W.W. –Thursday AM
Leo came in to the office with a little spring in his step Thursday morning. The party leadership was embracing the choice of Joey Lucas for the new DCOS, and the Republicans were afraid to criticize her for fear of being labeled anti-woman or anti-disabled. Watching Joey and Kenny schmoozing the leadership breakfast yesterday, though, Leo had wondered that anyone might possibly think her in any way disabled.
Joey had flown back to California afterwards to collect her daughter and their nanny. They were going to stay at the Watergate until she found something more permanent. Kenny had stayed in Washington to work on getting his own position set up. The working relationship between him and Joey was something new, but Leo supposed he'd had seven years of having his deputy and the deputy's assistant enjoying an unusually close relationship. Maybe not much would change.
Margaret was already at her desk, working at something on the computer and making gestures with her hands when he arrived. He gave her a warm smile and a cheerful, "Good morning!"
She nodded and mumbled a reply. He was careful to ignore most of her moods, as she never commented on his. It was a respect they had for each other. But this was unusual, even for the mercurial redheaded temperament he'd grown accustomed to over the years.
He hung his coat on the door and settled in at his desk.
"Margaret?" His call barely beat her to his office door.
"I have your schedule. Senior staff is moved to 8:30 and you're with the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs at 10:00. The guy from the Smithsonian called again and again would not leave a message, so for now he's still just the guy from the Smithsonian."
She looked at her clipboard.
"Nancy is going to be covering my desk after 9:00 because I'm working with Kenny Thurman and Donna this morning till after lunch."
"Margaret?" Leo was looking at her curiously. "Are you going to tell me what's wrong? You've been sulking for two days now, and usually you drop me some pretty broad hints."
"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, Leo. Maybe it's you." She folded her arms across her chest. "Maybe you're not getting enough rest."
"What do you mean? I was in bed by 10:00 last night- I've been enjoying the comforts of home all week, actually." He was puzzled at the look of frustration on her face as she reached out to close the door.
"I'm going to get Donna ready for that 9:00. You have senior staff in twenty minutes. Just call Nancy if you need anything." She closed the door.
He blinked at the closed door a few times. "It's not even 8:15 yet," he wondered aloud. "What the hell is that all about, and why do I feel like I don't want to know?"
W.W.
Kenny Thurman was sitting at Donna Moss' desk, his long legs stretched out onto a filing box, as he read through a very thick manual on White House policies and procedures. Donna was using Josh's desk, as he was over at the OMB knocking a few heads over off-budget expenditures in the latest Medicare/Medicaid package. He would be back in time for senior staff in Leo's office, from which Kenny was excused as Joey was still in California.
"Donna, I just don't know how long I can put up with this and- hello. You aren't Donna."
He looked up to see Margaret standing there looking flustered.
"No, not even a little. She's in there," he gestured to Josh's office. "Are you okay?"
"Fine. Sorry. Fine." She took a breath and collected herself. "Sorry, I'm Margaret, Leo's assistant." Without realizing it, she signed her name and Leo's as she was speaking to him. She looked down at her hands when she realized what she was doing. "Oh. Oops."
"Yes, we talked the other day. I'm Kenny," he stood and offered her his hand. "Kenny Thurman. And I take it you remember what I do, based on…" He nodded towards her hands.
"I'm sorry, Kenny. Of course. You must get tired, signs all day long, then five-thumbed amateurs like me wagging their hands around when Joey isn't even here." She flushed a little and he could read how upset she was, but about something else.
"Margaret, look, it happens all the time. I sign and don't even realize I'm doing it. Sometimes I find myself signing when I'm talking on the phone or reading email. As for your signing, you're tentative, but you're form is actually very good. Where did you learn?"
He was speaking in his own voice, which was a bit deeper than when he was translating for Joey, but he still spoke softly and very intimately. Women tended to respond well to that, and he needed to work with these people if he was going to be successful here.
"I've been studying on the internet. I found this ASL web site with QuickTime movies Tuesday morning and it seemed like something handy to know."
"You've learned that since Tuesday?" He smiled. "I'm impressed. You must be a natural. Listen, I don't mean to overstep or anything, but you seemed pretty upset. Is there anything I can help with?"
She blushed. He didn't need a masters degree in communications and a bachelors in theater to understand her body language, though they helped. "No," she said, "It's nothing, nothing serious."
"Okay, well, let me know if I can help with anything. I think Donna was planning on working till 9:00 on the transition plans for Josh and Joey. Did you need her?"
Margaret thought about it for a minute. "Would you like to come to the Mess and have a bagel or something? I can show you around, the things we missed the other day."
"That would be great." He shelved the huge manual and unfolded his legs. When not hunched forward listening and translating, he was as tall as she. "After you," he said and signed.
"Thank you," she replied, also signing slowly but correctly. She grinned when she saw him nodding at her. She put a hand on his arm as they walked. "Now, I have to warn you about the muffins…"
W.W.
As the senior staff meeting was breaking up, Leo was getting ready to brief the President on the day's agenda. Nancy stuck her head in.
"Leo, Ms. McGarry, line two."
"Thanks Nancy." He waved Josh and a curious C.J. towards the door.
As she left, C.J. overheard Leo saying, "Good morning to you too. No, I had a wonderful time last night. Now about the weekend…"
She followed Josh down the hall.
"Josh? You and Leo are pretty close, right?"
He looked at her in shock. "Close? He wanted to fire me and replace me with my assistant, remember?"
"I mean, your family… I just thought that…" She shook her head. "Never mind, forget it."
"Okay," Josh said uncertainly, "Consider it forgotten."
Josh headed off to he council's office to iron out the terms of his severance, vacation balance and benefits. He planned on getting all of that resolved by lunch time so he could see Donna and let her check some things off their lists.
W.W. –Thursday lunchtime
"So, how was the morning with Kenny?" Josh took a swig of Snapple and looked past Donna to where Margaret and Kenny were eating.
"It was fine, and don't do that thing," Donna relied, smacking his hand as he stole one of her carrot sticks. "What's with you and the carrots? These are my carrots. If you wanted some, all you had to do was order some."
"What thing? And I don't have to order carrots- I can just steal yours. Revenge for a millionty-one French fries over the years."
"That thing where you say Kenny's name like you're just saying his name, but you're really implying he's not as manly as you." She gave up on saving her carrots and concentrated on her sandwich.
"He's not." Crunch. Good carrots. He should have ordered some.
"Because he works for a woman, or because he's incredibly sensitive and perceptive and women naturally open up to him?"
"Neither. He's not as manly as me because he is him, whereas I am, well, me." He gave her a full-bore smirk.
"Remind me again why I agreed to marry you, ego boy?" She reached out to get her iced tea, and he suddenly took her wrist in his hand. "Hey!"
"Shhh," he said softly, rubbing his thumb in slow circles around a pressure point on her wrist he had discovered earlier. As he gently rubbed with his thumb, his fingertips applied feather-light pressure to the other side of her wrist. All the while, he was looking at her, looking into her, his puppy-dog eyes replaced with something darker and more intense. It was as if he was soaking her in through his eyes, consuming her visually to satisfy some potent primal hunger.
"What- what are you doing?" she asked breathlessly, fighting the urge to hiss at him.
"Reminding you why you agreed to marry me," he said patiently.
Her breathing quickened, and her lower lip began to quiver ever so slightly. Under the table, her thighs pressed together so hard the fabric of her charcoal pinstripe slacks might have actually squeaked. Her eyes started to roll back before she jerked her hand away from his.
"That," she whispered savagely after catching her breath, with flushed cheeks and flashing eyes, "was not fair!"
He grinned, kissed the pad of his thumb and pressed it to her nose.
"Who's more manly than me?" he teased her quietly in a singsong voice.
She laughed and rolled her eyes dramatically. "No one."
He grinned and leaned closer. "I'm sorry, who was more manly than me?"
"No one!" She laughed again. Her laugh was amazing, inspiring. He looked at his watch… that was still missing.
"What time is it? I have that thing."
"Go on, you might as well head over. And I promise we'll pick up your watch tonight."
"I just wanted a band, Donna. You promised it wasn't going to be screwed around with." He got up and slung his backpack over his shoulder.
"I just need to pick it up. Tonight, I promise." She patted him discretely on the behind as he walked past, and he bent to plant a quick kiss on the top of her head.
Across the room, Margaret watched them together and sighed.
W.W.
"Margaret, something's bothering you." Kenny was looking at her over the last bite of his roast beef sandwich. The White House Mess had great roast beef, he'd discovered.
"What?" She blinked, as if realizing for the first time he was sitting there, despite the fact they had been working together all day.
"Maybe I should mind my own business, being the new guy and all, but it's obvious something has you upset. I just want to make sure you talk to somebody and don't let it keep you down all day."
"That's really nice of you." She shrugged her shoulders and they both heard the tension popping in her neck. "Okay, you've worked with Joey for a long time, right?"
"Almost fifteen years. We met at a conference where we were both presenting. Her translator was a real hack, and I finally waved her off and stepped in. We started working together full time the following year."
"Okay, so as you work with someone, for a long time, you get to know them, you get to anticipate their moods. You're part of a team."
"Well yes, that's the ideal. Other than when my sister was sick and I took a month away, I've been working with Joey almost constantly for years. I imagine it's a lot like you and Leo McGarry."
"See? That's just it. How can you be a team when one part of the team is off doing who-knows-what, and not telling the other part of the team when he'll be back or what he's doing? What if one part of the team can't even sleep at night wondering if the other part of the team is going to get his heart broken by his ex-wife, who 's just toying with him because he's too loyal and honorable to call her out for the unfaithful deserting tramp that she- Oh my God, that was all out loud wasn't it?" She looked at Kenny in terror.
"Actually, you signed some of it too. And very well, by the way." He reached over and stilled her hands with his, then let go and gave her some space. "Take a breath. Okay?"
"Okay," she said meekly.
"Have you tried talking to Leo about what's bothering you?"
"I couldn't." She shuddered at the thought. "It's none of my business."
He laughed, and she looked at him sharply, trying to figure out if he was mocking her.
"We have a lot in common, you and I, Margaret. We've both hitched ourselves to someone bright and vital and talented, and given up a lot for the sake of being part of that team. It's like this: Joey knows I love her."
He shook his head a bit at her expression. "Oh, not like that, you know, but as friends, as part of the team? She absolutely knows I love her and I'm here for her. Hell, when she did Lamaze before Samantha was born, I was the one who was with her. I've heard some very discrete stories about you and Leo, when he went to rehab."
"Sierra Tucson," she nodded, "Tough times. But this is different. This is his you know, his wife. Ex-wife. It's personal."
"Tell you what, if you're still upset later, take a minute to tell Leo you're worried about him. He's your friend, he counts on you, and he's got to respect that, right?"
"Thanks. So, you were a Lamaze coach?" The image seemed pretty humorous in her mind.
"Yeah, Samantha's father is… he's not in the picture. I tell you, Joey squeezed my hands so hard I couldn't work for a week." She laughed at his sorrowful expression. "Seriously! We had to call a temp."
Margaret watched as Josh swept out. "It looks like Donna and Josh are done. We better get back and finish this up."
"Sure. Thanks for lunch, and for everything."
"No, thank you," she signed to him.
