Note: This ends on a cliffhanger but only because I didn't want to split up the next chapter, which has the most romantic adorableness you could imagine...

Surround Yourself With Smart People

CJ blew into Toby's office like a vindictive tornado just as he was hanging up with Babish's secretary.

"You could win an Oscar with those eyebrows alone," he told her when she was finished closing his blinds and shutting his door.

"Talk me off the ledge, Toby. It feels like my insides are held together with gaffe tape or something! The winners of the National Elementary School Debate Team or whatever have canceled on the President, someone's got it in for Addy, I've got a scheduled press briefing in five hours, and-"

"First things first," he interrupted. "'Gaffe tape?'"

CJ threw her arms up. "You know what I mean! The thing that should help me fix things is tangling me up, instead!"

The words "Didn't you work in Hollywood?" slipped out of his mouth before Toby could stop them. Predictably, this settled him neatly in her gunsights.

"How are you so calm right now?" she snapped.

"I don't know, maybe the tape in my gut has taken the wheel?" He spoke again quickly, as CJ did not take his attempt at humor very well at all. "I can assure you I was not calm on the phone to Oliver Babish's secretary, seconds before you stormed in here. I assume you know about the security footage?"

"I haven't seen it," she said, crossing her arms tightly. "I'd like to ask for a copy of what they have, but I haven't sent anything over there yet. The wording for that has to walk a very fine line."

"Good. Not asking will send more of a message than asking," Toby approved, standing up. The need to pace was universal this morning. "As for the briefing, I, uh, have an idea about that."

Maybe he did have caution tape spinning around in his chest, if the fluttering feeling of excited anticipation was any indication. Everything was happening too fast and somehow not fast enough. The approving devil on his shoulder was screaming at its angel counterpart to stop offering up reasons why his outrageous plan was a bad idea, but the more he thought about the timing, the more it seemed like today would work best.

You didn't even buy it! the angel reminded him.

"Toby, if I have to make it into the history books, I don't want it to be because I caught fire waiting for you to break your plans to me gently!"

"Have Addy give the briefing," he blurted out.

"You've lost your mind."

"No, think about it: this is already national news, and most places will use the most recent footage they can find. That lets us control the imagery, not to mention the fact that Addy is articulate, firm, brilliant in a crisis-"

"She is charming, and she's popular with the press room. I suppose that might make some of them couch their questions," CJ mused, still frowning. "Even if I fully agree with this suggestion, and I'm not sure I do, you know there's no way I'm asking her to do this, right? That's all you."

Toby's phone rang. When he picked it up, he immediately recognized both the caller and their tone of voice.

"Toby, I really hope the reason no one's briefed me on this tabloid piece is because you're still gathering information. I just got off the phone with my daughter. She pressed me for details. Details. I am in purgatory, and I'm blaming you."

"Mr. President, I've already sent someone down to the White House Counsel's office to find out whether we can suppress the footage on privacy grounds," Toby said. CJ mouthed 'I'm out' and headed for the door, shutting it behind her as he continued, "I suspect Oliver will to tell us this is a warning shot, and it's not likely to get on the air."

"I think you'd better get down here so we can figure it out."

Toby's "Yes, sir," didn't land before his boss hung up.

88888888888

Anonymity was one of those things a person didn't appreciate until it was gone. Addy wondered how long it would be before everyone in the building knew about the footage. The closer she got to her office, the more note people seemed to take of her, but that made a frustrating sort of sense.

Her particular corner of that world needed to be attuned to breaking news, and today, Addy Blair was news.

At least the curious, somewhat knowing looks that people were shooting her way made Addy feel better about dropping by CJ's office on the way to Leo's. The new scrutiny was going to scuttle her plan to leave the Grace Note that was burning a hole in her pocket, though. For one incandescent second, she'd considered leaving it in Oliver Babish's office, but that would have unmasked her in record time. Honestly, the Leonardo da Vinci quote she'd paraphrased might do that anyway.

Love shows itself more in adversity than prosperity, just as light shines most brightly in the darkest places.

She walked into the press area to 'check the fax machine' (something she'd made a habit of doing over the past weeks for just this reason) and slipped the Note between two yet-to-be-unfolded newspapers, her heart pounding.

Just as she was turning around to leave the area, a man's hand slapped down on the papers, startling her.

"What is this, self-sabotage?" Danny Concannon asked in a polite tone that belied the displeased expression on his face.

"What do you m-" she started.

He silenced her with a pointed look as he unerringly pulled the Grace Note from her hasty hiding place.

"I had my suspicions, but this is just sloppy." Danny regarded her for a long minute as she fought inwardly with her instinct to play it off, to say she'd seen the note and didn't want to be the one who 'found' it. Chickening out, she muttered that she needed to speak to CJ, turning to leave the area. He wasn't done with her yet, though. In a quiet voice behind her, he said, "I've gotta hand it to you. By giving us an apolitical internal boogeyman, you've focused staff frustrations away from the President."

She stopped at CJ's open office door, but wasn't brave enough to look back at him. "You don't miss much, do you?"

"That's the job," CJ said, getting up from her desk and eyeing Danny with a look of resignation. "What's up?"

Danny shoved the note into his pocket. Instead of announcing he'd unmasked the dastardly note-leaver, though, he just rocked back on his heels and cleared his throat. "Press attention's about to ramp up. I wanted to make clear it's not from me."

Without waiting for a response from either of them, he smiled and headed out.

CJ watched him go, her cheeks pinking a little before she said, "I really wish I knew whether this is a professional ethics thing or a favor."

"Both, maybe?"

At that, CJ herded her farther into the office and closed the door with a short puff of frustrated breath. "I'd like to get out ahead of all this before it takes up more air than our actual agenda. There's a briefing this afternoon, enough time for some of the press to get back from the lunch event on the Hill. I want you at the podium."

Addy sat down, hard. The office swam in peripheral vision as she stared straight ahead, picturing herself fielding personal questions about herself and Toby. The more she thought about it, though, the more confident the Addy in her mind's eye became. Instead of watching and worrying about misconceptions as someone else answered questions about herself and her mystery suitor, she could deflect and obfuscate at will- or could she?

"Wow, you went on a whole journey, there," CJ remarked.

Addy mentally shook herself and said, "I think I can handle that, but I need to ask: how truthful can I be? I'd like to keep the President out of this, if possible."

"My instinct is, whatever's necessary to ruin the scoop, short of blatant lying."

"There's a snag with that," Addy winced. CJ didn't know about the possible footage of Bartlet's interruption, but she knew the relationship had the Presidential seal of approval. "I know things, and the reporters know things, but-"

"You don't know what they don't know, and vice versa? Yeah, welcome to my job," CJ laughed ruefully.

"Exactly." Addy moved her arm and felt the envelope Babish had given her. "If it helps, I just got back from asking the White House Counsel about this stuff, and he gave me a message for Leo, so I could ask him?"

"Someone should loop in Toby, too, but I can do that. You get going, then," CJ decided aloud, clearly preoccupied enough not to ask who sent her to Babish in the first place. Addy took that as her cue to head over to Leo's office.

When she got there, Margaret took one look at her and lifted the phone receiver, hitting a button that Addy recognized as a 'someone's here to see you' notification.

"I look that bad, huh?"

"Not bad, just serious," her friend said with uncharacteristic brevity. "Leo will get it all fixed up, you'll see."

The door opened as Margaret spoke, and Leo leaned out, a good-natured frown on his face. "Are you out here making promises again? Ahh, Addy. Good." He jerked his head to get her to follow him back inside. "I was in with the President just a bit ago. His daughter called, something about a news program revealing the White House's clandestine relationship?" He stopped beside his desk to fiddle with one of the folders there, and Addy knew this was a less formal opportunity for her to interject. Once he was seated at his desk, things would feel more serious.

"The outbuildings in Manchester have video surveillance. It seems the source took some footage with him when he quit." She pulled her jacket to the side to retrieve the envelope Babish had given her and handed it to Leo. "Toby sent me to speak with the White House counsel, that's from him."

Leo's eyebrows were almost comically elevated as he made his way around his desk to examine the contents of Babish's note. Addy stayed standing, feeling a bit like she ought to, after all the furor she and Toby had caused.

"You made quite an impression," he remarked, looking up at her over his reading glasses. "Oh, for god's sake sit down! What do you think I'm going to say that Oliver Babish, Jed Bartlet, and Entertainment Weekly haven't said already?"

Addy had learned enough about his expectations over the years to sit down before she responded. "Being disappointed in me is enough," she said truthfully.

He set down the note, even though it was clear he wasn't finished reading it over. "Are you happy?"

"Yes."

"Happiness matters for competency, but you didn't hear that from me." Leo picked up the note again, taking off his glasses and tapping them against the page before folding it up and tucking it back inside its envelope. "Oliver's got a few things up his sleeve for down the road."

"That's it?" she asked without thinking. The impression she'd gotten was that the letter was important, not a vague vehicle for reassurance.

"You want information you'll have to worry how to conceal later?"

Addy winced. "Sorry, I'm just- this whole day has been one surreal thing after another."

"CJ's a good role model, and you've been in the biz for a while. You'll be fine."

This felt enough like a dismissal that Addy stood, catching a slight smile from Leo that confirmed her hunch as she did so. Before she had a chance to get all the way to the door that would lead back to Margaret, though, an exclamation from the more auspicious room in the opposite direction led them both to look at each other in shock.

"Holy hell, Toby! Are you about to ask that young woman to marry you?"

Addy's heart caught fire, the words repeating and repeating until the inside of her head had made a strange sort of symphony out of the overlapping sounds.

As she fought to master her reaction, Leo got up from his chair and started for the door that led to the Oval, only to stop still and rub the back of his neck in consternation. For the first time since she'd known him as a person rather than a public figure, Leo looked truly off balance. He pulled in a long breath and let it out, but something in her expression seemed to give him pause. He pointed back at the President's office with his thumb.

"When Toby gets an idea in his head, he goes mach 3 on it. You want me to talk to him?"

She wanted to say no.

She wanted to tell Leo that he was the absolute last person to talk to Toby about a relationship with her.

Addy wanted to object and say it had been the First Lady who said… that, and she could be wrong! She really hoped Abbey Bartlet wasn't wrong. Was that irresponsible? Did she care if it was?

Each of these things rushed to her lips at once and gathered there, silencing her.

"Don't lose it on me." Leo walked over to pick up Babish's letter from his desk. "That look of shattered idealism on your face when you heard about my divorce- those are the ends of the spectrum. Most fall somewhere in the middle, like those two lovebirds in there."

Getting relationship advice from Leo McGarry wasn't at all what Addy had expected to happen at this job, but somehow, it was exactly what she needed. It was just too bad there was no way to tell him just how much he'd meant to her over the course of her life so far. In a way, he'd kept her safe from making poor choices- at least up until this point, anyway.

Loving Toby Ziegler wasn't a poor choice, but it was certainly a complicated one.

How had everything gotten so twisted up, so messy?

"I wonder what it's like to fall for someone and not worry about whether the whole country wants to have a say in it," Addy muttered. Would the beltway press expect her to reject a proposal, if it were to happen? To resign? It might be her duty to do both.

"You'll have to talk to Zoe or Charlie about that," Leo said grimly.

"I swear, when I took this job, I just wanted to get a chance to help the White House do the things I voted for, but everything I do lately just blinks a big neon sign saying, 'Hey! You! Look over here!' instead of at all the important stuff." She groaned, scrunching her eyes up and tipping her head back. "Even if I could get my wish and the ground would swallow me up whole, do you know what would happen?"

"A two-day news cycle about your disappearance, right before the new jobs report?"

Addy deflated. She'd been about to joke about a 'missing staffer' news cycle, but she'd been kidding. Was she meant to know about the jobs report, or was that a Need to Know thing until it was released?

Leo's expression showed he could sense her inner turmoil. "Don't fret. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, they'll think this whole secret relationship thing is engineered cover, which makes us look like we know what we're doing."

All she could do was stare at him. This seemed to animate something in the man, who sank deep in thought for a moment before swiveling back to head for the door again.

"What is it?"

"Frustration and a hefty dose of paranoia, probably. What if there had been a journalist in here? Hmm? We've got to stop treating this place like a weekend retreat!" Leo said, grabbing the doorknob that led to the Oval Office and thrusting it open. Addy followed, a wash of delight and surprise striking her a second time. Whether or not the First Lady had been right in her conjecture, the idea was out there, and she couldn't help picturing a life, a public life with Toby.

She was willing to fight for that chance, if need be.

88888888888

Minutes earlier…

Charlie waved him in right away when he got to the Oval, but the President didn't look up from the file he was reading, not until Toby had been standing and waiting for a good two minutes at least. Bartlet was good at psychological warfare, and he had the bit in his teeth.

"Their names were Maisie Swallwell and Ed Barnes. They worked for the Carter Administration, and before that, on his campaign," the President said without looking up from the report he was paging through. "Four months into his term they married, secretly. Story didn't come out until after the hostages were taken, and at that point, everyone had bigger fish to fry."

Toby pressed his lips together and tried not to let his hand jitter at his side too much. His boss was savvy, but the chances that he'd figured out Toby's plan was almost nil. That meant this was about being on the hot seat more than it was torture for information.

"Frank Lassiter and Maude Eisenbaum carried on a love affair right smack in the middle of Watergate. Reports are, someone in the press corps caught the two of them in the Roosevelt Room the day Nixon resigned, and not one story came of it. Do you know why?"

"Bigger fish?" Toby guessed.

"You've got it." Bartlet leaned back in his chair, seemingly warming to the subject. "Two decades before that, when they were finally tossing McCarthy out on his ass, Netty Black and Hal Potter were right in the thick of it all- and this probably comes out of left field, but-"

"No one was in a frying mood at the time?"

"Good guess!" Bartlet's joviality wasn't wholly sincere, but his next words illustrated why. "I gotta ask you, as the bigger fish right now: how much hot oil I should expect, before this is all over?"

That felt deeply unfair, given the nature of the President's own scandal, but Toby managed to keep his frustration in check. After all, depending on the length of the footage, Bartlet might be on that tape.

"A single coat of it, sir, if all goes well."

A door opened across the room, and a woman's voice rang out, fully recognizable and subsequently terrifying. "Holy hell, Toby! Are you about to ask that poor young woman to marry you?"

"A little louder dear, if you please? I'm not sure they heard you in the press room," Bartlet grumbled.

Every inch of Toby's skin tingled with dismay, but after that wore off, he felt more exhilarated than mortified. If Abbey Bartlet could read his intentions that easily, then there wasn't much point in obfuscating the truth.

"Yes, ma'am, I am," he answered the First Lady.

"Good."

"Abbey, as a citizen and a doctor, I really think you ought to spend more time caring about my blood pressure!"

"And, as your wife," she said, eyes blazing, "I think you should spend more time trusting me! Excuse me, I need to go fetch something from the Residence."

Had she shown up just to out him? That made it seem like she was a part of Toby's whole press strategy before he even got a chance to pitch it to the president. He risked a look, knowing that Jed Bartlet's mood could rise and fall depending on whether he felt he had the upper hand with his wife.

"The boiling cauldron above my head is starting to tip, Ziegler. How is marrying Ms. Blair going to keep it balanced?"

Hearing that wild, implausible future spoken aloud painted Toby's insides with acid adrenaline, the kind that gave a man reckless bravery. "We need to take control of the story and offer a natural conclusion to it, one that benefits us more than the press."

He was just detailing the last, most important part of his plan when Leo's connecting door opened with a bang.

"Mr. President, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna need to have a word with your wife."

Leo scanned the room for the First Lady, but it wasn't until Toby saw Addy step into the doorway that he realized what must have happened.

They must have overheard the comment about the proposal.

His heart stuttered in his chest for a second as it swapped fuel from blood to elation- because Addy didn't look upset. She looked surprised and, if he were forced to guess, pleased.

Because of where he was standing, Addy hadn't seen him yet. Her fist was pressed to her lips, but she seemed to be exuding a kind of fragile joy, one that set her usual brand of charming confidence on a shelf just in reach.

The booming voice of the president took Toby's gaze away from her.

"When you put it like that…" Bartlet got up and walked around his desk to look from Leo to Toby as if raring for a battle of words. Then he noticed Addy in the doorway.

"Well, now. You're not an enemy combatant!" he said, sounding disappointed. "I presume the two of you haven't discussed this, by the looks on your faces. Off into Leo's office to hash that out, will you? I have trouble lying to the women in my family, and if any of them catch wind of this, they'll be on me like harpies."

"Sir-" Leo started.

"You're the one who chose to come barging in here!" the President said, pointing at Leo like an umpire. "Come on, we're going somewhere we can't eavesdrop."

"Don't worry, we won't touch anything," Toby said, his stressed voice breaking on the word touch, causing Leo's eyes to widen in mock horror.

"You better not! The last thing I need is a play by play from Margaret!"

With that, he followed Bartlet out the curved door, shutting it behind them.