CJ was just finishing her briefing, and Josh had been watching with Toby from the back of the press room. It was Friday morning, and so far, Josh's day was moving along without a hitch. For once he was almost on schedule, and hadn't run into any speed bumps along the way. Josh finished watching CJ and turned to walk back to his office.
"Josh." Josh turned to see Leo walking towards him with a smile on his face that told Josh that Leo wanted something.
"How's your day going?" Leo asked, testing the waters.
"Fine." Josh paused and looked at Leo. He smiled and shook his head, knowing something was up. "Leo, you obviously want me to do something. What is it?"
"I need you to go sit on a panel, representing the Democratic Party and the position of the White House."
"Sure. No problem." Josh replied quickly.
Leo patted Josh on his back. "Thanks. It's good to know you're on board. I'll give Donna the details." Leo turned to walk back to his office.
"Hey," Josh called down the hall to Leo. "What's this thing about?"
Leo paused, closed his eyes and took a preparatory breath. "An equitable Electoral College based on the consolidation of the United States." Leo quoted the title of the discussion almost robotically.
"What!" Josh yelled as he waved his hands in the air and jogged towards Leo. "What are you talking about?"
"Evidentially rather substantial amounts of people comprising the American public feel that we should merge smaller states into larger ones to make electoral votes more equitably distributed."
Josh rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. "So they want what? 38 states instead of 50?"
"I think it's something more like 41, but who am I to say."
"Come on, Leo. Can't you send someone else?" Josh pleaded. He was beginning to whine. "I should be here, doing actual work. Not out there meeting with these half-baked crazy people."
"Those crazy people are the voters that you sometimes champion." Leo reminded Josh with a chuckle.
"Not these people." Josh mumbled. He could tell that he had lost and would be attending the meeting. Leo patted Josh on the back and walked away, leaving Josh standing motionless and moody in the hallway.
A few hours later, Josh found himself walking into a ballroom, setup for a panel discussion. The first thing Josh noticed was the five chairs set up in back of a long table across the front of the ballroom. Five panelists. Josh wondered who else would be represented today. The next thing that Josh noticed was not the large amount of chairs set up facing the panel but the microphone standing in the middle of the floor in front of the chairs. This meant that the attendants would be allowed to speak and ask questions. Josh rolled his eyes and ran his hands through his hair. He still couldn't believe that he had volunteered himself for something so ridiculous. What Josh considered even more ridiculous was that the White House and others, including the media, were taking this discussion seriously. Josh was so preoccupied with his thoughts, that he barely heard a voice behind him.
"How did you get roped into this?"
Josh turned around and saw Juliana standing behind him.
"Can you believe this?" Josh said cynically. "Who in their right mind would take something like this seriously? I'd love to meet one of these deluded voters."
"Hi. I'm Juliana Wexler – deluded voter. Nice to meet you." Juliana plastered a rather fake smile on her face and extended her hand so that Josh could shake it.
"You're not."
"I am. Well, not quite as deluded as some of the people you'll meet today, but I don't believe in the Electoral College." Juliana smiled and laughed. "But, my views are neither here nor there. I'm here today to represent the Republican platform. And we Republicans like the Electoral College and we like all 50 states."
"I can't believe this." Josh responded. He wasn't quite too sure which part of today was going to be the most bizarre.
An hour and a half later, Josh, Juliana and three other panelists were still sitting up in front of a ballroom full of enraged citizens, half of whom hated the idea of an inequitable Electoral College and 50 states and the other half who seemed to exist solely to irritate the first half. Questions from the floor, sometimes they were more statements than questions, had begun almost immediately. Currently the questioner was yelling at another attendant, and the attendant and her neighbor were arguing with the other three panelists. An hour and a half later, Josh and Juliana had not spoken a word or been able to get enough time to even read their prepared statements from their respective political parties. It took all the self-restraint Josh had to keep from pounding his head on the table and Juliana was mustering all of her energy to stay awake.
Finally Juliana leaned over to Josh, covering her microphone with her hand.
"It's always the smilers and the chucklers." Juliana said.
"Huh?" Juliana made no sense to Josh.
"Those two women. They were all cheery and happy, smiling and chuckling, and now they've turned into two little piranhas. It's the perky ones you have to watch out for."
"And this coming from an on the job perky person."
"So, you should watch out for me." Juliana said with a smile. "Want to go to a play tonight?"
"Are you asking me out on a date in the middle of a very important statehood discussion?" Josh feigned disbelief.
"Josh, I think our illustrious panelists over there just suggested that the citizens of Colorado could use NORAD to secede and invade Utah and Wyoming in order to increase its population."
"Yeah, Wyoming won't help much with the population. Tourism, maybe. But not population." Josh couldn't help but laugh at the situation he found himself in. People were shouting at each other and he could care less what they were talking about. "What did you have in mind?" Josh asked, turning his attention back to Juliana's request.
Juliana's hand was getting tired and cramped, being held up over the microphone. Juliana pushed her chair back, away from the table, and got up. She started to walk over to the side of the ballroom and she motioned for Josh to follow.
"They don't need us up there for their argument. They're doing just fine on their own."
Josh looked back over his shoulder at the heated crowd and knew that she was right.
"There's a production at American University tonight. It sounded interesting. Something about comedy, singing, dancing and possibly baton twirling. I want to go."
"Then you should go." Josh said confidently.
"I don't want to go alone."
"And?"
"Go with me."
"You do realize that we sound like we're planning a night at the eight grade dance, right?" Josh questioned.
"Went to a lot of those, huh?" Juliana mocked.
"Okay, no I didn't."
"So, are we going?" Juliana prodded.
"Sure. It sounds like fun. Of course, I don't know if it can top the fun I've been having here." Josh's voice was dripping with sarcasm.
"It's causal. A jeans type of night." Juliana filled Josh in on the details. Josh knew he had jeans and a sweater already in his office and it was decided that they would meet in the west wing.
Josh and Juliana decided to rejoin the discussion and try to wrap things up, or at least their part in the broo-ha-ha. As Juliana and Josh were sitting back down in their seats, Juliana's phone vibrated. Josh sat down and Juliana motioned that she was going to take the call in the back of the room.
Josh couldn't help but watch Jules during her conversation. She wasn't animated like she usually was when she talked on the phone. Her face fell and Jules listened quietly. Josh could see a troubled look of uncertainty creep into Juliana's demeanor. She started stretching her neck from side to side as she listened and finally closed her eyes slowly while she breathed in and out very deliberately. Juliana snapped her cell phone shut with considerable force and stalked back up to the front of the room.
As Jules sat down, Josh noticed that she didn't look at him. She wasn't even looking at the people, just staring intensely at a fixed point on the wall.
"You okay?" Josh asked, concerned.
"Fine." Juliana replied tersely.
"You'd tell me if it were something?"
"It's nothing. Just not something I was expecting." Juliana offered no more explanation. Josh assumed if she wanted to talk more, she would, but this probably wasn't the best place to have any type of a discussion.
The forum finally wrapped up about 20 minutes later. Josh walked out with Juliana, silently cursing Leo and anyone else he could blame under his breath. As they went their separate ways, Josh and Jules reaffirmed their plans to meet in Josh's office for the play.
Josh's day had been uneventful in comparison to his morning. By the time six o'clock rolled around, Josh was comfortably dressed in jeans and a sweater and finishing up some phone calls while he waited for Jules.
Josh had to admit, he was a little uncomfortable with the idea of meeting Jules at his office for a date, especially after his confrontation with Sam. Josh had spent most of the afternoon trying to construct reasons that Jules might be in his office at six o'clock at night, so as to not raise suspicions.
Josh met Jules in the lobby as she was signing in. Jules smiled when she saw Josh walking up. She was happy that he had changed clothes and looked happy to be going out. Josh skipped up to Jules, a plan in mind.
"Hi."
"Hi, yourself." Jules replied. "Ready to go?"
"I need to run back to my office and make one last phone call."
"Sure. We've got time. Should I come too?"
"Yeah, it's better than sitting in the lobby."
As Josh and Juliana walked through the bullpen, Josh darted around, looking for Sam or other people who might make Juliana being at his office a "thing". Just before reaching his office door, Josh turned suddenly to Juliana – stopping both of them in the middle of the bullpen.
"Hey, Jules, if anyone asks…just tell them that you're here for a meeting. A, uh, meeting about salmon subsidies. It'll just make things, you know, look, uh…"
"Salmon subsidies?" Juliana thought the whole plan was stupid, but Josh's topic really took the cake.
"Yeah, just so it doesn't look like…" Josh tried to explain.
"We're dressed awfully casually for a meeting. Plus we'll be leaving together when you're done. No one is going to…" Juliana couldn't finish. Josh cut her off with a pleading look.
"Please. Meeting. Salmon subsidies. It'll just be a minute." Josh skipped into his office and picked up his phone.
Juliana sank into Donna's empty chair. She leaned back and swiveled out of boredom. Jules could just barley make up Josh's voice from his office. She was caught up in thinking about Josh's brainless scheme when she became aware of someone walking up to her.
"Hey Donna…" Leo started, until he realized that it was not Donna sitting in the chair. "Oh. Hello."
Leo glanced at Josh's office and then looked back at Jules. A broad smile spread over his face.
"Good evening Mr. McGarry." Juliana said warmly as she smiled genuinely back at him.
"Leo." Leo warned in a friendly way.
"I'm sorry. Good evening, Leo." Juliana said again.
"Hi. I was looking for Donna. Do you…what are you doing here on a Friday night?" Leo asked. He felt he knew the answer to the question, but he felt like prying a little.
Jules smiled. She liked Leo and could tell he cared about Josh.
"Josh and I are going to a…" Juliana stopped as she remembered Josh's plea to use the stupid story he had thought up. "I can't believe I'm saying this…a meeting. We're meeting about…salmon subsidies." Juliana rolled her eyes and looked up at the ceiling. She was mentally kicking herself for going along with Josh's cockeyed scheme and thinking of ways to make him pay.
Leo started to chuckle. His chuckle turned into a hearty laugh.
"Salmon subsidies?" Leo questioned.
"Yes, sir." Juliana replied. She could tell Leo didn't buy the story and found it as unbelievable as she did.
"He's a good guy. A little deluded sometimes, but a good guy." Leo assured Jules.
"I know." She said with a warm smile.
"I like you. You're good for him, kid. I haven't seen him this happy in a long time."
Leo didn't wait for a reply. He started laughing again and simply walked away, back through the corridors to his office. Juliana was going to say something in reply when her phone rang again.
Josh was just finishing up his phone call when Jules poked her head into his office.
"Something's come up. I need ten minutes in my office. Meet me there?" Josh nodded his head yes, almost too late for Jules to see. She took off out of the west wing and back to her office.
When Josh finished his phone call mere seconds later, he grabbed his things and walked outside. It was cold outside, so Josh hailed a cab and rode to the Juliana's office. As he walked into the reception area, he noticed that her office door wasn't closed and could hear voices. Josh tried not to listen in, but the Republican reading material proved boring or infuriating and he couldn't help but tune in to Juliana's argument. Josh recognized the man with Jules as a freshman congressman and he was intrigued by what he heard.
"My constituents don't agree and neither do I." The congressman stated.
"You mean your campaign financers don't agree. Based on polls taken last week, the people who voted for you think it's just fine." Juliana countered.
"I want to speak to the Majority Leader about this."
"He's not here right now. You'll have to speak with me."
The congressman snorted at Juliana's comment.
"Congressman, I'm done humoring you. You need to tow the party line on this one. When it comes down to it, you'll have to vote for it or face the consequences."
"I don't just have to do whatever you say." The congressman spat back. "I can easily withdraw my support from other things too. You and your legislative portfolio would be finished. I'm surprised you still have your position at all."
"I do have a say in what you do, you represent my views and those of the people of California. And what was that last part supposed to mean?" Juliana demanded. Josh was surprised with the brash way Jules was talking to the congressman and how controlling she was.
"You're awfully close to the current administration. You sure you know who you work for? A few well placed press leaks and I can destroy any chance you and the Majority Leader have at this bill."
"Don't make this personal. Let's be honest, you don't have that type of influence. For the record, I've seen what you've got and it isn't all that scary. But if you mess with me on this, I'll level you." Juliana's voice was lower and severe.
Josh heard complete silence in the office and saw Juliana staring down the congressman. He expected the congressman to retaliate in some way for Juliana's severe dressing down, but nothing happened. Jules wasn't about to wait for an argument to begin again.
"And now, Congressman, I'm late for a play. This was enlightening for both of us." Juliana said indifferently.
Josh was stunned when Jules emerged from her office, leaving the congressman standing in her wake. Jules touched Josh on his arm as she walked by, and pulled him along. When they were in the halls of the office building, Josh was still lagging behind, hoping to see a glimpse of the congressman slinking away.
"Let's go." Juliana said. She didn't sound as happy and upbeat as she had in the White House.
"You were brutal in there." Josh commented. He didn't know if Jules would be proud of the way she dealt with the congressman or not.
"Let's just go. Please." Jules pleaded.
"You okay?" Josh asked as they walked outside and hailed a cab.
"I'm fine." Jules said unconvincingly. "Can we just go and enjoy tonight?"
"Sure." Josh assured her. He wasn't too sure that Jules was being honest with him. Josh wasn't even sure that it was just the evening with the congressman that was upsetting her. But, Josh had to believe that Jules would talk to him if she needed to. In the meantime, Josh wrapped his arm around Juliana's shoulder and pulled her close. He tenderly kissed the side of her head, taking time to nuzzle her soft hair and make sure that Jules felt she could feel safe in his embrace.