Disclaimer: The characters on the West Wing belong to someone other than me;
no copyright infringement is intended.
This is yet another look at the events of the season finale...
Chaos. From the organised chaos of a town hall meeting with
the President of the United States, to the disorganized chaos of
a Presidential assassination attempt. The word echoed through
the minds of many of the people involved in that chaos; they
were, each in their own fashion, wordsmiths, and made their
living by the word, spoken and written.
Toby Ziegler, the White House Communications Director, was
talking to the President as they walked toward the limo, in
better spirits that he had been since the Mendoza confirmation.
His carefully chosen words hadn't been too badly mangled by the
President. Jed Bartlett was charming and witty, but sometimes
his idea of wit was less than palatable to the American public.
Toby's job was to make sure that the displays of virtuoso wit and
erudition were kept within acceptable parameters.
Toby was also flying high on the news that his brother was
fine. David Ziegler had been stuck in orbit, waiting helplessly
for the space shuttle to correct a malfunction that would allow
the shuttle to land. Toby wasn't stupid; he knew the dangers of
his brother's job. Those dangers made it easier for him to
forget when David was going into space. If he didn't know, then
he didn't have to think about the dangers David faced in his job.
All in all, Toby was about as happy as he could possibly be
when it was all shattered by the sound of gunfire from above.
CJ Cregg, White House Press Secretary was laughing with Sam
Seaborn as she walked toward the car. She felt wonderful. The
meeting was inspired; the President was a brilliant speaker,
especially in this type of public appearance. She heard nothing
tonight that would require her to face a hostile press corps.
The meeting had gone flawlessly. She had been so pleased with
the President's performance that she had given Danny Concannon a
tip.
President Bartlett was right; she did have to let Danny out
of the doghouse. Danny had been right to publish Mandy's memo.
It was news, after all, and he was a reporter. She had been
furious with him, partly because he was a good enough reporter to
ask the tough, unanswerable questions in his written analysis,
and partly because she felt betrayed. She knew Danny had a crush
on her. He had told her enough times. She had been furious that
his personal feelings for her had not been strong enough for him
to cut her a little slack on one of the more damning pieces of
paper coming out of the Bartlett administration.
Thinking about it now, especially after the rise in the
administration's job approval rating, she had been unfair to
Danny. He was a professional, just as she was, and it was one of
the things she admired about him. That, and his quirky sense of
humour and odd way of courting her. As she felt Sam's hand on he
small of her back, guiding her through the doorway to the waiting
car, she reminded herself to feed Gail before going home.
She was almost to the car when she felt a hard push on her
back, and the explosion of gunfire sounded in her ears.
Sam Seaborn, Deputy Communications Director, was simply
relieved. The speech went well, which pleased him very much, but
that one hadn't been his speech. Toby had written it, claiming
that the President required more punctuation that Sam was apt to
use. Having enough on his plate without writing a speech that
the President was going to extemporize anyway, he didn't mind
Toby taking it from him. He did mind Toby's constant demands for
a precis of facts in case a question was asked on an obscure
topic, but not much. It was his job, after all. The only
drawback to Toby's constant demands for such information was the
annoying niggle in the back of his brain until he found out
himself. Well, that and the sinking feeling that Toby already
knew far more about any given topic than Sam ever could.
He looked ahead where Toby was picking on the President and
the President was giving back as good as he got. The nice part
about working here was that the smart ass comments that just
slipped out without conscious thought were not only acceptable,
but expected. Everyone he worked with, from his assistant Bonnie
to the President himself, was well read, well educated and witty.
The humour made the long, stressful days easier to bear.
Toby had the most stressful day of all, Sam knew. The worry
about his brother had broken through the curmudgeon facade all
day, badly masked by working harder than usual. The sheer relief
on Toby's face when the word came down lightened Sam's heart.
Walking with the lovely, if a tad tall, CJ Cregg was no
hardship. CJ had come down on him hard about Laurie, but she
wasn't being judgemental about her, just about the appearance of
impropriety. He felt she was a little more sympathetic about his
liking for Laurie than his male colleagues. She was rightly
concerned about how it looked, but she never said anything
slighting about Laurie herself.
The shout of "gun" had Sam reacting instantly. He dived and
pushed CJ down at the same time. The gunshots seemed to go on
forever.
Joshua Lyman, the Deputy Chief of Staff, was not in the
group walking to the presidential motorcade. He had stayed
behind to take care of a few small details and had walked around
so he was behind the barricade. A town hall meeting was the
perfect place to make a few inquiries to the staff of some of the
other movers and shakers in Washington.
He hadn't really been in the mood for playing the power game
tonight, but he didn't want to run the gauntlet of his fan club
again. He was pleased and slightly embarrassed by the small but
vocal group of girls who reacted to his appearance as if he were
a rock star or something. It was good for his ego, of course,
but it was also bizarre. Leo McGarry, the Chief of Staff and his
boss, thought it was a good thing to have politics become as sexy
and cool as music or television, but Donna, his assistant,
usually made some devastatingly funny and weird Donna-like remark
about them. Somehow, Donna's off hand withering remarks made
more of an impact that Leo's.
It wasn't like he could ever acknowledge any of the girls,
other than to smile and wave at them. For him to go anywhere
near them was a PR disaster; they were all far too young.
Besides, he reflected, he wasn't interested in young co-eds. He
had no time to devote to a relationship. His earlier forays into
romance had all ended badly. Mandy Hampton was the worst. Sharp
as a razor blade, with a streak of wild brilliance that matched
his own, she should have been a perfect partner. And she had
been, until that razor had been directed at him and she had cut
him to ribbons and left him bleeding on the floor. He had
deserved it, he could now admit, but it still gave him a shock to
see her in his workplace.
Joey Lucas had been another possibility. She also possessed
a keen intelligence and that annoying ability to see through him
and find his vulnerable points. He had misstepped so often with
Joey that he wasn't sure if she liked him or not. In a way, it
was a good thing that she was deaf and had her translator, Kenny,
there all the time. He never entirely forgot that Kenny was
there, although Kenny did his best to seem invisible. With Kenny
there, he had to rein in his impulsive desire to grab her and
kiss her senseless.
No, he had no time for a relationship, even with the
beautiful and smart Joey Lucas. He needed his energy for his
job. Maybe Sam had the right idea, making friends with a call
girl.
Josh mentally slapped himself upside the head for that
thought. Sam had not hired Laurie in any way, and Laurie had
shown herself to be a woman of integrity and honour. Besides,
Sam didn't need to hire female companionship; anyone as good
looking as Sam could find a date just by smiling. As long as he
didn't open his mouth and say something dorky, Sam was a catch.
Josh was used to all the girls looking at Sam first, then turning
to him when they discovered that Sam was hopelessly geeky. Sam
was a pretty good chick magnet; maybe they could go out for a few
drinks later and pick up some willing women. God, he needed to
get laid, if only to help focus his attention on his work and not
on Joey.
He heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire and ran until he
hit the barricade. He stopped, mouth hanging open in horror as
he watched his friends falling to the pavement in front of the
presidential motorcade.
Danny Concannon was not entirely pleased to have CJ slap him
across the side of his head to get his attention. She would
never know just how close she had been to getting slapped back.
He was tired of the cold shoulder from her. She was a pro; she
knew as well as he did that he could not have suppressed the
memo.
He was also tired of her blowing hot and cold towards him.
She was in a tough spot where he was concerned, but the mixed
signals were driving him crazy. One day cold and nasty, the next
day grabbing him and kissing him senseless.
Not that he minded the kisses, but he could have done
without the gratuitous nastiness. He had carefully planned his
pursuit of her; she wasn't the kind of woman who would be
impressed with romance, which wasn't his style anyway. Off beat
humour and shameless flirtation had always worked for him before.
And it was working with CJ. She would have accepted his advances
long ago, were it not for the conflict of interest. He was
willing to wait for one or the other of them to be out of the
jobs they currently had, but he was not willing to put up with
her treating him like dirt whenever their jobs conflicted.
Still, she had given him a tip and the tip was good. Toby
Ziegler's brother being stuck in the malfunctioning space shuttle
was a good human interest story, with the potential of a decent
spread about the safety of space exploration. Shuttle flights
had become so commonplace that most people thought it was
perfectly safe. It wasn't, and the hook of having the brother of
a White House senior staff member on board during a malfunction
made it a workable story.
He was still on the phone with his editor when he heard the
commotion outside. He hung up quickly and ran to the window. He
saw the chaos and his heart sank. Those people down there were
people he knew; people who knew him. And his reporter's
instincts kicked in; if he hadn't been on the phone following up
CJ's tip, he would have been right there, an eyewitness to the
biggest news story of the year.
To Be Continued; see part 2...
--
Adrienne ar895@freenet.carleton.ca
Chaos - 2
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