...Then find Sam and send him to hold Beach's hand! That's why we keep him around, isn't it?

Toby sat at his desk, staring at the TV in front of him and not even registering the image on the screen. He had had to walk away from Josh and his dismissal of Sam and his place in the White House. The words bothered him because he had done precisely the same thing. During the vetting for the new Supreme Court Justice, he had trusted Sam to handle that last telling interview with Peyton Cabot Harrison III (the name still made him grind his teeth). Sam's diligence had prevented them from making a costly mistake with what might be their only nominee to the high court. When, Toby wondered, had he started treating Sam like an inept summer intern? When had they all?

Slouching down in his chair, he looked at the pen he had picked up and still not used. His grip was so tight that his knuckles had turned white. Last night he had spent hours analyzing the last few months. The State of the Union had been even more exhausting this time than the last. In the end, though, they had written a speech of which they, and the President, were proud. They had weathered the Mendoza confirmation with the occasional flare-up of temper on both sides, but Sam had stood toe to toe with him, refusing to back down.

Toby half-smiled as he remembered the arcane bits of trivia Sam had uncovered in his research on the Supreme Court. He had a habit of spouting it as they sat too exhausted to drive home after an all-night session. Samuel Chase was the only Supreme Court justice to be impeached. John Rutledge had the briefest tenure, serving only four months before the Senate rejected his nomination. Now, Toby realized, it had been weeks since his deputy had leaned against the doorjamb, hands in his pockets, volunteering whatever random fact had caught his attention.

When Sam had joined the campaign, it had taken them time to reach a common ground. Toby's thinking was logical, methodically moving from Point A to Point B using statements and arguments. Sam, on the other hand, was a lateral thinker. He actively searched for different ways of looking at things. Although they had agreed on message and policy, their battles about style and voice had become legendary within days of Sam's arrival.

He regretted the message he had left on Sam's machine -- the harangue, to be honest. He should have waited before calling, should have guarded his temper and his words. He had given in to the anger and yes, the hurt Sam's resignation had triggered. He hoped Sam had deleted the message without listening to it.

"Toby?" Bonnie said, and from the tone of her voice, he was certain this was at least the third time she had repeated it. "Leo wants all of you in his office."

He looked up then. "Something going on?"

"I don't think so. Things are real quiet this morning. Maybe it's about..." She tilted her head towards Sam's office.

Picking up his notepad, he slipped a pen into the spiral binding. "Yeah."

Donna joined Bonnie at the door. "Has anybody seen Josh?"

"He was in the Mess a little while ago," Toby said as he crossed his office.

She looked at Sam's empty chair and pouted. "With Sam? I'm looking for him, too."

"He's been over at the OEOB since he got in this morning," Bonnie told her. "I'll tell him you need him."

"Thanks! I'm going to find Josh." She looked at Toby. "You know about the meeting, right?"

"I'd be there by now if you two would get out of my doorway."

Both assistants stepped quickly out of his way, and Donna hurried in the direction of the Mess. Toby stopped and looked at Bonnie.

"OEOB, huh? Very good."

"I've been practicing all morning. I'm glad I had the chance to use it." As Toby turned toward Leo's office, she stopped him, checking quickly to make sure no one could hear her. "We want him back, Toby."

"Because he's the even-tempered one? The nice one?"

"Because he's Sam."

"'Because he's Sam,'" he repeated quietly. "Right."

When he reached Leo's office, Margaret waved him in. "He's ready for you."

"Josh and CJ are on their way," he told her.

"Yeah, Donna just called."

Toby walked into the office to find the President already occupying a chair. "Good morning, sir, Leo," he said, sitting down on the sofa.

The President shifted so he could see both of them. "Any news, Toby?"

"About Sam, sir? None. As far as I know, he hasn't returned any phone calls."

"Not surprising."

"Let's wait for CJ and Josh before we get started," Leo counseled. "Save us from having to say things twice."

"We're here," CJ said, coming through the door with Josh. "Good morning, Mr. President."

"CJ, Josh."

Josh closed the door and leaned against it for a second before dropping into a chair. "Sir."

"Neither of you has heard from Sam, correct?" Leo asked.

Josh shook his head as CJ murmured, "No."

Leo tilted back in his chair. "The FBI says Sam hasn't replaced his cell phone yet."

The President picked up a paper from the table beside him and glanced at it. "The only things Sam bought yesterday were groceries."

"You had them track his credit cards?" Leo demanded. "We said we weren't going to do that!"

"Well, I changed my mind," the President informed him, and Toby heard CJ choke back a giggle as Leo huffed a sigh.

"Not much help, though," Josh commented. "Not like there's a plane ticket or something on it."

"Where he could go in an ice storm?" Toby demanded. "They're already canceling flights, and nothing landed after midnight. The airports are going to be screwed up for days."

"I would have been on the first plane out to somewhere warm," CJ mused. "Florida, Bermuda, California..." She looked at Toby. "Do you think he'd go home?"

He thought it over. "He might."

The President turned to Leo, his eyes dancing. "And if he does, we'll know that too!"

Leo rolled his eyes. "You have them watching the airports? God in heaven, doesn't the FBI have something else it could be doing, like catching criminals?"

"I could --" Josh began.

"No!" CJ and Toby chorused.

Blinking at their vehemence, he tried again. "B--"

"No!"

Josh slid down in his chair, looking petulant.

"Joshua Lyman speechless. Let me get the video camera," Abbey commented, standing in the connecting doorway to the Oval Office. "No, don't get up. Is it all right if I join you?" she said as she sat beside Toby. "I assume you're talking about Sam. Anything new?"

CJ shook her head. "Nothing more than his grocery bill from yesterday."

"Yes, Sam Spade showed me."

"You mock me, Abigail?"

"Yes, but I do it with love." She looked around. "So what's the plan?"

Josh shook his head. "We don't have one."

"Except the one where you leave Sam alone," CJ reminded him.

"Not much of a plan, if you ask me," Josh muttered.

"Maybe that's the best thing any of you can do," Abbey offered.

Toby could not help the tone of disbelief that crept into his voice. He had been considering stopping to see Sam on his way home. "Not doing anything is the best plan, ma'am?"

"Yes, leave Sam alone -- just for the weekend," she amended when the President started to interrupt.

"I don't understand. Why exactly would we do that?" Josh asked.

"Think of it as a time-out. It lets all of you cool down and gives Sam a chance to breathe."

"Sam hasn't been breathing?" Leo asked. "That would explain a lot."

Toby was immensely grateful he was not on the receiving end of the First Lady's glare. Glancing at the President, he saw both amusement and sympathy in the look he shot Leo.

CJ, though, was nodding slowly as she considered it. "I think you're right."

"For god's sake, would one of you mind explaining it to those of us not blessed with women's intuition?" the President demanded.

"I was thinking about Sam last night, remembering the first time I met him," Abbey began.

"When you thought he was an intern?" Josh asked. It still amused him that Sam, of all people, had been given coffee duty in a 250-year-old house with uneven floors, expensive carpets and irreplaceable antiques.

"When I came home that night, he was outside, taking a walk. Do you remember?"

"Vaguely," Josh admitted slowly, then the light came on in his eyes. "Wait -- yeah, I was going to look for him. Seems like I was always tracking him down during the campaign. He had this habit of wandering off."

"We'd be working on something and decide to take a break," Toby said. "I'd get something to eat or whatever, but Sam went outside."

"He almost froze in Wisconsin, didn't he?" CJ asked.

Josh smiled. "He is the only person I've ever known who went running after the days we put in. Still does when he can, I think."

"Tries to go to the gym a couple of times a week," Toby added.

"With who?" Leo asked.

"Whom," the President muttered.

Toby thought for minute. Sam, gym bag in hand, disappearing out the door. "Alone, I think."

"Yeah, I know he's never asked me," Josh admitted.

The President turned to his wife. "And what does this mean beside the fact Sam..." His voice slowed as the penny dropped. "Likes to be alone."

"Needs to be alone," CJ corrected quietly. "We all complain that we never have time for ourselves, but we don't do anything about it. Sam makes the time because he has to, just to clear his mind."

"But he hasn't lately," Toby added. "We've been going flat out for months now. I can't remember the last time he left the building at lunchtime."

"So you're saying if we give him some time, this whole thing will go away?" Leo asked.

"No," Toby said, "it won't. Nothing is ever that easy with Sam. What it will give us is a starting place."

"Distance," Josh murmured. "That just might work."

"So we're agreed then that there will be a moratorium on contacting Sam?" the President asked, his gaze firmly fixed on Josh. "That all of us will leave him alone until Monday?"

Josh colored slightly as he answered, "Yes, Mr. President."

"Except for the FBI peering over his shoulder," Leo amended.

"A necessary precaution, I'm willing to give him only so much rope," the President said as he rose to his feet. As they all stood, he held his hand out to Abbey, and the two of them walked into the Oval, closing the door behind them.