Rainbow's End: 'Happiness' 1/11

Author: Jo. T.

Rating: PG

Genre: Angst, Romance

Sam/OFC Ensemble

Spoilers: This takes place in a vague haze around season 2 but spoilers through to the end of season 4 to be on the safe side. Essentially, if it's mentioned it happened if its not it was conveniently forgotten about.

Summary: Sam meets a new girl which brings with it crises, while the West Wing face crises of a different kind.

Disclaimer: The characters and any references to the series I've used, alas, do not belong to me, they belong to many lucky people to numerous to name. Similarly the song references do not belong to me, but each one is credited throughout. Disclaimer stands throughout

Feedback: This story has taken about a year to come full cycle, from conception to drafting and redrafting, beta-ing, redrafting again, leaving it for a while and then finishing and posting it, quite a long term project, so feedback would be interesting. I hope people think it worth it.

Finally, to Pam who has been a beta for this and put up with many, many brackets and some very interesting SPAG throughout, enormous thanks.

HAPPINESS

I'm so happy I'm afraid I'll die
Here in your arms
What would you do if I died
Like this, right now,
Here in your arms?
That we ever should have met is a miracle
No, inevitable ('Happiness' from Passion (1994) by Stephen Sondheim, book by James Lapine).

3rd June

"Hey Sam!" C.J. Cregg said as she beckoned the Deputy Communications Director into her office.

"What can I do for you, Ceej?" Sam Seaborn asked as he stepped through the threshold, the ghost of a smile touched the corners of his mouth, he knew exactly about what she wanted to see him.

"Come in. Take a seat." She said as she sat down on the couch and patted the empty seat beside her. She crossed her long legs neatly as Sam ambled across the room and flopped down beside her. C.J. tucked a rogue bit of hair behind her ear wondering how she could discreetly broach the subject she so desperately wanted information on. Not being able to think of an appropriate tack, C.J. decided to throw caution to the wind and go straight for the jugular. "You had your date last night?"

He was right; this was to be an interrogation, which would no doubt be the first of many. A quick thought passed through Sam's mind about why people would be interested in his love life, then it occurred to him that Laurie may not have set the best precedent. In honesty he had to admit that he felt somewhat pleased, part of the reason they were so interested in this new girl he had met was because they had very little to fill the void in their own lives.

"I did." His response was calm, restrained, almost bland.

"And?"

"And it was good."

"Good? Just good?"

Sam could no longer withhold his enthusiasm.

"It was so much better than good, C.J. So good you would not believe."

"You wish you'd done what we told you to and called her, don't you?"

"I do not. I think she liked that I was a gentleman. I respected her perimeter."

"You think she liked that?"

"I really think that she did. I respected her personal space."

"That get you lots of sex last night?"

"Didn't you hear me say I respect her personal space?"

"I did hear you say that, but that doesn't necessarily rule out sex."

"We did not have sex as it happens, not that that is any of your business. We had a lovely evening."

"Where did you take her?"

"We went to a lovely restaurant with a lovely view over the Potomac."

"You didn't make her eat outside, did you? It was like fifty below last night."

"It was not fifty below. It's like the 3rd of June."

"Sure, it is now. Yesterday it was only the second." C.J. pointed out.

"Still, I think that we were O.K. It was a balmy night. A beautiful June evening filled with wine and roses. It was all those romantic things a perfect evening should be: the moon, June, roses and rainbow's end. Unlike the song, however, I am not saying 'Down With Love'."

"Is that all you did? You sat and looked at a river while you ate something that would generously be described as a salad when in actual fact it was like, just an expensive lettuce leaf. I'm telling you, Spanky, if you took me on that kind of date there'd be no sex for you at the end of the eveni... Oh. Now I get it."

"It was not like that at all C.J. When we were done with dinner, which was so damn late 'cos Toby thought that it would be funny to make me stay late after class, seen as I was a little late after lunch, we went for a walk part way along the Potomac, walked by the Lincoln Memorial, up to Constitution and round onto Pennsylvania Avenue via the Ellipse, past the White House... that may have been my ego a little there..."

"She already knows you work at the White House Sam. She saw you here the other day."

"Yeah, yeah. And then we walked around a bit until we got to Lafayette. We walked through Lafayette, where we spent the rest of the evening until I walked her home."

"You couldn't splash out for a cab?"

"It was romantic."

"You walked through Lafayette?"

"Yeah."

"That's very sweet. You took her to the place it all started, just you, her, a park bench and a bagel."

2nd June

"Hey Toby. I'm sorry to be late back but I have just met her." Sam bounded into Toby's office, his blue eyes sparkling and his brown hair flopping forward in a rebellious fit. He had stolen a few moments to take his lunch in Lafayette Park and was now, much to Toby's consternation, running late. In his excitement Sam bounced up to Toby's desk, behind which Toby was sitting and banged his knee against the corner. "Ow!" he yelped, though even this did nothing to calm his indefatigable temperament.

"This had better be good, Sam. And could you maybe sit down? My head is spinning."

"But Toby, don't you see? I just met her."

"Who?" Toby rested his chin on the palm of his right hand, painfully aware that Sam in this mood would not allow him to get on with his extensive piles of work until he had been briefed on whatever it was that had set the Deputy Communications Director off.

"The most wonderful and beautiful..."

"S'up?" Josh Lyman came in to join the party in Toby's office not wanting to miss out on any gossip, indeed, wanting, for once, to beat Donna Moss to the scandal. Toby groaned, painfully aware that he would not be in a position to do any work in the near future.

"What do you want?" Toby demanded.

"Sam went out for lunch and Donna told me that he practically skipped back in!" Josh smirked.

"You came here for that?"

"Uhuh!" Josh nodded his head effusively, his curls bobbing up and down. "What happened Sam?"

"Why were you skipping, Sam?" C.J. Cregg asked, as she too entered Toby's office and sat of the sofa. She crossed her long legs and raised an amused eyebrow in Sam's direction.

"No, no, C.J., feel free to come on in." Toby grumbled, "It's not as if I have anything better to do than hear about what idiot thing Sam's done now."

"Don't be a grouch, Toby; we're interested, Spanky."

"Yeah, come on Sam. Why were you skipping?" Toby looked pointedly down at the paper in front of him but kept one ear on the conversation.

"Number one," Sam said with a grin plastered across his face, "I didn't skip so much as I leaped and bounded with poise and grace and number two: I met her."

"Met who?" Josh asked confused.

"I met her, Josh. The girl of my dreams."

"Oh. Ah. A-kay."

"Who is she Sam?" This had certainly gotten C.J.'s interest.

"She's not a call girl or related to your boss or anything is she?" Josh clarified.

"Josh! She is not. She has long brown hair with fantastic natural red highlights, they positively glow and exude radiance and beauty. She has intense blue-grey eyes and the sweetest solemn face you have ever seen in your life. But her grin... When she grins her whole face lights up! She's very contented, very clever, she's everything anyone could possibly want and more, and, to top things off, she gave me her phone number."

"Way to go Sam!" Josh commended. "Where'd you meet her?"

"Lafayette. I sat on the same bench as she did to eat my bagel and we just happened to get talking." Sam walked over to the couch and plopped down onto it next to C.J. Josh responded by perching himself on Toby's small coffee table to continue his interrogation. Toby rolled his eyes as C.J. scooted herself round on the sofa to get a clear look at Sam's face.

"You really liked her, huh, Spanky?"

"I really did."

"When are you going to meet up with her again?"

"Huh?"

"You said you got her number, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"So, when are you gonna call her, so you can see each other properly, not just on a bench for fifteen minutes over a sandwich."

"Well, firstly it was a bagel and secondly, I'm not gonna call her."

"What?" Josh was incredulous. "Sam, you SKIP back into the White House, extolling her virtues for all to hear and yet you're not gonna call her?"

"No way!"

"Why the hell not?" Toby couldn't stand being on the periphery any longer. He put his pen down onto his yellow legal pad and walked around his desk. He turned around one of his desk chairs and joined in with the congregated group.

"I can't call her Toby. We had a nice lunch together, I don't want to ruin that. Besides, I think that if I do, it might be presumptuous."

"Sam, she gave you her number. I think that it's a pretty safe bet that she wants you to call her." C.J. said.

"You think?" Sam sounded surprised.

"Sam!" Josh threw his hands in the air out of exasperation.

"We just had a nice lunch, Josh."

"She gave you her number!" Josh all but shouted. "You've got to call her."

"Look, Josh. I think that it might be taking advantage. I really do think that it would be presumptuous of me."

"Sam, she GAVE you her number. It was a voluntary thing; she wanted you to have it."

"I couldn't Josh. It wouldn't be right."

"Does anyone else feel like we've already had this conversation?" Toby moaned and C.J. nodded in response. "Sam, call her, don't call her, I don't care, but can we please, please return to some serious work."

"I won't call her." Sam decided.

"Fine, now you can go and not call her from your office, and you two." Toby shifted his attention to Josh and C.J. "can get your asses out of my office, and I mean stat.!" C.J. and Josh exchanged glances, but followed Sam as he led the trio out of Toby's office.

"Sam!" Josh called from around C.J.

"Yeah."

"Don't forget that I need you for the civil rights meeting at two."

"No, I'm gonna get prepped now."

"Call her, Sam." C.J. shot back over her shoulder.

"No." Sam called back. "I think that our meeting was like two ships that pass in the night; our lives grazed one another's once, just for a moment and for that moment there was magic. But that's all it was, a simple, single moment."

"Whatever." Josh said. C.J. rolled her eyes.

"I heard that, C.J." Sam called. She could do nothing but giggle as she and Josh left the Communications Bullpen; it never ceased to amaze her how people in the West Wing had the finely honed skill of hearing people roll their eyes.

Toby sat grinning away in his own office. Oh to be young and in love! He remembered the days when he and Andi were courting; that's what it used to be then, courting. Far less gauche than today's version. Yes. They were good times, Toby thought. It was only when we got married that things became...less than good. Although he and Andi were no longer married, he would never begrudge any time they had spent together, except perhaps when she was being particularly argumentative. Never mind, Toby thought. It's good that Sam has something else to focus on that doesn't come in the form of a hooker...call girl! Toby mentally corrected himself. He'd just better make sure that it doesn't interfere with his work!

Sam sat grinning in his office too. He couldn't believe that he had just met the girl of his dreams and in no way would she cause any trouble to his job or position. No one could get mad about this, there's no scandal; she is not the boss's daughter and she is not a Republican. What could possibly be better!

He smiled to himself for another minute, then took in a deep breath and began to focus on the papers in front of him ready for the meeting he would be taking with Josh. He could not resist, however, looking up wistfully from time to time and sighing with contentment.

When it became obvious that he would not get this girl out of his head he decided that he would exorcise some demons in his favourite way; with paper and pen. Sam decided that he would write a letter, obviously the intention was not to send it; its only purpose was simply to be.

When his letter was complete he found he was able to concentrate better, though he vowed to himself that Toby should never find out about his few minutes distraction. On the bright side, at least it seemed to get the whole thing out of his system. He was now ready to focus on the meeting, which he expected would be excruciating, but he would do it nonetheless and he would fight his hardest, as he always did.

3rd June

"Yeah. We went back to where it all started. You know, we sat on that bench? It's a good bench. It's made of wood. It may have been oak."

"It wasn't spruce?"

"I don't think so. I'm pretty certain that it was made of a hard wood."

"And spruce isn't a hard wood?"

"No." Sam opened his mouth to explain the fundamental differences between hard wood, soft wood and any other wood that comes between but C.J. made a pre-emptive strike. She knew Sam's knowledge of the environment was almost as inexhaustible as the President's and that once he had gotten started he was like a speeding freight train; the momentum grew until it was impossible to stop.

"It's O.K. Sam. You know what? I have a press briefing to go to. I'll see you at staff." Sam grinned ruefully and left C.J.'s office, while the Press Secretary breathed a sigh of relief. It was a close run thing but she had just avoided being subjected to a lecture on the great outdoors.

No sooner had Sam left C.J.'s office than Donna Moss smiled in his direction and scooted over to find out the latest gossip.

"Hey Sam. How'd it go last night?"

"Good, Donna. Thank you."

"Where'd you take her?" Sam rolled his eyes. He was not sure if he was prepared to go through all this again so he cut out the middle-man and related the part of the story where they were in Lafayette Park.

"We went to the bench where we met. Where I had my bagel. It was very nice there. It's a nice bench. I think that it's made of oak." A look of horror panned across Donna's face only to be replaced by the sweetest smile she could muster. She looked around her desperately for some distraction. Unable to find anything onto which she could latch, she decided to adopt the age old adage of the West Wing:

"Excuse me, Sam. I've gotta go and do a thing for Josh." And Donna ran off. Sam grinned to himself. Strike two!

It was not that he didn't like talking about Alex, in fact, he enjoyed it a little too much. It was more the fact that he wasn't entirely comfortable with everybody in the West Wing knowing his business, especially as far as his relationships were concerned. As if he had not faced enough comments and inquisitions when he was seeing Laurie and kind of seeing Mallory nor did he have to endure Josh's distaste at his choice of women as he had with Lisa. Not that Josh was really in a position to talk given his dating record but he seemed to conveniently forget his own chequered dating past when ribbing Sam became a possibility.

After Sam had escaped from the clutches of Donna, he faced his biggest challenge: Josh Lyman.

Josh was standing in his office doorway, a big, dopey grin plastered across his face.

"Hey, Sam." Here we go again, Sam thought. "I thought I heard you out here."

"Yeah, you heard me. I was just talking to Donna."

"Donna's not out here, Sam."

"No she isn't. She ran off when I began my bench speech."

"You have a bench speech?"

"I do."

"What's it about?"

"It's about cheese, Josh."

"You have a bench speech about cheese? Isn't that a little bit weird?" Josh paused a moment and the light slowly turned itself on. "Oh. You were trying to be funny there. A little bit of your funny, funny humour to deflect attention from your date last night. How'd it go?"

Sam stepped into Josh's office and told him the whole story: the lunch, the Potomac, Pennsylvania Avenue and the bench in Lafayette.