Josh swaggered a little as he crossed the lobby and signed in. The meeting with Beach had gone well — better than well, almost great if he allowed himself a bit of conceit. He heard a snort of laughter from his conscience, which lately had started sounding like Sam. It was so vivid that he glanced around, half expecting to see Sam leaning against a pillar with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.

Instead, he came face to face with Margaret who was clearly waiting for him.

"Leo's office now," she announced, already walking away.

Josh felt his stomach drop as he hurried to catch up with her. "What's going on?"

She shot him a look and then lowered her voice. "We can't discuss it out here."

"'We'?" he echoed. "'We' as in 'us' —" He gestured between them. "— As in 'you and I'?"

She nodded sharply and then looked hard at the people they were passing. No one seemed interested in them or their conversation, but Margaret was clearly not taking any chances.

"What's going on?" Josh asked, already analyzing possibilities.

"Leo wants to talk to you."

"About what? If this was something bad, you would've called and told me to come back. You didn't, though. You waited for me in the lobby because —"

"Leo wants to talk to you."

"But somehow it involves you because you said —"

She glared at him and hissed, "Not here, Josh."

When they reached Leo's office, she poked her head in the door and then turned to Josh. "He's waiting."

"How did it go with Beach?" Leo asked, gesturing him to one of the chairs in front of his desk as Margaret sat down in the other.

"Everything's fine. I apologized, he lectured me. I apologized again, he accepted. I said we need to work together, he agreed. He said he'll vote against the finance thing, I got the hell out of there."

"So he's voting with us?"

Josh felt the rush of triumph return. "Completely reversed his position."

Leo weighed that for a moment. "He wants something."

"Yeah, I thought so too, but I couldn't come up with anything."

"Well, keep an eye on it, and let me know what he comes up with."

He nodded. "Margaret said you needed to see me — us?"

"Yeah," Leo closed the folder he had been reviewing and turned to Margaret. "Tell him."

"Someone is attempting to breach security," she announced.

Josh gripped the arms of his chair, ready to spring to his feet. They were prepared for hundreds of different scenarios from someone jumping the fence to computer hacking to bio-terrorism. Oddly enough, he never pictured Margaret as the point person for any of them. "What does Ron say?"

She gave him a meaningful look. "Ron doesn't know."

"For god's sake, Margaret!" Leo snapped. "Stop the dramatics, and tell him what's going on."

She frowned, more than a little disappointed to have her wings clipped. "Donna has been asking a lot of questions; Carol, too."

"About what? Sam?"

"They think there's something going on, but they haven't found out what. So far they've talked to me, the Communications assistants, CJ and Charlie."

"Josh, I want you to shut this down," Leo told him. "The last thing we need is the gossip mill getting hold of the Sam thing."

"There's already been some grumbling," Margaret reported, "because they have to deal with Toby."

"For the time being, they're just gonna have to live with it."

"I'll take care of it," Josh promised, starting to stand up. "Just let me get back to my desk and —"

"There's something else we have to talk about," Leo told him. He waited until Margaret left before saying, "We found out this morning that Sam's going home."

"When?"

"Friday."

Josh ran his hand through his hair. "This is from the Bureau?"

"Yeah, they notified the President this morning," Leo said, leaning back in his chair. "He's pretty damned pleased with himself."

"I can imagine."

"It was all we could do to talk him out of dropping in on Sam. Now he's decided to have him come here."

"That is so not a good idea," Josh protested.

Leo scowled. "Thanks for pointing that out. It didn't occur to Toby, CJ or me!"

"Honestly, Leo —"

"We know, Josh! I'm going to try to talk him out of it."

"Good luck," Josh muttered, his mind already worrying another point. "There's one more thing, Leo. Come Monday, people just might notice Sam hasn't come back. How the hell are we going to spin that?"

"Yeah, I was thinking about the same thing. Let's sit down with Toby and CJ first thing tomorrow morning and come up with some options. In the meantime, rein in Donna, will you?"

"I'll get right on it," Josh said as he headed toward his own office.

Donna was not at her desk when he walked by, but a tray with his lunch sat in the center of his desk. Josh studied it as he hung up his coat. A bribe — this is more serious than I thought. Dropping into his chair, he twisted open the bottle of water and took a gulp.

Donna poked her head in as he swallowed the first bite of chicken salad. "Hey, Josh."

"What is this going to cost me?" he inquired, pointing his fork at the tray.

"Nothing!" she answered a little too brightly. If he had not already known something was going on, it would have been a tip-off.

"No really, Donna. What do you need?"

"Can't I do something nice for my boss?"

"You can," he agreed, "but you usually don't."

She pouted. "God, Josh! I was actually worried that you'd missed lunch again, and right away you suspect I'm up to something."

He took another swallow of water and pointed with the bottle. "Close the door, Nancy Drew."

"Josh, I don't know what you've —"

"Close it," he repeated.

When it was shut, she stood against it, keeping the maximum distance possible between them. Josh took another bite of salad and gestured toward the chair in front of his desk.

"Sit. We need to talk."

Reluctance evident in every move, she walked to the chair and sat down. Bowing her head, she stared at her hands clasped tightly in her lap.

He wiped his mouth with a napkin and pushed the tray away so he could rest his forearms on the desk. "Donna, one of the things that makes you such a great assistant is that you understand how things work around here. When I have questions, you search out the answers for me. You've saved me hours of work because you've talked to the right people. I don't say it enough, but I really appreciate that.

"There are times, though, when I can't discuss what's happening. It's not often, but I have to know you understand that it isn't a game. If I can't tell you, then neither can CJ or Margaret or anybody else. Your job is to ignore it, and remember I'm counting on you to keep the rest of the balls in the air."

"But if I can help —"

He smiled. "If you can, I'll let you know."

Donna nodded, blushing slightly. "I'm sorry, Josh, I really am."

"I know you are." He picked up his fork. "Now give me ten minutes to eat my lunch in peace."

"You owe me $8.50 for that!" she called over her shoulder as she headed out the door.

Josh looked down at his food. "Wait, this isn't a bribe?"

"It was, now it's just lunch — one I didn't have to get for you."

"Hey, I just told you how much I appreciate everything you do for me! Where's the gratitude for my gratitude?"

She reappeared with an armload of files and deposited them on the corner of his desk. "I'll be grateful when your gratitude includes a raise."

"We're back to that again?"

"You thought we'd moved on?"

Josh sighed. He should have known better. "Well, yeah."

"We haven't, but look on the bright side."

"There's a bright side?"

"If we do, I'll let you know."