Title: Stopover
Summary: "He carries a bouquet in his hand, for he is a man of occasion." J/D. An AU take on "18th and Potomac." 1/1
Category: Angst
Spoilers: Vague references to late S2-S3. Specific references to 2.18 "17 People" and 2.21 "18th and Potomac."
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: West Wing belongs to Sorkin and Wells.
A/N: I'm blaming Becky and Denise for this one. :P
Stopover
He carries a bouquet in his hand, for he is a man of occasion.
Always in April. Never February.
He's also, as she liked to remind him, an idiot.
It's a quick stopover on the way back to D.C.; a stopover, he suspects, that was created solely for this purpose, although he'll never know for sure. There's not time for everyone to slip away, just him, and he's grateful. There have been other visits—the service, obviously, and a few stops since then.
But not in April.
He sets the flowers down in front of her and opens his mouth to speak. But there are no words, not anymore. Not out loud.
He still talks to her—he's stopped wondering if he was crazy to be talking to her—but not when he's here. He talks to her about bills and appropriations and Sam's love life and MS hearings and their early plans for re-election. He tells her his mom's selling their house in Connecticut and how he keeps hoping she'll change her mind. He apologizes that Toby was the one to tell her about 'Sagittarius' and asks her time and again why she had to pick that night to drop by Mrs. Landingham's desk.
But that's in D.C., when he still half-expects her to fling his office door open, when he catches a glimpse of her in the halls, when the President shares a bit of trivia he's sure she's read somewhere too.
Here there is silence, remembrance, regret for what might have been.
And in April, flowers.
He'll always be a man of occasion.
fin