Title: A Bad Day
Author: Cathy Miller (cam7192003@yahoo.com)
Timeline: post ‘Constituency of One’
Rating: PG (maybe a little language)
Genre: Angst (at least that’s what I’m shooting for here)
Disclaimer: They’re not mine, but I have a Birthday coming up in a couple months…
Feedback: I’m thinking of making this a requirement…
Josh groggily went to the door and opened it without looking through the peep hole first.
It had been 6 hours since his surprise Birthday party and after the Carrick defection he
really couldn’t find anything to celebrate. He’d fallen into a fitful sleep only 2 hours ago
and since it was 4 AM, he’d have to get up and go into work soon anyway. He didn’t look
forward to it, but he wasn’t sure he’d have a job to go to after today so he figured he’d
‘enjoy’ it while he could.
When the door opened, a very inebriated Amy Gardner nearly fell into the apartment.
Oh, God, on the list of people he did not want to deal with right now, Amy Gardner was in
the top 3.
“Looks like I’m not the only one having bad day J.” she slurred. “Carrick was all over the
news.”
“Yeah, I heard something about that. Why didn’t you return any of my calls?” he asked as
he led her over to his couch and sat her down.
“At first I was embarrassed; about the whole thing with the President? Then later, I was
pissed.”
“Pissed? Why were you pissed?”
“We never really had a chance did we? I know you were just using me the first time, but
this time? Were you using me again? Was it just misdirection so no one suspects you’re
really with your ‘assistant’?”
“The Hell? I’m not ‘with’ Donna.”
“You’ve always ‘been with’ Donna. I just didn’t understand the extent to which you’d ‘been
with’ Donna.”
“I think the alcohol is affecting your brain function. Get some sleep and we can talk
tomorrow.”
“I think we should make employment plans tomorrow.” Amy lays her head in Josh’s lap
and looks up at his face. “You know since neither of us will be employed by tomorrow.”
“We’ll see about that. How did you get here? You didn’t drive did you?”
“A taxi. I’m drunk but I’m not stupid…or at least Cliff isn’t stupid. He hailed a cab for us.”
Josh went completely still.
“Cliff…?”
“Calley. We ran into each other at the bar and started talking. Turns out…we had a lot in
common. Did you know he’s a sloppy drunk? Talks constantly about any subject you
bring up. I brought up you and..” Josh closed his eyes.
“Amy, what are you saying?” he asked cautiously.
“I’m saying that tomorrow we should start our own consulting firm. We would make great
business partners and maybe if it were finally just the two of us things might work better
personally.”
“A consulting firm? Just the two of us? Why would I possibly want to leave the White
House to start a consulting firm with you?” he ignored her comment about it being just the
two of them.
“Well for one, you’re not going to have a chance to ‘leave’ the White House. Leo
McGarry and the leadership are going to kick you to the curb before lunch. Second, a
private consulting firm’s reputation wouldn’t be hurt, may even be helped by a partner
who’s under indictment for a felony, but the White House would be permanently hurt if the
Deputy White House Chief of Staff and his assistant were indicted while serving.”
Josh’s head fell back onto the cushions.
“He didn’t mean to tell me about the felony, he was just trying to explain to me why any
relationship between you and I was impossible as long as Donna was around.” Amy sat
up and Josh realized she wasn’t nearly as drunk as she had initially let on. “So here’s my
question…If the first time we got together was a reaction to Donna sleeping with Cliff,
what was this last time about? Was it to make her jealous or give you a beard at social
functions so no one would suspect-“
“I am NOT romantically involved with Donna Moss!”
“Bullshit! You committed a felony to protect her. And apparently she committed a felony
to protect you. Either you’re involved in a secret affair with her and used me to hide it, or
you’d like to be having an affair with her and you’re just using me for sex because you
can’t have her. Which is it?”
“Neither. Amy-“
“I don’t believe you. I want to believe you, J, I really do, but I just can’t.”
“I don’t know how I can convince you.”
“Start a consulting firm with me. Say goodbye to the White House and Donna and we can
start over.”
“Amy, I have a job and-“ Amy interrupted as she got up and grabbed her purse.
“We’ll talk tomorrow after your meeting with Leo. You may feel differently after you’ve
thought about ALL the options that are open to both of us.”
“Amy, are you threatening Donna? Are you threatening me?”
“Just think about your choices, J. We’ll talk later.”
She left his apartment and Josh felt himself shaking. Just a few minutes ago, his biggest
concern was losing his job, now he had much bigger problems. He supposed it would
only piss Amy off more to know that is first thought wasn’t about how to protect himself,
but how to protect Donna.
Josh’s POV:
Donna is waiting for me on the sidewalk as I get out of the cab. This does not bode well. I
put on my best ‘game face’ and I’m glad for the sunglasses that hide my eyes from her.
We go through our usual banter, or at least I try, but I have the feeling I’m coming up
short. Hopefully, she’ll just chalk it up to the Carrick mess. If she knew that Amy knew
about everything that Cliff knew…Wow, that sentence just totally got away from me there.
Once I get into the office I shut the door and call my attorney.
“Sam Seaborn please. Josh Lyman calling.” I wait impatiently for Sam to pick up. Donna
could walk back in here any second and I have a meeting with Leo in a few minutes.
“Josh! How’s it going, man?” Sam’s irrepressible spirit comes through the phone lines. He
must have heard about Carrick. Tribesmen in New Guinea have heard about Carrick, but
he doesn’t bring it up.
“Fine, good. I have a question for you before I head over to meet Leo.”
“What kind of question?”
“A legal, attorney/client privilege type question.”
“Okay…shoot.”
“What’s the statute of limitations on conspiracy to obstruct justice charges?”
“Five years on obstruction charges, but there’s no limitations on conspiracy because it’s
considered to be ongoing. What’s going on over there Josh?”
“Nothing. Just curious. Gotta go meet Leo. I’ll check in with you later. Bye.” I hang up the
phone before he can continue the interrogation. Shit. There goes that brilliant idea. I
reluctantly head to Leo’s office without making eye contact with Donna.
20 minutes and a good whacking by a 2x4 later, and I feel well and truly beaten. I’m
keeping my title, my staff, and some of my portfolio. This would have been good news
earlier, but now…Maybe a quiet resignation would be the best course.
I could even buckle down and work with Amy, though it wouldn’t last long. I’d bet the
entire balance of my bank accounts that she’d walk- no run- from ‘our office’ within a
week. She doesn’t have a clue what I’d be like to work with without Donna by my side.
Donna comes in with her ‘what a shame’ file and I laugh at the irony. This whole mess
belongs in a ‘what a shame’ file. I look at her face as she tries to bring my spirits up and
give me something positive to work on. She would do anything for me, I know that. She’s
already proved that. I would do anything for her, as well. I already proved that.
Until, today, though, I never examined why we would do anything for each other too
carefully. I couldn’t/wouldn’t cross that line. I guess in a way Amy was right. I did use her.
Not that I didn’t care about Amy or that it was my intention to use her, but the end result
was the same. Now she was asking me to choose between them; prove where my heart
lies. Amy isn’t going to like the answer. More importantly, I need to protect Donna from
whatever wrath Amy spews out once she gets the answer.
Donna looks over at me at this point, sensing that I am no longer listening to her
monologue.
“Josh?”
“If I leave the White House…would you want to stay?”
“Josh?!”
“I need to know, Donna.”
“I…I would want to work with you…if that’s an option.”
“Of course it’s an option. I just needed to know if it was an option you wanted.”
“The call from Harvard?”
“Yeah, they’d like to discuss…options. I’ve had a few other calls from the private sector.”
“I know. I put them through. I just didn’t know you were considering them. Josh…CJ says
this thing with Carrick will blow over. Can’t we just wait it out?” See how she said ‘we’
there? That warmed my heart and I smile sincerely for the first time since Carrick
defected.
“It’s not just Carrick. I may need to make a pre-emptive move.” Her eyebrows raise at this
comment, but I don’t say anything else and she takes the hint not to go there.
The phone rings and Donna answers it. She passes it along to me with the whispered
comment, “It’s Sam. He’s called several times already.”
“Right. Can you close the door please?” I wait until the door is closed.
“Hey, Sam.”
“Don’t ‘hey Sam’ me. You can’t ask me a question about statutes of limitations and then
hang up!”
“Yeah, but now that I think about it, talking on this line isn’t a real good idea anyway. Can
I call you later?”
“You WILL call me later?”
“Promise.”
“Tell me this. Are you okay? Is Donna?”
“More or less. No mortal peril of any kind.” Although I note to myself that Sam specifically
asked about Donna. Interesting. “I’ll call you later. I won’t be late, I’m sure. There’s
nothing for me to do here.” I tell him dejectedly.
“Why don’t you come out here for a couple days? Just ‘til things blow over.”
“I don’t think it’s going to be that simple. And thanks for the ‘roll with the punches’
message. It really picked me right up.” I can hear Sam stutter as he tries to come up with
a defense of that overused cliché. “I’ll call later.” I promise again and hang up the phone.
I muddle through things and try to look busy whenever someone pops in to tell me to
‘hang in there’. Then Leo appears. He gives me a song and dance about why he’s
bringing Angela Blake on board, but I don’t hear anything after he tells me “No one wants
you here”. My jaw hits the floor. He leaves to bring Angela flipping Blake up to speed on
budget negotiations, and good luck on that one, and it occurs to me what I have to do.
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“Josh, how are you?”
“About as good as you can imagine. You know why I asked you to meet me here, right?”
“I have a hunch.”
“Good. At least the alcohol didn’t do permanent damage.”
“I never meant to say anything, Josh; not to her, not to anyone.”
“Well, I’m sure that will mean a lot to Donna when she’s doing time in Federal prison,
Calley.”
“She’s not going to prison; no one is.” I lean closer to Calley and he gets to see firsthand
why Congressional representatives fear the Deputy Chief of Staff.
“You’re going to help me fix this. Now. Immediately. I don’t know how much time I have
before this is going to blow, but we’re not going to waste a second of it, understand?”
“Just how do you suggest I do that?”
“We’re going to start drafting some legal documents, you and I. I brought my laptop and
everything.”
“Legal documents stating what?”
“That after her testimony before the Congressional committee, Donna came to you and
admitted she had perjured herself on orders from me. I didn’t want news of my PTSD
diagnosis to come out, so I threatened her job if she gave you any evidence about it. She
couldn’t live with the lie so she came to you with the diary. You reviewed it and
determined there was nothing relevant to the cause of action against the President so
you decided in you legal authority as Majority counsel not to pursue any charges.”
“Wow…what a load of crap.”
“It will keep Donna in the clear, won’t it?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?” I give him a skeptical look.
“Probably.”
“Yeah. So start typing. When you’re done I’ll take it to Donna for her signature.”
“Say I do this…simply to protect Donna. She will never agree to sign it.”
“She will if it keeps her out of prison.”
“It didn’t stop her last time. Josh, she’ll never sign it.”
“She will if I tell her to.”
“Did you read her diary?” Cliff asks me and I give him a glare.
“Of course not. She’d already been humiliated enough.”
“Anyone who did would know how much she loves you.” My heart stops as Calley says
this out loud to me. “She’ll never sign it because it would ruin you. We have to find
another way.”
“Such as?” I’m skeptical of anything this big mouthed Republican has to suggest but
when he said ‘we’ he did get my attention.
“You know what, Josh? I’m not the only one who talks when they drink…”
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