ACT THREE
INT. JOSH'S OFFICE, EARLY EVENING
"I doubt that's what she meant, Senator," Josh said into the phone, feeling his blood pressure rise. "We're only taking the temperature of the caucus. We aren't making any moves right now."
Margaret stuck her head in the door. "Sam and Ainsley Hayes are here to see you."
Josh nodded his acquiescence and raised an eyebrow as he watched Sam close both doors to his office while he finished his phone call. "Senator, I've got a meeting, but I hear what you're saying and we'll keep an eye on it. Please tell Sassy I said hello." He hung up the phone and looked at his visitors. "What's up?"
"We've come up with an action plan on the lawsuit," Sam replied.
"Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
"Because you, like Sam, have an inherent distrust of all things Republican and Southern and I am both." Ainsley smiled sweetly.
"Probably," Josh chuckled. "Sit and give it to me."
"Have you read the suit?" asked Sam, almost immediately realizing it was a stupid question. Of course Josh had read the paperwork. "Never mind..."
"The guy who was in charge of the project for the EPA for about 10 years was recently transferred back to D.C.," Ainsley said, taking control of the conversation.
"How recently?"
"Two months ago."
"Why was he transferred?"
"I don't know. I haven't quite gotten anyone at EPA to admit that," Ainsley said. "And they're dragging their feet on sending me the paperwork I asked for."
"So what's the plan?"
"We want to have the FBI call this guy in for questioning," Sam said.
"For two reasons," Ainsley picked up the ball. "If there's nothing going on out there and his transfer back here was routine because the work was actually done, then he'll be able to tell us that up front.
Or if his transfer wasn't routine or he feels the work wasn't done, he'll tell us that instead. Then we've put the fear of God into whomever at EPA is behind this by having the FBI drop in on this guy at work."
Josh nodded. "Sounds like a start. I'll give Mike Casper a call in the morning and have him coordinate with the two of you. Ainsley, anything else going on in the Counsel's office I should know about?"
"We're leaking like a sieve down there, if that's what you're asking," Ainsley joked, deciding not to mention the meeting in the Oval Office she and Sam had just attended.
"Go do something, you know, important," Josh laughed and shook his head. He waited until Ainsley left before focusing on his deputy. "If she weren't such a damn good lawyer, the craziness factor there would be a serious detriment to her getting hired, well, anywhere."
Sam laughed. "Speaking of women who might be lunatics."
"Let me guess, our esteemed legislative director?" Josh groaned, remembering the topic of his conversation with Senator McBain.
"She is convinced you gave her education reform," Sam said.
"One trip to the Hill means she's spear-heading education reform?" Josh rubbed his hands over his face. "What did she find out up there by the way?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know? Didn't I tell you to sit down with her when she got back?"
"I tried, but she refused to tell me."
"She refused to tell you?"
"She said you gave her education reform and she'd report directly to you."
"Oh God."
"Yeah."
"That part where I told you to keep her under control..."
"No, you told me to sit down with her when she got back and map out some strategy," Sam clarified. "How do you want me to handle that when she's convinced that she's reporting directly to you?"
Josh pursed his lips, slightly annoyed that Sam wasn't going after Amy any harder. "I'll take care of it. Anything else going on today that I should know about?"
"We're making slow progress on Baker, but the pardon thing is a tough hurdle. That one of his is going to look like cronyism, there's no way around that. And the Toby thing, I'm hearing that they don't care about the astronauts. The Judiciary chair is making noise about trotting out a couple of guys who say they know the risks and they go on every mission prepared to die. Nobody wants to admit it's a constitutional power of the executive. They just want to go on about being tough on crime or national security or whatever." Josh nodded his understanding and Sam looked down at his notes. "That's all I've got."
"Nice work on the lawsuit."
"Most of that was Ainsley. I'm just along for the ride." Sam stood up.
"Wrap things up and get out of here, then."
"You, too."
Josh mumbled a response, but he had little intention of going home early to an empty apartment. Gathering his notes together he headed into the Oval Office for his final scheduled meeting of the day with the President.
"Good evening, sir," Josh announced himself.
"I suppose that depends on your definition of good." Between the First Lady's visit and his meeting with Lou, Lester, Sam and Ainsley, the President was in a mood and he wasn't looking forward to having this conversation with his Chief of Staff. He was starting to have second thoughts about his support for his wife's first issue and he figured Josh would want the East Wing as far away from this fight as possible.
"We didn't have to invade any foreign countries today," Josh pointed out. "And no states seceded from the
"Well, if those are your standards..."
"Most days I try to aim low, sir. It makes clearing the bar easier."
Matt couldn't help smiling. The way Josh worked to keep him in a good mood unless bad things were actually happening was one of the things he was coming to value about his Chief of Staff. "Did Donna talk to you?"
"No, sir," Josh looked at Matt in askance. "About what?"
"Helen's picked an issue. She came down here this afternoon to talk to me about it."
Matt's question from earlier in the day rose in Josh's mind. "Let me guess. The HPV vaccine?"
"Yep."
"What do you think, sir?" Josh asked. He was somewhat surprised that his response this evening wasn't much different than his response had been that morning - it didn't set off any alarms with him. The vaccine prevented cancer and as long as that was the focus of any campaign, anyone who opposed it was going to look pretty hateful.
"I think Helen's a political neophyte and the chances of her getting her ass handed to her are pretty great," Matt sighed.
"Your wife might be new at this, sir, but her team is extremely experienced and highly competent. I doubt Donna would have sent her down here to talk to you if she didn't have the beginnings of a strategy already mapped out. What did Mrs. Santos say when you talked?" Josh was curious about how Donna would have Helen approach Matt.
Matt gave his Chief of Staff a rundown of Helen's outburst and was surprised to see the smirk on Josh's face. "What?"
"She made an appointment and came down here, sir?"
The President nodded.
"She wasn't asking your permission to do this, sir. It doesn't matter what we think, this is the issue they've chosen to work on and we're going to need to work with them to minimize any political fallout, but if she sticks to the message she delivered in this office, I think we'll be fine. Curing cancer is a good thing, Mr. President, and if they want to cut their teeth on something that's a guaranteed win, I say let them."
"You think the HPV vaccine is a guaranteed win?" Matt was shocked to hear that. He thought Josh would be worried about a great outcry from the family values sect about the age recommendations and how vaccinating girls against an STD encouraged them to have premarital sex.
"The drug works, and it's going to be approved by the FDA in the very near future. The only battle to be fought here is a PR level and I'm pretty sure what you heard today was a trial run of the message the East Wing plans to put out. They're going to focus on the fact that the drug prevents cancer. I might encourage Donna and Annabeth to mention that the FDA approval process has always been and should continue to be apolitical, but that's a message for a select audience," Josh thought aloud. "Sir, there's nothing here but a positive learning experience. Donna's damn good at this. She's not going to let Mrs. Santos make any missteps. Let them have it. It costs us nothing. We've got other issues to focus on."
"Like
"
"Didn't we just get elected?" It came out as a groan. As a congressman, Matt had hated the budget process because it never seemed to end.
"We did and if we start now, we might have a spending bill ready when the government runs out of money in October."
"You think about that, I'm going to think about what the chef made for dinner as I walk up to the Residence." Matt started stuffing his reports into his briefcase. He preferred to leave the office around 6 o'clock if possible, but he took hours of reading materials upstairs with him to prepare for the next day's meetings and he wasn't above returning to the office if the day's schedule demanded it.
Josh waited quietly while the President prepared to leave, contemplating his own pile of evening reading. He was going to have to have words with the staff about their verbosity. Brevity was something he was coming to appreciate.
"By the way, when are you and Donna going to throw the press a bone so we can get that issue off the table? Don't think I didn't see that topic of debate on every Sunday morning show again this week." Matt asked, interrupting Josh's musings.
"Donna and I are not a story, sir," Josh replied with his standard line.
"It would kill you to sit down with Larry King for an hour?"
"Not kill me, sir, but I might break out in hives if I had to appear on Larry King and talk about my personal life."
"Yeah," Matt watched Josh struggle to maintain his jovial attitude in the face of the gentle badgering and made a quick decision. "Do we have someone scheduled to do Capital Beat this week yet?"
Josh shook his head. "No, it's Monday. The booker usually doesn't call until Tuesday or Wednesday. Why?"
"I have a suggestion for you. I think you should take this week's topic and you should give them one question about you and Donna..." Matt held up his hand to forestall the interruption but it did no good.
"Absolutely not, sir," Josh interrupted, his jaw tightening and his lips thinning.
"And," Matt continued unperturbed. "I think you should tell them exactly what you told Sam this morning about why your personal life is nobody's business."
Josh cocked his head to the side. "How do you know what I told Sam this morning, sir?"
"Lou got it in her head that I should order you to do an interview to end this thing, and she recruited Sam for support. Imagine her surprise when he came in here and said it was a horrible idea."
"Sam said that?" Josh's initial surge of anger at Lou dissipated at the realization he'd swayed Sam with his argument.
"You look as surprised as Lou did," Matt chuckled.
"Sam spent five minutes this morning trying to convince me to go the interview route."
"And whatever it was you said convinced him that you're right and everyone else is wrong. So I'm giving you my permission to go on TV and tell everyone to back off. You aren't an elected official or a
movie star or a publicity-seeking debutante. You have the right to conduct your private life in private," Matt said.
Josh stood silently for a long moment digesting what he was being told. "If I do this, that's the end of it?" he asked. "Nothing more from anyone about how we should do this interview or that interview?"
Matt nodded. "You aren't without your share of supporters on the pundit circuit, Josh. Get out there and give them something to work with."
"Let me talk to Donna about it, sir." Josh ceded, his body language telling the President that barring any objection from Donna it was a done deal.
"I'm heading upstairs to dinner then. You should head on home."
"Have a good night, sir."
Josh waited until Matt disappeared onto the portico before he returned to his office and dismissed Margaret for the night. He had no desire to go home alone. He planned to stay late and catch up on his briefing materials. Grabbing several of them off the stack, he flopped down on the sofa, pulled his tie down and kicked his shoes off.
A knock at his door grabbed his attention before he got past the first summary page.
"Got a minute?" Donna asked.
"Sure, what's up?" He put the report down on his lap and tried to appear nonchalant even as his insides squirmed. He hadn't spoken with Donna since he'd helped her move her things out of his apartment the day before. She'd left messages on his answering machine and his voicemail asking him to please stop avoiding her and pick up the phone, but Josh just couldn't shake the feeling that Donna was making some kind of statement about their relationship by moving out. A very negative statement and he was very much afraid of what she wanted to say.
Donna sat across from Josh and noted that he looked like hell. Part of her wanted to ask if he'd slept the night before, but another larger, part was still annoyed at him for not returning her phone calls. "The First Lady has decided on an issue."
"I heard."
"And?"
"And what?" Josh asked. He wasn't sure what she wanted, other than the formality of the conversation.
"What do you think?"
"I'll tell you the same thing I told the President: if the First Lady wants to cut her teeth on a guaranteed win, that's fine."
"You think it's a guaranteed win?" Donna was surprised. She was anticipating a PR war with the family values and religious right groups.
"I think if you frame it as cancer prevention, it's a guaranteed win," Josh repeated his position. "If you could do me the favor of mentioning that the FDA process is supposed to be entirely non-political every once in a while that would be great."
"The First Lady wants to push this hard. If we aggravate a few people, that's not going to be a problem?" Donna lifted an eyebrow.
"I'll never know until you aggravate them, but you know who we can afford to alienate and who we can't. I trust you."
Donna smiled at the compliment. "Thank you."
"I told the President that between you and Annabeth, Helen would be fine."
"I thought Mrs. Santos said he was on board," Donna looked at Josh questioningly.
"Between the time they talked and the end of the day, he started to get a little squirrelly. He's worried about the extremists playing hardball with her."
"If we lock the discussion in around it being a cure for cancer and refuse to discuss any of the other stuff, they're going to come off looking out of the mainstream," Donna interrupted.
"That's what I said," Josh agreed.
"And if we have to talk about the sex thing, we're going to say that sex education is the parents' responsibility. If you don't want your child to have sex, you need communicate your values to your child," she finished.
"Sounds like a solid strategy."
"I think so."
"Where are you going to start?"
"Annabeth is working on that, but either she or I might hit Capital Beat. Get the First Lady involved with the public service announcements the FDA is doing, speeches at women's health clinics, stuff like that."
"Keep me posted?" Josh asked. He knew they had no obligation to, but he didn't have any desire to get blindsided by anything.
"Sure. Do you want Annabeth to coordinate with Lou? She was over today by the way, reminding us to let you guys know if we're planning on leaking anything. What's going on with that?"
"We had some internal conversations wind up in editorials in the Washington Post yesterday," Josh admitted. "Don't worry about Lou. We don't need blow-by-blows. You know the deal."
"Okay," Donna nodded, standing up to go. "What are you doing tonight?" she asked as she opened the door that exited to the hallway.
"Working," Josh replied, holding up the report in his lap. As easy as their professional conversation had been, his personal emotions were still a mess. The reports were just his excuse for hiding in the West Wing. He wanted to get his thoughts in order in a place that didn't pulse with Donna's presence.
"I thought maybe we could get dinner," Donna offered.
"I'm behind on my briefing books for tomorrow. I need to stay until I get caught up."
"You could take them home."
"I'm going to be late tonight, Donna. Maybe another night."
Donna shook her head, frustrated that he was going to continue to avoid talking to her. "Fine. When you're ready to talk to me, you know where to find me."
Josh watched her walk out the door and nearly got up and ran after her, but stopped himself. Anything he said right now would be wrong. He would either lose his temper and say horrible, hurtful things he would be unable to take back or he would grovel and he wouldn't be able to articulate the hurt she'd caused him by moving out.
This was the real reason he was staying late, immersing himself in work. He had discovered over the years that the mind-numbing repetition of report reading allowed the subconscious parts of his brain to wander, and he frequently found solutions to the strangest problems while reading briefing materials. He was hoping tonight's solution would be the answer to the mess with Donna.
CUT TO:
INT. DONNA'S OFFICE, 10 MINUTES LATER
"How did it go with Josh?" Annabeth pounced the minute Donna walked in the door. The prospect of doing actual work had the First Lady's press secretary salivating.
"He's all for it."
"You know, for someone who was pushing so hard for Mrs. Santos to pick an issue, you sure don't sound very excited that she finally has."
Donna shook her head. "It's got nothing to do with Mrs. Santos."
"All's not well in Camelot?" Annabeth asked sympathetically. She'd figured as much since their discussion that morning.
"He's just been so... him since I moved back into my apartment yesterday," Donna said. She sat down in her chair and buried her face in her hands. "He won't talk to me unless it's work related. He's not returning my phone calls. I asked him to go out to dinner tonight and he hid behind work."
Annabeth whistled softly and tried to explain what was obvious to a third party. "Donna, honey, you moved out after living with him for four months. There's only one way a man is going to interpret that. He's probably not returning your phone calls because he's afraid you're going to break up with him."
Donna lifted her head and stared at Annabeth. "My living with him was never permanent. I moved out because I couldn't afford to keep that apartment and not live in it."
"Honey, trust me, all that man heard was 'I'm moving out' which translated roughly into 'I'm breaking up with you soon'."
"I am not breaking up with him!" Donna threw her hands up, exasperated at the entire situation. "I told him a week a head of time that this was going to happen."
"Do you want my advice?" Annabeth offered cheekily.
Donna glared at the perky blonde who just smiled back, oblivious to her boss's warning look, and continued anyway. "You two have been under a lot of pressure since this thing started, Donna. You guys are both taking your communication for granted. You presume he's hearing what you're saying and he's presuming you're saying what he's hearing and that's not necessarily what's going on. Don't forget this is the guy who sent you the bouquet of the world's biggest sunflowers for Valentine's Day. Just think about what I'm saying."
Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Donna sighed. "All right, I'll think about it."
"And if you change your mind, a friend of mine sold her condo and bought a house, but the closing got pushed back almost four months, so she's looking for a place until then." Annabeth gathered her things. "I'm going to head home. You should do the same."
Donna heaved another huge sigh once Annabeth was gone. She knew the woman had a point, but it didn't change the fact she was tired of people giving her advice on how to handle her relationship with Josh. That was the worst part of this whole thing, how everyone seemed to think they knew what was best for her and Josh. Outside of Sam and Annabeth, none of the people on this staff had knew them very well. How could they presume to know what was best for people they'd known so briefly? Had they been through everything she and Josh had? No. They didn't even care, they just wanted it over with and out of their lives, regardless of what it did to her and Josh's relationship.
FADE TO BLACK