Chapter 19
“How come you have your tie on?” Ben asked his father. Having a tie on meant going to
work and Ben had enjoyed having his dad home these past few days too much to be
willing to let him go easily.
“I have to go to the office, kiddo.” Josh replied as he packed his backpack up with the
things he would need for the day.
“Why can’t they just call you like yesterday?”
“I have work I need to do there.”
“They can do it without you.” Ben argued.
“Thanks, Benjamin you really know how to stroke the old man’s ego.” Josh muttered.
“Your ego doesn’t need any stroking.” Ruth Lyman called from the kitchen.
“Thanks Mom!” Josh called back sarcastically. “I really have to go back Ben. Tomorrow
is the debate and we need everyone’s help to make sure Sam’s ready.”
“Then I’ll come with you.” Ben offered.
“It’s going to be pretty crazy around the office today, Ben.”
“You said you need everyone’s help. I can help.” Josh looked into his son’s hopeful face
and felt his own form into a grin.
“You are always a big help. Go get dressed.” Josh told him and Ben ran up the stairs to
get his clothes.
“You’re a sucker, you know.” Ruth Lyman said from the doorway where she’d watched
the whole interaction.
“Yeah, yeah. Thanks for all your support.” Josh continued to pack his bag.
“Luckily, you’re also a great father. Noah would be so proud of you, Josh.” Her words
stopped Josh in his tracks.
“Thanks.” Josh squeaked out past the lump in his throat.
“I’ll help Ben get dressed while you say goodbye to your girls.”
Josh found Donna sitting up in bed feeding their daughter. The sight never failed to
move him. He just stood there watching for a minute. Then Donna spoke without looking
over at him.
“Are you just going to stand there or come over here and join us?”
Josh chuckled and sat on the other side of Donna so Ally was between them. He gently
rubbed his daughter’s hair which was as fair as her mother’s.
“I’m taking Ben with me to the office. He wants to help.” Josh told her and Donna laughed.
“Good luck with that.” She replied.
“He’ll be fine.” Josh reasoned.
“I’m sure he will.” Donna agreed still chuckling. “After I get Ally down, I’ll get the rest of
those numbers for you.”
“Thanks. That would be great. C.J. and Peyton tell me Sam’s in the groove. They’re
going to release the disaster plan you and Ainsley came up with tomorrow right before
the debate.”
“Ainsley must be pretty thrilled.” Donna commented.
“I think once she got the Bartlet’s approval, she was full speed ahead with it. We got the
final tally from the fundraisers with the Bartlet’s and I’m going to have a good sized war
chest to play with.”
“Good.” Donna smiled but there was a tinge of sadness too.
“What’s wrong?” Josh asked her.
“I’ll miss you today. I’ve grown used to you being with us the last few days. I like it a lot.”
She admitted.
“After the election, we’ll all take a few weeks off together. Unplug the phone and the
television and just have family time.”
“You won’t make it 24 hours.” Donna predicted.
“Maybe not, but I’ll try, okay?”
“Okay. Take our son to work and teach him something about politics.” Donna told him
when Ben came running into the room.
“She’s eating AGAIN.” Ben shook his head in disbelief. “She’s too little to eat that much.
She’s gonna get sick.”
“I hear you’re going to help Dad today.”
“Yep. Daddy says everyone gots to help Sam get ready. I’m a big help.”
“Yes, you are.” Donna chuckled.
“Sam’s gonna whip Taylor’s butt, right Daddy?” Ben asked his father for confirmation.
“Is that right, Daddy?” Donna repeated.
“I’m going to have to stop speaking in front of this child.” Josh muttered.
“Yeah…” Donna agreed. “I think Daddy meant Sam will win the election, Ben.”
“I don’t think so.” Ben disagreed. “Cause he said-“
“Time to go, Ben.” Josh prodded before kissing Donna and Ally goodbye.
***********************************
“What do you think, Ainsley?” C.J. asked.
“I think you should stop asking the token Republican how something is going to play to
moderate Republicans and independents.” Ainsley replied.
“Getting a little testy there, Ains.” Peyton pointed out and rubbed her shoulders.
“Everyone is getting a little testy, Peyton.” Ainsley shot back. “I wish Sam wasn’t
releasing the disaster plan today.”
“It will be great. What you need is a little break from the tension.” Peyton prescribed.
As if on cue, Benjamin Lyman burst through the front door of the office. “We’re here to
help!”
“Oh, my God it’s miniature Josh.” C.J. muttered and had Peyton laughing out loud.
“Batten down the hatches the Lyman men have arrived.” Sam called out to the gathered
staff. “How’s everybody doing?”
“Wonderful.” Josh practically beamed. “We have some work to do, I’m betting. Where do
you want to start?”
“We came up with a few new answers yesterday. I’d like you to look over them and throw
in your two cents.”
“You got it.” Josh took the papers from Sam who looked over at Ben.
“And we could sure use an intern to deliver some papers around the office.”
“I can do it!” Ben volunteered.
“Excellent. Bring these over to Billy, okay?” Sam handed Ben a stack of mail which Ben
ran off to deliver.
“Sorry, he really wanted to come help.” Josh explained.
“Ben’s always welcome.” Sam chuckled.
“Toby didn’t write these.” Josh noted as he read the revised answers.
“No, it was Billy.” Sam told him. “What do you think?”
“They’re…really good.” Josh said. He re-read the answers again as he walked to his
office. He’d barely sat in his chair when he was bombarded by 6 different people wanting
his approval on this or that. It was good to be back.
“Mail, Daddy!” Ben called as he tossed several envelopes to his dad and ran out again.
“Looks like you’ve decided to replace me.” Billy noted watching Ben’s exit.
“He’s still got a few more months of grooming before he’s ready for your job. Have a
seat. I need the room people!” Josh shouted at the rest of the people in his office.
“Something wrong, Obiwan?” Billy tried to keep his tone light, but he looked nervous.
Josh remembered the feeling well from when Leo would call him in for a private chat.
God, he really missed Leo.
“Sam gave me the revised answers for the debate tomorrow.” Josh began. “They’re
good; I mean really good.”
“Then why do you look so serious?” Billy asked him.
“Because I have to wonder if you wouldn’t be better off working with Toby on the writing. I
know he’s a surly son of a bitch, but you couldn’t find a better teacher than Toby as far
as political speech writing is concerned.”
Billy’s jaw dropped. “Are you moving me out?”
“No, no, no.” Josh hurriedly replied. “I’m asking if YOU want to work with Toby.”
“No, sir. I’m right where I want to be.” Billy’s smirk matched the one that bloomed on Josh’
s face.
“You’ve been doing a great job here, Fred.” Josh said honestly. “I’m very glad to have
you on the team.”
“Thanks.” Billy replied, moved by the compliment.
“Let’s get to work. Will you take a quick look outside and make sure my son hasn’t
destroyed any campaign property? Then pull the latest stories off the wire; highlight
anything you think is relevant and write a question/response. We need to be on top of
everything before Sam walks onto that stage tomorrow.”
“I’m on it.” Billy promises.
“Josh? I’m thinking I should respond to this statement from Taylor.” Sam burst into the
office barely five minutes later.
“Nope. Save it for tomorrow.” Josh suggested. “By then, his statement will be old news
and your response will make news. No more appearances for you until after the debate.”
“But if I just-“ Sam began.
“You can drive yourself crazy with this stuff or you can concentrate on something
constructive like helping me get out of picking up Donna’s parents at the airport.”
“I think you can handle a trip to the airport, Josh.”
“Her parents hate me Sam.”
“No, it’s really just her dad that hates you. Her mom loves you.” Sam relaxed into this old
argument with his friend.
“You want to know what the strange part is?” Josh asked.
“What?” Sam asked smiling.
“Now that I have a daughter, I can understand hating any man that took her away from
me.”
Sam shook his head amused at Josh’s train of thought. “If only the members of
Congress could see the pit bull now; felled by a 5 pound 8 ounce, helpless infant.”
“You have a daughter. You understand.”
“So then cut your father-in-law some slack.” Sam suggested.
“But we have such a rich tradition of slugging it out! Plus, with the debate tomorrow, I
don’t think I’ll be able to give our fighting the time and attention it deserves.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage.”
“Have you seen Ben?” Josh asked.
“Billy assigned him to a volunteer and they’re stuffing envelopes together.” Sam replied.
“At least he’s getting something accomplished.” Josh drawled. “I hear Peyton and C.J.
are lighting things up.”
“It’s like they were separated at birth. You’ll see at the 2 o’clock meeting! They’re going
shopping this afternoon for the perfect shirt and tie for me to wear tomorrow.”
“As long as you can keep it away from the Bartlet’s, it should all be fine.” Josh teased.
“You’re ready Sam. We’ll do one more run through later today, then I don’t want to see
you until right before the debate. Take the day and relax with your family. Do something
fun.”
“I don’t think I remember fun.” Sam acknowledged.
“This hasn’t been fun?” Josh joked. “You’ll think of something. Now let me get ready for
my conference call so I can negotiate in the proper frame of mind.”
“Okay. Should I have Billy give you a reminder when it’s time to pick up the Moss’s?”
“Go. Away.” Josh replied and buckled down to work.
**************************************
By 2, things in the office were at a fever pitch. There were over 20 people gathered at
the table with Ben Lyman driving toy cars underneath it and making “vroom, vroom”
noises.
“Alright people, listen up!” Josh hollered to get everyone’s attention. Even Ben stopped
momentarily. “We have our final run through at 4. I want everyone in that room to give
feedback. Then the candidate is going home for some R & R while we continue to work
our asses off. Tomorrow has to be flawless. We need to have control of the news cycle
starting from the morning commute on. Run down the timeline for me.”
“We’ve got the lovely C.J. Craig-Concannon doing two interviews on the Seaborn
campaign and discussing the upcoming debate during morning drive time. I’ve already
given interviews and photo’s from two of our prep sessions for the California papers to
run. The Sacramento Bee is running theirs under the headline, ‘Born to Run’.” Peyton
made quotation marks with his fingers and grinned.
“Nice.” Josh commented.
“You’re doing a one on one at a television studio over the noon hour in San Francisco.”
Peyton continued. “The evolution of Sam Seaborn.”
“Wait a second.” Josh tried to step in.
“Aren’t you worried that the word ‘evolution’ is going to bring out the worst in the
Christian right?” C.J. teased.
“Hold on.” Josh tried again.
“A little bit, yeah. But the ‘intelligent design’ of Sam Seaborn makes him sound
animatronic.” Peyton shot back.
“Fair point.” C.J. conceded and even Billy laughed before turning a sober face to his
boss who was still trying to interrupt.
“I’d like Lucy or Ethel here to explain why I’m doing an on camera interview 6 hours
before the debate.” Josh finally got his whole sentence out.
“You said you wanted control of the news cycle all day. We just filled in the holes.”
Peyton explained without reacting to the Lucy and Ethel comment. C.J. couldn’t let it
slide though.
“I think I’m much taller than either Lucy or Ethel.” C.J. remarked.
“No, no…” Josh protested.
“I am!” C.J. insisted.
“I don’t think he was talking about your height there, C.J.” Sam translated. “Look at it this
way. It gets you away from your father-in-law for a few hours.”
“There is that.” Josh agreed ruefully. “How about radio spots?”
“We’ve got them advertising the debate between 1:30 and 5:30. After the debate, and
tomorrow, we’ll be hitting the airwaves with highlights from the debate. Sam makes a
dramatic statement followed by thunderous applause; that kind of thing.” Billy ran it down
for them.
“Well…No pressure there.” Sam said sarcastically.
“I wrote great lines for you. The kid wrote lines that were not all that bad.” Toby jerked
his head toward Billy. “All you have to do is look pretty and insert them in the right place.”
“Do you hear this, Josh?” Sam gestured to Toby.
“Yeah, and I got to say Toby, you’re way off the mark here. Sam doesn’t look pretty
anymore. He’s matured since the old days. Now he’s debonair, right Ainsley?” Josh
replied.
“Or dashing. I like dashing a lot.” Ainsley bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing at her
husband’s expression.
“Is it too late to quit?” Sam asked the room in general.
“Afraid so.” Josh answered.
“Daddy?” Ben pulled on his father’s arms.
“Just a second, kiddo.” Josh requested. “Who’s going to be doing post- debate spin?”
“C.J. and I will be on it as well as Assemblyman Bohn and Senator Ortega, but we’d like
to make one more addition to the party.” Peyton announced.
“Who?” Josh asked.
“Ainsley.” C.J. answered.
“Excuse me?” Ainsley said with her mouth full of cheese and crackers that had been
brought in for the meeting.
“Daddy!” Ben tried to get Josh’s attention again. “What’s my job now?”
“I like it.” Josh nodded.
“I can’t do that!” Ainsley exclaimed.
“Sure you can.” Sam couldn’t help piling on in response to her comments about him.
“Daddy, what’s my next job?” Ben asked again. Josh turned to his son just as his cell
started to ring. Josh glanced at his phone and saw from the caller ID that it was Donna.
“Here, buddy, take this call for me. Answer, “Josh Lyman’s phone.” Josh instructed.
“Josh Lyman’s phone.” Ben dutifully mimicked. “Hi, Mom! I’m doing work for Sam.”
The gathering grinned at his phone etiquette.
“Ainsley, you did post-debate spin all the time.” Josh reminded her.
“They’ll turn this into a Democrat/Republican thing.” She argued.
“Which you effectively countered each time you did it for President Bartlet and President
Santos.”
“But Sam is my husband!” Ainsley objected once more. “Isn’t going to look incredibly
biased?”
“I should certainly hope so.” Sam added.
“No, he can’t talk now. He’s in a ‘portant’ meeting.” Ben told his mother. “No. I want to
stay here…”
“You’ll be great.” Peyton assured her. “We’ll go over some things beforehand.”
“But Mommy, we all got to work our asses off today cause-“ Ben was abruptly cut off
when Josh pulled the phone away from him.
“Hi there, baby. Everything okay over there?” Josh asked with a nervous laugh. He
listened for a moment then shot a disapproving look at his son. “I’m sure we’ll get back to
that later, I’m just in the middle of something right now…No, I’ve got their flight number
and I’ll be waiting for them at baggage claim… I’ll call you when I’m done, baby, okay?
Bye.” Josh shut the phone. “Janet!” Josh called for one of the interns.
“You called?” Janet asked facetiously.
“Instead of working on that thing for me, will you take Ben into my office and work with
him for a bit instead?”
“Believe me, between the two of you, I’d prefer to work with Ben.” Janet said snidely.
“Come on Ben, I need some help with the labels.”
“Okay. See you later, Dad.” Ben took Janet’s hand willingly and went off to do more work.
“I am so misunderstood.” Josh complained.
“Let’s face it, mi amore. The only one that has ever understood you was Donna and I
don’t think she wants to talk to you right now.” C.J. opined.
“I’m telling her Ben heard that from you.” Josh threatened.
“Sisterhood.” C.J. sang and ‘high fived’ Ainsley.
“Shit.” Josh replied succinctly.
“And he claims to have a 760 verbal.” Sam told the group who responded with chuckles
all around.
************************************
“Let it go, Sam.” Ainsley pled with him. “We have the rest of the night and most of
tomorrow off.”
Sam was looking over his notes from the run through again.
“Sam?” Ainsley called to him with no response. She got up from his couch and stood
behind him, rubbing his shoulders. “Your mom is keeping Caitlin until 10. That gives us 3
hours for a quiet dinner and couple time.”
Sam’s head shot up from the notes. “Couple time?”
“AFTER dinner.” Ainsley bargained.
“We have stuff at home.” Sam pointed out and rose to stand in front of his wife.
“Nah-uh.” Ainsley shook her head. “I’m not cooking and I’m not eating frozen food.”
“But eating at a sit down place could waste a great deal of our three hours.” Sam noted.
“It’s a waste of time to sit down and have dinner with me?”
“Of course not. I simply meant that eating at home would be more private. There wouldn’
t be any prying eyes watching our every move, or people asking for pictures and such.”
“Nice save.” Ainsley smiled.
“I think well on my feet.” Sam explained and kissed her lingeringly.
“You do that pretty well too.” Ainsley murmured when they came up for air.
“Isn’t there a compromise here?” Sam asked while he continued his assault on Ainsley’s
mouth and neck.
“What did you have in mind?”
“Mmmmm…Take out.” Sam responded. “No one cooks, no cardboard food, and we get
privacy at home.”
“You are the master, Samuel. Take out it is.” Hearing Ainsley call him ‘the master’ had
the same effect on his body that it had the first time she’d called him that.
“Hey! Get out of here.” Josh ordered when he unexpectedly opened Sam’s door.
“Aren’t you supposed to be at the airport?” Sam asked.
“I’m going. I’m going.” Josh held his hands up in surrender. “I’m bringing Ben. They’ll
have to be nice to me in front of their Grandson.”
“Plus then you don’t have to bring him home first and get an earful from Donna.” Ainsley
deduced.
“There are several benefits to the plan, yes.” Josh admitted. “Take the man home,
Ainsley. See if you can’t keep him away from the briefing books for a few hours.”
“I’ll do my best.” Ainsley promised.
***************************************
“Look who came to meet us! It’s my Benjamin!” Anna Moss exclaimed and Ben jumped
into her arms. “Oh, you’re getting so big!” She kissed her Grandson before passing him
to her husband Tom. “Josh, thanks for meeting us.”
“It’s my pleasure Anna.” Josh gave her a hug. “Did you have a good flight?”
“It was wonderful. The First Class tickets you got us were a great treat. Do you know we
had champagne on the way out here?”
“Damn waste of money, if you ask me.” Tom groused as he set Ben down.
“Now, Tom…” Anna warned.
“Welcome to California, sir.” Josh held out his hand which Tom took reluctantly.
“Land of fruits and nuts.” Tom replied. Josh’s eyebrows rose as he tried to figure out
how to respond to that.
“Uh…the car’s right this way. Can I take that for you, Anna?” Josh took the handle of her
suitcase from her.
“Thank you so much, Joshua.” Anna sighed. “It was nice of you to make the trip to get us
when you have to be busy getting ready for the debate tomorrow.”
“Ben came by and helped today so we’ve got it under control.” Josh winked at his son.
“I saw in the airport newsstand that your boy is still down 4 points.” Tom mentioned.
“That gap will close after the debate tomorrow. Here’s the car.” Josh plastered a smile on
his face while he loaded the trunk with their luggage; he briefly wondered if Tom would fit
in there too, but quickly shook off the thought. When he got in the driver’s seat, he
almost moaned because Tom was seated next to him. Once Anna had Ben in his car
seat, he slowly backed out and maneuvered out onto the highway.
“We’re so excited about your trip to Wisconsin.” Anna filled in the silence.
“I’m sorry?” Josh nearly crashed into the car in front of him.
“We talked to Donna when we landed. She told us about your plan to take a month off
for family time after the election and that you’re going to spend 2 weeks with us in
Wisconsin. It will be so great to have Ben and Ally under our roof for two whole weeks.”
“Ally can’t do nothin yet.” Ben decided to let his Grandmother down gently. Anna and
Tom both laughed.
“Then I’ll just hold her.” Anna assured him. “Won’t it be great Tom?”
“Great.” Tom replied in a monotone.
“Really great.” Josh echoed and he was once again reminded that he should never
underestimate his wife. Donna had exacted her punishment in record time.