Epilogue
"Why am I just now hearing about this?"
Leo looked from the president to Josh and back again.
No one spoke.
"Well?"
Josh stood silently staring at the floor. Whatever hope and confidence he had on the way over had dwindled.
"Sir, there was some concern-" Leo began. The president shook his head and waved his hand through the air signaling for silence.
"Leo, could you give us the room, for a minute?"
"Sir,"
"Leo, I'm not asking you to walk to Timbuktu, I'd just like a word with Josh alone."
The president walked Leo to the door and held it open. As he stepped out, Leo looked hard into his old friend's eyes. Usually, Jed Bartlet could be read like a book. His emotions, whether of joy or sadness, anger or contentedness were always splashed across his face for all to see. Not this time, though. Leo had no clue what was going through the president's head.
"Sir, you have to understand what it-"
The president silenced Leo again.
"Yeah, I know," he said. "Wait right here, would you?"
Leo tried to catch Josh's eye as the president closed the door, but it was to no avail.
The president walked back into the suite, dropped two ice cubes into a glass and poured a drink.
"Sit down, Josh."
Josh obeyed, taking a seat on a nearby striped ottoman.
"Why am I just now hearing about this?"
"We, uh, we didn't want to bother you, sir."
"Crap. If you didn't want to bother me, you wouldn't be here now."
Josh's head sank even lower. His gaze remained fixed on the floor.
"So, and for the third time I might add, why am I just now hearing about this?"
"I guess…I guess I was scared, sir."
"Of me?" The president asked as he settled into a chair next to Josh.
"No!" Josh said, looking the president in the eye for the first time since he arrived with Leo. "Sir, no. I was scared…I was scared that it would hurt you. That it would hurt your chances for…for re-election."
The president gave a mighty sigh and looked to the heavens before turning his gaze back to the younger man.
"You didn't…You thought…Josh!" the president said, setting his glass on an end table with a heavy thud. "What in the world? Of all the things…the health of the people I care about is more important to me than this job! I'll resign this position tonight if that's what it takes to get you help, you hear me? Forget re-election, I mean it, I'll walk over to the OEOB and turn the country over to John Hoynes right now if I have to."
The president waited for Josh to speak. Sir, I think that would skip several steps in the resignation process. It was such a Josh thing to say. It never came.
The president picked up his glass and scooted his chair a little closer. "I'll do it for you Josh," he said quietly. "I'd do it for you, for Leo…any of you kids."
"I know that now, sir," Josh said looking at the president, "but you don't…you don't have to do that."
"Good," the president said, giving Josh's shoulder a squeeze. "I can't begin to imagine what Hoynes would do to the budget." Josh cracked a smile. "Now come on. Let's bring Leo back in here and make some calls."
Josh stood up. "Yes sir."
The end.
Author's Note: I prefer to think of this not as a fic that leaves you hanging, but as a fic where the reader is free to draw his/her own conclusion. Yeah, actually I just couldn't get anything else down. I tried. I certainly knew where I wanted it to go, but it just wasn't coming. Instead I'll be applying some of the elements of the rest of this into a new fic, which I hope you'll all enjoy once I start posting it. Of course, I haven't started writing it yet, so it may be awhile.