"Honestly, Mom," Joan pleaded. "We're eighteen years old and graduating in June. Why is it such a big deal that we want to go on a road trip with our friends?"
Josh interrupted his wife, answering for her. "You want to go on a road trip with your friends to a REPUBLICAN policy convention."
Joan sighed, turning to Noah for backup. "We're not going to the Republican convention," Noah supplied quietly. "There isn't even a Republican convention. We made that up to tease you 'cause we knew that you'd get mad about it. We're driving up to DC to help Jack out with a Democratic youth forum."
"We just got back from DC," Josh protested, sinking down onto the couch with some of the wind taken out of his sails.
"You maybe just got back from DC," Joan argued, as always more outspoken than her twin. "But we haven't been in ages. And it counts as extra credit for our AP government class if we go…" She added, trying to keep an innocent look on her face.
"I don't think that the two of you need to worry about that class," Donna pointed out. "You know why?"
"'cause our Mom's Senate Minority Leader with our dad as her chief of staff. Uncle Sam is governor of California; Uncle Charlie is governor of New Hampshire," Joan chorused with a sigh.
"Jack's going to be the chief of staff for the Senate Minority Whip in another month or two; Alex is a Congresswoman; Sarah's the Post's lead White House correspondent," Noah picked up where his sister had left off seamlessly.
Joan picked up the thread again, "Mark works with the GOP, Uncle Toby writes best-selling political commentaries and Aunt CJ founded the most influential political magazine in the country."
"And…" Donna prompted.
Joan sighed. This really was their mother's favourite story. "And we took our first steps from the knee of President Bartlet. But I don't remember that so I really don't think that it counts."
"Leo's not doing so well," Donna told Josh, reaching around him to turn down the burner on the stove. "Margaret said that the doctors are only giving him another week or two."
Josh sighed. "We should go up there."
"You know that he doesn't want us going up there and seeing him flat on his back in a hospital bed," Donna reminded him, adding some pepper to the sauce he was stirring.
"The man was my hero. You know how teachers always used to ask who we wanted to be like when we grew up. I always told them I wanted to be Leo McGarry," Josh told her seriously. "I didn't know about the alcohol and stuff then but I don't know if it would have mattered."
"I know, Josh," Donna answered, moving around behind him to massage the tension out of his shoulders. "But he doesn't want us up there. He doesn't want us seeing him in so much pain."
"Why doesn't he just take the damn drugs?" Josh burst out, turning around so that he could face her and completely ignoring his spaghetti sauce.
"Because he wants to beat it. He fought so hard to kick the addictions that he doesn't want to go back to them, even if they can't do him any more harm. He wants to win," she told him, repeated what he already knew.
"How's Margaret holding up?" Josh asked, his voice husky. He turned around to go back to his cooking. The twins would be home from band practice soon and the four of them were going to eat supper together. It didn't happen often.
Donna sighed. "She doesn't want to let him go, but she knows that it's for the best. It's hard for her to see him like that." The lingering chest cold that wouldn't go away had been discovered to be inoperable cancer. "But Abbey's up there staying with them and that means that Leo can stay at home."
"Yeah." From the way he answered, Donna knew that Josh wasn't really listening anymore.
"We'll go up this weekend," she whispered in his ear. "I know that it'll mean a lot to him."
"The kids?"
"Alex and Jack have offered to keep them."
"For good?" Josh joked, a weak smile tugging at the corners of his eyes.
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"What do you think?"
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"I think that it's a pretty colour, but with your blue eyes, you might want to try something with a little more pink," Alex told Joan, holding up a different dress for her evaluation. Joan looked at it and wrinkled her nose a little.
"Don't you think that pink is too much of a little girl colour for a teenager?" she asked, with all of the confidence in maturity that only a thirteen-year-old can pull off.
"Nope," Alex answered, pushing the dress at her. "Try it on and see if you like it."
Joan sighed as she allowed herself to be shooed into the dressing room. "You know," she called out over the curtain, "you're much more fun to shop with than my mom. Mom's too practical. It's always, 'Well, this dress would be good for so-and-so's fundraiser or such-and-such an inauguration.'"
"Oh, we're not shopping for no reason," Alex called back to her. "Tonight we're going to the new Italian restaurant downtown with Ted Keegan and…"
"Congressman Keegan?" Joan squealed, throwing aside the curtain and stepping out. "He's dreamy, Alex." Joan had a crush on the young Congressman from Maryland. It was a testament to the abnormality of her upbringing that she knew the names of more Congressmen and Senators than movie stars.
Joan crossed the area to stand in front of the mirror. She twirled, letting the filmy skirt spin out around her. "What do you think? You think he'll like it?"
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"It's simply to die for."
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"Is it better than the triple-fudge cake from Borelli's?" Noah asked seriously.
"Is it better than the triple-fudge cake?" Jack asked flippantly. "This cake has seven layers of buttermilk chocolate cake sandwiched between layers of dark chocolate mousse. And it's drizzled with hot fudge and served with a giant bowl of French vanilla ice cream."
Noah's eyebrows went up. "Wow," he breathed. "They should have laws against that." He paused, considering. "Wait, no they shouldn't."
Jack laughed. "Besides, it'd be nasty to get through the House. I'm sure there'd be all sorts of riders and amendments tagged on to it that would sink it."
Noah thought about it, and then nodded gravely. "The language would give you trouble too. They'd stick you on whether it was necessarily dark chocolate or if other forms of it should also be included. Then it would get messy because some people like milk and others go for white."
"Ah," Jack said, digging into the rapidly melting ice cream sundae that sat on the table between them. "The partisanship of chocolate. That one's even worse than the Republicans and the Democrats."
"Yeah, there are more divides in that one," Noah agreed, taking another spoonful of ice cream. "Milk or dark? White or semisweet?"
"Belgian or Dutch? Swiss or German?" Jack continued. Then he switched topics. "Your suit's at my place, right?"
Noah nodded. "Why did I need to bring that?"
"We're going to the new Italian place with Congressman Keegan and Hilary from my office. Alex and Joan are out shopping for new dresses as we speak."
"Is Hilary the blonde one?" Noah asked. Jack nodded. "Good," Noah said. "I wanted to ask her why she left the section on school vouchers out of the last speech you guys gave."
Jack laughed heartily. "You know, somehow I don't think that anyone else has ever quite had the childhood that you and your sister had. I mean, even Ellie and Liz were the daughters of a politician and you still see them with normal lives."
"Aunt Abbey was at least normal," Noah pointed out. "You want the last scoop of strawberry?"
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"It's all yours."
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"Gee thanks, Josh," Donna said, her tone falsely bright. "You're such a gentleman, leaving your wife to take the blame for something that you wanted to do."
She raised her hand hesitantly to knock. She had talked to Margaret and Abbey before they came to warn them that they were coming, but they were both more than a little nervous at what they would find. Leo had been keeping everyone away for the past month, since he had really started to deteriorate.
Josh sighed as he watched her hand hover just over the knocker. Then he reached out and did it himself. They instantly heard footsteps from inside and Margaret opened the door, greeting them with wide smiles. "You're in trouble," she stated happily, showing them inside.
"I thought I told you I didn't want any visitors," Leo growled at them breathily from the couch. His face was pale and he had lost so much weight that he was a mere shadow of himself, but he wore an ear-to-ear grin beneath his oxygen mask.
"It was all her idea," Josh answered, pointing to Donna. "I couldn't keep her away."
"It's good to see you again," Leo told them weakly, gesturing to the open seats. "I'm glad that you didn't decide to start listening to me now."
"Were Mark and Sarah up here yesterday for the Celtics game?" Donna asked, lowering herself to a chair near the muted TV. Leo nodded.
"They don't listen worth a damn either."
"Jack and Alex said that they'd probably drop by on Tuesday. They've got the kids right now and they both had meetings on Monday that they couldn't get away from," Josh informed Leo, perching on the arm of Donna's chair.
"None of you listen. CJ and Toby are 'just passing through' on Monday and Sam was 'in the area' last Thursday," Leo told them. "I might as well have saved my breath."
"Come on, old man," Abbey said, coming in from the kitchen with a glass of water and a couple of white pills, "you know that you're glad to see them." She held them out to Leo.
He reached out to take them, first examining the pills. "Tylenol," Abbey reassured him. "The same as always."