will go ahead and take care what you ask for. I just hope you're worth of all of this, because you are one hell of an arrogant son of a bitch for so many people to put so much effort into, when there's so many other larger problems to deal with today."
Josh took the phone from the aid and took a deep breath, he knew that this pitch was going to make Admiral Gray's attempt look like an Antarctic Frigidaire catalog. "Leo?"
"Hey son, how's the vacation? I hope we are not interrupting anything important."
"Well you know how it is sun, sand, terrorists with mortar launchers; the typical family vacation. I hear you're moving up in the world. Are you calling to brag about getting a window seat?"
"I think you know why I'm calling it's your time again. I know you're looking for the next twelve years off, but we just can't afford that right now. Tell you what why don't I let you think about it for a little bit while I talk to Donna?"
Josh started to say something but then thought better of it. He handed the phone to Donna and said: "Leo want to talk to you", and handed off towards the little cement platform for Donna's morning yoga class sometimes met.
Donna was somewhat surprised as Josh past the phone off to her. Leo had always had a special relationship with Josh, and she felt like she was somehow intruding upon that. "Hello Leo?"
"Hey doll, how you holding up? Listen I think we need to talk for a minute before I talk to Josh."
"Sure Leo what can I do for you?"
"I want to know what you think of all this. I know it's a lot of information to swallow at once, and I know how much you were looking forward to some time away from the White House. But this is the biggest crisis is this country is faced in modern time and we would be negligent in not try to put the best people in charge of coming back from this. And by that I mean both you and Josh; you guys are a team and I would be foolish to ignore that fact. Even without him you would still be on my list of people to call. You've come a long way kiddo."
"I don't know Leo; I know it's the right thing to do. I'm just scared of what it will do to him."
"You and me both. I only went forward with recommending him after receiving certain assurance from the new President. President Berryhill is nothing like Bob Russell Donna, he is a good and loyal man. We need you both on our team and he is the best person to lead this team to victory."
"Okay you know he is not really an expert on foreign policy right? If you suddenly thought that we could turn him in to some modern day General Washington I think you have picked the wrong guy. He is not equipped to be the president's general. He's not a Macarthur or Patton; he is more of a Kissinger, or Clay."
"I'm well aware of Josh's weaknesses in that area and that's not what I was talking about. But I before I get back to my point I just want to say that he has good instincts and he will surround himself with good advisors, and You will be there to keep him from going to far beyond his abilities. But that's not what I was talking about. Let me tell you a story."
"Leo you realize this call is costing our tax payers almost a hundred dollars a minute right?"
"Humor an old man okay. There once was this hole."
"Leo I'm going to stop you right there. Josh has told me your hole story more times than he gave your wheat thin day talk. Don't get me wrong, it's a good story it's just..." She took a moment to look at Josh who was just standing looking out at the ocean, lost in thought. "Leo no one has been down this hole since Lincoln, and as much as he teases you about your age grandpa, even you can't claim to have been around that long. This is going to take every thing we have, and I don't want to come out on the other side of this with out him. That's not fair to Sarah and it would kill me to. There are only so many times you can almost loses someone before the fates give up putting you back together again."
"I know Donna, but hear me out this is a different hole story. This time there is a hole that just pops out of no where and starts swallowing up the town as it just kept growing. Well the mayor and most of the city council got swallowed up right away and got pretty banged up in the process. Any way the town had a deputy mayor who was a real stand up guy and even though he managed not to get swallowed up by the hole he jumped in to help the townspeople who continued to fall down into this hole. Well the deputy mayor, (who was for all intensive purposes now mayor), had an old friend who had a lot of experience with other sorts of holes. This friend immediately volunteered to help the new mayor save his town. But he got twisted his ankle and broke his arm jumping in to the hole, so it so be came apparent that he would not be able to do much of the work the official would need him to do but be limited to advising the mayor and who ever was able to help. One thing the friend remembered to bring was his cell phone, and he knew the phone numbers to several of the town's best engineers who could handle a lot of the work. That engineer knowing the risks to himself and his family jumped in that whole because he knew that he was probably the only person who could keep the whole from swallowing the town. The man with the phone helped as much as he could but because of the pain couldn't really do much more than arrange for other people to help the engineer and give advice. The engineer was able to call a team of people who would be able to work on the problem. They worked hard and had a few setbacks but eventually built a way out for most of the people in the whole and a bridge over it. The point is Donna some wholes tale more than a friend, time and patience to get out of. Sometimes you need to fight the good fight against the hole or it just gets bigger until it swallows up everybody"
"I understand Leo but do you realize what you're asking of him, asking of us?"
"More than you do kiddo. But can you think of anybody else who could do even remotely as good of a job at rebuilding this country as he could. This is the moment that generations will judge us by. How do you want history to judge him Dona? To judge you? You are going to be a big part of this too."
"Leo I know I don't have much of a choice but…"
"No see you do that's what makes us work is we do have a choice. Every day we choose to do what we do. We choose to live with the costs. And when those costs out way the rewords we can choose to do something else."
"No Leo we can't. You know that. We can't. We can't just sit there and do nothing while everyone else falls into that pit. We have to do our part. But that doesn't mean I can't hate that for a few minutes. I'm entitled to at least acknowledge what this is going to cost us. You'll get your man Leo and we'll do our best to build a team to make this right but at least admit that this isn't fair."
"Dona My best friend died today and I have been forced to ask my son and his family to sacrifice everything, possibly even his life to save us. countless families are being torn apart and losing loved ones today. Tell me exactly about today is fair!"
"I'll talk to him Leo. I promise. You rest and keep Berryhill on course we'll be in touch again a little later."
"Ok Donna. Take care of him for me. And take care of Margaret, she's been dreading this day since she found out I was sick. I don't think she ever thought it would happen while I was still alive."
"I will Leo. I promise. Goodbye." Dona hung up the phone, and took a minute to gather herself and suck in the tears that were now streaming down her face. She walked over to Josh and they walked a little further from the rest of their new entourage to get a few moments of privacy.
As they left the group Josh and Donna headed over to the cement slab that overlooked the water, while the marines assigned to them kept a respectful distance.
"Why didn't you tell me about all of their offers? What is going on? Were we aware something like this might happen? Where you? Wait, did you just tell the commander of the pacific fleet that he had to check on my family if he wanted anything from me? What makes you think he'd do it? Do you think they're ok? Oh Josh, what are we going to do? What do we tell Sarah? Do you really want to work for Berryhill? How can we not? This is big Josh. What do we do? Hunh? Ok sorry I just needed a moment, you can talk now.
"It's ok Donna it's perfectly understandable. If you hadn't spoken first it would have been me asking the questions, but you want to hear my answers, even though you aren't going to like most of them?"
Donna slowly nodded "unh huh, sure."
Josh looked at her sizing her up, and took a deep slow sighing breath, resigning to the inevitable reality of the moment. "Ok I didn't tell you because I wanted this to be your time. You have so much potential and I don't want to be the one that casts a shadow on that. I knew that you wouldn't make it as easy as you have for me to take this time for you and for Sarah and just be a father and husband. You would have put me first like you always have and I wanted to be the one to do that for you. You put your life on hold for a decade, you gave birth to my daughter, and gave life to my hopes and dreams every day in every way that you could. You made me healthy numerous times when I could have easily slipped away. You made me whole. You knew about some of the offers but like I've said before I can get a position anywhere and I want to be where you are and be there for you so you can do what is best for you. I have been able to experience things that I never would able to if I had stayed. A Chief of Staff to the President could never make the time to take his daughter to gymnastics or dance lessens. A member of the Cabinet would defiantly miss several recitals and meets. And the Vice President of the United States can't plan a big party for his daughter's third birthday at storybook land only to scrap those plans and drag 25 toddlers their parents, not to mention about a dozen of her parents closest friends to the zoo at the last minute because when his daughter came downstairs that morning all she wanted to do for her birthday was go to the Zoo and tease the Elephants because one of the mean bad elephant men said something mean about her Grandpa Bartlett on TV and made her Mommy cry."
"Vice…"
"Shh, you asked a bunch of questions and I want to answer those first before we get caught up on a thing."
"Josh!...Ok finish but don't think I'm going to let this go because we are going to have to talk about this one mister."
Josh almost smiled as his mood lightened for a split second before the gravity of the day hit him again. "Don't be in such a hurry to get upset with me about this Donna. Yes I was wrong not to be fully upfront about this with you and we probably should have discussed some of those offers as a family before dismissing them, but my being out of government service is the only thing that has kept us safe so far today. Ok that, and a whole bunch of Navy Seals, and there's the company of marines, and well then there are the crews of those ships out there, but mainly it was the fact I decided to be an unemployed bum I crediting for us being here together on this cliff yoga landing pad thingy, and being alive in one piece and bringing the banter."
"You think this is funny?"
"No but sarcasm and humor is a defense mechanism, it has always been how we dealt with crises. It wouldn't be us if we didn't bring the banter and honestly I find it comforting and I need comforting right now."
"You want I should see if I can get bubba over there to give you a big hug?" she said pointing to the largest marine on their guard detail.
Josh stopped cold looking at his wife in amused shock then bent in and gave her a kiss on the forehead and turned her around and pulled her in to a spooning position. Him leaning back against a tree trunk and her leaning back a against him, legs out in front of her, looking out at the water and the large naval presence in these tourist waters. "Thank you, No. and thank you for being so wonderful and understanding."
"So you going to answer my questions anytime soon, because I've got sand in my wetsuit, a million more questions, and oh yeah a Navy admiral is giving our daughter a piggy back ride as he escorts your mom to a secure communications area so she can say hi to the new president and give him her guess on whether we are on his payroll or not."
"Kay now you're just being snarky. Alright the answers to the questions I haven't answered yet: We are under attack by one or more terrorist organizations and it's the winter solstice so between the fact that it is the shortest day of the year and it looks like what ever we decide we are going to be spending a lot more time inside for the next few weeks, I am considerably less worried about your alabaster skin getting sunburned than I was yesterday."
"You realize if we're going to do this thing we're going to have to get be up front with each other. We have a lot of work to do and I plan on making sure that we survive through all this. That's not going to happen if you just ignore our problems."
"We're really going to do this? You aren't upset giving up your life long ambition of being married to a beach bum?"
"I'm not going to have history judge me as the woman who made her husband give up his dream of making a better America. And I'm not gong to have history judge my man as someone who shirked away from his duty and resented his family for it. Now come on let's get you out of that wet suit mr. beach bum or I'm going to be picking sand out of my teeth for a week." Dona said flirtingly as she took his hand and started off for the Spa. "Oh and boss I'm going to want a better office and we are seriously going to have to revise that kissing in the office rule again."
T.B.C.
Next time
"Margaret I'm Having my own plan problems right now, do you really think I can do any thing about yours. Besides it's time and you know it."