"I got Senator Ferguson to change his view and support the President on his reform to the tax policy regarding higher earners," Josh announced.
He took a moment to gaze around the hallway he had stepped into and frowned as no one bustling about it reacted to his news.
"I also got him to favour the President introducing a policy for former strippers to come work weekends at the White House too," he called a little more loudly.
Donna walked past him with a careless smile and without a look to him answered. "Oh better tell Sam his friend can come here scandal free then."
Josh pointed at Donna with a grin. "Ooh ha ha, very good Donna, so someone is listening to me!"
"Yes Josh," she retorted as she continued to walk, clutching a small collection of files close to her chest as she did, "but there's listening and then there's caring."
Josh's frown returned as he pushed a hand through his mess of curls.
"This is big news Donna, important news!" he called. He lowered his hand and looked about the corridors to the other West Wing employees with exasperation. "Colombia isn't the only thing happening in the world people!" he announced crossly.
When no one answered him, Josh headed pointedly in the direction of Sam's office with a scowl.
Josh pushed open the door to Sam's office without a knock or even a courtesy inward glance.
"Sam, why do people hate me?" he quipped nonchalantly with an expression that suggested he didn't care.
Sam gazed up from his computer screen to Josh with a vaguely startled expression. Until Josh had barged in he had been engrossed in his work.
"I don't know because you don't knock?" Sam suggested sardonically.
Josh folded his arms as he frowned down at his friend. "No, that's not it," he retorted with a shake of his head. "It's something to do with this minor business of our VP visiting the Colombian President, isn't it?"
Sam leaned back in his chair and stared up at Josh tranquilly, accepting that his peace wasn't going to resume.
"This minor business is to avert a war," Sam reminded Josh, "and I think it's less to do with that and more to do with Cadence McGarry's visit to Colombia."
"Ah full title Sam, have you finally seen the light?" Josh quipped mockingly.
Sam frowned this time. "You know I'm referring to the only title she's allowed to use on this visit," he said quietly with just a slight hint of scorn to his tone.
Josh's eyebrows rose slightly at Sam's tone. Certainly Sam could have his moments of outrage but usually it was shown in an almost comical quick talking fashion that could rival Josh's wild displays of excitable rage in terms of eccentricity. The only time recently Josh had heard of Sam expressing some truly frightening rage was when he had found and fired the leak of Leo's addiction story, a young woman Leo had seen reinstated to post shortly after.
"Sam it was the President's decision and the right one," he insisted as he slackened his arms and finally pulled the office door closed. "She's going to apologise for working with people accused of treason, she can't do that under the office of the Vice President."
"I don't see why not," Sam snapped, "given the Vice President is offering apologies for the actions of a few CIA agents."
Josh sighed. "Sam, the Vice President hasn't been plastered across the media accused of working with terrorists," he reminded him. "A charge that is only going to get dropped after Cadence apologises. After that she can represent the Vice President again, if she and he are really going to risk that," he added in a displeased mutter.
Sam stood up with a look of anger. "Damn it Josh, it's not safe for her travelling there as a civilian and it's not fair!"
Sam glanced up to the clock on his wall, it read 09:00, Cadence's flight had been at 07:15 and would be there for approximately 11:45, D.C time. It was a long flight for someone terrified of flying to make on their own. Sam had checked the weather three times over last night if only so his reassurances to Mallory that the flight would be safe sounded more sincere.
Josh was taken aback by Sam's tone and found himself angry at Sam's anger.
"Sam think about what's she done," Josh retorted moodily, "and all while being the daughter of the Chief of Staff, an employee of the Vice President, and being in the company of the President."
"What has she done Josh?" Sam snapped. "She was there doing charity work or don't you believe that? Agent Sparks supported her story, he admits they scapegoated her, more than that, they lied to her, deceived her, intimidated her, hell they might have even killed her if they didn't want to exploit her connections to the White House."
"She should have told us," Josh retorted as he attempted to maintain his calm, "or never taken the job with Hoynes."
"Vice President Hoynes," Sam corrected hotly, although he was reluctant to give the man his title today. Sam didn't think Hoynes had fought hard enough for Cadence, believing that if he had she would be on the same plane as him.
"No one here would have believed her," Sam retorted, "and even if they had, she feared the repercussions and not just for herself Josh, she was thinking of Leo too."
"If she was thinking of Leo she wouldn't have taken the job," Josh grumbled.
"He wanted her to," Sam reminded him, "and she was only trying to start again. Why doesn't she deserve that Josh?"
Josh clenched his fists as he shook his arms slightly.
"Sam this is what gets you in trouble," he accused as he pointed at him with one finger. "You think we live in a society where people will just ignore people's deeds for their better nature and that's not how it is. You thought because you and Laurie were just friends that people wouldn't see a scandal there and you think because Cadence is talented and intelligent that she should have a free pass too but there's scandal with her and it keeps coming up. Why should we sink with her? Everything Leo worked for, everything he's overcome in office and you think it's fair that he might lose it because of her?"
Sam frowned across the office at his co-worker. "You and I didn't forgive Leo for his drinking and his pill addiction because we agreed there was nothing to forgive. You didn't ask why didn't he turn down his job at the White House knowing that he had that scandal in his life. You didn't try to step back and let him fall on his own, both of us stood by him and insisted that we always would. The President stood by him. Never was Leo delegated to anything other than Chief of Staff during this. So why is it different for Cadence, Josh?"
Sam sat back down again as he felt some of anger give way for tiredness.
"That's why everyone is mad at you today," Sam concluded calmly, "we can't understand your logic."
Josh was silent as he looked down at Sam in surprise. He didn't bother with a response, he just nodded and exited the office again.
C.J didn't know how to feel about today. There was a lot to get through but all the press really cared about was one topic- Colombia.
Toby had wound her up with his constant mutterings and pacing about as he had grumbled about his fears over how the Vice President might offend his Colombian counterpart this time.
C.J knew she didn't want that. Much as she had enjoyed seeing Hoynes' smugness take a blow as he was put in a scene of discomfort and embarrassment, it wasn't good for the country or the President. She wished him only good fortune on this trip so the matter could finally be put to bed. C.J disagreed with Toby's fears knowing that Hoynes had a way with words when he didn't let his temper take over. She hated to admit it but the man was charming and charismatic and she believed he would be able to make his apology sincere enough for the President of Colombia to abandon thoughts of offence.
Cadence McGarry was another matter entirely. A loose cannon wasn't a dramatic enough description of her, although it was one Danny had cheerfully joked about using to describe her in an article. C.J had frowned at him but voiced no real anger. Danny was one of Cadence's few genuine supporters in the press room. He said he liked her stubborn spark and ability to continually keep going no matter what she seemed to get hit with.
C.J just didn't know the woman well enough to have an opinion on her one way or the other. She certainly seemed a headache for Leo and a boon for John, at once both a nightmare, wayward daughter and an ambitious and talented employee. C.J of course wished her success too for Cadence's sake and Leo's, as well as the good of the country of course.
The White House Press Secretary sat in her office feeding her goldfish Gail as she took what she had thought was a much needed break. Now, as she kept glancing at the clock and waiting for news of John and Cadence's arrival in Colombia, she realised she wanted distraction.
She was very much relieved when her door was knocked.
"Come in," C.J called.
The door opened and her assistant Carol looked in with an apologetic smile. From behind her Danny lingered with his own wide grin.
"C.J, Danny's wondering if you have a minute," Carol said.
"Sure," C.J answered. She tried to quash her excitement by looking pointedly to the clock. "Just a minute," she insisted a little more firmly.
Carol nodded as she stepped back from the door and glanced back to Danny. "All yours," she murmured.
Danny gave a soft laugh at the irony of the statement before he stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
C.J held both her hands up to him before he could talk. "Danny if you're here for an insider's scoop I can't help with that. I know as much as you about this Colombian business and I'm still waiting to hear if they've arrived."
Danny nodded as he continued to offer C.J the warm, harmless smile he usually gave her. "Okay."
"Separately that is," C.J added, "assuming you want to know about both the Vice President and Cadence McGarry, what there is to know, which at the moment is nothing," she babbled, "and if it were something I couldn't tell you anything."
"Okay."
C.J dropped her hands to her hips as she gave Danny a look of exasperation. "Danny why are you here?" she quipped.
"To say hi."
C.J raised her copper-brown eyebrows slightly at this. "Just to say hi?" she queried dubiously.
Danny nodded. "We're all in for a busy day today, I wanted to take the chance while I had it. Hey after, what do you think about dinner?"
C.J's arms moved to cross in front of her chest. "With you?" she demanded.
"Sure."
"I think we don't need anymore suggested scandals," she scoffed.
"C.J, it is allowed for us to date," he reminded her.
She nodded. "I know but I don't have the time to date, I don't have the time for friends or a social life of any kind," she insisted.
"C.J do you eat food?" Danny quipped calmly.
"Of course," she retorted as she almost rolled her eyes at him.
"Then you have time for dinner," he reasoned.
C.J sighed as her hands slipped back down to her hips. "Is that really all you came for Danny?"
Danny's smile widened as he nodded. "Yes. Although, you won't mind if I stay for the briefing, someone said it might be important, something about Colombia, can't imagine what that is," he said teasingly.
C.J frowned but her eyes shone with amusement. She appreciated the journalist's show of humour as it relieved her from some of the stress she was in denial about having. "Alright Danny." She waved him off. "I'll be getting that confirmation call any minute soon I'm sure."
"So, dinner?"
C.J shook her head. "Not tonight, I envision a long working day."
"Okay."
Danny turned to go and C.J stepped forward before she could help herself.
She grabbed him, lightly by his shoulder to turn him back round. She was in his space, close enough to breathe on him and lean down for a kiss.
Danny should have resented the intrusion but he didn't. He'd offer a meagre protest sometimes that she couldn't keep grabbing him and dismissing him on a whim but truthfully he felt with C.J something was always better than nothing.
The kiss was passionate and rushed, the one personal drama C.J allowed herself at work. That little sliver of romantic wish fulfilment she could permit in a life otherwise stale of dating. She didn't know how Sam managed it with Mallory, where either of them fit the other one in with their hectic schedules and she wondered and worried about what they, Sam especially, sacrificed to accommodate that precious time together. It was easier for them C.J reasoned, Mallory was often a guest of the President at fancy functions meaning Sam could join her and call her both date and work. C.J and Danny did not have such a luxury, sure they both attended similar functions sometimes and for Danny it was work too but if he and C.J were seen to be making a date of it so publicly the scorn and scandal would ruin it. There would be outcries of the press secretary showing favouritism or being unprofessional. All blame would come to C.J's door and she knew it, blame the woman, a poor cliché.
"C.J," Danny's soft voice drew her back from her thoughts.
C.J pulled back from him reluctantly and released his tie, which she had unintentionally loosened. She blinked slowly before looking down at him calmly. "Yeah?"
Danny smiled, knowing her amnesia stare well now. C.J didn't acknowledge it in herself but she had a quirk for the approach of hiding from things that she didn't want to deal with, often preferring to unnecessarily stress herself about probabilities than finding out the reality.
"C.J I'm going to go now."
"Alright Danny."
"I'll see you at the briefing."
"You will or there won't be one," she retorted jokingly with a smile.
Danny gave a brief chuckle at this before he headed out of the office.
C.J waited thirty more seconds before slumping back against her desk with a noise that was less a sigh and more a breath of contentment.
She was still tingling with a rush of excitement when the call came two minutes later.
"C.J," it was Toby.
"Yes."
"The Vice President arrived as scheduled," he informed her in his blunt, professional manner. "He is at President Alcazar's quarters. They're going to broadcast in an hour. With luck and some prayers and miracles," Toby grumbled cynically, "the Vice President will make the nation's condolences and the office's apologies and President Alcazar will accept them and everything else is a P.R visit."
"And Cadence?" C.J queried.
"Hmm? Oh right, well she should arrive an hour after, couldn't risk her overlapping with the Vice President. I think some member of their government is going to meet with her and see her escorted."
"You think?" C.J demanded dubiously. "Toby this is Leo's daughter," she reminded him in a serious tone, "the daughter of the White House Chief of Staff. It doesn't matter that she doesn't go as a part of John, that is the Vice President's party, her status as Leo's daughter remains. Did she fly alone?"
"No," Toby retorted in annoyance, "of course not! Leo sent her with protection, private, hired from his own pocket so there's no suggestion of her representing the White House either. She'll make her apology in the afternoon or evening, depends on when President Alcazar has scheduled that. We're not making a thing of it C.J, we just want to hear him say he understands she didn't know the villagers she was assisting were traitors and that's it, that's Cadence McGarry in the clear."
C.J frowned. "Toby you do believe her, don't you?"
"I believe it doesn't matter C.J," Toby retorted hotly. "What matters is what the people think, Colombians and Americans. Focus on Hoynes' meeting and speeches, he's the Vice President, Cadence is a civilian."
C.J's frown remained. She felt the word 'civilian' was a little dangerous, it seemed akin to 'disposable', 'replaceable' and 'unprotected'. She felt the same fears as Sam for Cadence for a brief moment before assuring herself that Leo wouldn't allow his own daughter to come to harm.
An odd pang went through C.J as she considered the truth of that. Cadence had been harmed in Colombia before but by her own people and Leo had, had no knowledge of it to stop it. Well the CIA were exposed and all the agents involved were here now and even the ones not involved had had to pull out from the country given recent events so Cadence was safe from them.
"C.J did you hear me?" Toby demanded.
"No Toby, I heard civilian and thought isn't that what we all are?" C.J retorted icily.
"Yes C.J, we are, protected civilians of a certain status but still civilians," Toby answered with a certain sense of snobbery to his words. "Now, we have one hour to prepare before President Alcazar goes live with Hoynes."
"You said that already," C.J reminded him.
"We have to consider all the ways this could go wrong."
C.J smiled. "Toby he won't do it twice," she reassured.
"We don't know that," Toby retorted anxiously.
"How does the President feel about it?"
"Confident."
"Good."
"Confident he'll ring Hoynes' neck if it goes any way other than stellar," Toby muttered. "His words not mine, don't repeat them, I shouldn't have."
C.J couldn't quite stifle her laugh at this. "Okay Toby, look, are we watching this together?"
"Yes, you, me, Sam and Josh in the Roosevelt Room. Leo will be watching with the President," he added.
"Alright, I'll meet you there. Do you want me to bring the popcorn?"
"Ha, ha," Toby retorted dryly.
"Hey I'm serious, I'm hungry," C.J replied.
"Be there in thirty minutes, we won't have much time after it to discuss our reactions so I want to go through a list of all probabilities beforehand."
"Right Toby, see you then, bye," C.J retorted as she just about resisted her urge to groan at him.
C.J ended the call before Toby could use up anymore of her valuable time with probabilities.
She wondered how their counterparts in the Eisenhower were coping since, for a rare change, it was their man making central news today. Was their press secretary Jeremy getting bugged by Cal about considering negative and positive outcomes?
C.J pictured Jeremy and doubted it. Jeremy Rolston was passive and that was the point. After Hoynes had chewed up and spat out so many, too many, press people, the President had gotten fed up, fought with him about it and Leo had solved it with Jeremy.
C.J wondered who had gone with John to Colombia and realised she had never enquired. It was something she'd have to remedy quickly in case the question came up with her. She was guessing Gavin Drake and maybe Sandra, with Cal left in charge of the Eisenhower affairs.
Figuring Toby had ruined her break with his time limit, paranoid ranting and a dismissal of Cadence that C.J found a little jarring, the press secretary decided it was time to abandon the sanctuary of her office and the company of Gail and get ahead of things as much as she could.
The meeting between Vice President John Hoynes and President Alexis Alcazar went ahead as scheduled. There was a slight delay with the feed as it was live but the image was clear and the audio perfect. It ran as part of a news segment as the pair stood side by side on podiums addressing the Colombian government's press pool.
They stood outside in an open planned foyer of an extravagant looking building with pale yellow brickwork and an assortment of rich, green, large leafed plants that Josh was adamant were there to hide the fans.
C.J could practically feel the humidity oozing from the screen and admired how neither man seemed to break a sweat as they spoke to a crowd of reporters who oozed the uncleanliness of heat.
John was calm and pleasant. When he offered his condolences for the unnecessary loss of Colombian lives he was appropriately sombre and his eyes were full of grief as they looked directly at the President. He was candid and humble too as he spoke of regret and apologies for the actions of a few Americans acting without orders and of their own accord to bring violence between two otherwise peace loving nations.
Josh watched the interview with pride and a sense of admiration for the Vice President. Feelings he was always conflicted about having for John. Today the man had done them proud, delivering a speech that Sam and Toby couldn't have done better at, a speech Josh believed John had probably wrote most if not all of. Sure Leo and the President had probably been stern in their instructions over what should and should not be said but John would have chosen the words ultimately.
The handshake that followed was good but President Alcazar pulling John in for a pat on the back and loose embrace was gold. The few members of people outside the press who had been permitted to witness the event in person, clapped and cheered enthusiastically at the gesture.
Josh was relieved to see the event end on such a high although the sceptic in him wondered if and how Cadence could possibly undo or ruin it. He was grateful her status of civilian meant her meeting with the President of Colombia would not have such pomp or the presence of press or an audience.
Toby was just as sceptical as Josh but for other reasons. He wondered if a lowering on the tax of Colombian goods and an apology from Cadence were the only prices they would pay for this sudden show of friendship. Probably he was wrong but there was always the possibility that he wasn't. Toby tried to weigh up the probability of them being given another price to pay in his head, wondering if the Colombians would risk a nasty surprise on home soil.
Sam and C.J both opted for optimism and smiled.
"Can I go and address the press on a positive note then?" C.J queried happily.
Toby nodded and waved her off. "Sure."
The probability that this day was going to shift from good to bad was unlikely but both Toby and Josh were weighing the odds anyway.
Josh glanced at his watch. Cadence had to be there but there was no word yet as to when she would speaking President Alcazar.
"You know this place would look better with an aquarium," Sam mused. He was standing now and surveying the room.
"What?" Toby stared at Sam in confusion. He remained seated at the table.
"It used to be the fish room," Sam attempted to explain.
"Yeah Sam, I know that," Toby cut him off bluntly.
"I just think an aquarium in it again would be nice," Sam mused. "Cadence mentioned it used to have one."
"Sam, focus," Toby pleaded. "The day's good, we need to hope it will stay this way."
"It probably will Toby," Sam retorted with a bright grin, "don't worry."