Note: I think I told some of you privately that the next chapter was going to take place a year after the last one. It doesn't. This takes place the day after the Bartlets' party, and not a great deal happens in it, except in Helen's mind. It's still important to the story, though!

(My apologies to Sandra, and anyone else who finds short chapters frustrating. I hope the next one will be a little more substantial.)

Chapter 2:

Helen wasn't at all happy with herself after the Bartlets' party. Her children's behavior had been mortifying-but hers hadn't been much better. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more she felt that it had been significantly worse. She'd never been comfortable with the role of political wife-she'd married Matt when he was in the Marines, with no idea that he'd want to go into politics at all-but she hadn't expected to make such a hash of what should have been a pleasant evening with President and Dr. Bartlet.

She wished she could hit a backspace key and erase all the hostile things she'd said about Josh. She'd been upset, of course, about the impending move into that grand and intimidating mansion. She wasn't a grand person, wasn't delighted by grandeur; everything about the White House made her uncomfortable. And she couldn't stop worrying about Matt and the children. She hadn't been able to free herself from the tense drumming of anxiety about them for even a minute since the convention-ironically, since they'd started getting Secret Service protection-and she'd had nightmares about assassinations and kidnappings almost every night since the election. Seeing Zoey playing with Peter and Miranda had left her trembling with fear that what had happened to the Bartlets' charming youngest child actually would happen to one of hers.

She knew, of course, that none of this was really Josh's fault. But she felt as if she had to be angry with someone, and she couldn't let herself be angry with Matt about it-if she did that, it would be the beginning of the end for them. Josh was an easy target. And she'd assumed that Abbey would understand.

She'd heard things-rumors about Abbey's difficulties in getting her agenda taken seriously, about her going head-to-head with Josh over issue after issue, about her having to hire his ex-girlfriend to manage him and put him in his place-that had made her think her hostess would sympathize with her feelings about him. But she'd gotten the distinct impression that Abbey didn't agree with her at all.

Abbey had said she hadn't always liked Josh-but that implied that she did like him now, didn't it? Helen found that hard to understand. He was an impossible man to work for, everyone knew that. Yelling at the staff. Driving them crazy with his micromanaging, his insane expectations and demands. Firing poor Ned, who'd worked for Matt for so long.

And then the way he'd treated Donna. His assistant for eight years-how had she survived it? Donna had been circumspect in what she said about him most of the time, but she'd let a few things slip when she was first working with Helen, that had made it clear how little she'd enjoyed that job, how glad she was to escape it and have a chance to bloom. He'd obviously failed completely to see her potential. Was that what he was going to be like as Chief of Staff? Helen wasn't sure at all that Matt was doing the right thing, putting Josh in charge of running the West Wing. Barry Goodwin, of course, agreed with her-but Matt thought he owed the job to Josh.

"Does that really matter at this point?" Helen had asked him, just the other day. "Isn't it more important to put the right man in that position?"

"He is the right man, I think," Matt had answered. "He has more experience than anyone else I could call on. And he knows Congress inside out and backwards; he was legislative director in the House, you know, and floor director in the Senate, before he joined Hoynes' staff, and then the Bartlet campaign."

"You know Congress inside out and backwards, too."

"I know a lot about it, but I need a Chief of Staff who knows even more. Josh does. He's a good man, Helen. You just have to give him a chance."

Thinking about it now, Helen sighed. Maybe Matt was right; maybe she did need to give Josh more of a chance. Abbey clearly hadn't shared her opinion of him. And Donna was dating him now, so she must see something in him, mustn't she? Something more than the pig her occasional indiscreet comment before the election had suggested. At least, Helen hoped she saw more than that in him. She hated the idea that the woman she'd made her Chief of Staff might show such poor judgment in her personal life as to get involved with a man who didn't respect her. So clearly Josh must be quite different than the man Helen disliked so much.

And yet, it had seemed so clear before Donna went away on that vacation with him that she didn't think he respected her. . . .

Helen shook her head to clear it. She'd chosen Donna; she wasn't going to go back on that decision now. And Matt had chosen Josh, and didn't want to go back on that, either.

Still, he'd entrusted the transition to Barry Goodwin, and was taking advice from him as well as from Josh. If Josh didn't work out, Matt would have other choices. . . .

Oh, dear-there she went again. Really, she'd have to try harder to stop thinking like this, to give the man a chance, as Matt had said. It wasn't fair to take out her anxieties on him, just because he'd started them on their path towards this terrifying place.

She still couldn't think what Donna saw in him, though. He wasn't even handsome-not like Matt. He was well-enough built, she supposed, and his face was all right, but that hairline. . . .

Oh, dear, there she was, doing it again. She'd just have to hope she'd understand Donna's attraction to him as she got to know him better. There'd be plenty of chances for that: with him as Matt's Chief of Staff, and Donna as her Chief of Staff, he was obviously going to be quite a presence in their lives. She really must stop blurting out her feelings about him to everyone she thought might give her a sympathetic ear. It was one thing, sympathizing with Ned at Thanksgiving, or listening to Barry Goodwin's concerns. But she didn't want to repeat what she'd said last night in front of anyone else.

She'd just have to try to stifle any negative thoughts about him, and keep an open mind. Hopefully she'd find that he really did deserve the trust that Matt and Donna had put in him.

But why had Donna said those things about him, if he did?