"Margaret, I need to talk with Josh privately. In five minutes, I'll need to see C.J., Toby, Will, and Donna as well." Leo's voice wavered ever so slightly, threatening to betray him and the enormous conflict he was feeling at the moment.
"Do you want me to get them now?" she asked.
"Just tell them to meet in my office in five minutes, okay?"
"You want to meet with them separately or together?"
"Together."
"In your office or the Roos. . ."
"Margaret!" Leo was on a short fuse at the moment, and Margaret was getting dangerously close to setting it off.
"Sorry." Margaret studied her boss intently - she'd known him way too long not to pick up on his moods. "Leo, are you okay?" she asked.
"Just . . . when everyone else gets here, have them wait in your office." His voice softened a bit, "And I'm sorry, Margaret. I didn't mean to yell at you." He gave her a sideways glance, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to overflow again. "Send Josh in, please," he cleared his throat.
"Yeah, okay," Margaret replied as she backed out of the office, taken aback by his apology. It was all too obvious that something big was happening, and as much as she wanted to ask him about it, she reasoned she'd find out soon enough.
Leo turned his back on the door, collecting his thoughts. How would Josh react to what he had to say? Leo knew that Josh didn't have a clue of what was coming. How could he? He didn't even know about Mallory. What would happen if he refused the job? At this point, Leo thought, I guess it doesn't matter either way. He was going to do what he had to do to get to Mallory and keep her from suffering any more.
Josh entered the room and saw Leo standing next to the window, arms folded across his chest, looking out. He waited, hoping that his boss had heard him come in. After a few moments, he said quietly, "Leo?" Nothing. Leo didn't turn around, never moved. Oh man, he thought, I must be in real trouble if he won't even answer me. Josh swallowed hard and tried again, this time a little louder. "Leo? You wanted to see me?"
Leo stared straight ahead, out the window, his stance unchanged. "Close the door, Josh," he said softly. Rarely were the doors to Margaret's office and the outer hall closed at the same time. Even when he and Sam were being dressed down for talking with Sam's call-girl friend Laurie, for intervening on Leo behalf in the White House drug investigation instigated by Lillianfield, the doors had been open. This must really be serious. Josh moved to close the door, then turned and stared at the carpet, wondering what he was going to be yelled at for this time.
Hearing the door click shut, Leo started, "I've . . . " He was finding it extremely difficult to speak the words. What he did, he felt he had to do, but that didn't make the decision any easier. "Josh, I've asked for an indefinite leave of absence."
Josh raised his head. "I'm sorry?" Surely he hadn't heard right.
"An indefinite leave of absence, Josh. Something's happened . . . there's been an incident . . . at Mallory's school. She was . . . there was a man with a gun . . .," Leo sighed heavily, suddenly drained. "Josh, Mallory's been shot . . . and they won't let me leave to go to her, and so . . .," his voice trailed off.
"Leo, my God! Is she okay?"
He spun around to face his assistant. "No, Josh, she's not okay! She been shot and it's because of me!" he bellowed.
Josh took a step forward, frown on his face. "What do you mean it's because of you?"
"The shooter did it to get at me." Leo's eyes flashed an anger that Josh had never seen. "He said he's coming after me."
"Leo . . ."
Seeing the pity in his deputy's eyes, Leo nodded and eased up a bit, "Yeah, well. I've got to get to her, I have to protect her . . . and the President. I just wanted you to know first." He took what he hoped was a controlling breath, and walked toward Margaret's door. He gripped the doorknob tightly, knuckles turning white. When he opened it, he found the rest of the staff gathered and waiting. "Come in everyone. Margaret, will you join us too?"
"Do I need to bring my note pad?" she questioned.
Leo shook his head, "No, just get in here."
The staff filed in one by one and took up positions around the room. Leo closed the door quietly behind Margaret, and stood there, hesitating, his hand not leaving the doorknob. For a split second, he considered opening it back up, stepping through, and leaving them all behind. No turning back, no explanation. But that was the easy way out and he couldn't do that to them. Especially now.
Leo turned to find his staff staring at him, at each other, at the floor. He walked to the front of his desk and stood there. Just get this over with. "I wanted all of you to be together, to hear this first hand." No one moved. "I've requested an indefinite leave of absence." He didn't give them time to object. "As of now, Josh is the Acting Chief of Staff."
The stunned White House team exchanged glances. None of them wanted to ask the question, but finally C.J. couldn't hold back. This was big and she needed to know what exactly was going on. "Leo what is it? What's wrong? Why are you doing this?"
Leo rubbed a trembling hand over his weary eyes. This whole thing still seemed surreal, even absurd, all like a bad dream in a way. He certainly didn't look forward to telling his staff, but he'd made up his mind to suck it up and get it over with. He looked up, and began, "Mallory's been hurt. She was . . . shot." There was a collective gasp from the room. When he saw Margaret's hand shoot to her mouth, Leo's voice cracked for the first time. "It happened at her school, and it's my fault. The guy hurt her to get at me . . . he said he's coming after me."
"Oh no, Leo," C.J. started.
Toby continued, "Why would anyone . . ."
"Leo, is she . . .," Margaret tried.
"I don't know how she is!" he stormed. Leo closed his eyes tight as his imagination began to take hold. After a moment, he shook his head and moved behind the desk to sit down. He dropped his head into his hands as he tried not to think about the possibilities of what was happening with his daughter. Finally, he managed to continue, "Please . . . just let me finish, then if you have anything to say, I'll listen. Okay?"
They looked at each other then back at their boss. "Yeah," C.J. replied. The staff were all now painfully aware that Leo was on the verge of losing it.
Leo opened his eyes and stared at the graduation photo on his desk. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Ron won't let me leave to go to her, and this is the only thing I could think of. Besides, I gotta stop pretending I can protect the people I love while I'm in the White House. It's pretty obvious that ship has sailed." His staff seemed stunned at Leo's admission of helplessness. After all, this was the guy that they went to with their problems – the guy the guy counted on. He wasn't supposed to have problems, especially of this magnitude. They waited in silence for their boss to continue.
He started to speak again, but suddenly the door to the Oval Office flew open. "Leo! What the hell is this," the President demanded, waving Leo's letter in front of his face. "Where do you think you're going? You can't just drop this on my desk and walk away with no explanation!"
Leo stood automatically, but couldn't bring himself to look the President in the eyes.
"It doesn't need an explanation, Sir."
"You know what, McGarry? I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but you're a coward. Not only that, you're a lying coward," his friend accused.
Leo's head shot up. "What . . . what did you say?" he said, dazed, as though the words he'd heard didn't make sense.
"I said, you're a liar," Jed repeated.
"I've never lied to you," he denied.
"Really? 'Jed, I want you to run for President. I promise you, if you run for President and get elected, I'll be there the whole way. I'll be there through the election, and through your Presidency. I'll stick by you no matter what.' Sound familiar?"
Leo's head dropped as the words he'd spoken all those years ago were recanted. "That was . . . before . . .," he said quietly.
"What, so it gets a little tough and you run out on me?"
The anger in Leo rose again as he stared his friend down. "You think the last five and a half years haven't been tough?"
"Yes, I do. But that's what's made it worth doing." Jed considered his friend for a moment, letting the words sink in. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down. Quieter he continued, "Leo, we've had battles, personal and otherwise, but there've been much tougher battles than this."
"And I'm to blame for all of them," he admitted.
Jed was taken aback. "What would make you say that?"
"Because as you pointed out, I'm the one who came to you and got you to run for President, I'm the one who got you elected."
"Yeah, and forty-eight per cent of the voters had nothing whatsoever to do with it," Jed scoffed.
"We would have had a hard time winning if I hadn't brought in the staff I did. I brought in Toby, C.J., Josh, Sam . . . we were going nowhere without their help," Leo corrected.
"So you helped get me elected. That had nothing to do with what's happened to Mallory."
"You don't get it do you?" he slammed his fist on the desk. "It has everything to do with it! The guy went after my daughter to get at me, because of where I work, because of who I am!"
"Leo, you don't know the reason this guy had, if he even had one," Jed yelled. "Besides, you think you're the only one who could possibly be at fault here? No one else was to blame?" Leo had never given up in his life, and Jed certainly wasn't going to let him start now. "Not so long ago a bunch of guys went after my daughter to get to me, or have you forgotten that?" The sudden look of horror on Leo's face made Jed want to snatch the words back. It was obvious from his reaction that, like Jed and Abbey, Leo would never forget that horrifying experience. He let out a deep breath as his tone softened, "You're no quitter, Leo. So what's the real reason?"
Leo turned and gazed out the window. For a long time he remained silent, as if he didn't trust himself to speak. "Look," he began. "All I know is that in a few short years, none of us are going to be here. Someone else will be in the White House, someone else will occupy the Oval Office, there will be a new White House Chief of Staff. And all that any of us are going to take out of here is what we came in with . . . and that's each other, our family." His head hung low, he quietly finished, "I haven't been able to protect those that I love, including you and your family, and now it's my kid who's paying the price."
"I didn't quit when Zoey was kidnapped."
Leo stared at the floor, his eyes unfocused. "But you did," he whispered, "and I was left to pick up the pieces. I held this administration together with bailing wire and duct tape." He was close to the breaking point now, but slowly turned and stared straight into his best friend's eyes. "I did that because I took an oath, because I had an obligation to this country. But more than that, I did it because of a promise I made to you a long, long time ago, and . . . I didn't want to let you down." There was a long silence in the room before Leo could continue. "You know Jed, our relationship is beyond friendship. It's beyond friendship, it's beyond family. We're old souls, you and I . . . kindred spirits. When I hurt, you hurt, and when you hurt, I hurt." Leo took a deep breath, "There isn't one person in this room that wouldn't rather die than let you down. But I would lay down my life for you without giving it a second thought. You know that."
"Then why do you want to bail on me now?" he asked quietly. Leo's unfocused gaze returned to the floor as he collected himself. There was no way he would leave under normal circumstances, but then these circumstances were anything but normal. "Leo?"
The Chief of Staff finally moved back toward the desk, sitting down heavily and ran a tired hand through his hair. "I have to go to Mallory," he whispered as he laced his fingers together and leaned his forehead into the clasped hands. His eyes squeezed closed and finally, unable to control himself any longer, tears began to flow. "I need to be there . . . to be with her . . . in case she . . ." He couldn't finish the statement. "Please, Jed, " he begged, "She's all I have . . ."
The President's emotions threatened to get the best of him. It had been a long time since he'd seen Leo like this. In fact, the last time Leo was in this shape, he was pleading for Jed and Abbey to help him get treatment for his drug and alcohol addictions. Last time, it was Mallory and Jenny that were all he had - now it was just Mallory. Jed straightened his shoulders knowing that the words he was about to say would be among the hardest of his life. "I'd give anything I have if I could help Leo, but you can't leave. The building's in lock-down. No one goes in or out, you know that," he stated quietly.
"Of course I know that!" Leo suddenly turned, "Look, if you don't want to grant my leave of absence, then tell me right now, and you'll have my resignation instead! Then you can't hold me!"
"Leo, please, I know this is difficult, but you're not thinking straight," Jed tried
Leo slammed his fists on his desk. "I don't care!" he yelled.
Jed searched his friend's eyes for a glimmer of hope, but it was difficult to find. "I want you to be with Mallory, but I'm not going to let you commit suicide," he explained softly. "The guy who did this is still out there and until we're sure we can protect you, you're not going anywhere." He hated doing this to his friend, but he had no choice. Jed squared his shoulders, "And on the other thing? I'm the President around here, you leave when I say so, and not before, do you understand me?" He laid the letter in his hand on Leo's desk, then turned on his heel and returned to the Oval Office, leaving a stunned staff in his wake.
No one breathed. No one spoke. Leo's jaw was clinched tightly as he stared at the door where the President had disappeared. After what seemed like an eternity, he leaned back wearily in his chair as he wiped the tears from his face. "You should all go," he said quietly. "Stay focused . . . for him."
"Thank you, Leo," they mumbled under their breath as they backed out of the room.
