By the third day of the shutdown, Leo (with a little help from the First Lady) convinced the
President to meet with his staff in the war room, and for the first time, Josh was asked to join
them.
“The President is going to be down here any minute, Josh, I need unanimity, this is the "come
to Jesus" meeting.” Said Leo
Josh looks past Leo and sees the President's silhouette on the door.
“Who's coming to Jesus, Leo, me or you?” President Bartlet asked.
Everyone says "good morning, Mr. President" as Bartlet enters the room.
“Three percent. 60 days.” The President thinks out loud as he looks pensive.
“Mr. President, it's a gift.” Angela tells him.
“Toby?” Bartlet asks his communication director.
“People are frustrated with both parties. It's a plague on both our houses.” Toby replies.
“We gave it three days to turn in our favor, sir. It didn't.” Leo suggests.
“Josh?” The President finally turns to his DCOS.
He looks at Leo, who looks back sternly, before answering.
“What do you want, Mr. President?” Josh asked instead of answering.
“I want to be able to govern.” Bartlet answered emphatically.
“Our bargaining position is weakening every day. There's a deal on the table, Repbulican
leadership are in their conference room, waiting for our reply.” Angela continues.
“Let's go up to the Hill to see them.” Josh suggests.
“We can't go to the Hill. We'll look even more desperate.” Leo contended.
“The country's waiting for someone to step up. It should be us.” Argued Josh.
“Sir, if we go to Haffley's office it will set a dangerous precedent for future negotiations.” Leo
warned.
The President smiled at Josh, “Let's go.”
It was the first step that turned the tide around and enabled the President to get his budget
deal. When he did, the President hadn’t forgotten who was responsible for it and kept Josh in
the Oval after the others were excused.
Josh watched as the President took out the resignation letter of a few days ago and set it on
his desk. A lot of things had changed in that short time. Amy had signed the employment
agreement and was heading to California. John Tandy had submitted his resignation to the
Democratic leadership for ‘personal reasons’ and Donna had, for all intents and purposes,
moved in with Josh.
Josh smiled at that thought and the President looked alarmed by his expression.
“Tell me that grin is because you’ve re-thought this decision.”
“Sir, it’s been an honor to serve you, but I don’t think-“
“Leo!” the President bellowed and Leo appeared from the other side of the door to his office.
“Yes, sir.”
“He hasn’t changed his mind. You said he’d change his mind. I hold you responsible for this.”
“Sir, there is nothing Josh has wanted more in his life than to work in the White House. He will
give this careful consideration and rip up that offending piece of paper.” Leo said as he gave
Josh a glare.
“That was true in the past, sir, but not anymore. If I work in the private sector, I can still effect
change but I can work with whomever I want in whatever capacity I want.”
“What are you saying Josh?” The President inquired.
“He’s saying that he’s become romantically involved with Donna. Aren’t you Josh?” Leo
postulated. Josh gaped at him a moment. “I received a letter just like that one from one
Donnatella Moss this morning.” Leo answered the question Josh asked with his eyes.
“Is this true, Josh?”
“Yes, it is sir, and I’m finally in a position to do something about it. I won’t give that up, even for
the opportunity to work for this administration.
“Why would he need to give that up to serve this administration, Leo?” The President asked.
“Because it would look very bad in the press for the Deputy Chief of Staff to be dating-“
“Living with.” Josh interjected and Leo shook his head.
“Living with his senior assistant, who happens to be young and blonde. What could go wrong
there?”
“I thought the White House didn’t comment on the personal lives of the staff?” The President
noted.
“It won’t be the White House that will be commenting, Mr. President. It will be everyone else.”
“Has there been inappropriate behavior of some kind while they were working?”
“Of course not, sir. Josh and Donna have too much respect for you and this building to-“
“Then why shouldn’t we let whatever tongues are going to wag, wag away while we continue
working on the people’s business?” The President suggested.
“Excuse me sir, I appreciate the sentiment. But none of that negates the fact that I was told that
no one wanted me here.” Josh was very careful to avoid eye contact with Leo, but the
President looked directly at his Chief of Staff after that comment.
“Who would have ever said something as stupid as that?” The President asked facetiously.
“Leo, find out who said that to Josh, and kick their ass to the curb.”
“Yes, sir.” Leo answered, but then added sotto voice, “Although why you would pick that exact
moment to listen to what I’m telling you when you never have before is beyond me!”
Josh turned to Leo. “You hung me out to dry, and while I don’t mind taking one for the team,
this was a lot more than that and you know it.”
“It may have been a little…much, but I was getting hammered from all sides and-“
“Enough.” The President roared. “Josh, you ought to know by now, and if you don’t I want to
make it abundantly clear, that you are a highly valued member of this team. I don’t want to do
this without you. But I certainly don’t want to do it with you and without Donna, so Leo’s going to
fix it. Aren’t you Leo?”
“Sir, I-“
“We’ll call it penance, Leo.” The President continued over Leo’s objection. “In the Catholic
faith, Joshua, once someone has done penance, their sin is forgiven them. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.” Josh grinned first at the President and then at Leo who was grumbling under his
breath.
“So I can rip this up now?” he asked holding up Josh’s letter of resignation.
“Please.” Josh responded. “And Donna’s too, if you don’t mind. I don’t want to be doing this
without her either.”
“Done. Now, I’m going to have dinner with the Prime Minister and his wife and you two are to
take the rest of the evening off by Presidential decree.” With a smile at how things turned out,
President Bartlet gave the men a wave and hurried off to dinner before his wife filleted him and
served him instead of the Queen’s chicken.
An awkward silence fell between the two men who had been like father and son for many years.
“It really hurt, Leo, coming from you. Your opinion matters most to me in this building.” Josh
offered. “I couldn’t stay here if I lost your respect.”
“I…overreacted. It’s just the pressure in that chair, Josh, sometimes it’s overwhelming and
sometimes you take it out on the ones closest to you. You did good with the whole shutdown
situation. You did really good. I’m…proud of how you handled it, how you handled the
President.”
“Thanks, Leo.”
“Now I’m going to go ‘fix’ whatever the hell you’ve stirred up with Donna and you work on a
campaign to knock Carrick out of his seat next time around.” Leo ordered.
“Leo, I won’t back down on this one. It’s too important.”
“Good for you, son. Good for you.” Leo said sincerely. “Don’t let that change. She’ll have to
direct report to me from now on, but maybe we can take this opportunity to give her a little
more responsibility around here. Take some of the knucklehead stuff off her desk.” Leo said
more to himself than Josh. “Go. I’m sure she’s waiting for your report.”
Josh didn’t need to be told twice. He hurried back to his office where he found Donna making
note cards at his desk. She looked up anxiously at his arrival.
“What happened?” Donna asked as she got up from the desk and crossed to Josh. Josh
carefully schooled his expression and shut his office doors.
“I wish you’d told me you planned to give Leo your resignation.” He began.
“If you go, I go.” She affirmed.
“Not in this case. The President tore up my letter. Leo already sent yours to personnel.”
“What?!” Donna cried. “Why would he do a thing like that?”
“Maybe because you didn’t speak to me about it beforehand so I could caution him to wait until
we had made a mutual decision.” Josh lectured.
“Joshua! Now what? You’re staying on as DCOS and I’m being terminated?”
“I think the PC term is voluntarily separated. It sounds less like we’ve put out a hit on you…You’
re going to have to turn in your credentials by 10 tonight. If you want to stop in and have lunch
with me tomorrow, I’ll get you an appointment.”
“Joshua…an appointment? I set up your appointments. If I’m not here, who’s going to do that
for you?”
“Leo said he’d find someone by tomorrow…don’t worry. He checked with personnel and he
thinks there might be a temp position you could fill until something else opens up, but they’re
going to need your resume and letters of reference right away.”
“Letters of- maybe I’ll just take a walk down the hall and offer myself to the first unorganized
idiot I run into. After all, it worked last time.” She was getting all hot and Josh was having
trouble keeping a straight face. Unfortunately for Josh, Donna caught the slight twitch in his
cheek and used the considerably large folder in her hands to smack him upside the head.
“That was just mean!” she tried to march out of his office but he put one hand on the door to
prevent her opening it and the other hand he used to grab her arms and turn her around to
face him.
“The President specifically said he didn’t want me doing this job if you weren’t here to do yours,
but Leo does think it’s time to shift some of your responsibilities and you’ll direct report to him
for reviews and…wait for it…raises!” Josh finished triumphantly. “I no longer have to listen to
any complaints about your paycheck. That may be the best part of this new deal.”
“Oh, it’s the BEST part is it? Then maybe we should just concentrate on that happy news and
forget about the other changes in our relationship.” Donna countered.
“When I said the BEST part, obviously I meant the best part of our professional relationship. A
man would have to be a complete moron to have meant anything else.” Josh hurriedly assured
her. She relented a bit.
“They understand we’re together now, and Leo’s fine with it?”
“I don’t know if I’d say ‘fine’ but the President ordered him to fix things for us…something about
penance, so everything is going to be fine at that end.”
“Still, they can’t control the press. I’d better warn my parents what might be coming down the
pike.” Josh pulled her into a hug as she grimaced at that thought.
“Don’t worry. It’ll all blow over once we’re married.” Josh told her and felt her stiffen in his arms.
“Excuse me?”
“Yeah, first I’ll lull you into a false sense of security, then before you know it you’ll be shackled
to me for life. But that’s a discussion for another day. The President has decreed that we take
the night off and you better believe that’s one order I will be following to the letter. Let’s go
home.” He suggested and kissed her temple as he held her.
“We can order pizza and watch CNN. The budget deal is all over the news.”
“Now you’re talking…we got our budget deal, Haffley had to eat crow, and my woman is coming
home early with me for pizza and CNN. All in all, not a bad day…”
The End.