DISCLAIMER:

1) I don't own anything related to the West Wing, Hamilton (the series title), or Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure(the story title).

2) Title references Frank Capra's 1939 film 'Mr. Smith goes to Washington'.

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Toby's POV

Leo entered his office where his staff waited for him as Sam said " Leo-"

Leo cut him off. "There'll be an editorial in The Post tomorrow." The door slammed behind him as he walked over to his desk and C.J., Sam, and Josh became irate as Toby sat back and jotted down notes.

"You're kidding me?" C.J. exclaimed with a leather binder in her hand.

" 'The President's time isn't being used efficiently.' " Leo said.

"It couldn't wait?" C.J. asked as she and Josh moved up closer to Leo's desk.

" 'Schedules are abandoned before lunchtime.' " Leo continued as C.J. rested her hand on the reddish brown leather armchair in front of his desk.

"That's four in two weeks." C.J. said through clenched teeth.

" 'The West Wing resembles a high school yearbook office.' …. And I believe I am compared to a substitute teacher." Leo continued from behind his desk.

"That's ridiculous." Sam said with his hands on his hips.

"No, it's not." Leo said.

"Leo-"

"Certainly not based on the display I just saw in there. So, new rules. You need an answer from the President, you need to brief him on something, you want him the way in; I want to see a summary on my desk. Absolutely no longer than two pages. And I want my initials on it before you go into the Oval Office." Leo insisted.

"Leo." Sam was shocked.

"A two page summary's gonna kind of cramp our style." Josh whined.

"Your style could use a little cramping. Are we understood?" Leo commanded.

"Yes." They agreed begrudgingly.

"Toby, Sam, take some meetings on the Hill tonight. Toby, concentrate on votes that can be lost with Stensen gone. Sam, dangle reservations in front of them. C.J. start the leak." Leo said.

"Oh, anybody happens to see Vasily Konanov in the hallways, walk in the other direction." Leo instructed as they left.

"I can't unleash my full potential in a two page summary." Sam bemoaned as they turned the corner.

"Listen to me." Toby said as they passed through the Roosevelt Room. "I'm going to meet with Fox and Fowler. Sam, you're gonna go to the Hill."

"Do you think with Stensen gone-?"

"I think with Stenson gone, I can get Fox and Fowler to loosen up some votes. ….. That is if I can ever get them to order lunch off of the damn menu." Toby said.

"They don't order-?"

"You've never seen grown men order lunch like this. Fox and Fowler'll loosen votes." Toby continued as they entered the Bullpen. "Sam, you're up on the Hill dropping we'll consider reservations. It is not out of the realm of possibility that that meeting gets us eight votes."

"Their bosses want to talk to the President, he's sitting by the phone." Josh added as they stood outside Toby's and Sam's offices.

"So this is not an unimportant meeting."

"Okay, just so you know, I also have to take a 22 page position paper and summarize it in two pages. It's gotta be done some time today." Sam said.

"You can staff that, give it to Ainsley Hayes." Josh said.

"I can't give it to Ainsley. She's…" Sam started.

"Get over it." Toby muttered.

"Okay, but there are going to be nine different jokes because I asked her for help." Sam said.

'If you wanna tell yourself that then okay.' Toby thought. " 'Reservations' that's the word you're dropping when you're on the Hill. You're not to leave the meeting in the wind. Just say the word."

"Yeah."

They started for their offices when Toby said "Oh."

Toby continued, "Let's be able to end this day by telling the President that he's in striking distance and he should seriously consider the session. Let's be able to do that...Where's C.J.?"

"Looking for a reporter to leak the story to." Josh answered.

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Sam's POV

The dainty sound of Ainsley's heels reverberated through the bullpen towards his office. Ainsley knocked on Sam's door. "Excuse me?"

Sam looked up from his desk. 'God she's beautiful.' he thought. "Yes."

"This is your office?" She inquired as her hips swung through the doorway.

"Yes."

"It's very nice, Sam." Ainsley said.

"Thank you."

"You can see sunlight and you have a window that can be opened for ventilation." She she sat on the edge of his cherry wood bookshelf.

He stood up. "You want to work or do you want to decorate my office?"

"You called me?"

"Yes, I need your help." He straightened the papers on his desk.

"Really?"

"Let's not make a big deal out of it." Sam said.

"No, it's sweet that you need my help." She drawled as she pretended to dial her cell phone.

"I don't need your help. I'm asking for your help so let's not make a federal..." Sam assured her.

"Dad, it's me. Sam's asking for my help." Ainsley said.

"Put the phone down." Sam flipped through documents at his desk.

"Gotta go, Dad, I need to help Sam." Ainsley said.

"That must have rolled them in the aisles back in Georgia." Sam said.

"I'm from North Carolina." Ainsley said.

"Wherever it was you studied baton twirling." Sam said.

'"That'll be Smith College and then Harvard Law School." Ainsley said.

'Damn that's sexy.' He thought. "Yes, so here's the thing—" he said as they walked out through the Bullpen.

"You need my help."

"A favor." Sam corrected.

"Okay."

"I have a position recommendation for the President regarding an amendment to a Congress bill." He showed her the memo. "This memo's 22 pages long and Leo's on a streamlining kick."

"You want me to summarize your recommendation and give it to the President." she said to mess with him as they entered the hallway.

"Yeah. And then I want you to skip to Tijuana in a dirndl skirt."

She rolled her eyes. "Sam."

"Summarize it and you give it to me." Sam said.

"Fine."

"Thank you." Sam handed her the memo as her smile glittered at him. 'God, what I would do to see that smile?' He thought.

"In exchange for?"

"No."

Ainsley handed it back to him. "Then my schedule's pretty tight."

As she walked away, his heart sank. "In exchange for what?"

Ainsley turned around. "You're goin' to the Hill?"

"Yes."

"To take meetings on the Test Ban Treaty?" Ainsley asked.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"I wanna go."

"No." He walked into the lobby.

"Why?" she begged.

" 'Cause."

"Ughhh!" She threw her head back in frustration.

"Ainsley?"

"I'm not goin' to say anything. I'm not goin' to spill anything. I'm not goin' to get Republican juice on you. I'm just goin' to sit there … and learn." Ainsley said.

"What?"

"From the master, Sam, ... I wanna learn from the master." She drawled with a twinkle in her voice.

Sam stopped walking as he suppressed the temptation. "You see, … women think that kind of thing works, but it doesn't."

She stepped closer towards him, the heat of their attraction radiating between them, and then whispered, "It really does, Sam."

He gazed at her for a moment and succumbed to the spell that was Ainsley Hayes, "I let you come to the Hill, you'll summarize my memo?" 'What's happening to me?'

"I'll use punctuation and everything. You might even get extra credit."

"Ainsley..."

"Have you eaten lunch?" Ainsley asked.

"No." Sam said.

"I brought my lunch from home."

"That's fine." Sam said.

"I ate it already."

'What the hell?' "That's fine, too." He furrowed his brow.

"Did you bring your lunch from home?" Ainsley asked.

"Ainsley, what the hell—?"

"Do you think you'll be eatin' it?" Ainsley asked.

He summoned all of his willpower to say, "You can't have my lunch." 'Seriously, what the hell is happening to me?'

"Okay." She sighed.

'Well I guess I - no, stay strong. I'm not giving her my lunch.' Sam thought. "Meet me in the lobby in an hour."

"Okay." She said as he handed her the memo before she passed Josh on her way to her office.

"I'm helping her out." Sam boasted to Josh.

"Good." He replied to Sam.

"You know…" Sam started.

"We've got a problem." Josh interrupted him.

"What?" Sam asked.

"Konanov."

"He's here?" Sam asked.

"In a manner of speaking." Josh answered right before he knocked on Leo's door.

"Leo?" Josh asked.

"Yeah." Leo said.

They entered the office as Leo reviewed documents. "How you doing?"

"Good."

"Vasily Konanov is in the driveway, he's drunk, and he won't get out of the car until he speaks to the President." Josh said.

Leo's eyes went wide as Sam said, "And we have a winner.

Leo took off his glasses. "Are you kidding me?"

Josh continued. "He's sitting in the car with a woman who I imagine is either a security attache or a hooker."

'God please don't let it be Laurie…and if it is please don't let Ainsley see.' Sam's face went white with dread. "Please, tell me it's not…"

"It's no one you know, Sam." Josh said.

'Oh thank God.' Sam thought.

"Have you spoken to him?" Leo inquired.

"I'm not allowed to speak to him. I've walked by the car a couple of times, to see what was what." Josh said.

Leo peeked through the blinds at the car part out in front of the White House.

"Leo, we've gotta move him. Tourists are going to start to ask questions and Boris and Natasha are going to answer them." Josh said.

"You now have permission to talk to him. Put him in an office, dry him out, and explain why he can't see the President." Leo said.

"Good." Josh replied before he exited.

"Avoid the situation room." Leo said.

"Good safety tip." Josh quipped.

"What?" Leo asked Sam.

"I'm going to take Ainsley to the Hill with me for the meetings."

"Good." Leo sorted through his papers.

"She wants me to teach her a couple of things." Sam said.

"Good."

"She called me the master."

"Get out." Leo glared at Sam.

"Okay." Sam left Leo's office.

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Ainsley's POV

"This is my fifth…" Sam started.

"Sam…" One of the Republican Senator staffers interrupted him.

Sam continued. "This is my fifth meeting in a row, it's my last meeting on the Hill and I want to know what it's going to take for your boss to loosen his grip."

"Sam…"

"If the Senator moves he frees up eight maybe ten votes. He gives political cover to those who…" Sam continued.

"Why should he move?"

Sam chuckled. "We'll go past it's the right thing to do and…"

"You know, Sam, this is not a holy thing."

"Let's just say…" Sam started to say before he was cut off yet again.

"No. You guys act like if you're against the Test Ban Treaty, then you're blood thirsty."

The curly haired staffer seated in the middle dropped the paper he was looking over onto his desk before he said, "Senate Republicans aren't the only ones against this."

"Six past Secretaries of Defense, five former CIA directors…" Another staffer piped in.

"Former Secretary of State and a former national security advisor."

"31 Nobel Laureates, the chairman of the joint chiefs, 150 countries on this planet, and 82% of people living in this one say the treaty makes the world a safer place." Sam added.

A staffer took a sip of coffee before he corrected Sam. "It's not a safer place if North Korea and Iran are making significant technological improvements while the President's handing out commemorative pens."

'Exactly.' Ainsley thought.

"You can't tell me that the chance we take with our ability to verify is not weighed by the chance we take doing nothing at all." Sam reasoned.

'I hate to tell ya Sam, but Peter's right about that.' Ainsley thought.

"I've heard all this." Peter said as he rubbed his eye.

"Right, then I'm here to ask you this…"

"Sam." He said.

"I'm here to ask you this: Is there no room for movement?"

They all sat there in silence. "We will consider attaching reservations." The staffers looked at each other before Peter said, "If you can't trust a man's word, what good is it to put it on paper?"

"Is there room for movement?"

"You wasted a trip."

"I'll waste more of them." Sam said.

They all started to pack up their stuff when Peter said, "We're done."

"Yeah." Sam agreed.

"Ainsley, I'm surprised to see you here." Peter said.

"Why?"

"Well, before you were on Bartlet's payroll, you were a fairly vocal opponent of the treaty."

"Well it's President Bartlet… I'm on the government payroll. But just because I'm on the government payroll doesn't mean that my personal stance has changed. And I believe that politics should stop at the water's edge." Ainsley said.

"Okay."

"To be honest with you, I think it should stop well before that, but it turns out there's no Santa Claus and Elvis isn't cutting records anymore." Ainsley said.

"What did she say?"

"See, I don't think you think the treaty's bad, I don't think you think it's good." 'I certainly don't think so.' Ainsley thought. "I think you want to beat the White House."

"Yeah."

"You're a schmuck, Peter. Today, tomorrow, next year, next term, these guys'll have the treaty ratified and they'll do it without the reservations he just offered to discuss with you." They all started to leave when Ainsley asked, "Can I take this muffin?

"Yeah." Peter grumbled.

The door closed behind Sam and Ainsley. "You're seriously one of the 18%?"

"Yup."

"Care to explain?" Sam asked as they started down the stairs.

"We need to 'Speak softly but ca-' -"

" 'Carry a big stick'. Yeah, yeah, yeah I know, I've heard that before." Sam said. "But do you honestly think that we should have big nuclear sticks?"

"Countries like North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Iran are going to develop them no matter what treaty Congress ratifies."

"If the people in North Korea, India, Pakistan, and Iran wanted to jump off a cliff, would you do it?" Sam mocked as they approached the Security desk.

Ainsley glared at him. "No. But unless if you can force India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran to sign it, then there's no way to guarantee that they won't develop nuclear arms. Thus signing it renders us defenseless against those countries. Being on an equal footing with those countries, which helps us prevent those countries from using nuclear arms because they'd know we could use it against them. Whereas signing the treaty with countries like England, France, and Russia allows Pakistan and company to go unchecked."

They deposited their visitor tags in the bin and collected their pagers from security. "You realize that Great Britain, China-"

"Russia, and France want the treaty."

"All countries you don't usually see on the same side of things." Sam added. "To say nothing of 82% of the people in this country."

"Yes." Ainsley said as Sam held the door for her. "Thank you, Sam."

"Your welcome."

"If Great Britain, Russia, France, China, 31 Nobel Laureates, and 82% of Americans wanted to jump off a cliff, would you want Congress to ratify a treaty to do it?" Ainsley asked as they went down the Capitol building steps.

Sam rolled his eyes. "No." He replied as Ainsley stepped on a banana peel. "Oh careful, Ainse." Sam caught her in one arm as he caught her muffin with his other hand.

Breaking the eternal moment of silence as Sam held Ainsley. "Thank you, Sam. You saved my muffin." she gazed into his eyes.

"Your welcome." Sam smiled.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sam's POV

Sam held the door to the lobby for Ainsley. "Thank you, Sam."

"Your welcome." Sam said." 'Can I have this muffin?' "

"Listen."

" 'Can I have this muffin?' "

"I was…" Ainsley started.

"I think that you'll discover that the sharpest of closing remarks'll be blunted by asking for a muffin."

"The minute we left that room those guys were calling their bosses saying, 'They're offering to attach reservations, let's jump on it.' " Ainsley said.

"I have no problem with that. You did great with the reservations and politics stopping at the water's edge was touching and then you asked permission to have a muffin." Sam said.

"I was hungry."

'Oh so now it's my fault.' Sam thought. 'Maybe I should've given - no. Stay strong. There's no humanly possible way you could be hungry when you already had lunch.'

Ainsley and Sam walked back into the Communications Bullpen when CJ asked, "How'd it go on the Hill?"

"Much as you'd expect. You know what I think?" Sam said.

"What?"

"I think Ramsey, Roanoke … maybe even Greys. I think they're going to vote for it anyway."

"Why?"

" 'Cause Tony Marino's going to tell them to. I just named three Senators that can't get re-elected without labor and Marino may be out of a job but he's still going to swing a big bat with the unions." Sam explained.

"Toby's meeting with him right now."

"Good." Sam said.

"Do you think I should give Danny Concannon access for a feature?" CJ said.

"Yes." Sam said.

"You're wrong." CJ insisted.

"Okay." Sam said.

"You should." Ainsley's dainty, doll-like figure stepped forward.

"Why?" CJ asked.

"...He's cute." Ainsley said as Sam flinched.

"I'm leaving." CJ said.

Sam turned to Ainsley. "Do you have my two page summary?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Do you have my two page summary?" He smiled at her.

Ainsley paused. "Yes."

"Could I have it?" Sam asked.

"Yes." She said.

"Thank you." He stepped into his office as she sat on the edge of a desk in the bullpen.

After less than a minute, he walked back towards Ainsley "You reversed my position." He stated.

"Yeah."

"I gave this to you to summarize, and you didn't summarize it so much as you reversed my position." He was in utter disbelief.

"I gave it a little polish, yeah!" She said nonchalantly.

"You reversed my position."

"It's shorter." Ainsley shrugged.

"It is shorter and you reversed my position."

"Your position was wrong." Ainsley stood her ground as her emerald eyes bore into his blue eyes.

Sam took a deep breath. "Will you step inside, please?" He requested.

"Sure."

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Sam's POV

Ainsley paced back and forth as Sam turned on the desk lamp when the daylight faded from his chair. "Sam, half of America's workforce is employed by small businesses. That's companies that employ fewer than 100 workers."

"I know what a small business is."

"Then you know that a third of them fail. One third of all small businesses lose money and fail. Not because of rent hikes, or big businesses squeezing them out, but because of why?"

'God those hands are beautiful.' he thought as she gestured for emphasis.

"Employee fraud." He admitted.

"That's right."

"Yes."

"Why do you say that?" She asked as she sat down, satisfied because she knew she had him at that point.

He looked at her. "You reversed my position." 'God she's even more sexy when she's arguing about politics.' he thought.

"Other than that, Sam, other than what you've been saying for the last hour and a half." She firmly said.

Sam stood up and walked to the other side of the desk. "I can't believe I'm listening to a Republican tell me the government should run background checks into peak business. In fact, I can't believe I'm listening to a Republican." He sighed audibly as he turned towards her. "Could it possibly be that most of the people you want to fingerprint have darker skin than you do?"

"Well, not to let the facts interfere with a good story, but 80% of violators are white. Fraudulent employees are three times more likely to be married, they're four times more likely to be to be men, 16 times more likely to be managers and executives and guess what, professor, they're five times more likely to have post graduate degrees."

'Damn she's smart.' Sam thought. "You, ... listen. ... I, ... you know, ... I can't. ... Alright. ... Start from the beginning." He conceded.

"Really?" Ainsley asked.

"Yeah." Sam said.

"Are you eating that doughnut?" Ainsley said.

Since he longed to give everything she desired, he said, "Take the doughnut. Start from the beginning."

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Leo's POV
As Ainsley and Sam left the office after they presented the employee fraud memo, Leo thought 'Well this is a first.'