A/N: Many, many thanks to Mary who helps me keep my plots from
unraveling and all the characters true to form. You've got job security
over here, Mary!
Chapter 40
Josh nudged Brian. "That's it. That's the last precinct.
They'll be calling it any moment."
"Should I wake up Ben?" Julie asked and Josh nodded.
"Hey tiger; time to get up and find out if I'm unemployed."
Julie gently shook the young boy. Ben looked around blearily and finally
his brain caught up with him.
"How long does it take to count votes?" Ben demanded.
"The last precinct had to go to a hand count for some reason."
Julie said peppily.
"Why are you so happy?" Ben groused.
"I'm not. I'm just overloaded with sugar and caffeine."
Julie smiled.
"Heads up, everybody!" Mary called out from the front of the
room and all eyes swung to the big screen TV in the corner.
"…and we have word from the last precinct we were waiting for in
the 1st District. We found out that because of the razor close vote
totals there, they were required to do an automatic hand re-count which
is why it has taken so long to announce the results in this race."
The news anchor explained.
"Enough already! Give us the total!" Brian yelled at the TV and
Julie rubbed his shoulders in sympathy for his long, aggravating night.
"WCCO is now prepared to call the Congressional race in the first
District for…Julie Peterson, winning with a margin of 1,231
votes."
The room erupted into cheers. Julie just stood staring at the TV screen
dumbfounded.
"You won! We did it!" Ben was jumping up and down at her side
until he remembered his father's presence and squeezed him hard in a
hug that Josh would never forget. "She did it, Dad! We did it!"
"We certainly did, champ." Josh answered his son, his eyes still
on the screen, shaking his head incredulously. He turned to face Brian.
"What did I tell you about pure unpredictability?"
"We've got a whole new strategy boss; act like you're gonna
lose!" Brian smiled. When he looked for Julie he saw that she walked
to the corner of the room and was standing 2 feet in front of the
Television; her face still showing signs of shock.
He walked up slowly behind her and put his hands on her shoulder.
"You know staring at the numbers doesn't make them change,
right?"
"Yes, it does. It's made them change all night." Julie
countered.
"Yes, but now there's the word `final' next to the
numbers, see?"
"What do we do now?" Julie asked still dazed.
"What?!"
"What do we do now?" Julie repeated.
"I'd say celebrate a little, get some sleep, start making plans
to hire for your D.C. and Minnesota offices, and get married." Brian
kissed her briefly. "I think the troops are waiting for a
speech."
"What about Butler? Should I be calling her?"
"Traditionally, the loser calls the winner to concede, but I
don't know if we should wait for that call. You should thank the
supporters and accept the election results." Julie whirled around to
face him
"I can't!" she whispered intently.
"Yes, you can." Brian laughed. "You don't have to wait
for Butler to call."
"It's not that." Julie shrugged off his hands in frustration
as chants of `Ju-lie, Ju-lie' began gaining traction around the
room.
"Then what is it?" Brian asked.
"I don't have an acceptance speech!" Julie shouted.
"What?!"
"I wasn't supposed to win. I don't have an acceptance
speech." `Ju-lie, Ju-lie' kept getting louder and louder.
"But this morning, when we said it was going to be closer…"
"I thought you were being nice to me; trying to cheer me up!"
Julie protested.
"I called you Peterson. That was the arrangement you made, by the
way to let you know it was serious business."
"Well I guess I missed that!" Julie shouted again and felt Ben
tug on her arm.
"You have to talk to them now. Didn't Brian tell you about this
part?" Ben asked over the din.
"No, he left that part out. I don't know what to say!" Julie
admitted.
"Just tell them thanks and that you're excited to be the next
Congresswoman from Minnesota." Ben suggested. Julie looked from Ben
to Brian, who shrugged.
"Sounds good to me." He agreed and Ben tugged her to the podium
where the entire room cheered for her. She looked around the room at the
people who'd encouraged and supported her throughout this process
and her gaze landed on Ben Lyman. How could she possibly have guessed
that this young man would play such a major part in her life? She took a
deep breath to speak and the crowd quieted down.
"I..honestly I don't know what to say. I wasn't supposed to
win tonight so I didn't prepare an acceptance speech. I guess I
could give me concession speech." Laughter erupted. "No, really,
Laura helped me write it and it's really good." Julie assured
them. "I guess not, huh? I should start with saying thank you.
So…thank you. Thank you for all your contributions, your tireless
efforts, your belief in me and this campaign; thank you for all of
it." Julie gushed. "To my father, Jim, and my wonderful
brothers, thank you for believing in me."
"To my amazing staff, headed by my incredible campaign manager, I
can't begin to tell you what a joy it has been to work with you day
and night through all these ups and downs. I hope that you were all
better prepared for this than I was because it looks like I'm going
to need some staff to fill all kinds of positions in the next few
weeks."
"I am so very proud to have been elected to represent you. I will do
my best to ensure that you never regret your decision to send me to
Washington."
"You know, what seems like a very long time ago, I boarded a plane
for D.C. all nervous and excited because I'd been granted an
audience with Josh Lyman. I think he may have only been humoring his
amazing wife, or maybe it was a favor to my mentor Senator Stackhouse,
but in any case, he agreed to see me. I was so busy being nervous, that
his 10 year old son Ben took pity on me and bucked me up for the
meeting. Right there and then I knew the Lyman family, and their eldest
son in particular, was something special. If it hadn't been for him,
I wouldn't be standing here right now. So thank you Ben, for
choosing me; making me `your guy'."
"Your welcome!" Ben shouted and had the crowd erupted in
laughter again. "What?" Ben looked up at his dad for an
explanation.
"They just like your manners, kiddo." Josh told him.
"So thank you for sticking with me on this long campaign and on this
long election night. It was worth it all to end up right here. Thank you
and get some sleep!" Julie was engulfed by well wishers and it took
several minutes for her to wind her way back to Brian who was on his
cell. "Excuse me. Could you hang up that phone, I'd like your
attention please."
Brian covered the receiver with his hand. "My contract expired at
midnight. I don't work for you anymore." And went back to his
conversation.
"I thought now that I'm a Congressperson Elect you would be
fawning all over me for direction and information."
"Not so much." Brian answered her before hanging up the phone.
Josh joined them seconds later.
"What did you find out?" Josh asked him.
"Get this. Butler is demanding a full re-count and refuses to
concede until the re-count is completed." Brian told them.
"As classless going out as she's been during the campaign."
Was Josh's opinion.
Julie however, smacked her fiancé in the arm. "You just told me
to make an acceptance speech in front of reporters and supporters and
we're not sure that I won?"
"Calm down. It's going to be fine." Brian promised. "…I
hope."
"You hope?!" Julie screeched and Josh laughed.
"It will be fine." Josh chimed in. "Trust us. I'm taking
Ben to get some sleep." Josh kissed Julie's cheek. "And just
for the record; it may have been Donna and Stackhouse that got you
through my door, but it was how you handled that opportunity that got
you here. Congratulations, Congresswoman-elect."
"Congresswoman-elect…" Julie repeated once Josh had left the
two of them alone. "It will sound better after the `elect'
part is gone."
"I think it sounds just fine now." Brian smiled.
"Yes, but Congresswoman Peterson sounds much better than
Congresswoman-elect Peterson." Julie reasoned.
"I think Congresswoman Davis sounds even better." Brian hinted
and Julie froze.
"Hey, you said something about getting married earlier…"
"I was wondering when you were going to pick up on that." Brian
pulled her closer as he moved them out of view of the remaining
partygoers. "Things are going to get very busy very quick. We should
think about setting a date."
"How does December 20th sound to you?" Julie asked and
Brian's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
"I thought it takes like…months to organize a wedding."
Brian sputtered.
"It can. It depends on what kind of wedding we want. After living my
life on the front pages of the paper for the last year, I'd rather
do something simple and small; just our families and a few close
friends?" She suggested.
"I could certainly get behind that…December 20th?"
"Six weeks from today." Julie confirmed.
"Deal." Brian agreed and kissed her with a little more passion
than he'd expressed previously. "You know…I've never
made love with a member of Congress before…"
"We should probably correct that omission in your resume." Julie
decided.
"Yeah. That's why I got us a room upstairs." Brian told her
and waved a room keycard in her face.
"You are so brilliant." Julie complimented him and punctuated
the compliment with a kiss and tugged on his tie. "What are we
waiting for?"
****************************************
"Settle down. We're already late getting started and we have a
lot to cover, so take your seats."
"Let me guess; it was your sucky watch again?" Jessie, one of
Josh's favorite smart ass students piped up.
"No, it was NOT my sucky watch again. There was an…incident at
Lyman consulting that required my attention." Josh hedged.
"I thought you'd resigned from there." another student
tossed out.
"Technically, but Fred, the new President of Lyman Consulting had an
issue he wanted to run by me." Josh replied.
"I thought the new President was Billy Fernandez." Jessie noted.
"He is." Josh confirmed.
"Then who is Fred?" Jessie tried to pin Josh down.
"Fred is Billy." Josh smirked, deliberately not adding any other
details. Billy had freaked a little at the daunting prospect of taking
the reins from Josh but in the end, it had been a unanimous decision.
Billy had a great senior staff to rely on for support and advice, but he
was still calling Josh for his seal of approval on big decisions. Josh
knew he'd have to cut that cord eventually, but for now, it made
Josh still feel valuable there and gave Billy a little time before he
had to work without a net.
"Why do you call Billy Fred?" Jessie tried again.
"We don't have that kind of time." Josh replied. "Also,
any of you looking for sucking up opportunities will get a chance to
practice your skills when my family arrives at the end of class. Please
remember that all my children are brilliant and good looking; they get
the former from me and the latter from their mother, but I'll deny I
said that if it gets repeated later." One smart aleck student held
up his handheld tape recorder and Josh grimaced. "Anyway,
you'll get to meet them all tonight at the end of class since
they're joining me and our guest speaker for dinner. Ah, speak of
the devil, here she is now. Come on in." Heads turned quickly to
glimpse the guest speaker.
"Ladies and Gentlemen," Josh continued, "I know you'll
give your very rapt attention to our special guest tonight. A lot of you
were asking me about how a person transitions from being a citizen to a
Member of Congress and all that that entails. Well, our guest tonight
will be able to fill in all the details for you since she's just
made that transition. Congresswoman Julie Peterson-" Julie cleared
her throat. "Sorry, I'm not used to your married name yet.
Congresswoman Peterson-DAVIS is here to give you an insider's
account. Listen carefully and pick her brain, she has a lot to share.
I'm sure you'll be just as impressed with her as I was the first
time I met her. Congresswoman Julie Peterson Davis."
"Thanks, Josh. Impressed, huh?"
"Absolutely; or you never would have been our choice."
"Uh-huh." Julie just smiled and began her speech.
The End.