Sam quietly entered his house and glanced into the living room, surprised to not see anyone. He walked into the kitchen and set a bag gently on the table, then quietly walked up behind Ainsley. She let out a squeak as his arms went around her and he kissed her cheek.
"Don't do that!"
"I'm sorry. Where's the baby?"
"Taking a nap. She should be waking up in a few minutes."
"Oh."
"How was work?"
"I just can't wait for the election to be over." Sam muttered, peering over Ainsley to the stove. "What are you making?"
"Noodles." she replied.
"That's chicken."
"Very good."
"Were you being sarcastic?"
"No."
"Then... you've got me confused."
"I'm cooking chicken and then I'm making noodles, then putting the chicken in with the noodles."
"Okay, now it makes even more sense." Sam said, making Ainsley roll her eyes. She reached over for a napkin and let out a yell. "What?"
"I burnt my arm." she whimpered.
"How?"
"I reached over the pot and my arm hit the edge of it!" Ainsley pulled away from Sam and he turned the faucet on.
"Come here."
"No."
"Come here."
"It's gonna hurt."
"Stop being a baby. I've got one upstairs." Sam said, grabbing Ainsley's arm. She bit her lip as he stuck it under the cold water. He finally turned the water off and Ainsley tried to pull her arm away but he gave her a look and brought her arm up to his face. "Yeah, that's pretty nasty."
"Shut up."
"I may have to kiss it and make it better."
"Oh I can't stand you! Here I am, injured and you're mocking me!"
"I'm being serious." Sam kissed Ainsley's arm lightly, making her force back a smile.
"What's in the bag?" she saw the large white bag on the table and pointed.
"Stuff for Gracie."
"From?"
"Me. I went to the mall." Sam said. "And let me tell you, that was crazy. I don't know how women like going there for fun."
"The mall is fun." Ainsley said.
"I nearly got run over by this eighty-year-old lady rushing to get to a Macy's sale. It's every husband's worst nightmare."
"I did not tell you to go to the mall."
"I know that but it still is."
"So what happened?"
"Well it started when I went into the Disney Store." Sam sat down at the table and began to tell his tale.
--------Flashback-------
'I can't believe I left the West Wing early and am now standing in the mall.' Sam thought to himself as he walked into the Disney Store. 'But I'm a nice guy and a loving father. So what does Gracie like?'
He walked around the store and his eyes narrowed on the DVD display. Sam began heading towards it just as a woman was. See, Donna had bought Gracie a Tigger stuffed animal when she was born and she seemed to like it. So when Sam saw The Tigger Movie on the DVD rack, he knew Gracie would like watching it... even though she was only two months old and nothing could really keep her attention for long, let alone two hours. As he went to grab the DVD, the woman did too. Sam gave her a smile that would make any woman go weak at the knees but she didn't return the smile.
"Hi. Uh, I had this first." he said.
"No, I did. Now if you'd let go of it, that'd be great."
"I intended on buying it."
"Really? Well I did too."
"For my daughter. I mean, come on. How many times do you see a father buy something for his kid?"
"Your wife sent you out didn't she?" the woman said flatly.
"No, actually she didn't. My wife thinks I'm still at work." Sam explained. "So if you could just give this back to me,"
"Listen, my niece's birthday is today and I told her I'd get this for her so if you could just be a gentleman..."
"Okay." Sam, keeping one hand on the DVD, used his other to go into his pocket. "How old is your niece?"
"Five."
"That's a great age."
"How old is your daughter?"
"Two months."
"And you think she's going to watch this?"
"She's got a thing for Tigger. So she's five huh? That's wonderful." Sam nodded. "You know, when I was around her age I wanted to be President."
"I don't care. Give me the DVD."
"A lot of kids want to be President at five and what a way to encourage them to follow that dream then to present them with a pen with the seal of the President of the United States?" Sam handed over his pen and smiled. The woman stared at him, still not letting go of the DVD.
"What did you steal this?"
"No. I'm Sam Seaborn, I'm the Deputy Communications Director for the White House. I get one like every day."
"Oh. You're that guy. Well, I don't like Bartlet so why do you think I'd take your crappy five cent pen to give to my niece?"
"Actually, it's not worth five cents and you can't get it anywhere else. I'm sure she'd love it."
"Well, she's not a psycho like you wanting to be President."
"Oh?"
"She wants to be a ballerina."
"Heh, my friend wanted to be a ballerina. You should get her a ballerina thing then and let me have the DVD."
---------end of flashback-----
"So did you get the DVD?" Ainsley asked. Sam shook his head, making Ainsley smirk.
"She threatened to hurt me so I let go of the DVD." he said. "So I walked out of the store and that's when Grandma nearly ran me over."
"Then what did you buy?"
"I found it at a DVD store and I got Attack of the Clones."
"Oh."
"I got something for you." Sam said.
"Yeah?" Ainsley went into the bag and raised an eyebrow as she pulled out a Victoria's Secret bag. Sam grinned and walked out of the room as he heard Gracie over the baby monitor. Ainsley opened the bag and let out a squeak. "SAM!"
"Be down in a minute!" he called. Ainsley groaned and buried her head in her arms. Upstairs, Sam smiled as he picked Gracie up. She yawned in his face and he laughed slightly. "Thanks a lot. I think I may have annoyed Mommy but I thought it'd look good on her."
"I can hear you!"
"Well it's true." Sam leaned over and grabbed the pacifier out of the crib. "And Daddy got Gracie something too. We'll go downstairs and I'll show you."
They came into the kitchen a few minutes later and Ainsley shoved the bag at Sam.
"No, don't be like this."
"I can't believe you bought that."
"What's the problem?"
"What did you do? See it on some anorexic model and think I'd look as hot as her?"
"No. I thought you'd look even hotter." Sam replied.
"Well that's not gonna happen until I lose this weight."
"What weight?"
Ainsley gave Sam an incredulous look and poked at her stomach.
"That weight!"
"Oh that's nothing."
"It's something." Ainsley took Gracie from Sam as grabbed a bottle off the counter. "That one's dirty."
Sam eyed Gracie as she began to fuss.
"You did make one right?"
"Yeah. It's in the refrigerator. Just heat it up for a couple of seconds."
"I don't think she's going to last a couple of seconds." Sam mumbled. Ainsley gave him a look as he handed her the bottle. Gracie quieted down as Ainsley put the bottle in her mouth. "She's just like you."
"Only when she eats. So is there a story behind that thing as well?"
"Wh— oh. Not really. Just... the salesgirl was hitting on me. She said she'd..." Sam laughed for a second, rubbing the back of his neck. Ainsley raised an eyebrow and shook her head.
"I don't wanna know."
"She said she'd model for me if I needed to see what it looked like on a real woman, not a mannequin."
"Why is it that anywhere you go you get hit on?"
"I'm just so damn good-looking." Sam grinned.