One Last Thing
She'd opened the door between their offices when she'd arrived that morning, so she heard him saying good morning to Mrs. Fiderer as he walked into the oval office. His commanding voice was second nature to her now and she wondered what it would be like to not hear it in two days. She took a deep breath and slowly got up from her desk. "Good morning, Mr. President," she said, walking from her office into his.
"CJ," he replied absently while walking towards his desk. He sat down, and looking at the space in front of him, sighed. Where there once sat countless things that needed his immediate attention was a clear polished desk, empty save for a few pictures, a pen he'd left there the night before, and the Washington Post he'd brought over from the residence. "This is how it ends…" he mumbled to himself.
"Sir?"
He sat lost in his own thoughts for a moment before looking up at her. "Any movement from Qumar?" he asked in an almost hopeful voice, scolding himself for the thought.
CJ stared at him. "No Sir. It's a calm morning. You have a final meeting with the Cabinet members this afternoon and Will needs a few minutes to go over the changes you made to tomorrow's speech."
"That's my whole day?"
"There's the reception tonight at six."
He sighed. "They should keep me busy on my last day, CJ. I might get bored and decide to bomb someone."
She smiled then, she'd miss this side of him. "I have a list of possibilities on my desk, Sir."
"That's my girl."
It was quiet after that for a minute while she tried to summon the nerve to bring it up. The project she'd taken upon herself; the one she'd been careful not to mention. She hadn't been afraid of bringing anything up to him since her second week as chief of staff, but this was different. This was something they never discussed. This had become their elephant in the corner.
She took a deep breath and met his eyes again. "Sir…"
"Is it ready?"
This took her back. "Excuse me?"
"CJ…" he said pointedly. "You didn't think I was expecting this?"
"No Sir, I just…"
"Is it ready?" he asked again, cutting her off.
The room was silent while they stared at each other, while she tried to figure out if they were discussing the same thing. When his eyes softened and the faintest smile of understanding appeared on his face, she nodded slightly. "It should be delivered within the hour," she replied quietly.
The room went silent once again. "Give Josh a head's up."
"They're meeting in the Roosevelt Room. I'll tell him."
"I don't want Will to announce it until it's done."
"Of course." She paused. "Sir, I know …"
"Let me know when it arrives," he said, essentially dismissing her.
"Yes Sir," she said quietly before going into her own office and closing the door.
She took a deep breath of relief, the conversation having gone unbelievably easier than she'd anticipated, and then looked over at the box in the corner beginning to collect her personal belongings. She'd taken Gail home the night before; showing her around the townhouse as if she were a new roommate. The rest, which consisted of very little considering how long the building had been a second home, would go with her tonight after the reception. A picture of Sam, Josh, Leo, Toby, and herself would stay on the bookshelf across from her desk. She'd seen Josh staring at it a few days earlier when he'd come to, as he put it, test out her couch, so she'd had a copy made and bought a frame for him, having it inscribed with 'Once upon a time…'
Margaret walked into her office, interrupting her thoughts and handing her a small stack of messages. "The Secretary of Defense would like ten minutes with you before the Cabinet meeting this afternoon, you've got Josh at three, legal called and said the document you asked for is ready, I sent Charlie to get it, and Danny called to confirm lunch."
She waited for Margaret to continue, and when she didn't, she looked up from the messages expectantly.
Margaret looked at her for a second. "And… I have a meeting at the EEOB at two with the current Vice-President's executive assistant and then at three with the decorators to discuss Leo's office."
Her eyes widened. "That's it? Two years without sleep and my last day consists of two meetings and lunch with Danny?"
"And something from legal," Margaret added.
She paused before nodding, the corners of her mouth beginning to twitch. 'Something from legal.' Perhaps the most important thing she'd do as chief of staff. "Do you know where Leo is this morning?"
"He has transitional meetings with the Vice-President's office scheduled for most of the day."
"I need to see him. Call over there and see if he can spare a minute."
"When?"
"Sometime before Charlie gets back," she said, putting the messages on her desk and walking towards the door.
"So, now."
"Yeah," she said, closing the door behind her and heading towards the Roosevelt Room.
She reached the Roosevelt Room and stood staring inside. Josh sat on one side of the table with Donna, Louise Thornton, Edith Ortega, and a young attractive guy she knew only as Bram. The new fab-five; she thought they looked less scared and less green than she, Josh, Sam, and Toby had exactly eight years earlier in the same meeting. Donna looked confident and grown-up, Lou and Edie down right scary, and Josh looked… she tilted her head and studied him… he looked like he was coming home.
Will, Carol, Kate and Cliff sat on the other side of the table, filling them in on the daily goings on, but with the exception of Carol, they weren't really her team. Her team had been battered and torn apart. Leo and Josh might still be within eyesight, but they were on a new team, and Sam and Toby were in Orange County and Danbury, places she didn't visit for very different reasons.
She watched the meeting a moment longer. Someone must've said something strange, because Josh leaned over and whispered into Donna's ear, and she covered her mouth, trying not to laugh. He brushed his hand over her leg before concentrating once again on the others, and CJ smiled, wondering if anyone else had even noticed.
She opened the door and the focus shifted to her. She both looked forward to and was apprehensive of the day that would no longer be the case. She nodded and made a rather lame joke about the brightest minds in America being in this room, then looked at Josh and motioned for him. He stood and walked towards her and she held the door open, remaining silent until they were both outside in the hallway.
"The President asked me to give you a heads up on something."
"He's going to do it?" he asked with a somber expression and a small look of hope in his eyes.
She stared at him for a few seconds; he couldn't possibly know what she was talking about, except that of course he did. Of course he knew. "Charlie's on his way with it now."
He nodded and looked off towards the oval office. "How's he doing?"
She remained quiet for a few seconds. "I was just in there; he's not talking about it."
"It's the last thing he'll do."
"Probably."
He rubbed his hand over his face and through his hair, making it stick up and look like he'd been hard at work at his desk for hours. "You want me to wait with you?"
A small, sad smile graced her lips as she remembered other times they'd waited together, all of them. "Yeah, just let me…" she opened the door to the Roosevelt Room once again. "I need to steal Will for a few minutes…" She started to shut the door again, but opened it at the last second. "And Donna."
Donna and Will looked at each other before standing up and following CJ and Josh to her office. When they walked in, she told Margaret to send Charlie and Leo in when they got there and then shut the door behind them.
With all the doors closed, she went to her desk and sat down. Will sat in a chair across from her desk and Josh sat down on the couch, his arm draped around Donna's shoulders.
"When…" Will asked quietly after a minute or so of silence.
"Charlie went to legal to pick it up."
"You've talked to him?"
"As much as he's willing to talk about it."
"But he's going to..."
She took a deep breath. "Yeah, I think so." She looked over at Donna. "You'll need a response from your camp."
Donna nodded and glanced at Josh. "We're ready."
"The public half expects it, CJ," Josh said.
"It's going to look personal."
"It is personal," Donna said with quiet authority. "The President knows the situation and every detail personally. He's making one of the most informed decisions of his presidency."
"They're still going to say he should've gone through channels," Will said.
"He doesn't have to go through channels," Leo countered, walking into the room with Charlie behind him. "It's his decision to make."
Charlie handed a clasped envelope to CJ. "Is this…"
"Yes," Will said.
"He's gonna do it?"
She opened the envelope, taking a single sheet of paper out of it, then looked up at the four other people in the room and took a deep breath. "We're about to find out." She crossed the room to the door connecting her office to the oval office, pausing for a moment before walking inside. She watched for a few seconds as he discussed the merits of a good chess game with Curtis and remembered him putting Charlie through similar discussions. "Mr. President, do you have a minute?"
He looked up. "You have it?"
"Yes Sir."
He turned back to Curtis, dismissing him with, "It appears they've found a little more work for me to do."
Both CJ and the President were quiet as Curtis left. Only once the door was closed did he hold out his hand for the document. CJ gave it to him and he looked it over for a few seconds that felt like an hour. "You told Josh this was coming?"
"He's in my office, Sir."
"His office tomorrow."
"Yes Sir."
"Don't let him spill anything in there till we're out."
She laughed uneasily. "Yes Sir."
It was quiet again while he looked over the document, and she wondered if he was stalling. "They'll say I waited to do this now so no one could stop me."
"No one can stop you, Sir. It's your constitutional right."
He looked up at her with raised eyebrows. "Yet you had it drafted without speaking to me about it first."
She tilted her head. "I thought it might make your decision easier."
"Mmm… who else have you got in there," he asked, nodding towards her office.
"Will, Leo, Donna Moss and Charlie."
"Planning on ganging up on me if I say no?"
She smiled. "No Sir. Just…"she trailed off and he nodded. "If you'd like to think about it…"
"Bring them in."
"Sir?"
"Bring them… Leo," he yelled.
A few seconds later, Leo stepped inside, staying close to the door. "Yes Sir?"
"You and your muscle come in here."
Leo grinned and went into CJ's office, coming back a few seconds later with Josh, Donna, Will and Charlie. They stopped somberly in front of the President's desk and CJ thought again of Toby and Sam and the number of times the four of them had stood in the exact same place wondering what the President was going to do.
The President looked up at Leo and CJ suddenly felt as if the rest of them had disappeared. "Leo…"
"There won't be a fallout. The next administration's hands will be clean and the republicans won't benefit from it."
"But…"
"But... republicans will say you feel guilty. That you agreed with it, encouraged it, maybe even ordered it and now you're doing this to make up for it."
"But…"
"You'll regret not doing this for the rest of your life."
He nodded somberly and looked at CJ.
"You're done, Sir," she said quietly. "You've got a day of hand shakes and congratulations. Do one last thing you believe in. One last thing that counts."
Her hands were balmy then as she watched him look around the room, his eyes skimming over Will to Charlie, then to Donna and finally to Josh before landing on Leo again. She could hear her heart beating as he sat down and picked up a pen, pausing for several seconds before signing the paper and handing it to her.
She could feel tears gathering in her eyes and with a shaky voice she quietly thanked him. He looked at her for a long time, eyes focused on hers and finally nodded before looking up at Will. "I didn't and don't agree with it. I didn't encourage it, and I most certainly didn't order it. I did what my conscience told me to do today, and seeing as it's my right, the press doesn't need any further reason."
Will nodded. "Yes, Sir."
He glanced at the others then. "That's all." They each thanked him and walked towards CJ's office. "By the way, Josh," he said, causing them to pause.
"Sir?"
"I don't know if you're aware of it, but you're holding Donna's hand there."
Josh smiled, his dimples doing little to hide his happiness. "Am I?"
"She's allowing that now?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Very well," he said with a smile and a nod. "We'll see both of you tonight."
Josh smiled back while Donna's face turned a light shade of pink. A few seconds passed and they all filed into CJ's office. She made a quick phone call before giving Will a few last minute instructions and sending him off to the Press Room. Donna and Charlie followed him out and Leo kissed her softly on the cheek before going back to the EEOB.
When she and Josh were alone, they watched each other for a long moment before he pulled her into a hug where she felt her first tear slip down her cheek. "Thank you," he whispered into her hair and a few more tears fell as she nodded her head.
When they pulled back, she picked up the remote, leaned against the front of her desk and flipped on the television. Josh stood next to her and took her hand as they watched Will's briefing.
"President Bartlet will be meeting for the final time with his Cabinet members this afternoon where each member will present to him a written report of their office, including goals met and recommended goals for the next administration. These reports will be given to President-elect ?xml:namespace prefix st1 ns "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" / Santos after President Bartlet has reviewed them. There have been a few last minute changes to tonight's reception. The reception will begin at seven o'clock as scheduled, but at six o'clock, the President and First Lady will be hosting family and some close friends in the residence for a pre-reception reception, if you will. Press isn't allowed, but Carol will be giving you a list of invited guests this afternoon. And one last thing. Fifteen minutes ago, the President pardoned Toby Ziegler. He should be released from Danbury Minimum Security Prison some time this evening."