And here we go, onto Season 2! I hope you enjoy. And though this doesn't really change anything there are twenty more chapters left of this story!

Disclaimer-Nothing but Jacob is mine.

And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.

There will be a second part that follows this...eventually. Each series should cover about seven chapters some chapters several episodes. Flashbacks included when needed.

Also I do not do Private Messaging anymore, any questions stick them in a review and I will get back to you next chapter note.

Also please be aware of a bit of a time jump between these chapters.

Also after much thought and consideration I have decided not to include Mandy in this story. She's there for like one Season and misses half of the episode and while she was an okay character played by a very good actress her disappearance and everything that follows is just too hard to write. So no Mandy. Ever.

And a couple of the episodes are mixed around here but please keep that in mind.

There will be a lot of flashbacks in the Season 2 arc as well

Next chapter will be the final one of Season 2.

And I am not a medical expert.


Perhaps Love

Chapter 14-The Past Comes Back To Haunt You

Toby stumbles across the Presidents most devastating secret. One by one the staffers are told but CJ and Toby think their son is safe. Until Charlie stumbles out a new potential secret.


I have multiple sclerosis Toby.

I have multiple sclerosis Toby.

It flew around his brain to the point where he thought that it was going to genuinely explode. He felt dirty, felt like he was drowning in the secret at least until other people started to know. CJ looking at him with her big eyes expressive and beautiful and concerned asking him why he was lying to her, Jake coming home from school and asking him if there was something wrong because didn't he know that his hands were shaking? The look of panic in his little boy's eyes when he had asked him if anything was wrong, as if he had known there and then that something was amiss but he could not put his finger on it and there it was, for both of them. CJ and Jake. On the tip of his tongue and he could do nothing about it.

And then suddenly he could.

He had told CJ that he would be waiting for her when she got back from the Presidents office and she came back her shoes in her hands. The Communications Bullpen was dead, he had sent home Sam hours ago and he had rang Jake to tell him that maybe tonight it would be a good time to go to a friends house. Jake had told him he was halfway through a double dipped donut (whatever that was) and he was good watching the football and so he had let his son go and had turned to face his mother who was sat on the couch clutching her wine glass (he knew CJ so he knew what was likely to happen).

"I knew" she said quietly.

"Stop"

"Toby—"

"Jake has to have a parent" he stressed suddenly. "CJ he has to have a parent. If we end up going to jail on this—"

"Toby I walked in on Abby pricking him with a needle. And I trust you enough to lie for me. Because we have something that trumps any kind of relationship with the press, with the President, with…anything. We have a child together, and he comes first. So when I tell you that I think that I have information that might send me to prison, I know that you are never gonna let our son see me behind glass in an orange jumpsuit"

To be fair she was right and all.

It was only with CJ that he could say how pissed he was. He was acutely aware that there was a limit to how much power he had compared to everyone else. He had blown up in the Oval Office and CJ had never had a chance to do that, Josh who had staggered back to his office so white that Donna had ran into him in the hallway her face streaked with panic convinced he was having another PTSD episode had not known what to do and Toby who had known very well what it was that had set Josh off had told Donna to get Josh a very strong coffee and not to tell anyone before he had gone into the office to find Josh in a sense of disbelief.

He had wailed on the President, Josh was in disbelief and more than a little hurt that the man had not thought to trust them with this information, CJ was pissed at the world and when Sam found out…well…Sam was just pissed full stop.

"We'd have gotten done" Sam said with a vicious kick at Toby's desk leg when the four of them had crowded into his office and shut the door and the blinds and cracked open beer.

"We'd have gotten it done if he'd had just…Christ surely one of these guys had managed to be sick during their Presidency…I don't remember Wilson being thrown on his back! Hell look at FDR they knew all that they knew about him and they voted him back in three times! And we won the war. I don't…what the hell…he could have told us and we would have been fine and Leo—"

"Leo didn't know until the second state of the union" Josh intoned form his seat on the floor picking off the label of his beer bottle.

"So he says" Sam pointed out. Josh sighed and Toby wondered if Leo's betrayal in keeping this secret hurt more than the Presidents. As far as Josh was concerned Leo was the father that he had been robbed off by chemo.

There was a knock at the door and Charlie slipped in and sat down. Toby tossed him a beer. Charlie took it and then.

"Zoe told me before anyone ever told Leo. She didn't…she didn't know if it was right or not but she wanted to tell me signs to notice in case…then I was supposed to discreetly tell the First Lady"

"We shouldn't be talking about this" Josh said finally. "Were all gonna have to spend a hell of a lot of time in front of some lawyers. We don't have time to do this. We don't…we shouldn't be talking about this, the less people who know what we know when we know the better."

"You mean you don't want to see Donna in an orange jumpsuit" Sam said cattily. Josh opened one eye and stared him down.

"You want to see Ainsley in one?"

That shut Sam up.

"CJ" Charlie said slowly. "Does Jake know?"

"No Jake doesn't know"

"Cause…before me there wasn't anyone else you know? On the campaign he didn't have an aid and Zoe and Ellie and Elizabeth and the First Lady didn't campaign with him all the time so how did he keep it under control. I know what I'm looking for but…but how did it work on the campaign."

There was a pause as Charlie's words sunk in and Toby turned to look at CJ and suddenly there was a chasm of horror that struck between the two of them and he couldn't speak. He opened his mouth but nothing came out and Charlie took CJ's beer from her least she drop it on the floor.

"No" Sam said flatly looking between the two them his own eyes wide. "No I…I don't think that Jake knew come on Toby he's not…he knows what keeping a secret about the President's health is like and—"

"He wasn't the President back then and he was a thirteen year old who might have been asked if the future Presidents hands shook" Josh said quietly. "If he knows and look maybe he doesn't but if he does then I don't think that there's going to be any kind of consequences. He was thirteen he wouldn't have known what lying might have meant"

"Want to bet" CJ snarled suddenly. "We have to ask him don't we"

"CJ—"

"Josh if you try and tell me that Leo won't like it I will throw my shoe at you"

"Manchester" Sam said suddenly, "Manchester, Wisconsin, Boston, Maine, that time we went to Heart's Landing, the First Lady suddenly changed her plans and—"

"Boston was the woman's conference and she wanted to go" Josh said flatly. Maine was she spoke out for partial birth and we wanted her out of there. Elizabeth and the children were in Manchester and we all thought Doug Weston was playing away—"

"Some of us still do" CJ muttered.

"There are other times she's cancelled plans. She didn't tell anyone why but she cancelled plans"

"Has anyone noticed an attack?" Josh said suddenly. "During the campaign, now…it's in remission and I think we all need to remember that. Look, we can be pissed and we can be betrayed and we can be…I don't know but the truth is that we don't have time for it. Because tomorrow this man and Leo are gonna expect us to do our jobs. He is going to expect us to do our jobs. We are gonna have to…I don't even know how we are going to have to do this. Joey's numbers should come back tomorrow and then were gonna have to start softening the ground in terms of the staff"

"Bonnie, Ginger, Carol, Donna, Margaret, Ainsley"

"Mrs Landingham" Charlie said softly cutting through Sam's name real. "Mrs Landingham doesn't know"

For a second they all felt the weight of what that meant settle on their shoulders.

"We need to go home" Josh said deciding for them. "We need…fuck it I need a donut."

"The really bad ones that cost four bucks with cream? The ones that you will eat and then hate yourself forever for eating"

"Yeah"

"Right behind you" Sam said grabbing his jacket. "Fuck the gym I'm never gonna get to go again"

"We need to speak to Jake" Toby muttered to CJ as she put on her coat. "And then we are gonna need to speak to a lawyer"

He swore hand to God that the look on her face was going to haunt him for the rest of her life.


The next day however it was blown out of the water. Whatever it was that they were going to ask Jake, the conversation that they both knew was going to have to happen when they got home after finding out if they were going to be employed for another four years because Mrs Landingham was dead.

A drunk driver.

Seconds after buying her first new car.

If there was a God then Toby was sure that he was nothing but a vindictive jackass.

CJ her eyes wide with tears came to him and he booted a confused looking Sam out of his office (to where he was accosted by a sobbing Ginger and a shell shocked Bonnie—here Sam was better at comfort than Toby was) and she had sat on the couch in his office and cried because Mrs Landingham was dead.

Mrs Landingham.

She had brought biscuits on the campaign, had made sure they were fed, had been there at the Presidents side through thick and thin. She'd been the one who had made sure that Jake had a blanket when he fell asleep on the couch of some motel room. She had hooked Josh on General Hospital, had encouraged Sam when his engagement to Lisa had ended. She had taken the girls of the office under her wing, Donna, Margaret, Carol, Bonnie, Kathy, Ginger. All of them had loved her in a way daughters loved their mothers. She had been the one who was able to stand up to the President in a way nobody else maybe not even Leo had been able to. She had been his sounding board. She had never had to given an opinion for everyone to know what she thought. She was there. Always there. Steadfast, indestructible, dependably solid.

And now she was gone.

Getting over the blow to them which as CJ sobbed on his arm and Bonnie sobbed in Sam's through the glass was bad for them.

For the President…

Toby didn't even want to think about what it was like for him.


"Josh?"

He looked up and sighed.

"Come on in Jake"

"Donna's not at her desk?"

"I know why. Do you know?"

Jake nodded. "I ran into Ainsley coming back from Sam's office. She told me. Man I am so sorry about Mrs L. She was…she was epic"

Josh was not sure what to make about Mrs L being called EPIC. But she was.

She truly, truly was.

God it was hard to think of her in the past tense.

"Jake I gotta tell you something" he said shutting the door behind the kid who sat down at his desk. "I gotta tell you something and it's shocking and the consequences…kid I need you to tell me the truth. I need to know the truth. I need you to tell me the truth so that you can lie for you. And I need you to not tell your parents"

"Okay?"

"Seven years ago the President was diagnosed with MS"

The kid blinked but otherwise said nothing.

"Were going public end of this week with a national televised address. When we do that this is going to go insane. Your Mom Dad, me the rest of the staff were gonna be in the thick of it. It's going to make the campaign look like child's play. It's going to be brutal and before all of this we are going to end up in front of the lawyers yourself included. They are gonna ask you about every time you've ever been with the President, if his hands twitched, all of it and then three months later they will knock on your door and ask you the same again. So I need to know…I know that Zoe Bartlett had stuff in place during the two years Charlie has been here, I need to know if someone spoke to you about the President's health on the campaign. I need to know if someone spoke to you and told you what signs to look for so you could inform the First Lady. Jake you are not betraying anyone right now I just…I need to know so I can protect you"

There was a pause and then.

"Is he in pain right now?"

"No it's in remission."

"Then why are you?"

"Because…because individuals involved have started leaking breadcrumbs, we got away with this for four years or the President did I should say and so we know we are gonna struggle…cause he wants to do this now I don't…I don't know why we are doing this now I just know that we are."

For a second the kid was silent and then.

"I didn't know Josh"

"Jake—"

"I didn't have an arrangement in code with Mrs B if that's what you asking me" Jake said finally. "But I won't lie and say I didn't see signs that something was wrong"

"What did you see?"

"Couple of times in campaign I saw Mrs B look at him and I knew it wasn't good. He brushed her off but then…I don't know it was more instinct than anything else. It was towards the end so it could be exhaustions, we were a week or so away and we were all exhausted. You remember what it was like. I didn't see Mom or Dad the whole time we were all living off coffee and cold take out and no sleep. More than once the President forced me to sit in his office and sleep because he couldn't. God knows if he runs again that's not a week I'd look forwards to"

There was a pause and then.

"Anything else?"

"The debate site"

"Leo?"

"You called me remember? I was at the hotel, I was three doors down."

Fuck.

Josh had forgotten that.

"I didn't tell anyone that Josh"

"I know you didn't kid I know"

"Leo told me afterwards it was okay if I did but I didn't"

"I know"

And Josh did. He knew that it had been Jake that had gotten Leo semi sober because he had been on the other end of the phone telling the kid what to do. Jake had rang him in a panic asking what the hell he was supposed to do because he couldn't let Leo out the room in the state he was in.

When Leo had come back from rehab disguised as vacation he had pulled the kid into a room and Josh had seen through the glass his old mentor trying to explain addiction to a thirteen year old who had been out of his mind that night trying to keep the older man from hurting himself.

"Jake—"

"Josh what do you want me to do if I'm asked—"

"You tell the truth" he said firmly "I need you to understand that, I need you to understand that you tell the truth. You burn it all down to the ground If it means speaking the truth. Leo…if you lie for Leo he will take you out onto the lawn and set you on fire."

The kid nodded but Josh was not sure he understood.

"We won't talk about this anymore" he said finally. "But I need you to sit down and go through your memories and tell me what you remember if any. I need you to be prepared for the shit show that is going to hit. Your not gonna be immune to it legally and in the press and a lot of people are going to see you as the weak spot to get to your parents, your parents, the President, me, Leo, Sam, we are all gonna lie down on the train tracks before we let you get into trouble do you understand?"

The kid nodded again and Josh wondered weather he had gone too far. Somehow he didn't think it had gone far enough.

And yet.

"Thanks Jake"

Well if Toby had to tell Donna…


Jake didn't know what had woken him up but he knew something had, it was night time on the plane and everyone including the press was asleep but he was awake suddenly.

There was someone standing at the little coffee cart. The little cart that as Josh pointed out kept them sane so why put it away?

It was the Governor he realised squinting and he stood up bare feet hitting the shitty plane carpet and he scrubbed his eyes.

"Governor?" he whispered and the man turned to him and Jake saw that he was trying to get a glass of water but his hands were shaking so badly that he barely kept the empty glass in his hand.

It was second nature half asleep that he was that Jake took the glass and filled it up.

The Governor's hands were still shaking and he looked at Jake as if he was seeing him for the first time.

"Who—"

"It's me Jake" he said wondering why the man was looking at him and yet somehow not seeing him at all.

"You want me to get Mrs B?"

"No need" came a voice and there was Mrs B herself dark hair tied in a loose knot at the back of her head. The hands increased in shaking. Mrs B took the glass from his hand and gripped her husband's shoulders with a smile that didn't meet her eyes. In fact she looked terrified.

"You go back to sleep now Jake okay? The Governor and I are going to go back to our cabin and sleep too"

"Okay" he said yawning. "You want some help? I don't mind—"

Her smile was so sweet it was hard not to fall a little bit in love with her. It was like looking at his Mom, or an older Donna with a dye job.

"No sweetie" she said smoothing back his hair as if she was his Mom. "No we got it, you go back to bed hmm, get some sleep"

"K. Night Governor, Mrs B"

"Night Jake"

He had never thought much of it but now as he leaned against the wall outside of Josh's office he thought of it now. Between that and Leo he knew more than he should. He had known then that something was wrong but the next morning the Governor had come out as if nothing had happened and he had been half asleep so he had chalked it down to one of those strange fever dreams.

Now he was thinking that it was something else.

Now he was thinking that it had to be something else.

He thought about knocking on Josh's door again, thought about his parents offices down the corridor, thought about the President in his office mourning and then he shook his head.

Damn it.

The past was well and truly coming back to haunt them.


And yeah so there's a fun spoiler for Season 3 coming up! Also Mrs Landingham...what a wonderful character...not to say that Debbie wasn't brilliant but I genuinely don't think anyone matched the wits, cunning and guile of Mrs Landingham.

Next Chapter-The Last of Season 2-Jake and the President share a moment as everyone gets ready for the disclosure of the MS.