What Began at The Commons

by: Tiny Dancer

Character(s): Ensemble, with a little bit of J/D
Category(s): General, Pre-administration
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Please don't sue me! Of course they're not mine, they would never have won all those Emmys if they were!
Author's Note: I still can't believe I actually wrote something and finished it! This is my first fic and I have two huge thank yous. Firstly to Columbia, who is a great fic writer, herself and took the time to read this and give me her unbiased opinion and some great suggestions.

And second to Katy. She got me into the West Wing in the first place and then told me that eventually I would end up writing something-she was right! She also gave me great advice and suggestions and made me write narrative. Without her this would just be a load of dialogue and no one would know what was going on! Thank you so much you two, and to anyone else who reads this!

As the crowd at the VFW Hallbegan to leave, Leo looked over to Josh who was still sat in his chair, with his crossword on his lap.  He seemed almost in a daze, staring out at the stage, as though still captivated by the now absent speaker.  He wasn’t aware of the room around him, the people milling around in the background, the scowls being shot across the back of the room.  He wasn’t even aware of Leo approaching, until he felt the touch on his shoulder.

"So, what did you think?"  There was a mocking, almost smug smile on his face, maybe in response to the enraptured glow that surrounded Josh.  He had been right about Jed Bartlet.  Josh hadn’t believed him, but he had been right, and Josh had obviously realised that.

Josh looked at him for a second, his words forming more rapidly than his thoughts.  "So, do you want me?"  He sounded almost desperate, like a child thirsting for approval; his hands clenched at the half-filled crossword.

Leo almost wanted to refuse him, just to see his reaction, but he couldn’t, not really.  They needed Josh, that was why he had gone for him.  He had known that was what they needed from the beginning; it had just taken them this long to work out how to get it.  "Why do you think you’re here?"

Josh, being not as inconspicuous as he thought he was, turned to steal a glance of the people still griping at the back of the hall.  For a moment his eyes were caught by one of the men.  He stood apart from the rest, looking tired, looking defensive, and for a moment Josh wondered if there was the possibility that he was drunk.  "You’re really gonna fire everyone?" he asked, incredulously, tearing his eyes from the man and looking back into Leo’s weathered face.  

"’Course I am, I want to get this man elected."  His voice was solid; there was no room for argument.  So what if Bartlet was behind by 48 points.  He looked Josh square in the eye, as if challenging him to disagree.  "He’s a good man and he deserves the best."

Jed Bartlet needed a better campaign then he had.  He needed something that Hoynes would never have.  Josh’s mind was immediately alight.  "Well if it’s the best you’re looking for, you need a speechwriter?"

Sam would come for this.  He would, whatever he had to leave behind.  This was the real thing, Josh was sure of it.

Leo, of course, was no mind reader; he didn’t understand the monumental implications of what he was asking for.  "I need everything!"

Suddenly Josh felt excited.  This was a plan, the start of something really real.  This would be a challenge - things had been to easy for far too long.

Standing up, he discarded the paper onto the table, and picked his backpack up from off the floor.  "There’s this guy I know, Sam Seaborn, he’s working as a lawyer at...um...I don’t know, some law firm in New York, but he’s a damn good writer.  We need him."  He was worried for a moment that Leo would say no, that he would want to put together his own team.  He did look a little apprehensive.

"He’s a lawyer in New York?"

Josh nodded, almost wincing at the slightly unsure tone in Leo’s voice.

"He must be earning some serious money.  You sure he’s gonna want to leave that for a job paying $600 a week?"  At this, Josh grinned.  Sure, Sam was an Armani freak, but he wasn’t a materialist.

Josh spoke with absolute assurance, as they walked through the hall to the exit.  "If Bartlet’s the real thing he will," he promised.

Leo nodded, understanding maybe more than Josh gave him credit for.  "He is."  He and Jed hadn’t been friends forty years for nothing.

He watched Josh’s face illuminate under the soft glow of the streetlamps outside.  Stepping out into the cold, he pulled his coat around him, but his face showed a newfound vigour than had not been present when Leo had seen him before at the Senate House.

"Then we’ve got Sam."

"Margaret!"  Leo yelled, up to his elbows in files that seemed to be about nothing in particular, and in no order in particular.  He pulled at the top button on his shirt, and was about to yell for his wayward assistant again when -

"Yes Leo?"  Margaret breezed into his makeshift office, her arms full of yet more files.  He wondered what the hell they could possibly be about - was there honestly any way that he didn’t have them all here, cluttering the desk in front of him?

Glancing down at the paper in front of him, he requested, "Get me Toby Ziegler would you?"

Margaret punctuated the end of his order with a nod. "Yes. Oh, Leo, you have an appointment with George Samuels at 4.00."  She slipped it in, almost as if he wouldn’t notice.

He did.  "Since when?"  His voice could have almost been classified as a whine if the look on his face hadn’t been so furiously frustrated.

She ignored this, and continued.  "Since he made an appointment."  She made it all sound so rational.

He took off his glasses, rubbed at his temples. "Do you know what it’s about?"

She didn’t look embarrassed by her answer; the look on her face said it made the most sense in the world.  "I didn’t think it right to ask."

He wondered if she would ever be normal. He wondered when it was that he had gotten used to her being so strange, as though it would be strange if she then were normal.  "So he could be coming to talk to me about anything."

"I suppose so," she agreed, nodding her newly cut red bobbed head.

He growled at her, "Margaret."

She took the hint; she knew what his ‘don’t mess with me’ voice sounded like.  "You want me to call him and ask what it is about?"

He signed, resigned, "That would be good."

"Even though it’ll make me look stupid?"  At her words, he gave her what she had deemed in the years of working with him as ‘the look’.  Coupled with the ‘don’t mess with me’ voice, it had her scuttling out the door.  "I’m going."

"Thank you" muttered Leo gruffly after her retreating form.

He had just turned back to the unending pile of folders, trying to regroup after the encounter with his assistant, who always left him feeling as though he was losing his mind, when there came another knock at his door.

"Yeah?"  Today was not going to be a day for work, he knew it, and they had so little time, and they were still missing half of their staff.  At least this meeting might go some way to remedying the latter problem.

Toby, stood in the doorframe, hands clasped behind his back, face turned to watch his shuffling feet.  "Margaret said you wanted to see me," he explained, looking up.

"That was quick," he remarked, half absentmindedly, not quite looking at the man that stood in his office.  Leo wasn’t sure what to make of Toby, not yet.  He knew he was good, but he wasn’t sure how to treat him.  He still seemed so distant.

"Yeah I was on my way to see you anyway," Toby’s voice gave away an ulterior motive.

"What about?" Leo asked.

"You first."

"We’re not getting much press interest yet, but I want to be prepared for when we do.  We’ve already got that annoying redheaded reporter following us round, hopefully he’ll be the first of many," Leo said, "I have a few names here for the Press Secretary but I wanna know what you think."  Leo looked down at the many papers in front of him looking for the list he wanted.

"Who’ve you got?"  Toby asked, edging towards Leo’s desk, still slightly wary of the man sat in front of him.

Leo found the list he was looking for, he put on his glasses and began reading form the list of names in front of him, "Simon Noble, Michael Knowles, Paul Friesen-"

Toby saw his opportunity, "What about Claudia Jean Cregg?"

"I recognise the name, what’s she done?" Leo put the list down and took off his glasses.  He tried to look Toby in the eye but he was fixated on a spot on the floor.

"She’s only worked in California, but she’s worked a lot with some girls’ group with a stupid name and she’s done some work with-" Toby was now scuffing the spot on the floor with his shoe, still refusing to look Leo in the eye.

"Which group?" Leo was interested now; he sat back in his chair listening to what Toby had to say.

"I’m sorry?"  Toby finally looked up.

"Which group with the stupid name?" Yep, it was definitely turning into one of those days.

"I don’t know," He really should have paid more attention to what she said in their phone calls to each other.

"Well find out and tell me.  There are many a girls’ group with a stupid name."  Leo put on his glasses signalling the end of the conversation.

"Yeah," Toby said as he began to walk out.

"Toby," Leo called.

"Yeah?" he turned back, but didn’t come quite back into the room.

"What did you want to see me about?" Leo asked, remembering that Toby said he was on his way to see him anyway.

"Nothing"

"Okay," Leo wasn’t going to waste any time trying to work out what Toby was coming to see him about, "Now go get me something on Claudia Cregg."

The usual hubbub of New York City was drowned out by the sound of the drenching rain and Josh and Sam were walking away from Sam’s office building in the downpour.

"I should’ve got an umbrella or something." The young lawyer had his hands stuffed into his pockets, shoulders hunched to try and stop the water from dripping down his back.

"Sam, I don’t believe you sometimes!" Josh exclaimed. He had given up on trying to keep dry. He figured there comes a point where you’re so wet you can’t get any wetter.  Ever since he had left the VFW hall in Nashua he had a huge grin on his face. People had been looking at him like he was crazy on the train to New York and even now people were staring at these two men, in their drenched suits, their hair dripping wet, not even trying to find shelter like everyone else around them.

"What?" Sam stopped right in a puddle and could feel the water seeping through into his socks.  It took him a second to realise that there was extra water in his shoe, he stepped out of the puddle and tried to shake the water out.  When he realised this was useless and he just looked an idiot, he dropped his hands to his sides and looked up at Josh with a small frown.

Josh was walking backwards, laughing at his friend’s feeble attempts to stay dry.  "You just walked out of your job, probably ruined your career in law and you’re worried about getting wet!"  He turned around, deciding that he was less likely to fall down if he walked the right way round.

"Hey this is a nice suit," Sam gestured to his Armani, not exactly looking its best while soaking wet.

Josh shook his head as Sam broke into a slow run in order to catch up with him.  They continued walking in silence, not really knowing where they were going.

"So," Josh was the first to speak, "what now?"

"Well, you’re the one who came to get me, I was expecting you to have some kind of plan," Sam turned to look at his friend who was making a point of not making direct eye contact with him.

"Political plans I can do, when it comes to my life, not so much."

"What have I done?!" Josh was worried for a second that Sam was going to turn around and go back to Gage Whitney begging for his job back, but Sam playfully whacked him on the arm to show he wasn’t being serious.

"You’ve just joined the campaign for the next President of the United States."

"Is he really the real thing?" Sam asked, knowing what Josh’s answer would be, he had never seen him so excited over a candidate before.

"Okay, and we want you as a speechwriter?!" Josh joked.

"Look, I’m cold and I’m wet, I’m hardly gonna be coming out with inspiring oratory for this occasion."

"Well you better come up with something inspiring soon ‘cause I told Leo McGarry that you were one of the best."

"McGarry’s running the campaign?" Sam stopped and looked at his friend.

"Yeah," Josh replied, turning to look back at him.

"As in former Labour Secretary, Leo McGarry?" Sam seemed to be having difficulty trying to take all of this information in.

"Yeah," he replied simply.  Josh had known Leo his whole life and had a huge amount of respect for him but didn’t have the same feeling of awe as Sam.

"Wow"

Josh looked at his best friend, then carried on walking in whatever direction they were going  "Seriously, come up with something good soon!"

"Don’t worry, I will" Sam replied walking quickly to catch up with Josh.

They continued to walk to nowhere.  Suddenly Sam stopped.

"What?"

"I just thought," Sam replied, "Lisa." 

"CJ, I told you it was a bad idea to buy a house with a pool.  How many is that that you’ve fallen into since I’ve known you?  Six?  Seven?" CJ turned and glared at her old friend.

"Look, if you’re just gonna mock me you can just walk out the door now."  She tried to keep a straight face but found herself smiling.  "I’m gonna go change."

"I could help."

CJ laughed as she threw her damp towel at him and went into her bedroom closing the door on him.

Toby began to wander around CJ’s living room, looking at all the photos on the shelves, CJ with her brothers, with her niece, her father whom she idolised.  She was smiling and laughing in every picture.  Then he saw one of the two of them, her teasing and bright face, his full of doom and gloom: the time they first met.  It was at a campaign conference.  The guy he was working for was running for the California Senate seat.  Toby hated California but it seemed a good idea at the time, didn’t really have anything else to do.  The candidate didn’t have good polling numbers among women and so Toby tried to rectify that.  He hadn’t counted on Claudia Jean Cregg though.  As soon as the candidate began answering questions CJ was standing up demanding answers from him,

You claim to support women in the workplace but I can’t help to notice that there is not one female member on your staff higher than assistant level.  Why is this?  Is it because you feel women can’t cope with the stress of a high-powered job?

She didn’t give the candidate a chance to answer before she was in with her next question,

Also, you state that you want to support single mothers but have criticised and blocked funding for groups that have tried to do just that.  Why is that?

CJ’s questioning continued in that same way until the candidate finally had enough and took no further questions.  Toby should have taken the candidate off as soon as he could see that he was in trouble, but to be honest he was having way too much fun, which didn’t happen very often.  He found CJ and some of her friends after the talk.  They all went to a bar - that must have been when the picture was taken.  Even after most people had left CJ and Toby were still there talking, well arguing to be more precise, and they had been friends ever since.  Toby smiled at the memory.

 "So, McGarry really wants me?"  Toby heard CJ shout from her room.

Toby snapped back from memory lane. "What?" he called back.

"McGarry really wants me?" she called again.

"That’s why I’m here."

"You think he has a chance?"

"Who?"

"Bartlet," she said as she walked back into the room, now in dry clothes, still towel drying her hair.  "Think he has a chance of beating Hoynes?"

"Yeah." He looked at his shoes, just like he had done outside by the pool.

"Toby, look at me.  Do you think Bartlet has a real chance?  ‘Cause I’m not just gonna up and leave for some guy who hasn’t got a chance in hell.  I’ve been watching the news, Hoynes thinks he’s got the nomination in the bag."

"Well, no one I’ve worked for has ever won an election so I wouldn’t really know a winning guy if I saw him, but Bartlet, he has something."  He said looking her straight in the eye.  CJ still wasn’t convinced and there was something in Toby’s expression that told her he wasn’t either.

"Well, what have I got to lose?" she said.  She didn’t have a job any more; she may as well do something useful while looking for another dull, meaningless job.

"Your self-esteem, your dignity, you may never work in politics again-"

"That was actually a rhetorical question Toby. I was using it for effect and you kinda ruined it there," she said smiling at her old friend.

"I didn’t get that."

"Well now you know."

"Okay, then.  Where do we go from here?"

"You wanna drink?" she asked making her way to the kitchen.

"What you got?" Toby replied sitting down on her sofa.

"Jack Daniels," she shouted across from the fridge.

"But you don’t drink Jack Daniels," he commented looking confusedly at the fridge door that partially hid CJ from sight.

She stood up, smiling, "I keep it for the off chance that you might come round."

Josh stood outside Senator Hoynes’ office fumbling with the envelope that contained his resignation letter.  He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous; he was just leaving the favourite for the nomination.  Now is not the time to be having second thoughts he thought to himself, Sam walked out of his job, I can too.  He gathered his strength and knocked loudly on the door.

"Yeah?" came the voice from inside.

"Senator?" Josh walked right up to the Senator’s desk, hands behind his back.

"Josh," Hoynes said, barely looking up from the file he was making notes on, "We missed you yesterday.  What’s the competition like?"

Josh felt he better come out and say it, "I think you better drop out of the running now Senator."

"I’m sorry?" Hoynes looked up from the file and took off his reading glasses.

"Bartlet’s gonna be the next President," Josh wasn’t completely sure of that quite yet but he wasn’t going to let Hoynes know that.

"Is that so?" Josh didn’t answer but just looked down at the Senator.  "How do you know?"

"He’s got me working for him."  Josh gave Hoynes the envelope he had been hiding behind his back.

"What do you mean?"  Hoynes asked as he opened the envelope.

"I’m leaving your campaign to work for Bartlet," Josh stated simply as Hoynes read the letter.

"You are leaving me, the prohibitive favourite to go work for some New England Governor who will barely make it through the first primary?" Hoynes folded the letter and placed it on top of the pile of files on his desk.

"I think you’re underestimating Governor Bartlet," Josh said coolly.

"Josh, I’ve told you before, you are going to play a big part in my administration.  Are you really willing to give up all that?" He stood up to meet Josh’s eye level.

"I don’t think I’m going to be giving up anything.  When Bartlet is President, I’m sure I’ll have an even bigger part to play," Josh was not going to let the Senator intimidate him.

"How can you be so sure that he’s going to win?" Hoynes asked sceptically, folding his arms across his chest.

"He’s the real thing."

The Senator looked at his staffer trying to work out why Josh would want to leave.  "Well, Josh," he finally said, "it’s been a pleasure having you work for me." He held out his hand, which Josh shook.

"It’s been a pleasure working for you, sir." And with that, Josh walked out on the prohibited favourite for the Democratic nomination, only stopping to pick up his backpack, and made his way to New Hampshire.

CJ walked into the campaign office and just stared at the two men in front of her with disbelief.  They were playing basketball in between the improvised offices seemingly oblivious to the people working around them.  Everyone else must have been used to this kind of behaviour since hardly any of them were taking any notice of two grown men running round like little kids.

"Hey, that’s cheating!  You can’t do that!" The darker haired man shouted after the other man snatched the ball out of his hands.

"Watch me, Seaborn." He replied, clambering over one of the desks and running to the end of the room.

"So that’s how we’re playing is it?" Just as the darker haired man began to run towards the other in an attempt to grab the ball from him, he tripped over a box on the floor, tried to grab at the desk to stop himself from falling but instead brought down a pile of papers which scattered around him as he fell with a loud thump on the floor.

The whole room went silent.

"Oops!"

"Hey, Sam, you all right?" the other man called over the desk, still clutching the basketball to his chest.

"Yeah, I’m okay."  The guy, CJ had now identified as Sam, said as he stood up and looked at the papers strewn around him.  He stared at them for a few seconds and began to pick them up.

"That’s Sam and Josh."  Toby said behind her.  "Leo says they’re brilliant, personally I can’t see it myself."  CJ just nodded as Toby led her away.

Just as they were going out the door CJ heard a woman yell, "Sam!  What have you done?!  Do you know how long it took me to put those papers in order?!"

"Margaret, I’m really sorry.  I didn’t see the desk and next thing I knew there were things flying everywhere..."

CJ didn’t get to hear the rest of the conversation as she found that Toby had led her into another office, only this one was a proper room, with walls and a door and everything.

"Leo shouldn’t be too long.  He was meeting with some people about donating more money," Toby said straightening out his tie.

"I bet there can’t be too many people wanting to back you at the moment," she said looking at the chaos around her.  There were papers all over the desk and a pile of files on one of the visitor’s chairs.

Before Toby could answer a short, greying man, whom CJ assumed was Leo McGarry, walked into the room.

"Toby, what you got for me?" the man asked.

"Leo," she was right, "this is Claudia Jean Cregg." Toby indicated standing slightly back from the two.

She held out her hand to him.  "CJ.  It’s good to meet you Mr McGarry."

He took her hand with a firm handshake.  "Call me Leo.  I’ve seen some of your work CJ, looks pretty good."  He moved round to the other side of the desk taking his glasses out of his shirt pocket and putting them on.

"Thank you."

Leo tried to find the file that Toby had given him with the information on CJ, he couldn’t see it anywhere and decided to give up looking for it.  "I’m particularly impressed with the things you’ve done with that girls’ group, with the name...what’s it called?" he asked before answering his own question; "EMILY’s List."

CJ was about to thank him before she was interrupted by a small knock on the door.  It opened slightly and Margaret nodded to Leo through the crack.  Leo looked at her then down to his watch, "I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to leave again." Leo said taking his glasses off again and putting them back in his pocket.  "I have to speak to the Governor about how these meetings have been going.  Toby, why don’t you introduce CJ to everyone and fill her in about everything that’s going on and I will see you later."  Leo said as he gathered up the paperwork on his desk.  Just as he was leaving he turned to CJ and said, "Welcome to the campaign."

Then he walked out the door.

"Do you know what I gave up to some here?!!!" a drunken CJ yelled over the music in the bar.

"What?"  Sam asked staring at the empty beer bottle he was rolling on the table in front of him.

"I said, do you know what I gave up to be here?!!!" she yelled at Sam again.

"I heard what you said," he replied looking up at her.  "I meant what did you give up to be here?"

"I gave up a gorgeous house in Beverly hills," CJ continued, waving her drink in the air.  "With a pool."

"Yeah but losing the pool is probably a good thing," Toby muttered from the corner of the booth, where he was nursing a Jack Daniels.

CJ decided to ignore him, "$550,000 at Triton-Day,"

"Which you thought was beneath you and were subsequently fired from"," Toby interjected again.

CJ decided that a glare was now appropriate, "and a cat!"

"Since when did you have a cat?"  Toby asked.  "You’ve never had a cat!"

"Yeah, but I could’ve had a cat and then I would have had to get someone else to look after it while I was off here campaigning for some know-it-all, jackass, New England Governor, who, after two weeks still calls me Nadia!!!"  This time she waved her hand so strongly violently that the contents of her drink splattered on the floor.  She looked down at the puddle for a moment, "Damn."  She looked back to the others, "I’m gonna need another drink."

"CJ, you’re drunk," observed Toby.

"I am that Tobus, I am drunk so that I can forget how bad my life is!"

"Is that what Toby’s short for?" Josh asked, looking rather rumpled.  He had discarded his tie somewhere at the campaign office and his shirt was untucked and the top button was undone.  He wasn’t exactly looking like the brilliant professional political operative he was supposed to be.

"No."  Toby replied gruffly.

"Then why-?"  Josh began to ask, but Sam shouting across to CJ interrupted him

"Hey, I don’t think yours could get as bad as mine!"

"Okay then Spanky, what did you give up?"  CJ said looking straight at him, attempting to fold her arms, but she couldn’t seem to co-ordinate it right, so just left her hands on the table.

"Spanky?!  Where did that come from?"  Sam exclaimed.

"There’s something you should know about CJ.  She likes to make up nicknames for everyone she works with.  Every member of the campaign will have one by the end of next week."  Toby explained.

"What’s my nickname?"  Josh asked

"I haven’t thought of one for you yet.  But don’t worry, you’ll have one soon." CJ said.

"I bet I’ll have a really good nickname," Josh told his beer bottle.

"Go on then Sam," CJ said.

"What?" he looked at her with an expression on his face as if CJ had just asked him to multiply three-hundred and fifty six by infinity.

"What did you give up to come here?"  CJ asked again.

"If I wanted to watch a sob story I would be back in my hotel room watching Oprah."  Toby complained.  CJ poked her tongue out at him.  "Very mature Ms Cregg," he countered, which made CJ have to resist the urge to elbow him.

"Ignore him Sam, what did you leave behind?"  She turned her attention back to the man sat across from her who was sitting with a deer-in-the-headlights look once again.

"Ah, not much," he said, looking back down at the beer bottle that he was still rolling on the table.  "Thinking about it, you probably left a lot more than me behind."

Josh snickered into his drink.

"What Josh?" CJ asked.

"Nothing.  It’s just I think out of all of us Sam probably gave up the most."

"Shut up Josh," Sam warned.

"Why?" asked CJ looking over at Sam.  "Left behind some girl?"

"Yeah, something like that," was all Sam would say, taking another swig of his beer.

"Some girl?!  Sam you were gonna marry her!"  Josh exclaimed.  "True, she treated you like dirt and was probably only marrying you for your money, but still.  I thought you loved her."

"I thought I did too," Sam said quietly to the table.

CJ got out of the booth and unsteadily made her way round to sit next to Sam.  "Ah, poor Sparky."

"So we’re onto Sparky now?" Sam asked.

"You will have many names by the end of this campaign.  Won’t he Pokey?"  CJ said to Toby.

"Pokey?!"  Josh almost choked on his beer.  "Where does that come from?"

"Ah, that my friend, comes from the first time I met Toby."

"When was that?" asked Sam, his excited tone of voice making him sound very much like the baby of the campaign that he was.

Toby grumbled something about getting another Jack Daniels and went over to the bar.

"You heard of Andrea Wyatt?"  CJ asked the two men.

"Yeah," replied Sam.  "She’s Congresswoman for Maryland isn’t she?"

"That’s right.  When I was working for EMILY’s list Andi came to us for some funding. It was a few years ago now and I was sent to meet her to sort out everything that needed to be done. During her campaign she was supposed to be at a party fundraiser, she was running late and called to ask me to explain to her husband that she would be late.  I’d never met Andi’s husband, but I’d heard about him, gruff, prickly, almost the complete opposite of Andi.  Well, who do you think Andi’s husband was?"

"Who?" asked Josh.

"Toby, you idiot.  Really showing off your Ivy League education there aren’t you Fulbright boy," Sam teased his friend.

"Hey, you’re only jealous," Josh taunted.

"Jealous, of what exactly?!"

"Boys, boys!  If you don’t behave I’m gonna have to split the two of you up," CJ threatened.

"Sorry," the two boys mumbled.

"Right, where did I get to?"

"Having to tell Toby that Andi was running late," Sam prompted.

"Yeah.  Well as I was explaining to Toby about Andi, someone came up to us wishing me well on the campaign.  At first I thought they were talking to Toby, but they thought that I was Andi. I mean, we’re both tall and have red hair, but that’s as far as the similarity goes, but still, this guy obviously wasn’t big in politics.  So I just played along and pretended to be Andi and started calling Toby Pokey just to annoy him.  And when Andi finally arrived she overheard and now she calls him Pokey whenever she wants to piss him off, which is most of the time."  Just as CJ was finishing the end of her story, Toby came up behind her.

"That’s not how we met," he said.

"What?  Course it was, remember?"

"Yes, I do remember, but that wasn’t when we met."

"When was it then?"

"When I was working for Brian Walker."

"You worked for Brian Walker?" CJ asked, looking up to him from her chair, something she didn’t get to do very often.

"Of course I did CJ.  My first Senate race," he said sitting back in his corner.

"You lost that race didn’t you?"  CJ said squinting over at him.  She was trying to work out which of the three Tobys in front of her was the right one.

"Yeah, but that’s not the point," he said taking a sip of his drink.

"What is the point?" asked Sam, looking over to his boss.

"Who knows?  I got lost when CJ was Andi!"  Josh slurred.  He slumped onto his arms and leant on the table.

"Josh, how many beers have you had?" CJ asked.

"I dunno," he sat up and tried to focus on what was in front of him.  "Three? Three and a half?  I kinda lost count.  At the moment it looks like there are eight bottles in front of me!"

"That’s pathetic Josh!"  exclaimed CJ.

"Hey!" Josh practically yelled, defensively, "Who’s the one who’s been drinking Grasshoppers all night?"

"What’s wrong with Grasshoppers?"

"It’s a girly drink."

"Well, I am a girl if you hadn’t noticed" she took a sip of her supposedly girly drink.

"I’d noticed," murmured Toby.

CJ tried to hit him across the table but misjudged the distance and exactly how drunk she was and ended up falling out of the booth.

 "CJ?  You okay down there?"  Toby called down.

"Yeah, I all right.  I’m just gonna lie here for a bit," she called up from the floor.

Josh was giggling in the corner.  CJ thought men couldn’t giggle, but apparently Josh could. She tried to stand up, but consequently found herself back on the floor again.

"Bartlet Press Secretary found drunk and disorderly. That’s gonna make a great headline," a voice above CJ said.

CJ squinted to try and make out who the blurry figure leaning over her.  Whoever it was offered her a hand up.  As she balanced herself she saw who it was that offered their help.

"Mr Concanon," she said as she made sense of the blurry figure in front of her.

"Ms Cregg," Danny replied.

"What are you doing here?"  CJ said, still sat down on the floor.  She refused the hand that he offered.

"I’m here for a drink.  I can see that you’ve already had one."

"Or six," Toby murmured from his corner.

"Danny!" Josh shouted over to him throwing his arms wide open and motioning for Danny to sit down with them.

"Hey Josh.  Mind if I join you?"  Danny said looking at the pathetic drunk leaning against his friend.

"Course not, sit down," Sam went to move over to make room for Danny but CJ quickly scrambled up and stood in the way.

"No you don’t Concanon.  We’re discussing, important campaign stuff," she lied.

"While drunk?"  Danny asked, trying to keep a straight face.

"We are not drunk!"  CJ protested.

"I’m drunk."  Josh murmured.

"Me too," concurred Sam.

"Okay.  The two Ivy boys over there are drunk, but that’s only ‘cause they’re lightweights. Me and Toby on the other hand are perfectly sober."  She may have convinced Danny that she was actually sober if she hadn’t collapsed into the table when she tried to get back to her seat.

"Of course you’re sober CJ.  I’ll see you at the briefing at 9.00 tomorrow then.  I hope your hangover won’t be too bad."

"My hangover will be fine, since I won’t have a hangover since I am not drunk!" she yelled at Danny as he left the bar. "Maybe I am a little drunk," CJ mused to herself.

"I think you are too CJ," Toby agreed.

"Take me to bed Tobus!"  CJ declared.

"Quite happily Claudia Jean."

"Not like that you dumbass!  You’re still married remember?"  She slid out of the booth and steadied herself with the table.

"Yeah, but only technically," Toby moved out after her after downing his Jack Daniels and offered her his arm, which she took quite happily.  They began to make their way awkwardly out of the bar, CJ holding onto Toby for balance. CJ looked back to their booth. "We just gonna leave those too little boys over there?"

Toby glanced back to where Josh and Sam had fallen asleep, Josh still cradling his beer.

"Yeah."

"Okay."  And they slowly made their way back to the hotel.

Everyone in Leo’s office was looking pretty jaded. This campaign wasn’t exactly turning out to be the amazing experience they thought it would be.  Things were going wrong, they were making amateur mistakes and the Governor didn’t seem to like them very much.

The group were all draped around Leo’s office. CJ was leaning against the doorframe, Sam was sat in the visitor’s chair leafing through the latest polling information and Josh was perched on Leo’s desk.  Toby was standing separate from the group on the other side of the small office.

They had been discussing their next plan of action. Josh wasn’t sure but he thought that CJ had been throwing him funny looks all through the meeting.  The first few times he thought that he was imagining it, then maybe that he had dropped some of his lunch on his shirt. He looked down at his clothes; there was nothing there.  He still couldn’t work out what was wrong with her.  By the end of the meeting he had decided that they hadn’t had enough sleep these past few weeks and they all just needed to get to bed and rest.

"Right, I guess that’s everything then.  Now get the hell out of my office so I can get this man elected."

"Thanks Leo," the group mumbled as they walked out of Leo’s office.

CJ, who was at the front of the group, suddenly stopped.

"What the hell-? CJ!" Josh exclaimed as he crashed into the back of her.

"Josh, I didn’t want to ask you this in front of Leo so you can give me a proper explanation."  Glaring down at Josh, she was glad she decided to wear heels today.

"Why?  What have I done?"  Josh asked.

"Ooh, Josh is in trouble," jeered Sam from behind him.

"Sam" Toby warned.

"Shutting up," he said looking down at the legal pad in front of him.

"So what did I do?"  Josh asked again.

"I want you to explain who that young blonde is that’s been following you around all day."  CJ stood in front of him, arms folded with a displeased look on her face.

"Oh, her.  That’s only Donna.  She’s my assistant," Josh said smugly.

"You have an assistant?!" cried Sam looking up from his notes.  "Since when?"

"Since yesterday," Josh replied.

"Please don’t tell me you only hired her because of her looks," CJ implored, pulling herself up to her full height and looking down on Josh disapprovingly.

"Course not.  What do you think I am?" a shocked Josh asked.

"I just don’t want this turning into some kind of sex scandal, there’s enough of those in politics already," CJ said.  She didn’t want Danny to have to add the headline, ‘Bartlet Political Director cavorting with blonde bimbo assistant’ to the ‘drunk and disorderly Press Secretary’ threat.

"CJ, you’re overreacting.  She’s good for the job," he tried to explain.

"Okay, but just to put my mind at rest, what college did she go to?" CJ had seen his new assistant and was thinking pretty much the same as everyone else: pretty face who’s not going to last, but she was hoping that this discussion with Josh would prove her wrong.

"University of Wisconsin-Madison," Josh said confidently. He could see Sam behind CJ watching him intently.  Toby just looked bored.

"What was her major?" CJ asked hoping that Josh would give good answers.

"Political science."  This seemed a lot like the Spanish Inquisition.

"That’s good," she nodded

"Government."  Josh was trying to remember the list that Donna had told him when she persuaded him to hire her.

"She did two majors?"  CJ somehow thought this discussion was not going to calm her fears.

"No, five.  She also majored in sociology, psychology and biology.  And did minors in French and drama."

"She did, what, five majors and two minors in four years?!" Wrong answer Josh.

"Well, only two years actually," Josh said sheepishly, looking down at his shoes, not able to look CJ in the eye anymore. That glare of hers was pretty intimidating.

"This gets better and better," smirked Sam, bouncing on the balls of his feet and giving up on the notes in front of him.

"Sam, stay out of this," Josh growled.

"Hey, it’s not fair.  Me and Toby don’t have an assistant!" cried Sam.

"Toby and I," Toby corrected.  "And actually I do."

"You do?  Why?" Sam looked at his boss, shocked.

"Because I have a very important job and don’t have time to photocopy, answer phones and do other clerical things," Toby explained.

"I’m busy too, I don’t see why I shouldn’t have an assistant as well," Sam whined.

"Can we get back to the situation at hand please children?" CJ asked.

"What is the problem with me having an assistant?" Josh asked.

"There is absolutely no problem with you having an assistant Josh.  As long as she can do the job and you didn’t just hire her for her looks then it’s okay," CJ explained.

"Good," Josh said.

"However, if she doesn’t come up to standard then you’re going to have to fire her," she threatened.

"What-?"  Josh started, but when he saw the look on CJ’s face he knew better than to argue. "Fine," he agreed sulkily as he made his way back to his office.

"I still don’t see why I shouldn’t have an assistant too," Sam continued to complain.  "I mean you have one, Toby has one and now Josh has one.  This really isn’t fair!"

"Oh get over it Sam, you do have an assistant," CJ told him.

"I do?" he looked up at her, confused.

"Yeah.  Didn’t Toby tell you?"

"No!  Who’s my assistant?" he asked.  Why did no one tell him this?  He’d been wasting precious time photocopying and finding out information that he needed and all this time he could’ve gotten someone else to do it.

"Ginger.  She’s both yours and Toby’s.  I’m assuming he didn’t tell you."

"Well, obviously he didn’t otherwise we wouldn’t be having this conversation."

CJ shrugged and went off to find her own assistant.

 "Toby," Sam started, but found that Toby had disappeared.  "Ginger!" he shouted.

"Yeah," she snuck up behind him.  All the assistants had a habit of doing that.

"Why didn’t you tell me you were my assistant too?" he asked.

"I thought you knew and just liked to do things yourself," she answered, knowing full well that Sam didn’t know.

"Well, I didn’t know," Sam said on the verge on whining, "so can you, you know, assist me?"

"Sure.  What do you want doing?"

"I...I...um.  I dunno, but I’ll think of something for later."

"Okay Sam, just yell when you need something," Ginger called as she went back to her desk and the pile of work that Toby had given her that morning.

Josh was working in his office, trying to figure out what to do next in this crazy campaign.  He looked up when he heard someone come into the room.  It was Sam, looking out towards the chaos outside.

"Sam?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you want?"

"I’m sorry?" Sam still wasn’t looking at Josh; he was distracted by something outside the office.

"You came into my office, what do you want?"

"Oh right, yeah," he finally turned around and tore himself away from whatever it was that had caught his attention outside.

"So, what do you want?" Josh prompted.

"Who’s that outside?" Sam asked, pointing towards the open door.

"What?  Who?"

"That cute blonde outside," Sam asked, peering out of the door.

"That’s Donna, she’s my assistant," Josh said proudly.

"I can see why CJ would be worried that you only hired her for her looks," Sam smirked.

"Hey!  You mind?" Josh exclaimed, abruptly standing up.  "That’s my assistant you’re talking about!"

"Okay, calm down.  I was only saying," Sam said coming back in the room.  He was wondering why his taking an interest in Donna was provoking such a strong reaction in Josh.

"Yeah, but I know what you’re like with women, especially blondes."

"Just make sure you’re careful, you know Mandy’s not gonna like it."

"Damn, I completely forgot about that," Josh slumped back down in his chair.  "When is she getting back?" he put his head in his hands and leant on his desk.

"Couple of days.  Make sure you tell her before she finds out for herself otherwise you may find you can’t use your legs for a while," Sam said as he began to leave Josh’s office.

"Er, Sam?" he called, looking up.

He stopped in the doorway, "Yeah?"

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Oh, yeah," Sam said, suddenly remembering why he came to Josh’s office.  "I got the stuff about the thing from CJ."  He handed the file over to Josh.

"And?" he said as he flicked through the papers.

"Not as bad as we thought, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do."

"Well no one said it would be easy," Josh sighed looking through the file Sam had just given him.

"Yeah, look, I’ve got to get back to the speech," he said pointing towards the door.

"Okay," Sam was leaving the office for the final time as Josh called after him, "Just stay away from my assistant!"

Sam just laughed and walked out, but Donna came to the door.

"You wanted me?" she asked perkily, notepad and pen in hand.

"What?" Josh looked up confused.

"I thought you said something about your assistant," she said.

"Oh, yeah I did, but don’t worry," he said waving a vague hand at her.

"Okay," she went to go back to her desk, but changed her mind.  "Uh, Josh?"

"Yeah?" he asked absentmindedly.

"Who was that really cute guy who was just in here?"

"So, why do you think Josh hired her?" Ginger asked Margaret as she picked at the dry salad that she had bought a few hours ago, but had only now had the time to eat.

"I dunno.  She can do the job pretty well, although she does have the weirdest filing system, but the rest of us have had to work to get to this position.  I mean I worked for Leo for four years before he even gave me the job of junior assistant," Margaret complained.  "She just walks in one day and gets a job with the Senior Political Director!"

"Yeah, but she’s not getting paid, I mean, she slept in her car last night," Ginger pointed out, waving her fork in the air.

"She slept in her car?!" Margaret exclaimed.

"She did.  I was gonna ask her if she wanted to sleep in my room at the motel but there’s already four of us in there," Ginger said, taking another mouthful of her lunch.

"I wish I knew that, I could have asked her if she wanted to share with me and Ruth."

"Why don’t you ask her?  She seems nice enough."

"Yeah, I will, but I don’t know how long she’ll be staying though," Margaret leaned in slightly, glancing to the sides to see if anyone was listening, "I heard that she only came here because she broke up with her boyfriend; apparently he treated her really badly."

"Where did you hear that?" Ginger whispered back.

"I have my sources," Margaret replied mysteriously, leaning back in her chair.

"How do you know she’ll go back to her boyfriend?"

"Girls like that always do," Margaret replied knowingly.  She had seen a lot of girls like Donna come and go.

"Haven’t you two got better things to do than gossip?" a voice behind them asked.

"Mrs Landingham!" exclaimed Ginger.  "We were just talking about Donna Moss, she’s Josh’s new assistant."

"We were just wandering why Josh hired her. She doesn’t have any experience," Margaret continued.

"Well Margaret, really.  Can she do the job?" she asked, placing a pile of folders on the desk on which Ginger was sitting.

"We think so," Margaret replied.

"Then does it really matter why Josh hired her?" Mrs Landingham gave them both a stern look.

"No, Mrs Landingham."  Both women looked at the floor like schoolgirls caught passing notes in class.

"Right, now off you go, back to work."

Margaret stood up and Ginger jumped off the desk she was sat on, they both picked up the remains of their food and hurried off. Mrs Landingham looked after them shaking her head.

"I hate Charleston," whined Josh.

"You’ve already made your sentiments quite clear Josh, now shut up!" moaned Sam who was sat next to Josh staring out of the window at the passing countryside.  They were all on the campaign bus on their way to Charleston.  They had barely left the Manchester office when Josh started complaining.

"But it’s not fair, why do we have to go there all the way by road?"  Josh decided to ignore Sam; he didn’t care if he ended up sounding like a spoilt little boy.

"Josh, you know why," said Donna who was leaning against the back of the seat in front of Sam and Josh, her head leaning on her arms folded over the headrest.  "The campaign can’t afford to fly the staff out there."

"Hoynes did," Josh muttered under his breath. Donna merely glared at him and left him to wallow in his own self-pity to go and talk to Ginger and Margaret at the back of the bus.

"I can’t believe how a grown man can sound like such a kid without even trying," Donna said as she settled herself next to Ginger.

"My last boyfriend was a bit like that," Ginger said "We were only together about a month before I couldn’t stand the whining any more."

"Perhaps that’s why Mandy is away so much," wondered Margaret.

"Who’s Mandy?"  Donna asked.  She had heard people mention Mandy at the office before but had never had the chance to ask who she was.

"She’s Josh’s girlfriend," Ginger explained. "She works on the campaign too, she’s the media consultant.  She’s a real bitch."

"Ginger!"  Margaret exclaimed.

"Well she is," Ginger tried to defend herself. "Everyone else thinks so."

"At least try and keep your voice down, Josh is only down there," Margaret warned pointing to Josh who was still whining, although now he had moved across to sit next to CJ.  Sam had obviously had enough of him and was now reading, or at least pretending to read, the notes on the Governor’s speech for when they arrived in Charleston, in an effort to look busy so that Josh would carry on bugging CJ instead of him.

  She thinks that the whole world revolves around her.  I don’t know how Josh puts up with her."

"She must be really good in bed or something," Margaret muttered under her breath.

This time it was Ginger’s turn to exclaim, "Margaret!  I can’t believe you just said that."

"What?  I didn’t say anything," Margaret said looking as innocent as she could.

"You know, Josh hasn’t mentioned Mandy before. Are they serious?" Donna asked. Josh had never talked about having a girlfriend in the few days that she’d worked for him.  She wondered how he had the time to go out on dates while working for a presidential campaign.

"They’ve been together a few months.  They met while he was still working for Senator Hoynes," replied Ginger.

Margaret and Ginger carried on chatting to each other while Donna was lost in her thoughts.  If Josh and this Mandy had been together for a while then why hadn’t he mentioned her?  She and Josh weren’t extremely close or anything but they had had a few late night talks.  She told him why she just upped and left Wisconsin to join the Bartlet campaign.  She didn’t tell him everything, especially about Dr Freeride as her ex was now known, that might just be too personal after all.  He told her about his dad’s cancer and one night he was about to say something about his sister but Sam wanting to know the Governor’s position on some bill that was about to go through Congress interrupted them.

She was brought back to reality by a now familiar yell, "Donna!"

She rolled her eyes at Margaret and Ginger and made her way back to Josh’s seat.

"Donna!" he yelled again, not realising that his assistant was stood behind him.

"Yes Josh?  You called?" she said, silently sniggering at the startled look on his face. She leant against the seat opposite Josh, curious as to what he could possibly need while stuck on the bus.

"Donna," he whined, "I hate Charleston."

She glared at him for a second before smacking him on the back of the head and going back to speak to Ginger and Margaret. Josh looked over to CJ hoping to get some sympathy but instead she was trying, unsuccessfully, to hide her snickering in the newspapers she was reading.

Everyone was glad to finally get an evening off. A speech that the Governor was scheduled to give had fallen through and Leo had decided that now would be a good time for everyone to relax, even if it was for just an evening.  The gang decided to go out, get drunk and not worry about the consequences till the next morning.  They started off in the hotel bar and decided to go from there.

"The Grasshopper is a respectable drink, Josh," CJ said as they both carried their drinks from the bar to the table.  "You seem to be obsessing about my drink way too much.  It can’t be normal."

"Oh God," moaned Sam as he sat at the table, "I’m having an awful sense of deja vu."

"I’m just saying CJ," Josh said getting defensive, "that if you’re going to be in politics you need to be able to drink proper drinks."

"Hey, I’ve been doing fine in politics without drinking proper drinks."  CJ retorted.

"See?  You just admitted it, you don’t drink proper drinks," Josh said smugly, practically jumping out of his seat.

"I did not!" CJ defended. "I was just saying-"

"Oh, for the love of God!" interrupted Toby, "Will you two please just leave it!  Josh, does it matter what CJ drinks, no matter how stupid it may seem? And CJ, does it really bother you that much that Josh doesn’t think your drink is a proper drink?"

"Oh calm down Toby, I just like winding Josh up. You really think it bothers me that Josh doesn’t agree with my taste in drinks?" CJ said.

Before Toby could answer her Sam was pointing someone out to Josh.

"Josh, isn’t that your assistant?" he said, mildly recognising the blonde who had just walked into the bar.

Josh looked to where Sam was pointing.

"Yeah, it is," he replied.  "Donnatella Moss!" he shouted over to her.  She blushed a deep shade of red and hurried over to the group at the table.

"Thank you for that Joshua," she said through a false smile.  "I think everybody now knows that I am Donnatella Moss."

"Your name’s Donnatella?"  Sam asked.

"Yes, it is.  My Mom’s Italian," Donna replied.

"It’s pretty," he said flashing her a smile.

Donna found herself going red again.

"Thanks," she murmured.  "Erm, you haven’t seen Ginger anywhere have you?  We were gonna meet up and have a drink but I haven’t seen her since this morning," she said looking around the bar for her friend.

"Ginger’s still at the office," Toby told her.

"Oh," Donna said looking at the floor, "do you know if she’ll be finished soon?"

"I doubt it, she still had a lot of work to do when we left," Toby replied.

"Okay then.  I’ll just go back to my room and get an early night," she said.

"Hey you can’t do that," CJ said pulling a chair from another table.  "Sit down and have a drink with us."

"Only if you’re sure," Donna said hesitantly sitting down.

"Of course we’re sure," Sam said, flashing her another one of his smiles.

"So, what do you want to drink?" Josh asked calling the waitress over.

"I’ll just have tap water," she replied.

"Is that all?  Don’t you want something else?" he asked.

"No, water’s fine," she said looking down at her hands.

"So, what were we talking about?" Sam asked, noticing Donna’s embarrassment.

"I believe Josh was insulting my choice of drink again," CJ commented.

"No, no, no, no, NO!" Toby shouted.  "Don’t you dare start that conversation again! Every single time we go out for a drink you two start another pointless debate about CJ’s drink!"

"It’s okay Tobus," CJ said putting her hand on his shoulder.  "Me and Josh promise to behave for the rest of tonight."

"Josh and I," Sam corrected.

CJ glared at him.

"It’s ironic that you correct other people’s grammar when in your speeches yours is so terrible," Toby commented.

"Hey, my grammar isn’t that bad.  It’s just that my thoughts run quicker than the speed I write," Sam defended.

"Yeah, that’s your excuse.  I’m going to the bathroom," Toby murmured downing his Jack Daniels and leaving the table.

The waitress brought over Donna’s water. She took a few sips of it and gazed longingly at Josh’s beer.

"Donna?"  Josh asked when he realised Donna was practically drooling all over his drink.

She realised what she’d been doing and quickly looked away and took another sip of her water.

"Donna, you sure you don’t want a proper drink?" Josh asked again.

"I’m sure," she replied.

"It’s not that you’re an alcoholic or anything is it?" he asked.

"Josh!" CJ cried.  "I can’t believe you just asked that!"

"What?  I was just wondering," he replied.

"It’s okay CJ.  No, Josh, I am not an alcoholic," Donna said.

"Teetotaller?" He guessed again.

"No.  I do drink."

"Then why not now?" he persisted.

"Josh, can’t you just leave the poor girl alone? She doesn’t want a drink, that’s all. You know, it is possible to have fun without drinking," CJ said.

Just as Josh was going to answer her, he found that his drink was swiped from in front of him.

"Hey!" he exclaimed as he saw Donna take a mouthful of his beer and set the bottle back down on the table.

"Sorry, the temptation was too much." she said sheepishly.

"Look, I’ll go and get you a drink, what do you want, a beer?" he said, getting his wallet out of his pocket.

"Josh, it’s okay.  Honestly, I’m fine with water.  I promise I won’t steal anymore of your drink," Donna said.

"Well the one way to guarantee that you won’t drink anymore of my drink is to get you one of your own.  You’re working for me for nothing, so at least let me do this," Josh said, getting up from the table.

"Thanks, a beer’s fine," Donna said quietly, a small smile on her lips.

Josh left to go to the bar as Sam started asking Donna where she from.  He leant on the bar trying to get the barman’s attention when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"Who’s the blonde, Joshua?"

He would know that voice anywhere; he really didn’t need this right now.  He put on a fake smile and slowly turned around.

"Madeleine, when did you get here?"  He went to kiss her, but she held her hand up in front of her face.

"Don’t ‘Madeleine’ me," she said, "answer the question: who’s the blonde?"

"What blonde?" he asked.

"Don’t play dumb with me jackass," she warned hitting him on the arm.

"Ow," he complained, rubbing his arm. Mandy may have been short but she was pretty strong.

"The blonde sitting at your table, drinking your beer.  Know who I’m talking about now?" she said in the tone that always made Josh feel about five inches tall.

"Oh, that’s only Donna," he tried to laugh it off, but he could see that she was pissed.  What girlfriend wouldn’t be?  She just saw another very attractive woman drink her boyfriend’s beer and now he was buying her a drink, how else was she going to react?

"Who’s Donna?" she asked, folding her arms in front of her, tapping her foot on the floor.

"She’s my new assistant," he said smiling smugly.

"When did you have an old assistant?" she asked. "And get that damned look off your face."

Josh tried to make his face as expressionless as possible but he didn’t think it was working.

"I didn’t have an old assistant, but I have an assistant now."  He turned back to the bar to try and get Donna’s beer for a second time.

"Don’t turn away from me," Mandy said, grabbing him on the arm to turn him back round.  Josh could feel the other people at the bar start to look at them.

"You didn’t say anything about interviewing for assistants when I left.  I thought Leo said the campaign couldn’t afford to pay for you to have an assistant right now," Mandy continued.

"Well...I," Josh stammered, knowing that Mandy would not take the news well that Donna just walked into his office one day and he let her be his assistant.

"Yes?" Mandy prompted, getting even more annoyed.

"Well, you see, I didn’t exactly interview for assistants," Josh started to explain.

"So what exactly did you do?" she asked.

"I...er...I walked into my office one day and she was there answering my phone," he finished, as if that was exactly how everyone else hired their assistants.

"You walked in to your office one day and found her answering your phone," Mandy repeated slowly.  Josh nodded.  "So you decided to hire this stray just because she started to answer your phones one day?" she asked.  Josh nodded again.  "And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she is blonde, leggy and gorgeous."

"What?  Of course not," Josh said.  This conversation was not going the way he wanted it to.  Sure, he noticed that Donna was attractive, but that wasn’t the reason he had hired her.  Well, not the only reason.  "Do you really think I’m that shallow?" he asked Mandy.  She glared at him and stormed out of the bar.

He sighed as he saw her leave.  "I suppose I better go after her," he muttered to himself.

"What do you want?" Josh turned around and realised it was the barman speaking to him.

"Uh, can I have a beer please?" he asked, remembering why he came to the bar in the first place.

"Sure," the barman replied going to get a bottle. "That your girlfriend who just stormed out of here?" he asked as Josh paid him.

"Yeah," Josh replied.

"You gonna go and find her?" the barman asked.

Josh thought for a second, "Yeah."

He took the beer over to where the others were sitting.

"There you go Donnatella, one beer to stop you from stealing mine," he said as he presented her with her drink.

"Thank you Joshua," she said, taking a small sip of the beer, it was going to have to last most of the night, she couldn’t afford to keep buying drinks and she didn’t want to seem like a charity case.

"Was that Mandy we saw yelling at you over there?" CJ asked.

"Yeah, it seems like she got back early," Josh replied.

"So what was she pissed about?" Sam asked.

"It’s Mandy, does she really need a reason?" Josh answered looking towards the door.  "I should probably go find her, see what’s going on."

"Yeah I think you should," CJ said, "but Josh, I would wear some kind of protective clothing coz she looked pretty pissed."

"You know anywhere where I could find protective clothing?" Josh asked.

"What do I look like? Information Girl?" CJ asked.

"Well then, Sam?  Write me a nice eulogy would you?" he said slapping his friend on the shoulder and picking up his jacket.

"Of course buddy.  Anything you want me to leave out?" Sam said.

"Yeah, don’t mention me being tragically killed by 5’4" girlfriend, it might ruin my reputation,"Josh answered.

"What reputation?" Sam asked.

"Look, I’ll have you know that..." Josh started.

"Josh," CJ interrupted, "stop delaying the inevitable."

"I’m going, I’m going," he said still staying where he was.

"If we don’t see you in the morning do you want us to call the paramedics or not waste time and go straight the coroner?" Sam asked.

"Paramedics, at least give me a chance," he replied, still staying put.

"Josh?" CJ asked, "are you actually gonna, you know, find your girlfriend before she gets even more pissed at you?"

"Yeah, I suppose," he said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and slowly walking out of the bar.

Sam and CJ couldn’t stop themselves laughing at Josh’s expense, Donna tried to join in but couldn’t help but feel some concern for Josh.  Toby rejoined them at the table, holding yet another Jack Daniels.

"So, what did I miss?" he asked, wondering what could have made Sam and CJ laugh so much, but with these two it could be anything, especially when they’d been drinking.

"You missed Josh getting his ass kicked by Mandy. She was pretty pissed about something," CJ explained.

"He’s just gone after her.  Boy, I’m glad I’m not him right now.  I’ve had enough of pissy girlfriends for a while," Sam said.

"Well, since Josh is probably gonna be gone for a while, I’m sure he won’t mind me having the rest of his beer," Donna said taking Josh’s beer and taking a big swig from it.

"That’s my girl," CJ said.  She called the waitress over again, "Another Grasshopper please.  I can finally have a drink without anyone commenting on how stupid it is."

"You know CJ, the Grasshopper is a pretty ridiculous drink," Sam said with a grin on his face, knowing that Josh would be proud of him.

"For your information, Spanky, the Grasshopper is..." CJ began.

"Oh my God," Toby said as his head fell in his hands.

Everyone in the room was silent watching the many TVs in the Bartlets' hotel room.  All they needed was second, they didn’t care if they didn’t beat Hoynes today, they would worry about beating him later.  All they needed to do was beat Wiley.  That should be easy right?  They had been in South Carolina before any of the other candidates; they’d been working damn hard.  All they needed was second.

"We are now ready to call the South Carolina primary," the TV reporter announced.

It seemed like everyone was holding their breath. The Governor and Mrs Bartlet were sat on one of the sofas starting intently at the TV.  Leo was stood behind them with his hand on Mrs Bartlet’s shoulder.  Josh was stood in front of one of the TVs with Donna; he looked ready to burst, Donna had her hand round his arm to try and stop him bouncing off the walls.  Sam was stood with CJ trying to concentrate on exactly what the reporter was saying.  Toby was separated from the others.  He stood at the back of the room looking at his hands.  Most people were confident that they would beat Wiley, but Toby knew that there was such a thing as tempting fate.

"In third place," the reporter started, "is Senator WilliamWiley from Washington State."  Everyone in the room cheered, "And in second place," the reporter continued, "is Governor Josiah Bartlet from New Hampshire."

The room practically erupted.  No one heard that Hoynes had won, though they didn’t need to be told.  Josh pulled Donna into a huge bear hug; he was so excited that he almost knocked her over.  CJ and Sam high-fived then hugged before she ran across the room to where Toby was busy trying to open the champagne with Ginger.

"CJ!" he called when he saw her coming towards him, "Dance with me."

"Once I get some of that," she said as she took the bottle from him and took a swig of the champagne.

"Put some music on," the Governor declared once he’d finished slapping everyone who he could find on the back.

"The Doobie Brothers!" Josh shouted, running over to the stereo.  He looked at all the buttons and knobs in front of him.  Before even trying to do anything he shouted, "Donna!  How do I use this thing?!"  

Donna was talking with Mrs Bartlet.  She rolled her eyes and excused herself to go and help Josh.  Mrs Bartlet just laughed at Josh’s incapability to do anything without Donna. She wondered how he ever managed to cope without her before.

Donna purposefully walked slowly over to Josh who was still crouched down in front of the stereo with a confused look on his face. She couldn’t help but think he looked cute when he was befuddled.  She elbowed him out of the way so she could see what she was doing.  She pressed a few buttons and the Doobie Brothers blared out on the speakers.  She stood up and turned around to go get a drink, but Josh was stood in the way.

"How d’you do that?" he asked, looking at her as if she had just cracked the enigma code.

"Was pretty easy Josh, just put in the CD, chose the track and pressed play.  Not that hard," she said patting him on the arm.  Wow, he has amazing arms, she thought as she walked off to get a drink.

Donna went over to the table, which was covered with drinks.  They could open their own bar with amount of alcohol they had in the hotel room.  She picked up a bottle of beer; she was going to take advantage of the free drink tonight.  She was still laughing at her boss’ inability to do anything.  She spun around, beer in hand, and was about to yell back to Josh about how he was probably one of those guys who couldn’t even programme a VCR, when she realised he wasn’t alone anymore, and he certainly had stopped paying attention to her.

Josh was stood in front of the stereo, smile in place and his arm around Mandy, who had obviously forgiven him for his faux pas in the bar the night before.  She was running her fingers along his arm, smiling a small smile that would have been shy except for the fact that it was on Mandy’s lips.

She found herself clutching her beer bottle with more force than was necessary.  Biting her lip she thought: what the hell was he doing with her? That look, that smile he was giving Mandy, well she liked it when he smiled that way for her.  She wanted him only to look that way at her.

Realising what she had just thought, she shook her head. What was she thinking?!  He was her boss, he had a girlfriend.  There was no way she should be feeling jealous. Not that she was jealous, not exactly, she was - confused.  She’d just broken up with her long-term boyfriend; she was just missing being with someone.  That was it; she was just missing having a boyfriend.  She wasn’t jealous at all, just missing having boyfriend and was a bit confused.

She was just about to get even more confused when she felt Sam’s hand on her arm.  " We did it!" he called over the music.  He was giddy, jumping on the balls of his feet.

" I know!"  She hugged him when he held open his arms, but the smile didn’t go all the way to her eyes.

Sam noticed this, and followed her gaze over to where Josh and Mandy were now kissing in the corner.  " They’re always like that when they win.  Though only when they’re on the same side.  You should see them when they’re up against each other - it’s crazy.  You wouldn’t want to be within a ten-mile radius of them."

This got her to smile, just a little, and he put his arm around her.  It was brotherly, and she was suddenly very thankful of his presence.  She was about to say something to him, to try and explain her look when the music on the stereo stopped, and a new tune blared out.

Donna didn’t recognise it, but the elated look on Sam’s face let her know that he did.  He pulled at her arm.  " The Jackal!  Excellent!  Donna, you gotta come see this," he began pulling her across the room to where a small crowd had gathered.

" You haven’t truly lived until you’ve seen CJ do The Jackal."

They had descended upon CJ’s hotel room when the Bartlets had kicked them out.  Too raucous they said.  CJ had collapsed on the bed almost as soon as she had walked through the door, having lost count of how many glasses of champagne she had consumed.

Sam, who was still relatively sober, had settled himself on the floor next to the mini bar, and had begun removing the bottles and lining them up in height order.  He had discarded his tie and jacket somewhere earlier, he wasn’t quite sure where, and had kicked off his shoes next to the door.

Crashed on the bed next to CJ was Josh, and much to her annoyance, he had decided to commandeer the centre of her double bed. He was face down in the mattress, drooling for all that she knew, seemingly unaware of the room around him.

In one of the armchairs across from bed sat Toby, who had already snatched one of the beers from Sam’s line up.  He had swung his feet up on the coffee table, pulled out one of his cigars, and had been just about to light it when a shiny black court shoe hit the wall behind him.

" What the hell?" he started, looking across the room at CJ, who was now missing one shoe and waving her arm at him.

" No smoking in here, I don’t want my room smelling like a Cuban whore house!"  She waved her arm to make her point, but ended up hitting Josh in the head.  He didn’t move.  " Dammit Josh, go sleep in your own bed!"  She pushed him, perhaps with more force then she intended to, and the next thing she knew there was a ‘thump’ followed by an ‘ouch’.

" It’s just a cigar," Toby argued, opening his Zippo.

Ignoring Josh’s whimpers of pain, CJ turned back to Toby removing her other shoe.  " Put that down now or incur my wrath Tobus," she warned, waving it with a heavy arm.

Grumbling, he slipped both the lighter and the cigar back into his pocket, and took a sip of his beer.  Feeling like sharing his bitterness, he looked over at Josh’s crumpled form.  " So," he asked, " what happened to your girlfriend?"

Josh pulled himself up and managed to prop himself against the bed.  Sam threw him a beer, which he fumbled, and then added with an almost evil grin.  " After the display at the party I didn’t expect you to be coming back to the hotel with us."

Josh twisted the top off the bottle and took a sip before answering.  " She’s gone."

CJ motioned for Sam to throw her a bottle, which he did, and she caught it expertly, despite her inebriation.  " Gone where?"  She used her stocking clad toe to poke Josh’s shoulder.

" Back to DC," he said, waving his free hand towards the window.  " To do a thing, for some guy."

Sam and CJ nodded in understanding, but Toby shook his head and glared at the younger man.  " Are you ever going to start talking with pronouns?" he asked.

Josh couldn’t think of an answer that Toby would be happy with so decided to ignore him and changed the topic of conversation.

"Hey, have any of you spoken to the Secret Service guys?"

"No," CJ replied.

"I have," Josh said smugly, as if chatting to some guy was a big achievement.

"Aren’t they supposed to be busy, I dunno, protecting the Governor or something?" CJ asked.  She tried to sit up and look at Josh but the effort was too much so she stayed drooped over the bed.

"He was on his break, we spoke for a bit." 

"Which one did you speak to?" CJ asked.

"Uh, he’s one of the shorter ones, but he’s still taller than me, he’s usually the one following the Governor around," Josh replied.

"I think I know who you mean," CJ said to the ceiling, "What’s his name?"

"I dunno, didn’t ask," Josh said, "He’s just gonna be known as Secret Service Dude from now on."  He smiled to himself.

"Did you ask him what it’s like having a job where he may have to jump in front of a bullet?" CJ asked.

"No," Josh said, "I asked him something equally brilliant and incisive, I asked him whether they send secret messages to each other through their wrists."

CJ tried to kick him in the head and missed.

"And?" Sam asked, "Do they?"

Josh was about to answer when there came a knock at the door.  From her position slumped against the pillows CJ called out.  " S’open!"

The door opened slightly and a blonde head looked in.  " Is it okay if I come in?" Donna’s voice was hesitant; she didn’t want to interrupt the Senior Campaign Officials on their celebratory down time.

Josh seemed to sit up straighter.  " Course it is!" he smiled at her.

CJ kicked him harder this time.  " Hey, this is my room mi amore," she reminded him, waving her beer at him sternly.

Donna, now in the room, shuffled nervously.  " I can go," she said, nodding towards the door, a slight blush creeping over her cheeks.

CJ shook her head, swallowing her beer.  " No, Donna, I didn’t mean it like that. Just reminding idiot boy here where his place is."  She sat up a little and waved the younger woman in.  " No, come in, even up the numbers for the sisterhood."

Donna smiled now and looked around the room at them all.  " I just came in to give Josh a message," she explained, looking not at him, but between CJ and Toby. She hadn’t noticed Sam in his position next to the mini bar.

Josh stood up and went over to her.  " It’s not anything I have to do now is it?" he whined, beer in one hand and his hair awry.

She laughed at the idea of him doing anything in the exhausted and slightly drunken state he was in.  " No, nothing you have to do now.  You just got a call from Governor McKay’s office to ask if you mind meeting at 3 tomorrow rather then 2."

Josh looked relieved.  " Tell them that’s fine," he said, sipping his beer again.

After a look at the bottle he clutched in his hand, she smiled, as though remembering something.  " Your mother called," she grinned wryly.  " She said to not abuse your ‘sensitive system’ with all the partying. And she wants you to call her tomorrow."

With that, she flounced out of the room, leaving Josh standing in its centre, and CJ laughing into her pillows.  Sam was sniggering into what must have been his third beer, and even Toby looked amused.

Josh looked at them all as though trying to figure out what was funny.  Walking over to the bed, he pushed CJ’s legs out of the way, and sat on the end, leaning back against the wall.  She looked at him and couldn’t help but laugh.  " What?" his voice was indignant.

"Sensitive system Pal O Mine?" she laughed, her eyes slightly glazed.  She bit on her lip to stop herself from chuckling.

He took a swig of his beer, to make his point. " I can drink with the best of them," he declared, which caused CJ to raise her eyebrows.

" Really?"  She sounded sceptical.  " What number beer are you on Josh?" she asked, twisting the top off of a fresh one, having finished the one she was on.

Josh looked at the bottle.  " One.  But that’s because Sam’s commandeered all the alcohol!" he accused, which drew CJ’s attentions away from him, and focused them on the intoxicated lawyer in the corner.

Sam looked startled, his bright blue eyes opened wide, though they were not as clear as normal.  He held his bottle protectively.  " Hey, I haven’t had that many!" he shot back, although the empties surrounding him went a long way to uncovering his perjury.

" How many is not many?" CJ started, pulling herself off of the bed.  She ambled to the mini bar and pulled the door open.  Counting the bottles, CJ turned back to him slowly, more menacingly. " There are two beers left Sam. There were 20 when we started off. And there’s only a handful of minis!"

" Toby’s been drinking too!"  He tried to deflect some of CJ’s anger onto somebody else, but Toby just raised his eyebrows and didn’t comment.  Josh did notice that he quickly pocketed some of the minis that had been sitting on the table in front of him.

Sam stood up, knocking over the bottles around his feet.  He pointed a finger at Josh, who sat smugly on the end of the bed.  " You’re just mad because your precious assistant now knows that the Mighty Josh Lyman drinks like a girl!"

CJ had just collapsed back on the bed with an armful of minis when she realised what Sam had said.  "Drinks like a girl?" she repeated, crossing her arms over her chest.  "What is that supposed to mean, Sparky?" she said glaring at him, though she wasn’t sure that it had quite the effect that she wanted given her current state of exhaustion and drunkenness.

"I just...I was...I meant..." Sam stammered; his Ivy League education was really shining tonight.   CJ stood up and from his spot on the floor, Sam appreciated just exactly how tall CJ was.

"Yes Samuel?  What did you mean?" she asked quietly enjoying the effect she was having on Sam.

Sam stood up so he could look CJ in the eye, but he had the feeling that he looked pretty pathetic having to hold onto the mini bar so that he didn’t fall back down on the floor.  "I just meant to say that Josh is a lightweight when it comes to alcohol ...and...er...and women tend not to be able to drink as much as men. Yeah, that’s what I meant." Sam said quite impressed that he was actually able to say that sentence with some lucidity.

"And where did you get the impression that all women are lightweights, Spanky?" CJ asked, bringing herself up to her full height, she wished that she hadn’t thrown her heels across the room so that she had just a few more inches on Sam.

"Well..." he wished he hadn’t said anything now, all he did was make one little comment.  He was going to have to be careful with what he said in front of CJ from now on, "Well, in college, I...I found that the girls," CJ glowered at him again, "um...women, I found that the women would often be able to drink less than the, than the men."

"Really?  Well obviously you never went drinking with us Berkley girls." CJ said.  She picked up all the minis from the bed and the drinks that were left in the mini bar.  "Right Spanky, go get all the drinks from your own mini bar and we will see whether your little theory about women being lightweights is true."

"What?  Hey that’s not fair.  I’ve already been drinking." Sam said, a whinge creeping into his voice.

"So have I.  And anyway if your little hypothesis is correct then you don’t have to worry ‘cause I will be stopping before you."  She started to manoeuvre Sam toward the door.  "But, if you are wrong," she said opening the door, "then you’re the one explaining to Leo why you were found by the press passed out in the hall."  She laughed at the look on Sam’s face as she pushed him out of the room.

CJ turned around, "Score one for the Sisterhood!" she declared.  She saw Toby smirking at her from his position in the corner.  "What?" she asked.

"You’re a mean woman Claudia-Jean." Toby commented.

"Yeah, but you knew that already." CJ said, sprawling herself back on the bed.  She noticed that Josh was still stood in the centre of the room.  "What’s wrong Pal o’ mine?"

Josh looked over to her, "What did Sam mean my ‘precious’ assistant?"

Sam looked through the door of his friend’s office.  Josh was sat at his chair with a pile of stuff on the desk.  He was looking up to the ceiling, feet on the desk and arms folded across his chest. He didn’t notice Sam come in until he heard a file being put on top of the rest on his desk.

"Oh, it’s you," he said, when he saw that it was Sam who had come in.   He took his feet off the desk and picked up the file that Sam brought in.

"Well thanks for that great welcome," Sam said, a smile on his face to show he didn’t really mean it.

"Sorry, I just thought it might be someone else," he said looking back down at the file.  "This is the stuff for the Q&A tomorrow?" he asked, gesturing to the papers in front of him.

"Yeah, the Governor should be okay, he’s at his best when he’s talking about economics."

"You ‘re right, especially to his ever interested staffers." Josh replied sarcastically.  Sam smiled and sat down in the visitor’s chair opposite Josh. He looked at him for a few seconds.

Josh looked up from the file.  "What?"

"Just wondering," Sam replied.

"About what?"

"About how you’re coping since Donna left." Sam said. He knew he’d have to go straight to the point.  Josh wasn’t always very good with subtleties.

"What do you mean?"  Josh said, knowing full well what Sam meant.

"I think you know what I mean," Sam said; he knew Josh too well.

"No, I don’t know," Josh lied.

"Fine, we’ll have it your way," Sam said, "you were a complete mess before Donna turned up and started answering your phone and now she’s just gone.  So what did you do?"

"Hey!  What makes you think I did anything?" Josh asked, sitting up straighter in his chair.

"So what happened then?  Did she even tell you she was going?" Sam asked.

Josh slumped back down in the chair, not saying anything.  He was not exactly being co-operative here.

"Josh," Sam said again, "I’m gonna find out somehow. All I need to do is ask Ginger or Margaret, they know everything that is going on round here."  The thought slightly worried Sam, he was going to have to be very careful with what he said and did in front of the assistants.  "Josh?" Sam asked again.

Josh stood up abruptly and started randomly picking up files and putting them down.  He was never good at sitting still.

"She just, she just decided that she wanted to go back to Wisconsin," Josh said eventually.

Sam knew there was more to it than that; Donna seemed to be enjoying working on the campaign.  Yeah, the work was hard and she wasn’t on salary yet but Sam didn’t think that she was unhappy, or at least not so unhappy that she would just run back home.

"So that’s it?  She just decided to go back home one day?" Sam asked, "Forgive me for thinking there’s more to it than that."

"She got a phone-call from her ex-boyfriend," Josh started.

"Ah, Dr Freeride," Sam said knowingly; Josh had told him all about Dr Freeride.  He was pretty certain that Donna didn’t want Josh to say anything, but when had that ever stopped Josh from putting his foot in it?

"Yeah, ‘Andrew,’" Josh said mockingly, "he’s been calling her most days telling her that he was stupid and shouldn’t have let her leave, and that she needs him."

"And Donna bought that?" Sam asked.

"Yeah," Josh said, sitting back in his chair, "well, that plus her parents have been worried about her."

"Why are her parents worried?" Sam asked.

"I dunno, but I suppose it makes sense. She did just take off one day and drive all the way from Wisconsin to New Hampshire and then started following a campaign around the country, and she wasn’t even getting paid."

"Well, when you put it that way..." Sam started. "Did you try to talk her out of it?"

"No, I mean why would I?" Josh looked at his friend, "Yeah, she was a great assistant and all, but it wasn’t my place."

"Okay," Sam decided to leave this discussion for another time when Josh would be more willing to talk, maybe if he got him drunk. Shouldn’t be too hard.  They sat in silence for a while, Josh staring at the pile of work in front of him, Sam at the floor.

"How could she just leave like that?"

"Josh," Sam says quietly.

"She just walks in here, says she’s going and that’s it." Sam was waiting for this, Josh would pretend to be fine and then start on one of his rants just when you thought he was calm.  All Sam could do was sit and listen.  "She turns up one day and announces that she’s my new assistant, everything’s organised, I actually know what I’m doing and when and then she abandons me!"

"Josh," he says again a little louder this time.

"Yeah?" Josh asked, coming out of his mini-rant.

Sam decided that it was best to leave Josh for the moment; they had too much to do in this campaign than to have the Senior Political Director having a nutty about his assistant leaving.  Sam stood up and motioned to the file he gave Josh earlier, "Come get me if you need help."

"On the thing?" Josh asked, knowing what Sam was trying to do.

"Yeah."

"Okay," Sam left Josh looking through the file for the Governor’s Q&A but Sam knew that Josh’s mind wasn’t in the room any more. Not even in the State."

At the Sheraton Centre Hotel the room was buzzing. There was a sense of anticipation in the air.  They were confident, the polls had been assuring, although one or two were still apprehensive.

"Leo," the Governor called across the room, "what the hell is this?"

"That’s Sam’s draft of your victory remarks" Josh tried to explain but the Governor ignored him.

"I congratulate my opponent on a well fought campaign in Illinois," the Governor said reading from the sheet of paper.

"You don’t wanna congratulate him?" Leo asked, knowing exactly what the problem was.

"Yes, I wanna congratulate him, but I’d like to call him by his name!  Are we back to this crap again?"

"Governor," Josh tried to interject, but the Governor wasn’t taking any notice.

"Leo, I wanna go over this whole thing with you," the Governor said walking to the adjoining room.

"Excuse me," Leo said to Josh and Mrs Bartlet, following the Governor.

"It’s the exact same crap all over again. It’s amateur hour!" the room heard the Governor shout to Leo.

Sam had witnessed all of this and tried to hide his disappointment.  He went back to look at the exit polls but he couldn’t concentrate on them anymore. He could change ‘my opponent’ to Senator Hoynes if that’s what the Governor wanted.  He wondered if that was the only thing that the Governor had a problem with.

"Jed, will you stop yelling for one minute?" Leo shouted over his friend.

"Leo, I’m just saying.  You fire my campaign staff and hire a bunch of people that I’ve never heard of and they are doing exactly the same thing that the last lot were doing!" Jed decided to ignore Leo’s request for him to stop shouting.

"These people have not done exactly what the last lot did.  The last lot would not have got you this far in the primaries.  You would’ve been out a long time ago," Leo said.

"I was supposed to be out a long time ago," Jed said quietly.

"Yeah, well you’re not," Leo said, "These people have given up a lot to get you here.  CJ Cregg, she was earning over half a million at some PR company. Sam Seaborn left his fiancée and a partnership at Gage Whitney.  Josh Lyman left Hoynes, the favourite.  He didn’t have to come to work for us, he would be working in the White House anyway."

Jed looked down at the floor, hands in his pockets, knowing that his friend was right.

"We’ll change it to Senator Hoynes.  Other than that, you got a problem with Sam’s writing?"

"No," Jed replied, "no, he’s very good.  Great in fact."  Leo knew that Jed wouldn’t lie, and that he always spoke his mind.

"Here it comes," Abbey called from the other room.

"Now we’re gonna go in there and see them announce that you’ve won, then we’re gonna go to California, New York and all the others, get the nomination and get to the White House.  You ready?" Leo asked, remembering their conversation outside the VFW Hall in Nashua.

"No," Jed simply replied.

"You gonna be?" Leo asked.

"Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given," Jed said smiling as Leo led him back into the room.

 "And with 70%of the precincts reporting, we are now ready to call the Illinois primary for former New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet."

The room practically exploded, everyone was cheering and hugging anyone they could find.  Sam forgot about the Governor’s outburst earlier, he finally felt that he was doing something right, something good.  He looked over to Josh who was hugging Leo and when he caught his eye he mouthed thank you across the room to his friend.  It was simple, Josh knew exactly what he meant and how grateful he was, there was no need to dress it up with fancy phrases like he did with his speeches, just a simple thank you.  There was no need to say anything more, even if he wanted to he couldn’t have.

CJ grabbed his arm and dragged his to the middle of the room to dance.  He wasn’t quite sure what kind of dancing they were doing, at one point it ended up as some mixed up version of the Robot, but nobody really cared by that point. Everyone was enjoying themselves; he saw Donna rush over to Josh to congratulate him, Ginger and Margaret were trying to get Ed (or was it Larry? He never knew which one was which) to dance and the Governor was with Mrs Bartlet and Leo, all three of them smiling and laughing.  They’d won the Illinois primary, and that was all that mattered.

"And with 70% of the precincts reporting, we are now ready to call the Illinois primary for former New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet."

Toby did something that he rarely did: he smiled. In fact it was more than a smile; it was a full on grin.  CJ turned around and high-fived him before rushing off to find more people to hug. Toby put down his sandwich and went to join in the celebration.  The Governor shook his hand and Mrs Bartlet kissed him.  Toby turned and laughed at Sam and CJ’s attempt at dancing; he was sure CJ would be doing ‘The Jackal’ at some point that night.  He went over to Ginger and Margaret and gave them both a quick hug and a kiss on the cheek; both women were surprised, it wasn’t like Toby to show much emotion, but they’d won the Illinois primary and that night anything was possible.

"And with 70% of the precincts reporting, we are now ready to call the Illinois primary for former New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet."

CJ cheered at the news, they’d been expecting it, the polls had shown that the Governor was almost certain to win, but as Toby always said, there’s such a thing as tempting fate.  There was nothing that could have prepared her for this feeling.  She was glad that she’d been fired that day at Triton-Day.  She hugged Josh, who lifted her off the ground and turned to Toby who was stood behind her and high-fived him and ran off to celebrate.  She passed Abbey who gave her a huge hug and told her to go celebrate, CJ told her that she intended to and saw Sam stood over by on of the TVs.  She went over to him and pulled him to the dance-floor, also known as the centre of the Bartlets’ room.  She hadn’t felt this good in a while, and she didn’t care about Toby and his tempting fate, she was already wandering about what dress to wear to the Inaugural Ball.  They’d won the Illinois primary; they were going all the way.

"And with 70% of the precincts reporting, we are now ready to call the Illinois primary for former New Hampshire Governor Josiah Bartlet."

They’d done it; they’d beaten Hoynes.  Josh would have paid good money to see the look on John Hoynes’ face right now.  Josh looked over at Sam and saw him mouth thank you.  Josh was glad he stopped off in New York to see his best friend, this campaign wouldn’t have been the same without Sam, this was exactly what they’d both wanted.  Leo pulled him into a big bear hug, he was so glad that he’d listened to this old friend of his father’s and gone to Nashua.  His dad was going to love this news.  He heard ‘Celebration’come on the stereo; Josh shouted that they needed the Doobie Brothers.  He was going to call Donna to get her to do her magic on the stereo, but she was right next to him.

"Josh," she looked concerned, upset.  What was wrong with her?  They’d just won.

"You gotta get happy Donna, you just won the Illinois primary.  Come, dance with me."

"No, Josh, your father died."

The room seemed to go silent.  His father was dead.  He didn’t see Sam and CJ dancing.  His father was dead.  He didn’t hear the music change tothe Doobie Brothers like he’d asked.  His father was dead.  They’d won the Illinois primary.  His father was dead. 

Everything seemed to pass Josh in a blur.  He didn’t remember how, but somehow he ended up in his hotel room sat on his bed with Donna organising things around him. His brain was still trying to process the information that Donna had told him.  His mother had called from the hospital to say that his dad had something called a pulmonary embolism.  There was nothing the doctors could do.  Josh wondered if the outcome would’ve been any different if he had been there.  He had wanted to see his dad more often; he tried to phone him everyday, though he admitted that didn’t always happen as much as he would like.

"Josh?" Donna gently asked again.  She didn’t like seeing Josh like this.  He was usually so full of life, always fidgeting, but now he was sat completely still just staring at the wall behind her.

He still hadn’t heard her.  "Josh?" she asked again, lightly tapping him on the shoulder.

He seemed to come round from wherever he was, "Yeah?"

"Um...is there anything else you need?" Donna knew that Josh wasn’t a practising Jew anymore, but she was a Protestant, she didn’t understand many of the Jewish traditions and didn’t know if Josh would need anything special.

He looked up at her for a second, a stray tear running down his cheek, "No, anything else I will need is at my mom’s," he explained.  He stood up and started to put the last few things he would need on the plane in his backpack.

Donna picked up the piece of paper she’d left by the phone, "You’re booked on Delta Airlinesflight 175 landing at Kennedy, you just need to pick up your ticket at check-in," she handed the piece of paper to Josh, who looked at it and put it in his backpack.

"You know if you leave it in there you’re just gonna lose it," Donna said with a small smile, Josh appreciated the attempt at banter, but he couldn’t bring himself to reply, so he just smiled at her to show his gratitude.

Donna finished packing Josh’s suitcase; he wouldn’t be back before they left for California and Donna didn’t want him to be without anything in Connecticut.

"Everything’s packed," Donna said.  Josh didn’t reply, he just looked up at her and returned to his backpack.  She didn’t like this silent Josh; they were always talking when they were together.

She sat on the bed next to where he was packing watching him slowly put some files and some books for the plane in his backpack. He was really going to take work with him at a time like this?  She didn’t always understand this man.  He put the last few things in and put on his jacket.

"Right, that’s everything then," Josh said standing in front of Donna.  She stood up and gave him a hug, "You sure you’re gonna be okay?" she asked holding him close.

He sighed into her long, blonde hair, "Yeah, it’s just gonna be weird going back to the house and him not being there."

He gave her an extra squeeze before pulling away from her, "Right, I should probably get going," he said, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.  She was gonna ask him if he was sure he didn’t want her to go with him, though she wasn’t sure why, it wasn’t as though she was his best friend, like Sam, or his girlfriend, like Mandy.  Before she could say anything though there was a small knock at the door.

"Yeah?" Josh said turning to the door.  Sam came into the room, in a much more sombre mood than he was at the party.

"Hey," he said, not quite knowing what to say. He’d known Noah for so long, he’d only spoken to him the other day when Josh couldn’t come to the phone.  He thought that he was feeling better, that the chemo was working.  He wondered whether Josh knew something was wrong and he was doing a Josh and keeping it to himself, or whether, like Sam, he really hadn’t known how ill his father was.

"Hey," Josh replied.

Donna moved away from the two men, "I’d better go, there are still some things to sort out in the office for while you’re gonna be away." Sam and Josh were best friends and she didn’t want to be in the way.

"Okay," Josh said, "thanks for everything Donna. You were right."

"About what?" she asked as she moved to leave his room.

"I do find you valuable.  Thanks for coming back," he whispered into her ear giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

She smiled, "I hope everything goes okay this week," she said quietly, closing the door behind her.

"Josh-" Sam started to say.

"It’s okay, Sam," Josh said looking Sam straight in the eye.  Sam was never good at hiding his feelings at times like this; his eyes always gave him away.  Right now his normally piercing blue eyes were dull and lifeless.

"No it’s not okay Josh," his voice slightly harsher than he wanted it to be, "things like this shouldn’t happen to people like your Dad."  He stopped suddenly, "sorry, this isn’t exactly what you want to be hearing right now," he looked down at Josh’s suitcase.  "You got everything?"

"Yeah, I think so," Josh replied, "Donna packed so I doubt that there’s gonna be anything I need left behind."

Sam smiled sadly at his friend; he knew just how lost Josh was while Donna was gone.  He was much easier to work with now she was back.  He didn’t see how Josh managed without her for all those years before.

"Do you want me to come with you?" Sam asked, knowing that even if Josh wanted him he wouldn’t be able to ask, Josh didn’t like to show his feelings, he was great at bottling things up till they became too much. Don’t want the opposition to see you weak he once said.

"Yeah," he said.  That surprised Sam, but Josh carried on, "but you’re needed here. It’s more important that you stay."

"No, it’s not Josh.  I’m sure Toby could do without me for a few days.  Leo wouldn’t mind."

"No, honestly, stay," Josh said, reassuringly patting his friend on the arm, "I’ll be fine by myself, it will give me chance to think about stuff.  Anyway, my flight leaves soon, it’s too late."

"If you’re sure," Sam said, still not entirely convinced that Josh was telling the truth.

"Yeah, I am."

Sam pulled Josh into a big bear hug.  "Give my love to your mom," he said, "tell her I’m thinking of her."

"I will," Josh said pulling away from Sam. "I better go, my cab’s probably waiting for me."

He picked up his suitcase; Sam held the door open for him.  When they were out in the hallway they shared one last brief hug, "I need to go and find Toby, we gotta get ready for the speech later on.  He’s probably throwing a fit somewhere."

"Sounds about right," Josh commented, "I’ll see you in California."

"See you in California," Sam said back as Josh went into the elevator.  Sam stood there looking at the closed elevator doors for a few moments, collecting his thoughts before reluctantly going to find Toby.

Donna flitted around her hotel room trying to find everything she would need for tonight’s fundraiser.  This was the first big one that she had been allowed to go to and she was very excited, as well as slightly nervous.  She’d borrowed an evening gown from Margaret, there was no way she would able to afford her own.  It wasn’t a perfect fit, but it was close enough.  It was deep sapphire and brought out her blue eyes. She looked at her watch and realised that she needed to get moving if she didn’t want to be late.  She took one last look in the mirror, she looked good even if she did say so herself, picked up her room key and headed to Josh’s room to see if he was ready.

She saw Sam coming out of his own room as she hurried down the corridor towards Josh’s room.

"Hey Donna," he said shutting the door behind him.

"Hey Sam," she replied quickly not stopping to talk.

"You look good," he called after her.

"Thanks," she shouted back, "you do too.  You look very nice in a tux."  Sam smiled at her.  "I’m just on my way to get Josh.  You don’t know if he’s ready yet do you?" Donna asked.

"Haven’t seen him," Sam replied, "Look I gotta go and meet the others, tell him to hurry up when you find him."

"I will," she said as he went into the elevator.

She reached Josh’s door and took out the spare room key she had in her bag, Josh was used to her just walking into his room now, and he would never answer if she just knocked.

"Josh," she called walking into his room.  She couldn’t see him anywhere.  "Josh?"

"Yeah," she heard him call from the bathroom.

"You ready yet?  ‘Cause everyone else is waiting for you."  She wasn’t sure whether everyone was waiting but she was pretty sure that Josh would be the last of them to be ready.

"Almost," he called back.

"Well how ready is almost?" she asked sorting out the pile of papers strewn on his bed.

"Donna," he whined coming out of the bathroom.

"What?" she whined back, mocking him.  She turned around to see just how ready he was and saw him leaning against the bathroom door looking quite pathetic as he held out his bowtie.

"Yes Josh?  That’s your bowtie, why don’t you have it on yet?"  Donna asked, her patience wearing thin.  She just wanted to get to the fundraiser and meet all the Hollywood stars.  Margaret had shown her the list of all the celebrities who were due to attend and she didn’t want to waste precious star-spotting time waiting for Josh to get ready.

"Donna, I have never been able to tie my bowtie," he said moving towards her trying to give her his tie, but she merely stood glaring at him with her hands on her hips.

"Well why don’t you have a clip-on tie? Surely that would be easier," she said still refusing to take the tie from his hand.

"Because then at the end of the night I can’t untie it and leave it hanging around my neck, I’ve been told that I look good when I have my tie hanging around my neck and shirt unbuttoned at the top" he said smugly, almost all dimples showing, though he still had a sadness in his eyes which he’d had ever since the Illinois primary.

Donna rolled her eyes and grabbed the tie from him, "Alright, but just this once and only because we’re going to be late otherwise," she pulled him closer to her and expertly knotted the tie around his neck, "you’re going to have to learn to do this yourself ‘cause there’s no way that I’m going to do it for you every time."  She finished and patted him on the chest, "Right now come on, we need to meet the others in the lobby."  She picked her bag up from where she left it on the bed as he grabbed his tux jacket from the back of the chair.

They were waiting for the elevator when Josh looked over to Donna who kept looking at her watch knowing that the others would all be waiting for them.   "Hey you look good," he said finally noticing.

She looked at him, "Only good?" she asked, "Is that all you can say?"

He was worried for a second at her hurt expression but that quickly passed when her face broke into a smile.

"It’s ok Josh, I wasn’t fishing for compliments or anything."

The elevator arrived and they stepped in. "No, I meant to say, you look beautiful Donna.  You look gorgeous in that dress."

Donna felt herself blushing, "Thanks, you’re looking pretty handsome yourself."

"I’m told by many that I look good in a tux," Josh said haughtily as he pressed the button for the lobby.

"Yeah, of course, all the assistants have mentioned you in your tux," Donna remarked.

"The assistants talk about me?" Josh asked, completely serious, not noticing Donna’s slight mocking tone.

"Yes Josh, you are all we can talk about," Donna said, the sarcasm clearly dripping from her voice, "not a day goes by when we don’t comment on how good you look in your tux."

"I sense I’m being mocked," Josh observed.

"You sense right," Donna replied as the elevator doors opened in front of them and they walked out into the lobby to meet the rest of the group.  Everyone looked very impressive in their formal wear.  CJ was talking to Toby and Sam.  She was wearing a backless burgundy dress.  CJ was lucky, Donna thought, she could get away with wearing pretty much any colour.  Donna looked over to see the Governor and Mrs Bartlet talking with Leo.  There was someone else stood with them in a royal blue dress who Donna didn’t immediately recognise, but as soon as Josh broke away from her and grabbed whomever it was by the waist and whirled her round, she knew exactly who it was.

"Hey Zoey," Donna said moving over to the group. "When did you get in?"

Josh put Zoey back down and she found her balance before answering, "I got in a few hours ago.  I was supposed to be in Hanover this week, but I finally managed to persuade dad to let me come out here for the fundraiser," she smiled at her dad.

"Yeah, she’s got me wrapped round her little finger," he laughed.

"And that’s a bad thing?" Zoey asked, smiling sweetly to her father.  She turned back to Donna, "I have to fly back day after tomorrow though at the latest. I’d rather stay here though, I’ve never been to California before, and I was hoping Sam and CJ could give me a tour of all the best places."

"That’s not gonna happen sweetheart," the Governor said wrapping his arm round Zoey’s shoulders.  "Sam and CJ have got much better things to do than give you a tour, like, I dunno, getting me elected."   The group’s laughing was interrupted by Leo.

"And if you’re gonna be elected then we need to get the money from this fundraiser, and in order for that to happen, I suggest you actually turn up to it Jed."

"Leo, has spoken," the Governor said, "so I guess we better go.  Everybody get into the cars."

The group made their way out of the lobby and into the awaiting cars.  The Governor, Mrs Bartlet, Zoey and Leo were in one, while Toby, CJ, Josh, Donna, Sam and Margaret made their way to the second.  When they were sat in the car Josh started fiddling with his bowtie.

Donna slapped his hand away from his tie, "Leave your tie alone Josh, if it comes undone I’m not going to tie it for you again."

"You can’t tie your own bowtie?" Margaret laughed, and the pathetic look on Josh’s face caused all the people in the car to burst out laughing.

"Crap!"

"What the hell-?  What’s wrong CJ?"  Sam tried to look at the Press Secretary but she was busy cowering behind his back.

"Sam stay in front of me, you have to hide me," she hissed from behind him.

"CJ, " he said, still trying to turn around to speak to her, but she had hold of his waist and wouldn’t let him turn around, "now, I may have missed something here, I’ve been working hard and I’m pretty tired, so I apologise if what I’m going to ask sounds stupid, but, why are you hiding behind my back?"

"Roger Becker," CJ whispered.

"Where’s Roger Becker?" Sam asked surveying the room which was full of people talking, the occasional waiter or waitress distributing tall flutes of champagne.  A hand appeared at his shoulder pointing to a balding man stood next to a large arrangement of lilies.

"Oh, okay," Sam said nodding.  "Uh, CJ?  Who is Roger Becker?"

"Roger Becker is the ninth most powerful person in Hollywood," Toby explained standing next to Sam, a champagne glass already in his hand.

"And CJ is hiding behind me because...?"

"Roger Becker dropped from third most powerful person in Hollywood to ninth most powerful person in Hollywood," CJ explained.

"Apparently they take it seriously," Toby commented, echoing CJ’s words when she explained it to him the first time.

Sam still didn’t quite understand why CJ would need to hide from Roger Becker.  "I was responsible for his advertising campaign for his last film.  He’s the reason I got fired," CJ said.  She slowly rose up slightly from behind Sam and started moving backwards, pulling Sam along with her.

"CJ," Sam asked, "what are you doing?"

"I wanna get a drink and I need you to cover me," she explained.

"Yeah, ‘cause you’re gonna attract less attention ducked behind Sam while dragging him backwards than you are just walking into the next room to get a drink," Toby remarked, a slight smile about his lips.

"Oh, shut up Tobus," CJ glared at him, pulling herself up to her full height, "come on Sam," she said motioning to the other room, "we’re going to get a drink."  She walked away, her burgundy dress flowing behind her.

"I’m going with her, apparently," Sam said hesitantly following CJ to get a drink.

"So where’s your girlfriend then Josh?" Zoey asked.  Her and Donna were on Josh’s arms; all three looking very elegant in their evening wear.  Josh kept fiddling with his tie and each time Donna slapped his hand away.

"Do you ever mind your own business?" Josh asked leading the two women outside into the garden.  There were candlelit tables surrounding an enormous pool, people were milling around, some of them seeming in deep conversation.  Donna recognised a few political players talking amongst the other guests, she knew that Josh was trying to avoid talking to some of these people.  Political fundraisers were not exactly Josh’s favourite pastimes.

"Mandy’s gonna be here later.  She got caught up in a meeting with-" Josh started to explain but was interrupted by squealing in both of his ears.

"Oh my God," Zoey shrieked, "is that Matt Damon?"

"Who?" Josh asked, looking around trying to work out what all the fuss was about.

"Matt Damon, Josh," Donna said rolling her eyes at her boss, "he’s in Good Will Hunting."

"He is so hot," Zoey commented.

"I wouldn’t let your father hear you speak like that young lady," Josh said sternly.

"Don’t worry I won’t, I want to keep up the sweet little angel façade I have going," she replied, a wicked smile on her face. She leaned round Josh and said to Donna, "You wanna go and talk to him?"

"I will if you will," Donna replied leaning in closer to Zoey seemingly forgetting that Josh was even there.

"Listen to you two," Josh commented, "you sound like a couple of school girls."

They both straightened themselves up.  "You forget that I am a schoolgirl," Zoey said.

"And for now, I’m an honorary schoolgirl," Donna smiled and the two ‘schoolgirls’ left Josh by himself and teetered off arm in arm, giggling the whole time.

Leo was wandering through the crowds of people at the fundraiser.  He’d done most of his networking and now all he wanted to do was go back to the hotel and sleep.  He stood on the stairs so that he could survey the room.  Jed, Abbey and Josh were talking to Congressman Phillip’s chief of staff; Toby was standing away from the throng of people, drink in his hand; Donna, Margaret and Zoey were huddled in a group gossiping about something or other, Leo hoped that was non-alcoholic champagne in Zoey’s hand, and CJ was hiding behind a pillar. Hang on, why the hell was CJ hiding behind a pillar?  He decided to find out what on earth was going on. Leo meandered his way through the mass of people over to where the Press Secretary was now cowering behind the flowers. He moved behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Oh my God," she jumped, "Leo!  Don’t do that to me."  She leant back on the pillar that she was hiding behind before.

"CJ," he smirked, "why were you hiding?"

She could feel herself going red; she looked down at her shoes and tried to straighten out her wrap that had begun to fall off her shoulders.  "I, um, I was hiding from Roger Becker," she said quietly, slightly embarrassed that her boss had caught her hiding.

"Who’s Roger Becker?" Leo asked taking some kind of sadistic pleasure out of CJ’s discomfort.  CJ didn’t exactly embarrass easily.

"He was a client of mine at Triton-Day," she explained flicking her hair out of her face, "we didn’t really get on, I’m trying to avoid him."  She decided to leave out the fact that it was Roger Becker who got her fired out in the hallway.  Leo chuckled slightly, though it didn’t go unnoticed by CJ, "I’m going to, um, I’m going to go outside to get some air," she said excusing herself from the awkward situation. 

The air outside was much cooler than inside the house and quickly cooled CJ’s flushed face.  She stood for a few seconds getting herself together, "Well that was embarrassing," she said to herself.

"What was embarrassing?" CJ heard a voice behind her that she recognised.  She turned slowly wishing that she could run away.

"Roger," she said, painting a fake smile across her face, "I didn’t know you were here," she lied.

"Oh, so you were hiding from someone else?" Roger asked, an equally fake smile on his face.

Damn, he saw me CJ thought, well this makes the situation so much more enjoyable!  How am I going to explain this?

"I wasn’t hiding," she defended, "I was watching the room." Yeah, he’s really going to buy that.  She didn’t stay to hear his jokes, she saw Toby walk outside and took an opportunity, "Toby!" she called across to him, "I’m sorry Roger but I need to talk to Toby about something."

"Sure you do CJ," Roger said sarcastically, "good luck in the primary," he called across to her as she rushed over to Toby.

"What do you want CJ?" Toby asked, wandering why she practically ran over to him.

"Nothing, just pretend that we’re talking about something serious and important," she took his arm and led him over to a large group of people who had congregated by the pool, she was planning on getting lost in the crowd and forgetting her meeting with Roger Becker.

"I see that Roger Becker finally caught up with you," Toby said.

"Yes, Tobus, he did."

"And was that embarrassing for you?" he smirked.

CJ glared down at him and was silently glad that she decided to wear her 3inch heels that night.  They approached the crowd and wondered what was going on to cause such a large gathering.  They could hear some kind of commotion going on in the centre of the group and tried to get closer to see what was happening.  CJ had the advantage of height and could see Roberto Benigni doing his usual showing off.

"What’s going on?" Toby asked, not able to see over the people gathered around.

"It’s Roberto Benigni, doing his typical thing," she replied not looking away from the man in the centre.

"That’s a great description there CJ, you sure you don’t want to give me even more detail?" he deadpanned.

Before CJ could give him a proper answer she saw the centre of attention come dashing towards her.

"Claudia Jean!" he shouted in his rich Italian accent.  The crowd parted as he moved towards her.

"Do you know him?" Toby asked.

"No," CJ managed to get out just before Roberto grabbed her by the waist and started whirling her round in some kind of crazy dance.  The group found it hilarious, even Toby cracked a smile. Somehow CJ managed to keep her footing until Roberto suddenly stopped and let her go.  She felt herself falling backwards, arms flailing.  She had an awful sense of deja vu.  Everyone seemed to flock to see what caused the splash. CJ quickly surfaced gasping for breath, her Donna Karan dress ballooning out around her.  Her embarrassment from earlier was completely forgotten as the word embarrass reached whole new proportions.  She began to make her way out of the pool, her face burning. Roberto’s apologies were drowned out by the sound of everyone laughing.

She started to climb out of the pool with as much dignity as she could.  However, that wasn’t going to happen.  It wasn’t until she was completely out of the pool that she noticed she only had one of her shoes.  There was no way that she was leaving one of her very expensive Jimmy Choo shoes, even if they were ruined.  Head held high she got back in the pool and fished out her missing shoe. She waded her way back out of the pool, everyone watching her, still the odd laugh going around.  She straightened herself out and smoothed down her hair, attempting to make herself look as presentable as possible.  She took a deep breath and walked back towards the house trying to ignore the look on Toby’s face.  But he wasn’t gonna let that happen.

"I knew I shouldn’t have let you go anywhere near a pool," he smirked, "we should have put up warning signs or something."

CJ stopped causing Toby to crash into her, "Toby, just leave it okay?"  She pulled her drenched wrap tighter around her and stormed off into the house leaving a trail of water behind her, limping along wearing only one shoe.  Toby chuckled to himself, he decided that he would let her cool off for a bit before going to see if she was all right.

"Josh, how many glasses of champagne have you had?" Donna asked taking the flute from out of Josh’s hand.

"Hey! Hardly any actually," Josh exclaimed snatching his glass back causing some of the bubbly to spill over his glass and onto his hand.  He sighed and tried to shake the sticky liquid off his hand.  "You really shouldn’t believe everything that my mother tells you Donna, she just says things like that to try and embarrass me."

Donna was going to continue their usual banter when she saw a very wet CJ come storming in from outside.  Donna heard some laughing coming from outside and everyone in the room seemed to stop and watch CJ stomp up the stairs.

"What happened to CJ?" asked Donna.

"I dunno," Josh replied, "she was perfectly dry last time I saw her."

"I’m going to see if she’s okay," Donna handed Josh her champagne glass and quickly followed the wet trail that led to CJ.

Donna reached the top of the stairs.  There was hardly anyone there; most people were downstairs enjoying the party. There were doors everywhere and Donna would have had no idea which room CJ was in if it wasn’t for the small puddle of water outside one of the doors.

Donna went to the door and lightly knocked on it.  The door swung open violently, "What do you want?" CJ snapped, though her tone softened when she saw that who it was.  "Sorry Donna, I didn’t realise it was you.  I thought it might be Toby coming back to mock."  She went back into the huge bathroom and grabbed one of the ivory coloured towels from the shelf to dry her hair.

"Uh, CJ, what happened?"  Donna asked, wandering whether it was safe to ask that question.  She’d heard about the ‘Wrath of CJ’ from Josh and Sam, apparently they had felt the full force of it many times already on this campaign.

"Roberto Benigni is what happened," CJ said wringing the water out from her wrap and into the bath.

"Sorry CJ, I’m not quite with you," Donna took the wrap from CJ and carried on squeezing out the water while CJ started trying to dry out her dress.

"Roberto Benigni decided that it would be fun to push me into Larry Posner’s swimming pool," CJ explained.

"For any particular reason?" Donna asked laying the wrap over the radiator to dry and handing CJ another dry towel.

"It’s Roberto Benigni, he’s a comic, he’ll do anything to get a laugh, he’s crazy!" She picked up her discarded shoes from the floor, "Great, my shoes are completely ruined! Argh!!!" she threw the shoes back on the floor and slumped down onto the closed toilet seat with her head in her hands.

Donna picked up the shoes and examined them, "You’re right.  Were they really expensive?"

CJ looked up at her, "They’re Jimmy Choo, what do you think?"

"Oh right," Donna put the shoes back down on the floor.  Donna felt that she wouldn’t be leaving this bathroom for a while. She knew that CJ wouldn’t go back out to the fundraiser still in a soaking wet dress.  She thought she’d try and get her to think of something other than the pool incident.  "This bathroom is huge!"  CJ laughed at Donna’s feeble attempt to change the subject.  "I mean this bathroom is bigger than my old apartment!" CJ gave her a doubtful look, "okay, I may have been exaggerating a bit there, but you have to admit this is a big bathroom."

"Donna you are not gonna make me forget the complete and utter humiliation I just experienced by talking to me about the size of Larry Posner’s bathroom."

"You want me to do anything?" Donna asked.

"You got a spare evening gown in your purse?" CJ joked.

"I’ll see what I can do," Donna said just before disappearing out of the bathroom.

"Hey, Donna I didn’t mean..." CJ tried to call Donna back but she had already rushed down the stairs.  CJ looked at her dishevelled reflection in the mirror, "She’s really got an evening gown in her purse?" she asked herself.  "Well, this is Donna, I wouldn’t put it past her," she picked up the towel and continued to try and dry herself as much as possible.

Josh hated fundraisers.  He hated having to be nice to people he would normally ignore just so they could get badly needed money.  Tonight was one of the worst.  Normally he would try and get quietly drunk in the corner and avoid the people he didn’t want to talk to.  However, his assistant had been monitoring his drink tonight.  I’m really gonna need to talk to my mom about what she tells Donna, he thought.

Donna had finally left him alone for more than five minutes and he had managed to grab a glass of champagne from one of the waiters.  He was looking around the room for all the people he wanted to steer clear of.  There were a couple of actors who kept wanting to talk policy with him, that was the one time Donna came in useful-she tended to scare them away with her school girl behaviour; Steven Dalton, Congressman Phillips’ Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh had been pretty successful in evading him so far; he was also now trying to avoid Mandy, apparently she’d arrived and he was really not in the mood for her right now. He moved to the other side of the pillar he was standing next to in order to avoid more Hollywood luvvies who thought they could have a crack at politics when he saw his assistant running, or rather teetering in her high heels, towards him.  He quickly handed the champagne glass to a passing waitress and tried to show an expressionless face as possible.

"Josh!" Donna cried, grabbing his hand and leading him away from the safety of the pillar.

"Donna? What’s going on?" Josh tried to ask as she meandered him through the crowd.

"I need you to take your clothes off," she explained pulling him up the stairs, but he’d stopped half way and stood looking dumbstruck.

"I’m sorry, did you just say what I think you said?" Josh asked.

She moved next to him and started leading him by the elbow to get him moving again. "If you think I said that I needed you to take off your clothes then, yes, I did say what you think I said."

"‘kay," he let her lead him upstairs while he tried to work out why Donna would want him to take off his clothes.  "Uh, Donna?"

"Yeah," she answered now at the top of the stairs she led him into one of the many bedrooms.

"Why do you want me to take my clothes off?"  Donna knew that he had a girlfriend, what was she thinking?

"To give to CJ," she answered shutting the door behind them.  Okay, he wasn’t expecting her to say that.

"To give to CJ," Josh repeated trying to make sense of the situation.

"Yeah," Donna replied, as if it were the most logical thing in the world.

"Donna, can you explain to me why CJ needs my clothes, and what am I supposed to wear if CJ has my tux?"  This, as well as the alcohol, was starting to give him a headache.

"CJ was trying to get away from Roger Becker ‘cause he’s the reason that she got fired from her old job, so she and Toby wandered over to see what this crowd of people were looking at by the pool and it turned out it was Roberto Benigni. He then grabbed CJ and started doing some kind of crazy dance with her and she ended up falling in the pool," she paused to take a breath before continuing with her explanation of the pool incident.  "So now CJ’s dress is completely soaked and there is no way that she can wear it without catching pneumonia so I need you to give me your shirt so I can give it to CJ so that she has something to wear back to the hotel."

Josh didn’t even try to understand what had happened that evening and could feel his headache slowly growing.  He rubbed his eyes to try and get rid of the pounding behind them, it didn’t work. "Why can’t CJ have Toby or Sam’s clothes?" he asked.

"You’re taller than Toby and I can’t find Sam anywhere," she explained as she reached to undo his tie.  He held up his hand to stop her.

"I thought Sam had come upstairs with you, I saw him going up the stairs with some blonde."  He tried to step away from her but she wasn’t letting him go.

"Well, he wasn’t with me and I’m not going to go searching for him since I’ve got you here.  Now get your clothes off!" She reached for his tie and began to undo it.

"Hey! What am I supposed to wear then if CJ’s got my shirt?" he asked trying to straighten out his tie that Donna had caused to become undone.

"You’ve got an undershirt on haven’t you?" she said.  "And anyway, the Governor’s leaving soon and everyone out there is either too tired or too drunk to notice."

Josh decided that it was no use arguing with her.  He would be so glad when tonight was over. He shrugged his shoulders and let Donna help him out of his jacket.  There should have been something weird about her undressing him, but for some reason he didn’t feel embarrassed.  She was helping him undo the buttons on his shirt when the door to the room swung open to reveal a pretty pissed Mandy.

"Well we’ve never tried it that way before Joshua, but if you like the dyed blonde hair and the ill-fitting dress then I’ll do my best," her pleasant tone was undermined by the furious expression on her face.

"I’m not a dyed blonde!" Donna exclaimed, self-consciously smoothing down her immaculate hair.

"Mandy...Donna was just..." Josh tried to explain, but even he had to admit that this situation did not look good, "she was only taking my clothes off."

"I can see that Joshua," Mandy said, folding her arms, her expression not changing.

"No, that’s not what I meant...CJ’s clothes got wet in the pool, and Sam’s not here so Donna needs my clothes."  Josh should’ve paid more attention to Donna’s explanation because his somehow didn’t sound right.

"Josh, nothing you could say could make this situation any better," Mandy turned on her heel and disappeared down the hall.

Josh just stood dumbstruck trying to work out the best course of action.  His girlfriend had just walked in on his assistant undressing him in a bedroom-this wasn’t good.

"I should probably go after her," he said as he started out of the room.  Donna stopped him and started to pull of his unbuttoned shirt.

"Donna, what are you doing?" Josh asked.

"CJ still needs the shirt," she pulled off the shirt and handed him his jacket. "Now you can go."  He rushed out of the room trying to hide the fact that he was no longer wearing a shirt while Donna took the shirt to the bathroom.

Donna couldn’t help but laugh at the situation Mandy had found her and Josh in, she had to laugh or she might cry.  Mandy had never liked Donna; she was convinced that Josh had only hired Donna because he wanted to sleep with her.  Donna was sure that the rest of the campaign staff had thought the same thing, but she had proved herself and earned everyone’s respect, except Mandy’s. She’d spoken to Ginger about it one night after Mandy had been particularly malicious.  Ginger told her that she was everything that Mandy wasn’t: tall, blonde and Josh seemed to like her more than he liked his girlfriend. It made Donna feel better, until she saw Mandy the next day and the bitchiness started again.

Donna reached the bathroom where CJ was still taking refuge.  She knocked on the door.  "CJ, it’s me.  I have something for you to wear," she said to the door.  She heard the lock click open and CJ opened the door wrapped in a towel.

"What have you got?" she opened the door wider to let Donna into the bathroom.

Donna held out Josh’s shirt for the Press Secretary to inspect.  CJ was not impressed.

"You got me a shirt?!"  She took the piece of clothing from Donna’s hands and held it out in front of her. "Who’s is it?"

"It’s Josh’s, and you better be grateful for it.  I think he and Mandy may break up over it," Donna was finding it quite hard not to smile at the prospect of Josh and Mandy breaking up.  It would certainly make her life easier.

"Why would they break up over me wearing Josh’s shirt?" CJ asked turning round to put on the garment in question.

"It’s a long story, but basically I was helping Josh get his shirt off in one of the bedrooms and Mandy walked in," Donna explained.

"Ah,"

"Yes."

"I can see why she may be upset," CJ said, turning around now wearing the shirt. "What do you think?  Think anyone will notice the difference?"

Donna found it hard to suppress her laughter at CJ’s appearance.  The shirt only came half way down her thighs and was too big for her across the shoulders and she’d rolled up the sleeves since Josh’s arms were longer than hers.  But what really set the piece off were CJ’s ruined shoes.  However she looked as dignified as ever, something only CJ could do.

"You look great CJ, I’m sure the press would love a picture of you like that."

CJ looked at herself in the huge mirror above the washbasin, "Hmm, it is a bit revealing I suppose."  She took her wrap from the radiator where it was now only slightly damp and hung it loosely round her elbows so that she didn’t feel so vulnerable.

"Just one last thing," CJ went to her bag and took out her lipstick and reapplied it since most of her makeup had come off when she fell in the pool.  She took one last look in the mirror, "Much better, now how long till we’re leaving?"

Donna looked at her watch, "The Governor will be getting ready to leave any minute now."

"Well we better get down there then hadn’t we?" CJ took a deep breath before strutting to the door, flinging it open and made her way down the landing with the poise Donna could only wish for.  She smiled at CJ’s self-assuredness and followed her.

"For nearly 4,000 years Malibu, was inhabited by the Chumash Indians. They named the stretch of beach at the mouth of Malibu Creek ‘Humaliwo’ or ‘the surf sounds loudly.’ It was here in 1542..."  Toby started to zone out, he was not really in the right frame of mind to listen to one of Governor Bartlet’s history lectures.  Actually he was never in the right frame of mind to listen to one of these ‘fun chats’ as the Governor liked to call them.  He looked over to Mrs Bartlet and saw that she had the exact same expression that Toby was trying to hide.  Luckily Leo chose that time to interrupt them.

"Jed, we need to go now if you want to get any sleep before we have to leave tomorrow," Leo said noticing the relieved look on Toby’s face.  Leo had to endure the Malibu lecture already this evening so he knew just how Toby was feeling.

"Is everyone else ready?" the Governor asked looking around the room.  He saw Mandy walking over to them looking pretty pissed, Josh slowly walking behind her, hands in his pockets looking down at his shoes.  Sam came bounding over with Zoey, both of them laughing about something that they had seen.

"Are we off then?" Sam asked looking around the group.  "Hey Josh, what happened to your shirt?" Sam asked noticing that Josh wasn’t looking quite as dressed as he was earlier.

"CJ’s got it," Josh answered offering no further explanation.

"Why-?" Sam started to ask but Josh interrupted him, exasperated.

"Something to do with a pool, some guy and the fact that she couldn’t find you, I don’t really know.  Donna just took my shirt."

Sam would have asked more questions but he saw the daggered looks that Mandy kept throwing towards Josh.  Josh was trying to avoid eye contact with her, but Sam was pretty certain that Josh knew exactly what Mandy was doing.

Sam tried to hastily change the subject, "So who are we waiting for?"

"Just CJ and Donna," Margaret replied.

Mandy shot Josh another look at the mention of Donna’s name; Sam decided he was definitely going to have to ask Josh about that later.

Margaret was just about to suggest that she go and look for the two missing staffers when everyone’s gaze shifted towards the stairs.  Margaret turned and saw Donna walking down the stairs carrying CJ’s dress, while CJ was just wearing a dress shirt and her wrap.  The whole room went silent as they watched this woman walk down the stairs in just a shirt and not much else.  A group of congressional staffers stopped their argument, a man and a woman who had been signing furiously to each other throughout the night froze,the woman’s hands in mid-sign when the man had pointed the Press Secretary out to her, the only noise was the sound of the press calling to the various celebrities outside the house.

When the two women reached the group CJ looked at them as if to say What you all looking at? as if it were completely normal for her to wander round in just a shirt.  "Well, are we going then?" she asked, walking towards the group.

It took a moment for everyone to realise that they were meant to be leaving. Toby was gawping at the scantily clad woman in front of him.  CJ noticed this, went up to him and linked her arm through his, careful that the wrap didn’t move to reveal too much.  "Something the matter Tobus?"  Toby shook his head, trying to form a coherent sentence, but nothing would come out of his mouth.  CJ looked behind Toby and saw the amused expression on Abbey’s face, they exchanged a look before Abbey took her husband by the arm and led him out of the entrance hall to the waiting cars.

Everyone took their lead from the couple and followed them outside.  Leo looked as if was going to say something to CJ, but decided against it and merely chuckled at her appearance before following the Bartlets.  Sam, in an exaggerated display of chivalry, took Zoey’s arm and escorted her to the limos. Josh offered his arm to Mandy, but she looked down on it with disgust and stormed out of the house giving Donna a look of complete revulsion.  Josh would have accompanied Donna outside, but decided that Mandy was mad enough at him already, so he simply shrugged at her and gave her a weak smile before following his infuriated girlfriend.  Donna and Margaret giggled together at the thought of what Mandy would do to him when they got back to the hotel leaving CJ and Toby standing in the hallway.

"Are we actually gonna go then Toby?  Or are we just gonna stand here all night?" CJ smiled at the shocked look that had still not left Toby’s face.

 "You’re really going to go outside dressed in that?" Toby gestured to her attire.

CJ looked down at what she was wearing and then back to Toby, "Well what would you rather, that I went out there naked?" Toby’s expression caused CJ to laugh out loud. When she had recovered she pulled him towards the door, "They’re waiting for us Toby, I don’t particularly want to try and get a cab looking like this."

"I dunno," he replied going through the door, "I don’t think you’d find it too hard to get a cab looking like that.  I’d watch out for the cops though."

CJ laughed again at Toby and tried to ignore the shouts coming from the press, or rather one particular member of the press, as she got into the limo with her head held high.

"Josh, stop fidgeting, you’re making me nervous," CJ said grabbing Josh’s arms to keep him still.

"And you’re not already nervous?" he asked, squirming out of CJ’s grasp.

"Yes, but we’ve already got the nomination, calm down," somehow CJ had been the one left to baby-sit Josh.  He’d been highly strung all day and everyone on staff was starting to get pretty pissed with him.

"But anything could happen between now and the announcement, they could realise they’ve made a big mistake and Hoynes could nominated, the Governor might suddenly back out and decide he doesn’t want to be President, Kansas might decide to invade Nebraska..."

"Do you really see any of that happening in the next 10 minutes Josh?"  CJ decided that now would be a good time to interrupt Josh before he had to be removed from the building for creating too much of a disturbance.

He put his hands in his pockets to stop his arms from flailing about but he still carried on bouncing on the balls of his feet.  He looked at the floor to avoid CJ’s glower.  "No," he mumbled, "I suppose not."

"And why did you pick those two states?" CJ asked, a smile replacing the frown.

Josh looked up to her, "I dunno, first ones that came to mind."

CJ laughed at him and moved away from him to talk to Toby who was looking particularly tense about the Governor’s acceptance speech.

"What?" Josh asked, not quite sure what he said that was so funny, he followed her trying to get an answer but decided against it when he saw that Toby was acting even more uptight that usual so he decided to go and bug Donna instead.

The room was decorated with red, white and blue balloons; there was confetti ready and waiting to be released when the nominee was announced.  Donna had been trying to listen to the various speakers but Josh wasn’t going to let that happen.  Just when she thought she had managed to escape him amid a sea of people, he somehow managed to track her down.  She could hear his whining behind her and tried to pretend she hadn’t heard and walk in the opposite direction.  Josh followed her; she should’ve known that she wouldn’t be able to escape him that easily.

"Donna," he continued to whine.  He’d caught up with her, she tried to walk around him, but he wouldn’t let her pass. They continued this bizarre dance until Donna stopped abruptly, arms crossed across her chest.

"Josh, what do you want?  There can’t possibly be anything you need until after the speech, go and bug your girlfriend," she turned on her heel and walked away from him.

He didn’t seem to take the hint.  He ran after her and blocked her path.  "Mandy’s mad at me."

"Can’t imagine why," Donna muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Josh asked.

Donna tried to look as innocent as possible, "I just wondered why you weren’t off supporting your best friend just before the Governor gives his big speech."

"Sam’s mad at me too," Josh said sheepishly, "he was going over the final draft for the speech and apparently I wasn’t helping."

"Well what about CJ?"  Donna asked, though she already knew what the answer would be.

"Yeah, she’s pissed at me too, I was making her nervous so she went off to speak to Toby. I’m not even gonna try and talk to him."

Donna had purposefully kept away from Toby most of today, she felt sorry for Ginger who borethe brunt of Toby’s anxiousness for the past few days while he and Sam were writing and rewriting the Governor’s acceptance speech.

"Well, I’m going to find the others for the announcement.  They’ll be doing the Vice-Presidential nomination any minute now, so try and calm yourself down if you’re going to be coming with me."  She didn’t wait for Josh to reply and headed off in the direction of CJ, Toby, Liz and Zoey.  Josh seemed to debate the pros and cons of following Donna in his head and finally decided to follow her after taking a few deep breaths to try and settle down; tonight was not the night to experience the wrath of CJ, as well as probably the rest of the campaign staff.

The atmosphere around the group was full of nervous excitement.  Donna had begun talking to Liz and Zoey but it was mostly small talk, CJ and Toby were stood slightly separate from the group, CJ trying to stop Toby going to the auto-cue operatorand yet again rewriting the speech.

Josh thought better of bounding over and swinging the youngest Bartlet daughter around as he normally did when she visited them on the campaign and instead gave her and Liz a quick peck on the cheek.  He was about to join in the small talk when Ellie came along, Sam closely behind her, and told her sisters that they needed to join their parents, ready for the announcements.  They looked at the campaign staffers and congratulated them on a brilliant campaign and followed Ellie to find their parents.

Through all this Sam had been looking through the folder he had in front of him, barely looking up when Liz, Ellie and Zoey left.

He looked up, "You know what-" he started.

"No, Sam," CJ said pointing a finger at him.

He ignored her pointing and continued, "I’m still not convinced by the fourth paragraph."

Toby was about to reply when CJ exploded, "No Sam, that’s enough!  You two have written, and rewritten and reworked and revised and amended and rewritten that speech for what seems like forever!  It is done, just leave it!"

The group stood in silence for what seemed like an age while CJ continued to stare down at Sam, finger still pointing.

Sam took off his glasses and slowly folded them and put them in his jacket pocket. "You know CJ, you said rewritten twice there."  She looked like she was about to slap him, but Sam wisely ducked out of the way.

"Hey guys," Donna interrupted them before any blood could be shed, "they’re about to announce the Vice Presidential nominee."

The group quietened down and moved to where Leo was standing with some of the other staffers.  The Bartlet staffers were still dubious about John Hoynes and his staff.  They knew that they needed him in order to have any chance of winning this election, but they knew just how badly Hoynes wanted to be President and it would take a while until they felt they could work well with Hoynes’ staff.  It was different for Josh however; he had effectively abandoned Hoynes and defected to the opposition, now he was going to have to work with the people he had deserted.  Donna could see Josh fidgeting through Senator Clemens’announcement. She put her hand on his arm to try and settle him down.  She didn’t need to worry about any jealous girlfriends; Mandy was off working the room trying to find more clients who she thought needed her consultancy.  Josh put his hand over Donna’s and smiled at her then looked back to the stage where Vice-Presidential nominee John Hoynes was giving his acceptance speech.

Hoynes finished his speech and the room was filled with cheers as he and his wife waved to the crowd.  TV cameras surrounded them projecting their beaming images onto screens around the auditorium and the nation.  Josh wondered for a second whether Hoynes was content with second best for the moment, if he wasn’t, it didn’t show.  Senator Hoynes and his wife left the stage, still waving; the crowd’s cheers echoing off the walls.

There was to be a break in between the two announcements, the staffers probably should have been working the room but they all remained standing in their group still looking at the now empty stage.  They could all feel the anticipation and excitement, but none of them felt they could join in with it quite yet.  This is what they’d been working towards for months and now it was here; goal number one was reached, now they had to focus on goal number two: getting this man in the White House.  People were coming up to them, congratulating them and shaking their hands. None of them actually registered what these people were saying to them, they just smiled and agreed with whatever they were saying.

Then the time came for the big announcement.  The crowd cheered as DNC Chairman James Addisonwalked to the podium to give the nomination.  Josh didn’t hear anything that Addison was saying, he was too busy fidgeting again before CJ whacked him on the arm.  He would have retaliated in some way but he didn’t think it was appropriate given what was just about to happen.  He looked to where the Bartlets were standing, waiting for the announcement. Zoey waved at him and he smiled back at her, eventually managing to focus on the Chairmanwhen the announcement was finally made.

The confetti and balloons were released as Governor Bartlet made his way to the podium, waving and smiling to the applauding crowd.  Mrs Bartlet stood with her daughters at the side of the stage, smiling proudly at her husband.  He waited until the cheers died down until he began his acceptance speech.

Sam listened intently as he heard his words come out of the Governor’s mouth.  He listened to the speech that he and Toby had worked on and argued over for days.  He thought he heard Toby mutter "Good job," but when he looked at him, Toby was just standing listening to their speech, a small smile on his lips. Sam turned his attention back to the Governor as he was delivering the final section of the speech, which he, Toby and the Governor had gone round and round on, but had finally perfected.

"Tonight, what began at the commons in Concorde, Massachusetts, as an alliance of farmers and workers, of cobblers and kinsmen, of statesmen and students, of mothers and wives, of men and boys, lives two centuries later as America. My name is Josiah Bartlet and I accept your nomination for the Presidency of the United States."

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