A/N: Yeah, this took a bit longer to update than before. I'm in band camp this week (DON'T SAY IT!!!) so I'm pretty beat. Loads of fun though. Our show is the Beatles! I'll never get Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band out of my head.
I decided to put a year to this. Both this story and My Fellow Americans take place in 2003. I needed it for chapter 6. Maybe I should have put this in chapter 6 then. Oh well, I'm letting you know now. So this is AU season 4. There's no Will and Sam is still there. Or he was before I decided to piss off legions of Sam fans.
I'm trying out a new separator in between sections. If this works I'll put it into chapters 3 and 4. Then I'll no longer be a dirty rotten liar.
Big thanks to my beta Lexi for your help with this chapter. I think it's my favorite too.
Also big thanks to Demonicamazon for letting me know that the youngest First Lady was indeed 21 years old so Christina would be the 2nd youngest. I'll be fixing that soon. Demonicamazon, I'd give you a bologna lollipop but I gave my whole supply to Lexi Lyman, so how about a bowl of chocolate pudding instead?
CHAPTER 5
Today during senior staff they were going to discuss the campaign finance bill with President Fryer. Josh couldn't believe they were going through all this again. They had settled the campaign finance problem years ago. But the people President Bartlet had appointed to the elections commission had been killed at the State of the Union and those who had replaced them had struck down the act. So it was necessary to get the restrictions back into law but Josh couldn't really see the point in discussing it because Fryer was going to agree with them. He had been the Secretary of Education so it wasn't like he was an expert in campaign finance. This should really have ended at the Chief of Staff's desk. Plus he'd been a Bartlet supporter so he'd go for it. Donna had talked at length with Bruger and discussed the wording of the bill. All they had to do was have CJ release it and it was set.
Josh sat down between CJ and David at the end of the couch. CJ leaned in toward him. "I need to talk to you after the meeting." She said.
"Good or bad?"
"Not bad."
"I could use some of that. What is it?"
CJ rolled her eyes. "That's why I said 'after the meeting.'"
"Oh."
The door opened and Fryer walked in, arguing good-naturedly with Debbie. "Aw, get out of here." He said, flashing her a grin. She returned it and walked out to her desk.
"So, what've we got today?" Fryer asked the room at large.
"We want to publicly support Senator Bruger's bill banning soft money use in campaigning."
Fryer raised an eyebrow. "Campaign finance?"
"Yes sir."
"You want to support a bill banning soft money?"
"Yes sir."
"So we're pissing on the First Amendment here today? Next order of business."
All eyes turned toward Josh whose jaw hung slack. Finally he closed it, opened it again, and said, "Sir, with all due respect..."
"With all due respect what, Josh?" Fryer asked impatiently.
"I'd like to continue on this topic."
"To ban soft money is an indirect violation of the First Amendment." Fryer said, "The White House cannot support a bill that goes against the Bill of Rights."
"Money isn't speech, sir." Josh argued. "The Supreme Court even says so."
"The public is against restrictions like that."
"Pardon me sir, but which polls have you been reading?"
CJ, Donna, Gary, and David were watching them argue with fascination, their heads moving like they were watching a tennis match. Donna figured she should probably help Josh out here. She started to raise her hand, then remembered that they didn't do that. So she cleared her throat loud enough to get them to pause.
"Excuse me sir," she said, "but I've talked to Senator Bruger several times and done a lot of research while we discussed the wording of the bill. And according to my law professor, soft money—"
Fryer held up a hand. "Excuse me Donna." He said, "You discussed the wording with the Senator?"
"Yes." She said, "But according to Professor Grady soft money is not protected under the Bill of Rights. I don't remember what lawsuit determined that though."
"You set up a meeting and negotiated without telling me?" Fryer demanded, his voice getting louder and louder, "Did you forget something Donna? Did you maybe forget to let some people know what you were doing? I'd kind of like to know what you're doing before you go and screw us all! Dammit Donna, what the hell were you thinking?"
Both Josh and David leapt to their feet but Josh spoke first. "Hey!" he shouted, forgetting his position and Fryer's, "Don't talk to her like that! I'm the one who told her to do it!"
"And why did you do that?" Fryer asked. He was no longer shouting but his voice was a deadly whisper.
"Our job approval was at 43 percent." Josh said, "We needed to get out there and get involved with something. So we decided to do this. I assumed you agreed with us, which apparently was wrong."
"No kidding." Fryer said, "You assumed that because President Bartlet was for reform I was."
"Yes sir."
"Josh, I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not President Bartlet. I don't agree with everything he agreed with. I have my opinions on how to govern. We're different men."
"Yeah, he knew what he was doing."
"GET OUT! Get the hell out of this office Josh!"
The others watched, shell-shocked, as Josh strode over to the door and wrenched it open, walking out with his head high. Charlie and Debbie stared as he passed them, slamming the door on the way out. Fryer turned to the rest of his staff."
"Anything else?" he asked.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Josh didn't stop until he was in the main lobby standing in front of the portrait of Josiah Bartlet. Josh's hands were clasped behind his back as he gazed up into the face of the man who had been his father-figure for the past few years.
Why did this have to happen? And if it had to happen, why to this President? Was it because he had concealed his MS? Was this some big, cosmic punishment?
"I miss you sir." Josh whispered. The receptionist was giving him strange looks.
He was so deep in thought that when a hand clamped down on his shoulder he leapt into the air.
"Relax, it's me." CJ said. Even sitting in her chair she came up to his shoulder.
"I shouldn't have done that." Josh said. He turned to CJ's warm, concerned face. "I know that. I've done a lot of stupid things while we've been here but I've never insulted the President. Yelled at him, yes. But I've never said anything like that. And I've never been thrown out."
CJ didn't say anything. He'd always loved that about her. As scary and intimidating as she could be, she was a great listener. He thought back to that day so long ago when he'd gotten that card and she'd listened so patiently to his ranting about smallpox.
"But he shouldn't've yelled at Donna. I don't care if he is the President, if he ever does that again..."
She nodded. "Come with me." She said.
He followed her to her office. "Oh yeah, you wanted to talk to me."
"Yeah." She opened her desk and pulled out three plane tickets. "You're bringing me to the Bahamas?" Josh guessed.
She didn't laugh. For something good she looked really somber. "I bought these the other day." She said, "Me, you, and Donna. Leave Saturday. Come home Sunday." She looked him in the face. "Josh, I'll understand if you don't want to go but I thought you probably would."
He looked at the tickets lying in front of him. Round-trip coach tickets from Washington DC to Orange County, California.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Gary was at his desk, struggling though another speech. He must be having an off week because no matter what he did he couldn't get the words to flow. He wrote this one by hand, hoping the contact of his brain to his hand to his paper would help.
He watched through his office window as CJ and Josh went into CJ's office. That had been crazy earlier. After President Fryer had thrown Josh out, they'd moved on with the meeting, Fryer speaking with forced calm. They only continued for another five minutes. Donna didn't talk at all. She looked as though she was on the verge of tears. Gary could see his deputy itching to comfort her. David had a crush on her. Anyone could see it.
After they were curtly dismissed CJ had gone off to look for Josh. David had finally put a hesitant hand on Donna's shoulder and walked her to her office. Gary knew that he couldn't yell like Josh had but he seethed even now thinking about how Fryer had gone off on her. She was a smart, witty addition to the conversation. Now she'd probably be too terrified to say anything around Fryer. That was a shame because she was just starting to act like she knew she was equal to everyone around her, worthy of senior staff.
With a sigh he turned back to his paper. He had that feeling he was being watched again. It was stronger than it had been. So were the grumpy vibes.
Ten minutes later the door opened. "Gary?" Ginger said.
"Yeah?"
"There's a package for you."
He followed her out and took the box. It was full of the printer paper he had asked for. He thanked her and took the package into his office, opening it as he walked.
There was someone in there. Gary yelled and dropped the paper. The man leaning over his desk looked up at him and scowled.
"This is the biggest piece of crap I've ever read." He said, "You should just burn this now."
His terror was buried by anger. "I've spent two days on that!" he argued.
"Two days?" the stranger repeated, scratching his balding head. "If this took you two days it'll be six months before you write anything half-decent."
"Who the hell do you think you are, insulting me like that?"
The man rolled his eyes. "When is this speech?"
"Next Tuesday."
"Six days. Hand me a pen."
Stunned, Gary handed him the pen he had in his shirt pocket. The man took it and started in on the paper. He scratched out whole paragraphs, muttering the whole time.
"This should be 'effects'...Comma there, not there...Would an occasional period kill you? Honest to God, you're worse than Sam..."
He continued scribbling and muttering for some time. Gary watched, not sure exactly what was going on or what he should do. His eyes darted toward Ginger who was at her desk, oblivious to what was happening.
"There." The stranger said. He straightened up and turned to Gary. "How did you get this job?"
"I'm just having an off week."
The stranger snorted. "No kidding." He said, handing Gary the stack of papers. "Type that up. Use my corrections."
"Th-thanks."
The stranger nodded and walked out of the office. Gary watched him approach Ginger's desk. He stood behind her and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. She froze, fingers still on the computer keys. Then, as Gary watched, the man vanished and Ginger's head slipped down into her arms. Her back shook with sobs.
Gary hurried out to her desk. "Ginger?" he said.
She looked up, mortified. "I'm sorry." She said, wiping her face hurriedly.
"What is it?"
"For a second..." She faltered and smiled sheepishly. "For a second I thought Toby was here."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Shadowesque13 – Shame on you. Pay attention in class. (says the hypocrite. Heehee). October 20th? Can't wait. I shall be counting down the days. I just hope this season's better than last. And with the reporters not wanting the story, I figured they'd be a little teed off that it was being thrust on them like that. I don't know, maybe they're just overly sensitive reporters.
Lexi Lyman – Yes, it still works but I was already laughing at the dirty rotten liar thing. Gotta love the monument. Have fun at school on Monday. Bwahahaha.
WhiteCamillia – The big thing? I don't know. I've read some spoilers that I won't reveal here but I think there's definitely going to be more with the new little love triangle of Josh, Donna, and the hot photographer. (Did I ever mention that I was excited for weeks that Jason Isaacs would be guest starring. He is the coolest. I literally danced when he was cast in Harry Potter too.) I'm hoping Sam will come back to run for president. I think a main character is probably going to kick the bucket. Maybe Leo. Yeah, I don't know. What do you think?
Bartlegg – Thanks. I had some trouble writing the dream sequence but I think it came out all right.
Demonicamazon – You learn something new everyday. Thanks. But I have to ask, how old was Grover Cleveland?
Laurie Beth – Oh no, I hope your shoulder is better now. Yeah, only another 6 chapters. But I will come back to West Wing fan fiction in a little while. I've got a few ideas rolling around that big old empty space I call my head. Good luck at your new school.
AEM1 – Those Law and Order reruns pissed me off to no end. Nothing like looking forward to a good old West Wing, turning on the TV, and having Law and Order. Grr....
Okay, I'm done. And watch this happen: "And the Oscar goes to....Dr. Vegas, the Movie!"
Queen C – Welcome to the fandom! According to Shadowesque13, the new season starts on October 30. It may be the last season though. Sad but there's always the reruns and DVD collections. Do you watch the reruns on Bravo? I highly recommend the second season episodes. That was the best season.
See you all later!