THURSDAY MORNING, 6AM
"Yeah, Margaret thanks." Leo could be heard outside his office. "I'll just be in here for a while."
Leo walked to his desk and stopped for a moment. He took a breath and made his way to his desk, throwing himself into his chair. Slowly and with much precision and with the holding in of as much emotion as he could he softly cried. Leo layed his hand from his forehead and his chin and covered the sound. After a moment he took a breath and rubbed his hand over his face to relieve it of its tears.
---
"Yeah, Charlie?" The President asked him as he entered the Oval Office.
"Mr. President, CJ's brother."
"Which one?"
"I think they're both on the phone, sir."
"Yeah." Jed lowered his head and then looked at Toby. "I have to take this call-- I never thought I'd have a Cregg boy on the other end of that phone. Never in a million years."
The aides in the Communications office watched the TV coverage of CJ's disappearance on CNN when all their attention was moved to Toby's office.
The sound of a large crash, the sound of glass breaking hard, and mangled metal was heard through the communications bullpen. All the aides looked at each other as Bonnie, back to help out after her promotion to the DOD, walked with quick strides to Toby's office, opening the door without knocking, catching first the site of the broken television, crashed in and sparking for a moment.
"Toby!" she yelled, still holding onto the doorknob. Toby stood, saying nothing, his baseball conspicuously missing from view.
Josh lifted his head off of CJ's couch. He had meant just to sit for a moment but resting his head back had caused him to sleep. He saw the light just setting on another day and caught his eye on CJ's fish. Josh walked behind CJ's desk and took out a small can of fish food. He sat himself on the edge of the CJ's desk and ran the fish food through his fingers and into the bowl.
"Hey?" Toby spoke by the door.
"Hey."
"What are you doing here?" Toby asked.
"I'm feeding CJ's fish."
"Oh."
"Why are you here?"
"I wanted to watch CNN." He paused.
"What's wrong with yours—?"
"It has a baseball in it." Toby walked onto the room and sat down.
"Ahh."
"Josh?"
"Toby, that was a great statement you wrote—"
"Yeah, thanks—"
"If you hadn't done that---"
"Yeah."
"---You got every women's group, every national committee for the missing and vanished—all of them rallying---you're the reason they up-ed the investigation—"
"The reason they up-ed the investigation is because they found a dirty cloth with CJ'S BLOOD ON IT!"
"Before that!"
"Yeah, I knew what you meant." There was a silence.
"We're doing all we can?"
"Do you believe that?"
"Do I believe it—no? Do I know it's true---yes." Toby nodded his head from side to side and ignored Josh.
"How did you come up with that?"
"With what?"
"The concept for Bartlet's address."
Toby took a pause and looked at Josh point black.
"I asked myself." He paused. "What would CJ do?" Donna's voice could be heard through Carol's office. Donna looked flustered as she entered the office.
"Donna, what's going on?" Josh spoke as he ran his palms together to lift the fish food from his hand. Donna eye bowled
"There's news—"Donna grabbed a breath from having run around the building looking for Josh.
"What news?" Toby perked up.
"They found Danny's car—"Donna looked like a deer in headlights.
"Where?" Toby stood.
"They raided an old cabin in North Carolina. The car was hidden in an old barn." Donna paused before speaking again and by her face and body language Josh and Toby knew there was more.
"What is it, Donna?"
"They found blood." Donna's eyes welled. Josh and Toby perked up immediately, their stomach's curling with the news. "They're pretty sure it's----Danny and CJ's." Josh opened his mouth, and before Donna could let out her first tear, Toby and Josh had sped out of CJ's office. Josh wrapped his arm around the doorway as he passed it, trying to propel himself faster.