"It's good to see you." The older woman stated blankly after a brief but necessary embrace.
"You too. I've… I've missed you guys. A lot."
CJ smiled. It was a bit empty – she looked oddly sad, Donna thought.
"Ok, well, what we really need is someone to brief the press… and since you did a good job of that on the campaign, we thought you might want to take a stab at that here. I'm not sure what title to give you, honestly, because everything's really crazy with Annabeth leaving and… and everything else, but it'll probably be interim or acting something or another related to press or communications or…" she sighed and rubbed an eye.
"Don't – don't worry about it. I mean, I'll do whatever you need right now."
"People are flying out of this White House. Not necessarily to the campaign… people are just… they're moving on, getting new jobs."
"Can't argue with it. That's what people do – all they can, then move on."
"Well, I can't exactly run this shindig by myself. I need you here full time."
"I can do that- but I have night classes, so the usual late hours…"
"Ok. We can deal with that. You'll start off making the same as you did when you left, we'll work from there. If I need you to miss some classes, you miss some classes."
"At least I'll have a good excuse."
"Last time I checked, 'Professor, the White House Chief of Staff says I have to miss class' worked pretty darn well. Look, you can use… I'm sorry, there are so many open offices I think we're leasing… use my old one, okay?"
"The Press Secretary's office?"
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
"Donna, we're short-staffed and I'm getting letters of resignation from people I don't even know. Get in the office and sort through the crap that's in there right now."
"Yes ma'am."
Donna grabbed her purse - - the size of a duffle-bag, her schoolbooks for the evening were in it as well, and walked back through the West Wing. She glanced over to Josh's bullpen… there were a couple of familiar faces, but not many. In fact, only a few of the desks were even occupied. Sitting at her old desk was a woman she didn't even recognize. It stung a bit.
She walked into CJ's… Leo's… She walked into the office. The walls were bare, the floor was piled high with boxes, and there was nowhere to put them. Some of the stuff was CJ's, some of it Leo had left laying around… it was odd and awkward and for a moment she wanted to leave this shell of the White House she used to work for… but she pulled herself together. Donna walked out of the office.
"Hey - you – are you an intern?"
"Yes"
"Who are you working for right now?"
"Well… um… no one specific, ma'am, I was working for Mr. Zeigler, then for Ms. Schott for awhile, then Mr. MgGarry for a week or two, but-"
"What's your name?"
"Shannon"
"Hi Shannon. I'm Donna Moss, I'm going to be working out of this office for the time being, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that means you kinda work for me now, okay?"
"Okay. Do you need something?"
"Yeah. I need you to gather up whoever else worked for Annabeth, if they haven't been reassigned already- and maybe any other loose communications interns, and you guys need to find me some filing cabinets."
"Filing cabinets?"
"There are a billion files to go through in there, and I sort of need a place to put them, and apparently the ones that used to be here are gone."
"Where do I find-"
"Find your groupies, figure it out."
She turned around rather confidently and walked back into the office. She could possibly get used to this. Of course, she might be overstepping and ordering people around when she should really be following orders and doing grunt work herself. Well, if they were as short staffed as CJ said, then it would be fine.
Sitting down at the desk, she opened one of the boxes and started reading.
--
Four hours later, CJ knocked on her open door.
"How's it going?"
"Huh?"
"Looks like you're settling in. Nice cabinets."
"I accosted an intern and ordered her to rally the troops"
"Good for you. Have at it, really." She sat down in an empty chair. "You briefed for Russell, right?"
"Well… as Campaign Spokesperson, yeah, it came up."
"Good… because I really need you to brief starting tomorrow."
"What?" Donna stared at her in disbelief. She thought CJ had been kidding about that. The White House press room was a different ballgame, altogether.
"Come on, Donna – it's not that bad-"
"Are you kidding me? I'm not – I can't – I don't even have a degree!"
"Yes, well, you're working on that. You're what – 10 credits away or something? When do they graduate people again? We can have a special ceremony; they'll get it done quick."
"It's not like a Vegas wedding, CJ, you have to have credentials and documentation and stuff"
"Look," CJ was suddenly serious, "Toby can't do it anymore. It was bad enough before, but now…" her voice trailed off.
"Now what?"
There was that sadness again – it scared Donna.
"Now we need him to do his job, not fumble over briefings. Look, you'll just be reading them – you don't have to take questions."
At that point, Donna realized she might be fumbling a one-time opportunity.
"No, it's fine. I'll just need to be fully prepared, that's all. I don't want to get anyone in trouble."
"Good luck with that" CJ scoffed, tilting her head backwards, "but as long as you read up on all this" she patted the overflowing desk, "you'll be fine. And I'll fill you in on some questions that might come up – maybe organize a call with you and Annabeth on where she left off, stuff like that."
Donna sighed and smiled. "Thank you, CJ."
"Oh, and I'll introduce you as a Senior Communications Aide for the time being."
"Can I keep them?" Donna pointed to her stash of interns, who were attempting to bring one last cabinet into the office.
"Sure. You'll need them if you're going to get through all of this and make it to class."
"Great. Just great."
CJ stood and smiled a slight goodbye before bypassing the posse of interns to exit.
"So," Donna glanced over them, "Umm… lets get to work."
AUTHORS NOTE:
This is an updated version of this chapter – I would like to thank scififreakmi for pointing out my error in office placement – I completely blanked on where Annabeth had been, where Leo had worked when he came back from the hospital, etc. Anyways – thanks so much for that. Next chapter should be up soon.