"Will the President accept it?" Will asked, anxiously.
"He has to," Leo replied, ever the stoic one.
"Yeah," Toby said, skeptically. "But will he?"
Leo paused for a moment, and the staff searched his indifferent expression for answers.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures."
They held their breath as their boss continued.
"I made a call."
Immediately, they knew. Each of them, instinctively, except Will.
"To whom?"
He was the newcomer still, and had a lot to learn. Nobody blamed him.
"Really?" CJ asked, slightly shocked.
They had been working at the White House for nearly five years and it had probably taken them every one of those years to be prepared for this moment, to understand, to silently acknowledge.
"Yeah," Leo confirmed.
They knew their president. They knew his strengths, and they knew his weaknesses. They knew what made him tick, and what ticked him off. And they knew, just as well as anyone, that the President was less likely to focus when a certain someone wasn't around.
"Who? Who'd he call?" Will continued to question.
The rest of the staff ignored him. He would understand eventually; he was a smart kid. They'd let him figure it out on his own. A little tough love never hurt anybody.
"Do you…think that was wise?" Toby said, cautiously. "I mean, considering."
Leo nodded.
"No matter the circumstance, this was the way to go. It's the only way to get him to focus. There isn't a person in this room who has the power to ground him like she does."
"But, Leo," CJ said, softly. "You don't think it could only distract him further?"
"She won't allow it."
Will frowned, his head swimming.
"Who are we talking about?"
Again, they ignored him. Give him a minute or two, they figured, he'll get it.
"I hope you're right," CJ said.
Toby cleared his throat, awkwardly.
"Is she bringing…?"
Leo nodded again.
"So far as I know."
Will breathed a sigh of relief.
"Oh. You mean the First Lady."
CJ smiled at Will with amusement.
"We knew you'd get it."
"She's bringing…him?" Will asked.
"Yeah. I couldn't ask her not to," Leo answered, calmly.
"Leo, the President's going to go out of his mind if she brings him into this building," Toby pointed out.
"Where is she staying?" CJ questioned.
"Right here," Leo replied, matter-of-factly.
"She's staying here? Where's he staying?"
"Here."
Will shook his head in disbelief.
"If this backfires, I would like to make it clear that I objected to this plan from the beginning."
"Duly noted," Leo said. "I'll take full responsibility. But you'll see. It'll all work out."
"Good afternoon, ma'am," Amy Gardner greeted her boss nervously, cautiously, even timidly, as she stepped out of the limo.
"Good afternoon, Amy," The First Lady replied, pleasantly.
Amy thought she sounded a bit too nonchalant for a woman in her situation, but she shrugged it off.
"Mrs. Bartlet…"
And soon, the First Lady shrugged her off.
"I'm sorry, Amy, could we do this later? I have some unfinished business to take care of first."
'I'll say,' Amy thought. Unfinished business didn't do it justice.
"Of course."
"Good."
Cue fake First Lady smile. Amy smiled back and nodded curtly. Abbey continued down the hallway of the West Wing, complete with her 'hooker boots' and sunglasses. She had never looked unattractive a day in her life, but today especially, she was dressed to kill. And the way she walked through the building like she owned the place, made her seem like she had a license to kill as well. And yet, she had acted like nothing was wrong when speaking to her trusty Chief of Staff. As if nothing at all had happened. As if she still belonged.
Abbey Bartlet's ability to act casual under the most unusual and stressful of circumstances never ceased to amaze Amelia Gardner. She knew her boss. She had known the First Lady for nearly her entire life. But from the day Jed Bartlet was sworn in as President of the United States the first time, nothing was quite the same. Oh, she was still the wonderful, awe-inspiring Abigail Bartlet she'd always known, but something was different, something was a bit askew. Amy never could quite put her finger on what it was. Nevertheless, none of that could have ever prepared her for the events of the last few months.
Oh, well. Amy would catch up with her later. Then, they would chat, like they always did. Or at least, she hoped they would. Now, more than ever, there was absolutely no telling what Abbey Bartlet's next move would be.
"What the hell have you been doing while I've been gone!"
The senior staff jumped with alarm. Leo McGarry did a double take, at the sight of her. She looked marvelous. Honestly, he hadn't expected her to.
"Abbey." Leo grinned.
She walked over and kissed him on the cheek.
"I'm glad you called me," she said. "God knows Jed never would have."
Leo laughed, uneasily. Abbey turned to the woman standing next to him.
"CJ."
"Mrs. Bartlet. Welcome home. Er…back."
Abbey looked at her suspiciously for a moment, before giving her a hug.
"How have you been?"
"Fine. Thank you, ma'am."
"Toby. William."
"Good to see you, Mrs. Bartlet, really," Will insisted.
"Thank you, Will."
"Yes. It's…good to have you back, Mrs. Bartlet," Toby said, quietly.
Abbey leaned in and kissed him on the cheek as well.
"Thanks."
"You…you let your hair grow out," CJ observed, nervously.
"Oh! Yeah. Well, cutting it only brought me bad luck. I figured I'd had enough misfortune."
"It looks very nice, ma'am."
"Thank you!"
"Why don't we all have a seat?" Leo suggested. They all complied, sitting around the table in the War Room.
"So. Is there a reason my husband isn't in here with you?" Abbey asked. "Or did he just hear I was coming and flee the immediate vicinity?"
"He's in the Residence," Leo replied.
"Avoiding confrontation, yes."
"Mrs. Bartlet, you have to get him to agree to Haffley's terms," Toby said, cutting to the chase.
"He'll do what he wants to do, Toby. I can't force him into decisions. I can coax, I can influence, and I can suggest, but I can't force."
"She doesn't even have to do anything," Leo said to Toby. "Just being there is enough."
Abbey squinted, her gaze falling upon Leo.
"He…he can't focus without you, Abbey. You know that," he clarified.
"Even now?"
He nodded.
"Even now."
"Tony's with me," Abbey said, after a short pause, as if testing the waters.
They all looked up.
"We know," Leo replied, evenly.
"He's meeting with some people for…tea, I believe it was. He'll be here later. I…I wanted to talk to you all, talk to Jed, before he arrived."
"Mrs. Bartlet…we're not, or…I'm not, so sure that having Sir Prescott here is…such a good idea," Will stated.
"Well," Abbey sighed. "That's unfortunate."
"Will's right, ma'am," Toby agreed.
"Ok, look. Let's just get everything out in the open here. This is me, this is Abbey. Let's talk about this. I know you're all upset with me. But, honest to God, you don't know the half of what's gone on these last few months. Not even you, Leo. You don't know the details of what's happened between my husband and me, you don't know anything about Tony, you can't understand, not in the least bit, the affect the Zoey thing has had on our family. I'm in a very difficult spot right now. I'm caught between two worlds."
"Try three or four worlds," Toby muttered, under his breath.
"Yes! I'm caught in three or four different worlds. You don't know what that's like!" Abbey exclaimed.
"And apparently you don't know what it's like to do what we've been doing all this time. You want to know what the hell we've been doing? We've been covering your ass!" Toby shouted, matching her volume.
"Toby!" Leo admonished.
"I apologize, Mrs. Bartlet."
Abbey shook her head.
"It's ok. Drop the Mrs. Bartlet, I told you, this is Abbey, all right? Now, go on, let me have it."
"The problem, Abbey, is that, like you said, we don't understand. No one understands. You haven't given us a chance to, and that's fine, because it's your business. But I'm the one standing in the press room every day, faced with answering questions about you. Where you are, what you're doing, why you're doing it, who you're doing it with…and it's embarassing when I have absolutely nothing to give them. Day after day. And then to come into the office one day to find you on the cover of People Magazine socializing in a public place, alone, with English nobility?" CJ said, her eyes filling with tears.
"What CJ is saying, Abbey, is that…we had to be the ones to tell the President. He didn't find out any sooner than the public did. And that wasn't fair," Toby said. "Since that day…you've been the top story in the press room. Why? Because nobody understands! They have no information! They know only what the paparazzi's cameras tell them."
Abbey nodded, slowly, absorbing everything she'd just been told.
"I'll make a statement," she whispered.
"Abbey?" Leo said.
"I want to make a statement to the press, explaining things. Well, most things anyway."
"I think that's a very good idea," CJ said. "We can work on it together."
"Thank you. I'm going to go and…make my presence known to my husband," Abbey said, with a slight smile.
"Ok," Leo replied, smiling back at her reassuringly.
"He's in the Residence?"
"Yeah. Do you want me to let him know you're coming up?"
"Nah. I'll surprise him."
"Abbey, just…please be careful."
Abbey looked at him sideways.
"Leo, he's my husband. You don't have to tell me how to act around him. I've been doing this dance for thirty-seven years."
"Yeah, I know, but he's not…he's not the way you left him, Abbey."
"Tell Amy I'd like to see her in my office in an hour please."
"Sure."
"Thank you."
As her First Lady exited the War Room, CJ Cregg couldn't help but notice how she had changed over the past few months. And she couldn't help but wonder how things had gotten this far, how it had come to this. She had never seen it coming. Never dreamed that something like this could ever happen to Abbey Bartlet, to the Bartlets in general. She hoped when they sat down to prepare her statement for the press, that Abbey would fill her in on the details and tell her things she should have known weeks ago, months even. And she hoped that, after all this time, she would be trusted with the information of how this all began.
In the dour ages
Of drafty cells and draftier castles,
Of dragons breathing without the frame of fables,
Saint and king unfisted obstruction's knuckles
By no miracle or majestic means,
But by such abuses
As smack of spite and the overscrupulous
Twisting of thumbscrews: one soul tied in sinews,
One white horse drowned, and all the unconquered pinnacles
Of God's city and Babylon's
Must wait, while here Suso's
Hand hones his tack and needles,
Scouraging to sores his own red sluices
For the relish of heaven, relentless, dousing with prickles
Of horsehair and lice his horny loins;
While there irate Cyrus
Squanders a summer and the brawn of his heroes
To rebuke the horse-swallowing River Gyndes:
He split it into three hundred and sixty trickles
A girl could wade without wetting her shins.
Still, latter-day sages,
Smiling at this behavior, subjugating their enemies
Neatly, nicely, by disbelief or bridges,
Never grip, as the grandsires did, that devil who chuckles
From grain of the marrow and the river-bed grains.
-"A Lesson in Vengeance," by Sylvia Plath