Thanks for all the feedback! This is my first actual fanfiction so the support is greatly appreciated. By the way, nexis44, I've tried to make this chapter a bit longer. Enjoy!
CHAPTER III
CJ let the warm water sooth her tired hands longer than usual. She was desperately trying to remember something about this day. She knew it was important, but she couldn't quite coax it out of her old brain. With a twist of her wrist and a flick of her fingers CJ's hands were washed and dried and she stepped into the hallway.
"CJ!"
CJ looked down the hall and saw Josh half jogging his way to her.
"CJ, I need to talk to you a sec, can we go to your office?" Josh had the expression of a sixth grader who forgot his English homework.
"Sure, I still have a couple hours until this afternoon's press briefing."
Josh followed CJ down the crowded corridor to her office. Their conversation had not advanced since CJ's last statement, so he looked at the view. It was then that he realized that Claudia Jean had a very nice butt. When they made it to CJ's office the two people who advise the president on everything from green beans to tax cuts both walked through CJ's office door at the same time. And got stuck.
CJ looked over at Josh. "If you push forward, I'll push back."
This they did and with very little effort Josh was inside CJ's office and CJ outside of it. Josh looked at CJ, trying to read her expression. After a few awkward seconds CJ burst out laughing, and Josh, only slightly disappointed, did the same.
"CJ....CJ I've got to warn you about something," Josh managed as he chuckled.
CJ was still laughing. "And what would that be, LemonLyman?"
Josh continued to laugh. "Your never gonna believe it, but there might be a story coming out about a senior white house aide calling a congressman a monkey."
CJ stopped laughing. "A monkey."
"A primate to be exact. Well, a new species of one, see they really don't look like Congressman Hackle yet."
"Are you telling me that you called a congressman a monkey?"
"A primate..."
"You called a congressman a monkey and now I might get asked a question at my next press conference on why a senior aide to the president insulted a republican congressman and the best thing he could come up with was to call him a monkey!" CJ tried to look as irate as possible.
"So your mostly mad that my insult wasn't intellectually stimulating," ventured Josh.
"No, but that's all the president will care about and I've worked here too long to know any less. There's no way this will be a story. It's to stupid."
Josh looked at CJ in shock. "CJ, are you alright?"
CJ looked back with beaming eyes. She loved the fact that when she drilled Sam a few years ago about not coming to her first about the call girl, word had spread like wildfire, and now whenever anyone makes a boo boo they come to her for a band aid, even for things as pointless as devolutionary insults. CJ looked at Josh and realized at last that what she was about to say could be nothing less than entirely true. "Josh, I've never felt so-
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"Good God... Margaret!" Leo waited a couple of seconds for the door to burst open. It did not. "Margaret!"
"Just a second, I'm just finishing up!"
Leo was shocked. What could she possibly be doing that was so important? With a grunt he got out of his chair and walked into his redheaded secretary's painstakingly tidy office.
"Leo, look. There's a potato chip shaped like the president on Ebay."
Leo looked at Margaret for about ten whole seconds. "That is why you couldn't come into my office, because a potato chip was shaped like the president? Do you know how disrespectful it is to just be looking-" Leo stopped short when he looked at the computer screen. That potato chip did look remarkably like the president.
Margaret looked up at her boss's entranced eyes. "You wanna buy it? Its already up to fifty dollars, well until I-"
"Are you kidding? I'm not gonna waste my money on an obviously befuddled baked vegetable." Leo looked at the chip again. It was an extraordinary potato chip. And Leo knew he had money to spare, boy did he have money to spare. "Bid a hundred dollars on the chip."
"Really?"
"Yep."
Margaret collapsed in relief. "Thank God."
Leo looked at the screen again. "Oh God, Margaret, you already put a bid up. You couldn't control your extreme geekiness and you already bid on the chip."
"I only bid seventy-five. You bid a hundred. And I'm the geeky one." Margaret smiled up at Leo.
Suddenly Leo stood up straight. It just hit him. He had just spent one hundred American dollar bills on a deformed potato chip. That's enough to be released on that financial form they all have to disclose. All of America will know of this impulse buy. "Margaret, you have to take it off. I don't want it anymore."
"You'd better want it. Its there until someone bids higher. Sorry."
Leo shook it off and remembered why he needed Margaret in the first place. "Go get CJ and tell her to see me. There's someone who wants to meet her."
"You mean that gothic girl I saw come in? I don't know, she looks kinda freaky."
"Look who's talking! That girl happens to be the Presidents granddaughter. Where do you live, Mars?" Leo's eyes pierced Margaret's with blinding intensity.
"I'll go get CJ now." Margaret left the office and Leo just looked out the window. He watched as the rain began to drizzle down the glass in long beads of solace. He was so exhausted, so tired of dealing with so much crap, he just wanted to fall-
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"Asleep? Asleep!? Toby I can hear them crying right now. They're not asleep, but I sure as hell know who was." Andi looked at her ex-husband with ruby-red eyes. Toby had the day off and asked if he could spend some time with the twins. Now here she is to pick them up and he's sleeping on the couch.
"I was about to check on them..."
"I had to knock ten times before you woke up. How long have you been asleep, Toby?" Toby didn't reply. His eyes sank with guilt and the weight of another dreadful day. "I'm going to get them. And your not going to have them for a while, so don't even ask." Andi marched upstairs, just as the phone began to shout with the pangs of immediacy.
"Hello this is Toby Zeigler...oh right. No, I'll be there. I won't let you down." After hanging up Toby put his hands to his face and sighed. This wasn't a good day, not at all. Nevertheless he supposed he had better call-
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Leo trudged into the Oval Office. He needed to see the president, now. He looked around and saw no one. Convinced he was alone, Leo sat at the president's desk and looked at all the neat stuff. He wished he could better describe it to himself, but in the end he agreed that only "neat stuff" would suffice.
"Is it hot in here Leo, or is it just me?"
The Chief of Staff looked up and saw the president walking toward him. Only it wasn't Josiah Bartlet, it wore a suit for sure and he couldn't mistake the hair, but the face...the face was like a giant-
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"Potato chip? Dude, you want a chip?"
Leo's vision refocused and before him he saw a pair of black painted lips begging him to have a potato chip.
"You sure you don't want one...dude, did I wake you up? I'm asking because your eyes were open and all, sorry about that." Annie set down the bag of Lays and took a pack of gum out of her purse. "Want a piece?"
"No thanks, Annie. CJ should be here any minute now." Leo was about to look for the day's crossword when the phone rang. Before he could pick it up, Annie, God bless her heart Annie had answered the telephone of the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States.
"Leo McGarry's office, Annie speaking."
"Hi...Annie, Annie, is this the Annie Westin?" Toby hadn't considered yet why the president's eldest granddaughter would be answering Leo's phone.
"Yep. Unless I have clones. Is this Toby?"
"Yeah, listen Annie, I've been wondering...did it hurt to pierce your eyebrow?"
"Like Hell. It was great." Annie stuck another piece of gum in her mouth.
"Is Leo right there?"
"Oh yeah. He's right next to me." Annie smiled playfully at Leo, who simply took the phone out of her hands.
"Hey Toby..." Leo looked up and was relieved to see CJ walk into the office.
"Leo, are you ready for tonight?"
Leo was bamboozled. "What's-
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Tonight it would be all over, and she wouldn't have to stress about it anymore. That's all Carol tried to tell herself for the past hour and a half. Just to be one hundred percent sure, however, Carol checked under her desk to make sure everything was set.
Damn. It wasn't there...but she was so sure that she remembered it. She would have to go back to her apartment and pick it up.
And she was so hoping that she would be able to sneak it in unnoticed.