Part 3

Toby read the same five hundred words about three times all the way through before he put the page down. "BONNIE!" he yelled.

His assistant came to his door in answer to his shout. "Yeah?"

"Where's Sam?" he asked in a quiet tone, trying to hide his excitement.

"With Josh."

"Get him."

"I think they're-"

"Now," Toby told her forcefully.

Bonnie shrugged and went down the hall to collect Sam from Josh's office.

While he waited, Toby reread the page again, trying to figure it out. It took a few minutes for Sam to turn up.

"Bonnie said you wanted me," Sam said, entering the office.

"Close the door," Toby told him, once more in his quiet tone.

Sam did as he was told. "What's up?"

"What the hell is this?" Toby asked, holding up the page.

"Five hundred words for the President's remarks to the American Dog Breeders Association. Which is what you asked for, if I'm not mistaken."

Toby looked up at his charmingly clueless face. "Who wrote it?"

"What do you mean?" Sam replied, feigning ignorance.

"I mean, Sam, who the hell wrote this!?" Toby was getting worked up now. His volume was rising, and he stood up to properly berate Sam. "You did not write this. I know your style. I created your style, for God's sake!"

"I like to think I had a little to do with that," Sam interjected. "But fair point. It was my intern."

"Your intern?" Toby asked incredulously. "Are you kidding me!? You had an INTERN write remarks for the President of the United States!?"

Sam couldn't help but smile. "It's good, right?"

Toby took a deep breath to calm down. "It's very good. Who is your intern?"

"Rory Gilmore," Sam replied proudly. He had taken a big chance not only asking her to write something but then having the audacity to show it to Toby. Rory had delivered.

Toby frowned. "Which one is she?"

"She's got the desk next to Ginger. Brown hair. Right there." Sam pointed out Toby's front window to where Rory was sitting, typing intently on her computer. She paused momentarily to grasp her coffee cup with two hands and take a large gulp. She smiled to herself and went right back to her furious typing.

"Where did she come from?" Toby asked. He didn't know the name Gilmore. Wasn't any Senator or Congressman he knew of who pawned his niece off on a White House internship.

"She just graduated from Yale. Her grandfather is friends with Leo. And Josh grew up with her mom. CJ met the mother last week. Apparently she's got dirt on Josh and is willing to share."

Toby could tell Sam was getting distracted, and Toby had stopped caring. He opened the door and shouted, "Rory Gilmore!" Her brunette head whipped around and she bolted up, her big blue eyes blinking at him. "Jesus, she looks like Bambi," Toby mumbled under his breath. "Come here, please," he told her.

Rory rushed over. "Yes, Mr. Ziegler?"

"It's okay, Rory. You can call him Toby," Sam explained gently.

Toby ignored him. "Rory, Sam says you wrote the President's remarks for the Dog Breeders."

"Um, yes?" she replied tentatively. She glanced at Sam questioningly. He smiled in an encouraging manner.

Toby looked at her for a minute, trying to decide what to say. Sam nodded at him subtly. "You ever written a speech before?" Toby asked her.

"My valedictorian speech when I graduated high school. Oh and I wrote the campaign speech when I ran for Vice President of my senior class."

"Did you win?"

Rory smiled at Toby's question. "Yeah. But it wasn't really a big deal. It was a small school."

"You know, not a lot of people can do this. And of the people who can, I like none of them." Sam opened his mouth to protest that statement, but Toby cut him off. "You I'm still on the fence about." He turned back to Rory. "I'm going to cut a few lines of this for length, because I always tell Sam to write more words than I want because he tends to come up with big passages I don't like. But when it's down to about four hundred words, I'm going to pass it along to the President."

Rory's eyes widened. "Oh my god. I mean wow, thank you, but oh my god. Are you sure? I can do another draft, if you want."

Toby shook his head. "No, this is what I want. You did good."

"Thank you," Rory replied, beaming.

"Go back to work." After she rushed back to her desk, Toby turned back to Sam. "I don't want you giving her assignments without my okay."

"I won't, but she's good, isn't she?" Sam said, smiling brightly.

Toby nodded. "She's really good. I'm gonna talk to Leo. I want her. On my staff. You've been more focused in the last few weeks since she showed up, and the smaller speeches like this one we can give to her." Toby looked out the window to where she was back to her typing. "You said her mom has dirt on Josh?"

"Yeah, that's what CJ said."

"Fantastic." Toby's bearded face broke into a smile that he tried to hide by turning away.