Washington, D.C.
"You know, we could have gone home an hour ago."
With her feet propped up on her desk, CJ Cregg used her chopsticks to fish around her container of shrimp fried rice. Will and Elsie silently fought over the pork lo mein, attacking each other with threatening glares. Josh and Toby shrugged and swapped containers- Josh's sweet and sour chicken for Toby's general tso chicken. Donna, who had recently decided she abhorred Chinese food, was finishing up some paperwork for Josh in his office at his request.
"Yeah, but see, this way we get to have Chinese food paid for in full by the tax dollars of the American people," Josh replied, popping a piece of chicken his mouth.
"Fair point," CJ conceded.
Suddenly, the office door flew open, granting entrance to Carol, Margaret, and Ginger. Without saying a word to their respective bosses, they eached grabbed an unclaimed container from CJ's desk and quickly exited the room just as quietly as they had come in. CJ swung her legs off the desk and leaned in to survey the damage.
"Damnit, they took the spare ribs."
Will flung a water chesnut as his sister, which landed on her nose. She frowned and flicked it back in his direction.
"Elsie, go forth without trepidation or qualm to reclaim our coveted spare ribs!" Will demanded. "Anon!"
"Get your own spare ribs, Shakespeare," Elsie replied, rolling her eyes.
Elsie looked up and noticed all pleading eyes were rested on her.
"Please," CJ murmured with a mouth full of fried rice.
"You provide us with spare ribs and I'll provide you with general tso chicken," Josh bargained with her.
"Fine."
Elsie put her container down on the table and hopped up.
"But if you don't keep your word, the next few remarks I write for the First Lady are going to be at your expense."
"And we all know there's nothing Mrs. Bartlet would like more," Toby commented.
With that, Elsie left the office in search of the assistants guilty of absconding the spare ribs.
"Pass the soy sauce," CJ requested.
Toby grabbed a couple packets and tossed them to her.
"So, guess who I ran into today," Josh said.
"Who?"
"The Bourbon kid."
"Jean-Paul?" CJ questioned.
"A rose by any other name…" Toby trailed off.
"And? What happened?"
"He couldn't stop talking about Charlie, go figure," Josh replied.
"Nothing like a boyfriend jealous of his girlfriend's ex," Will commented. "I have been there many a time."
"I'm sure you have, Willy," CJ laughed.
Will frowned.
"Elsie got to you, didn't she?"
CJ shrugged and turned her gaze to her container of fried rice.
"Anyway," Josh continued. "Evidently, Zoey and…Marquis de Lafayette had lunch with the First Lady yesterday and, instead of being appropriately impressed by his extensive lineage, the First Lady changed the subject and asked him if he had any inkling as to what acetylsalicylic acid might be. Needless to say, that brought him down just a little bit."
"Yeah, no kidding," CJ replied. "I'm feeling inadequate just thinking about it."
"It appears Mrs. Bartlet has a greater affection for Adolf Hitler than she does for the Bourbon kid."
"That's almost hard to believe," Toby said dryly.
"And, the Bourbon kid seems to think her loyalty to Charlie has led to her, what I believe he called, 'insufficient number of fondness' toward him. One could assume that by number, he meant amount, but I'm not really inclined to defend him at this particular moment in time," Josh said.
As the door burst open suddenly for the second time in under five minutes, all current occupants of the room lifted their heads to the impromptu intruder.
"Josh," Elsie said, breathlessly. "There's a guy in the lobby fighting with the agents, ranting about family loyalty and nepotism…I don't know, but he's asking for you."
"The crazy guy ranting about family loyalty in the lobby is asking for me? There's no way he's in my family if he's ranting about loyalty. We don't know the meaning of the word."
Reluctantly, Josh put down his food and stood up. Elsie returned to her seat beside Will, pilfering his lo mein while he focused on Josh's departure.
Josh swaggered through the hallway until he reached the lobby, where he saw that Elsie had indeed been speaking the truth. Three or four Secret Service agents were attempting to detain the alleged offender but loosened their grip on him when Josh approached them.
"You know this man, Mr. Lyman?" One of the agents questioned.
Josh shrugged and shook his head.
"I don't know." He turned to the young man. "I know you?"
"No, I…" The young man stuttered. It was now clear to Josh and the agents that he was slightly inebriated. "I…saw you on TV, on Capitol Beat. I just…I need to talk to someone in White House."
"Doesn't look like that's gonna happen, buddy. You don't just barge into the White House and start agitating our agents. You wanna talk to someone in the White House, you need to make an appointment."
The young man began shaking his head fervently.
"You don't understand."
Josh placed his hands confidently on his hips and looked him in the eye.
"What don't I understand?"
The man, still held in the agents' firm grasp, took a deep breath for answering.
"I'm the President's nephew."
TBC