Josh stopped her as she walked by his office. She didn't even recognize him after all these years, but her reaction to seeing him again wasn't what he'd expected.

"Katie!! Where have you been? What've you been doing the last few years?"

She matched Josh's excited face with her neutral one.

"Hello, Josh."

"You OK? I thought you'd be happy to see all of us, not just the President."

She looked at him disparagingly before answering his question in a low, menacing voice.

"Am I OK, Josh? Is that what you want to know? I'm great. I live in a neighborhood so bad that I'm afraid to have what few friends I have come to my apartment. I work for a highly critical boss at Treasury that, lately, has become very curious about my family in Ireland for some reason. And to top it all off, I'm being forced to tell the world about the most wonderful thing that's ever existed in my life and open it up to scrutiny that it shouldn't be subject to. I'm absolutely wonderful, thanks for asking."

She turned on her heel and walked out, leaving a stunned Josh in her wake.

He sat down and started to look over some papers on the new Resolution that was due to come to the House in a few weeks.

"Jesus, Katie, no wonder Mal always said you were a self-centered little bitch. Nice to know some things haven't changed."

Walking through the bullpen, Sam noticed the blinds and the door to his office were both closed.

"Ginger, is there something in my office that I should know about?"

"This woman just went in there not 5 minutes ago and closed your blinds and the door. I don't even think she turned on the lights."

He knew who it was. Nodding to Ginger, he walked into his office and closed the door quietly behind him. Kate had her back to the door as she looked out the window across the lawn. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her. Dropping a light kiss on one ear, he whispered, "Hey, how's my little china doll?"

"Scared. What's going to happen once CJ reads the statement at the briefing? Is there going to be press at my apartment, at yours? Will they stake out my job? Am I going to get fired? I don't know what's going to happen and I'm so scared, Sam." He cringed at the amount of fear in her voice and the way the pitch had gone higher and higher as she continued. He moved so that he was in front of her and pulled her close.

"Honestly, love, I don't know. I wish I did, if for nothing else than to make you feel better about all of this. I can understand if you want to stop this right now, but I don't want us to end this before it's even had a real chance." He slowly ran his fingers through her hair as he tried to reassure her. "I hate the fact that this has to be done, too, Katie. I've never liked any of this."

He pulled back slightly and noticed the sad, haunted look in her eyes. He ran the back of his hand down one side of her face and saw her relax slightly. He left light kisses on her forehead, her eyes and the tip of her nose. He looked in her eyes when he had finished and saw that some of the sadness was gone. He knew what he had to do.

"Katie," he said softly as he leaned in close to her, "there's only one thing I can think of that might help here. I refuse to allow this thing to pull us apart, especially since we just found each other again. I'll protect you as best I can. But," he said as he noticed that their faces were only a few millimeters apart, "most importantly, I want you to know that I love you."

He kissed her; slowly, tenderly, letting his emotions call the shots this time. He poured everything out to her in this kiss. His ever-growing love for her, the desire he felt when they were together, the warmth he felt every time she touched him. He could feel her quietly responding to him with her own emotions, soft whispers to his regular volume. Her need to feel his touch and to stay in his embrace, the comfort that she drew from him when they were together and the way that just the sound of his voice could calm her. He could feel her need to be with him match with his to be with her.

Suddenly, the sound of a ball bouncing against glass forced them to break the kiss.

Sam groaned audibly as he pulled her to his chest and stroked her hair. He could kiss her forever and never grow tired of it. He kissed the top of her head and pulled back. He saw that more of the sadness had left her eyes, replaced by small sparks of hope. He silently cursed Toby for his horrible timing and wondered if that was one of the reasons that he and Andi weren't married any longer.

"Let me go deal with Toby. I'll be back in a bit." He turned to leave but was stopped by the fact that she still held one of his hands in a tight grip. He looked at her questioningly.

"Sam," she said, "I love you, too." She had a soft smile on her face as she said it and gave his hand a small squeeze before releasing him. He gave her a huge smile in return.

"Katie, you just made me the happiest man in the world."

Oh, yeah. There was no way in hell he would allow this to be pulled apart. He'd resign first.