And here we go, the last of 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 15-The Luxury Of Conscience

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


"Jake not that it's not good to see you and everything but your Mom and I—

"Sagittarius"

CJ dropped her pen. Jake closed the door behind him and very carefully picked it up and put it back on her desk. Toby sank week kneed suddenly into the couch that CJ kept in her office. Jake didn't so much as flinch.

"How did you…when did you…"

"Josh told me. Good thing he did too because between you and Mrs Landingham I would have wondered weather or not you were ever going to come home"

There was a rebuke in there that was so strong that it was hard sometimes to believe that Jake was the child and not the parent but that was the price that you paid CJ thought for being parents that worked in jobs like they did.

Not that they would get to work in them after all. She was wondering what Jake would do if she and Toby suddenly had to wear orange for three to six.

Maybe he would go to her brother? Oh God one was a drunk, one was borderline manic and her father…well…

What was Toby's father like? That whole Murder Incorporated story that he had told her that one time was said after nearly a bottle and a half of red so maybe it was just a crock of shit?

Maybe?

"Mom?" came a voice to her left and she turned to see Toby and Jake looking at her with identical expressions of concern.

"Josh told you" she said flatly. Jake rolled his eyes. "Would you rather that I hear from the TV? He said you might be wondering somethings"

"Did you know before?" Toby asked. "Don't lie to us Jacob we need to know did you know before?"

"No" Jake said quietly. "Not…not really"

There was a long look between Toby and CJ.

"What does that mean?"

"I…I saw his hands shake on the campaign a couple of times, one time it was night and you were all asleep and he couldn't…he couldn't pour a glass of water and I don't think he knew my name. But then the First Lady was there and she told me to go back to bed and so I did. That's it. I didn't ask in the morning cause in the morning he was fine and…" he paused and CJ got the impression that he was at war with himself. Sometimes she could read her boy like a book and sometimes she couldn't.

There was something else. Something below the surface that she couldn't get to the bottom off.

She chewed her bottom lip and then she let go off it and she watched Toby watch Jake.

"So when are you going public?"

"Tonight. Live interview and then a press conference."

"How bad is the press going to be?"

"Horrendous" she said truthfully. AP and the rest of them were already softening up the ground but it didn't matter. There was going to be questions after questions after questions and she was going to be surrounded. And that was before the President decided what on Earth he was going to do about the coup taking place the other side of the world. On a good day the press would go insane about that. This was not going to be a good day.

Jake watched her for a second and then he nodded and then.

"You gonna be okay?"

"I'm gonna be fine" she lied through her teeth. "But do you know what to do—"

"If I get a phone call I ignore it" Jake said with an eyeroll, "I've done this dance before Mom"

"At some point were gonna need you to sit down with Olivier Babish at the White House Council's office." Toby said quietly. "We need to make sure that whoever it is that runs this investigation can't use you to get to your Mom and me so I need you to be truthful."

"He's a pain in the ass but he means well. He won't bitch slap you across the room, he's got kids of his own"

"Why would he bitch slap me—"

"Never mind" Toby said shooting her one of those indescribably fond looks that never failed to set her stomach on fire.

"Just make sure you go to him okay?"

Jake pinched a handful of crips and sat on the spare chair conversed feet on CJ's desk and for once she didn't have the stomach to bollock him for it.

"Sure, sure" he said.

She didn't want to say it but she wished she could keep the door closed like that forever. She wanted to keep Jake in that closed off room for the rest of her life. She wanted to keep Toby the same way. She never wanted to step outside and deal with a reporter ever again even the nice ones like Danny, Steve, Chris, Mike…

But time didn't work like that the funny and fickle thing that it was as she soon learnt when she heard the knock on the door which was Leo telling her it was time to begin prepping the cameras for the President and the First Lady.


"Mr President?"

"Yeah?"

"You got five seconds to see Jake?"

"Jake?"

"CJ and Toby's Jake?"

"I know who he is Charlie, my brain is working perfectly. That being said I don't understand why Jake is asking for me?"

"I don't know Sir, I cannot read minds"

Jed paused staring at his aide who stared back and suddenly he smiled. Thank God for Charles Young he thought. Even when he was in the blackest of black moods the kid managed to make it so that he was smiling. He didn't even try sometimes, Charlie was like any young adult (he should know he had raised three of them) and sarcasm came with the natural air that they breathed. With Charlie it mixed into the breath and the reverence that they had and it worked well.

"Okay" he said quietly. He had already taken a tongue lashing from Toby, CJ couldn't meet his eye, Josh was looking at him like had suggested selling Donna to the Russian's for petty cash and Sam…Sam was angry full stop there was no way around it. That was before you got to the assistants. Only Donna had come to see him to tell him that they were all behind him and the sweetness in which she had done it had been enough to make him want to hug her.

Instead he was sure he was going to have to send flowers. Actually that was not a bad thing, the gardener had been nagging Abby to get to the roses and he supposed they may as well do it before they were kicked out come the end of this nightmare.

At least that was what Abby wanted.

"Mr President?"

"Yeah okay" he said again and he looked up to see Jake standing by the door in that way that he did as if he was still double checking that he was allowed into the room. Finally he stepped in and Charlie closed the door behind him. Jake watched him and he smiled as the kid turned back to him but he was uncharacteristically nervous. Jed was suddenly, very, very aware that he was the President of the United States, the Leader of the Free World and he was standing in front of the fifteen year old son of his staffers and he was nervous.

"Mr President" Jake said finally. "Saw you on TV. You were good"

"I suppose I was."

"Did look a little like the First Lady was cutting off your blood circulation towards the end"

"Oh she was" he said grimly gesturing that the kid could sit which he did.

He was not wrong on Abby. Jed was still sure he had fingernail marks in his arm from where she had gripped him.

"You okay there kid?"

"Mr President? Do you know? About Leo? About Gibson? About what happens if this goes to trial or whatever the hell is coming next? Do you know what he's going to be staring down?"

"Yes" Jed said finally and then his brain caught up with him.

"How do you—"

"I was in the hotel, I was in my room, I didn't want to go to the debate I was exhausted after the plane and Josh couldn't get him on the phone so he called me. I…I was half asleep so I didn't…five minutes earlier and I would have got there before Gibson did and I—"

"No" Jed said because there was a very good chance Leo had a glass pressed up against the door and if Leo could hear this kid now…

"No Jacob" he said quietly. "It didn't matter. Leo took that drink in the hotel room before you even got there and the second that the story broke that Leo was a drunk Gibson knew what he had. He would have come forwards to tell his story at some point it was only gonna be a matter of time. Besides…he might not do it."

He wasn't overly optimistic about it thought.

"I didn't tell Oliver Babish about it. I told him…I don't know if you remember—"

"The plane?"

"Yes sir…can I ask…were you…"

"Having an attack?"

The kid nodded slowly.

"Yes" Jed said quietly.

"Yes I was. It was a mild one and in the morning I was fine but that night I couldn't hold a glass and I couldn't see out of my right eye. That's why I was acting the way I was. And then I couldn't place you. I thought you were Zoe's friend. I'm sorry if I frightened you—"

"You didn't" he said quietly interrupting as if he didn't know that you weren't supposed to do that.

Well…that was something.

"I…I wanted to come and see you" he said quietly. "Afterwards. But I…I didn't…I guess I didn't"

"We were all living a hundred hour weeks time without sleep. Every day was rushed, twice I nearly got lost in rural Indiana Mr President. I didn't think much off it. I told the White House lawyers what I said and I wanted to tell you that I was…whatever happens…right behind you and I don't know what you want me to do but—"

"You tell the truth" Jed intoned. He tried to use the same tone that he used with Charlie but Jake didn't look at him the same way Charlie did. Jake had a different set of loyalties and while he was confident that Jake would never do anything to hurt him if it was a choice between Jed going to the Big House or CJ and Toby he knew which one Jake was choosing.

"You tell the truth Jacob" he said quietly. "I need you to tell the truth. From here on out we tell the truth and the truth only. I don't need you to lie for me, I need you to tell the truth. The only way we all get through this is to be as truthful as possible. Do you understand?"

The boy nodded again but like with Charlie, Jed needed to hear it.

"I need you to understand me"

"I understand you Mr President"

For a second they locked eyes and then Jed nodded. "Okay" he said quietly. "Okay."

Jake tapped his fingers against the arm of the couch and then.

"I hope your gonna run again. I know you've got people telling you what to do but…I hope you do it. If you do this will be my first vote and I was kinda hoping I could do it for you win or lose"

There was as knock on the door and it was Leo.

"Sir? Hey Jake?"

"Leo"

"Thank you Jacob"

"Peace out Mr President"

Just when you thought you were on the kid's side he found a way to suck you back.

God Jed loved the kid. He loved the kid something fierce.


He bummed a lift with Donna, Margaret, Ed and Larry. They were a combination of soaking wet and very scared when they got there but they got there and snuck in the back. Donna her face sprinkled with rainwater turned and rubbed his arm. It was only then that Jake realised that he was shaking slightly.

"Cold" he said and she nodded though he knew that she didn't believe him.

She took his hand and he let her and Margaret moved to the other side of him shooting her death ray look to a Fox News Reporter who moved down several seats when she saw it.

It was pandemonium. His mother was doing her best but it was utter chaos. Not even the kind of chaos that one got when working for the White House, the good kind, the rush. This was just…feral. He looked at the press and wondered if this had been what it had been like after the shooting.

And then the President appeared.

If Jake didn't know any better and if he didn't know that It was raining outside he would have said that he was glowing.

And then the question was asked.

To be honest it was only one question that was ever going to be asked wasn't there?

"Mr President, can you tell us right now if you will be seeking a second term?"

Everyone, everyone held their breathe even as the President asked her to repeat the question. Donna's hand in his was stiff and she gripped tight. Margaret next to him was like stone. None of them could tear their eyes away.

And then the man smiled.

"You bet, and I'm gonna win"

Jake whooped out loud before he could stop himself.

He figured it would all be forgotten in the end.


Also, I am not going to include Isaac and Ishmael in this story. That episodes is connected to 9/11 and like the cast said doesn't fit into the timeline of the series. Therefore I am respectfully going to leave it as the stand alone that it was intended to be and so we go straight from Two Cathedrals to Manchester Part 1.

Next Chapter-The First of Season 3-In which Jed Barlett's medical condition and re-election campaign kick off. Jake resigns himself to another campaign trail and CJ makes a critical mistake.