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Analecta
by: N. Y. Smith
Disclaimer: Not Mine
Category: AU (very), Josh/Donna Romance, Josh POV, Angst,
Spoilers: Through Season Three
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: Contains references to 9/11/2001. Amy-free universe.
These Lyman people make the Theodore Roosevelts look like the John Adamses.
Unidentified member of the White House custodial staff
When you're away for a while, it's easy to forget what an adder's nest Washington is. It only took me a month to
piss of the Speaker of the House (who was a Democrat) which meant the Lyman Administration spent the next
six months paying for it. Sam, who was Chief of Staff, told me often that I was more trouble than President
Bartlet. I would retort that Leo McGarry never had any trouble keeping me in line to which Margaret would
snort derisively from her place at what used to be Delores Landingham's desk. Donna would usually breeze in at
about this point of the conversation and just shake her head before informing me of some familial obligation for
which I was late.
Sam assembled a crackerjack staff for our Presidency. Toby resigned as Andrea's Chief of Staff to become my
Senior Policy Advisor. CJ came on board as Director of Communications. Sam's Deputy was his chief clerk in
the District Court: Charles Young, esquire. The family was together again.
Priorities are really hard to keep straight in Washington and, when you have the top job, it can be downright
impossible-unless you have a First Lady like Donna. She rewrote the job description. She orchestrated the first
major structural and cosmetic renovation of the White House since the Kennedy Administration. Everything,
from wiring to plumbing to carpet to lace, was updated or restored. It was begun in March of 2019 and
completed during the final months of our second term. Yes, our second term.
Donna didn't just limit herself to renovating old houses-despite the fact that the best-received joke at the 2019
Correspondents' Dinner was that the only way I'd gotten Donna to agree to return to Washington was because
I'd found this great fixer-upper at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. She tackled women's issues on a worldwide
scale. She continued to champion causes that supported education, the environment and children. She was more
like Eleanor Roosevelt that Jacqueline Kennedy and she did it all while raising four teenagers who were just as
apt to slide down the bannister as walk down the stairs (figuratively, of course).
Teenagers in the White House-now there's an interesting concept. At first, they were a bit like country mice but,
being the smart kids they were, they adapted-sometimes too well. Noah, who turned eighteen during our first
term, learned on that day that just because your Secret Service detail may be old enough to buy liquor, you're
not. He didn't buy, but the detail busted him to his mom who scolded him only slightly because he was leaving
in the fall for college-at the Air Force Academy. How ironic was it that our son, who was born on Air Force
One, wanted to pilot Air Force One?
Kennedy, on the other hand, was a born statesman who planned to go to Harvard. Severe hearing loss from an
ear infection delayed his plans slightly, but he started attending his parents' alma mater in January, 2022. Moss
had medical leanings and entered Yale in the fall of 2022-with further plans to attend medical school at Johns
Hopkins. Pixie wanted nothing more than to teach and entered Harvard in 2023 with plans for an Education
Degree. So, shortly after the beginning of our second term, the Lymans were semi-officially "empty nesters."
Our nest emptied further when my mom and Dr. Bartlet both passed away in 2023.
The extended White House renovations were somewhat of a blessing in disguise: the disruption gave us an
excuse to escape to the mill as often as possible. Increasingly, visiting heads of state would request to conduct
our private meetings at the mill before the public announcements at the White House. Part of the reason was the
renovation but the rest of the reason was personal.
In the years since the Treaty of Riyadh, most of the delegates had risen in their respective governments- many to
the throne or chief executive. Others were prime ministers, senior advisors, members of the ruling
households-and we'd stayed in touch through the years. For most, the official trip to the mill was a return visit.
And so Mill Pond Diplomacy was revived-with surprising success. This aggravated the State Department, but,
then, I aggravated the State Department. By nature it is a lethargic beast and there were times, especially when
the Middle East situation turned grave again in '24, that quick action was needed. I called a summit and the
leaders responded. In seven grueling days we'd hammered out a preliminary agreement that led to the Treaty of
Ankara in 2026-the negotiating team was led by Charlie Young.
It was during that summit that Noah, soon to graduate from Air Force, called with news that he'd found, as he
put it, his "Donna."
"She's smart, Dad," he'd said. "And she refuses to put up with my guff without treating me like an idiot."
"Marry her," I advised.
He did, his brother Kennedy standing as his best man, in the chapel of The Ramparts immediately after receiving
his commission from the President of the United States. We both cried. He led his bride beneath the traditional
sabers and took off into the sky.
Kennedy also graduated that year, summa cum laude in History, then immediately began law school at Harvard.
He received his JD when Moss graduated with a degree in Biology in '26. While he was studying for the New
Hampshire bar and Moss began medical school at Johns Hopkins, Donna and I campaigned for the Democratic
candidates in the election of 2026. Narrowly, we lost the White House, but gained control of the Congress-due
largely to the efforts of new Speaker of the House Andrea Wyatt.
When we flew back to New Hampshire in January, 2027, the newest member of the crew of Air Force One
greeted us at the door-First Lieutenant Noah Lyman. He had presented us, just a month earlier, with the newest
generation of the Lyman family: our grandson, Bartlet McGarry Lyman (his grandmother had a hand in the
naming, I suspect). Bart Lyman: doesn't that sound like a starting pitcher for the Mets?
Kennedy, always competitive with his brother, married one of Moss' classmates in a double White House
wedding with his sister, who married a member of his law class, just before Chanukkah, 2026. Pixie had been
dating a classmate of Noah's for a couple of years and we had a pondside wedding in the spring of 2027.
You're probably asking yourself, "But what happened during your terms in office, Mr. President?"
That's a tale for someone else. My former Chief of Staff swears he is writing an expose of the Lyman
Administration, Toby has been scribbling notes on a thousand little pads and CJ Cregg has been tapping away at
her PDA. My money's on Danny Concannon. He is more than a reporter; he is an historian with the gift of
writing.
Do I miss the White House, as I sit beside my pond? I'd be lying if I said I didn't.
Chapters -
Prologue | 1 | 2 |
3 | 4 | 5 |
6 | 7 | 8 |
9 | 10 | 11 |
12 | 13 | 14 |
15 | 16 | 17 |
18 | 19 | 20 |
21 | 22 | 23
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