Sisters in Arms

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=200 BGCOLOR="#003399" TEXT="#080000" background="03fc8c00erkjxk.jpg"> <div> <B>Donna andCJ have a conversation about the future in the wake of President Bartlets press conference.</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters Series"><U><B>Sisters Series Home</B></U></A><B> </B></div> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#0066CC" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#99CCFF" FACE="Edwardian Script ITC" ><B>Smiles, Tears, & Happy Endings</B></FONT><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFF99" FACE="Edwardian Script ITC" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" > </FONT><FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#CC0000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT>  |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Smiles, Tears, Happy Endings"><U>home</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id20.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters Series"><U>Sisters Series</U></A>   |   <B>Sisters in Arms</B>   |   <A HREF="id42.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters in Arms: First Impressions/New B"><U>Sisters in Arms: First Impressions/New Beginnings</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id208.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters In Arms A New Chapter"><U>Sisters In Arms~ A New Chapter</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id224.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters In ArmsVigilance Solace"><U>Sisters In Arms~Vigilance &Solace</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id228.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sisters In Arms Courage Compassion"><U>Sisters In Arms- Courage& Compassion</U></A></div> <div> Sisters in Arms</div> <div> by Brandy</div> <bR> <bR> <div>   The press conference had ended two hours earlier. CJ sat in her office, staring out the window, watching the rain fall while she tried to sort out her terribly complicated feelings. On one hand, she was very happy that President Bartlet had decided to stay and fight. She didn’t like to think of everything they had all worked so hard and sacrificed so much for ending abruptly, and badly. It grated on her sensibilities to give up. So, on that score, she was glad, that if they were going to go down, they were going to go down swinging. On the other hand, the fight was going to get messy. It was going to get messy for all of them. The thing was, she was chiefly in charge of cleaning up the messes around here and it was going to be difficult enough to do that without having to check her own shoes every step of the way. The worst part was, that heads were going to roll at some point over all this mess, and she shuddered to think who the first of those heads would belong to. </div> <div>   Admittedly, she had been just as pissed ,if not more, at  Abbey when she first found out, as she had been at the President. She didn’t have the same kind of rapport with the President that she did with the First Lady. She and Abbey had developed that rapport early on. It wasn’t anything obvious- more like an understanding; a shared history of fighting the same kinds of battles on the same ‘good ole’ boys’ battleground. When she was told, she thought of all the times that Abbey could have told her, all the little signals she disregarded, because she thought if it was something she needed to know, Abbey would have told her. Even with all that in the back of her mind, CJ didn’t want to think about what the First Lady was going to be in store for in the wake of all this. She was going to be the sacrificial lamb in this- if not legally, then publicly. All the particulars of how she treated the President, secretly, and most probably unethically in regard to standard medical board practices- all of that would come out, and the press would eat it up. The First Lady would be made out to be the wicked power behind the throne, a sort of female Rasputin.   In some circles she would be portrayed as the person who orchestrated this whole deception, because by her actions, she would appear to be the most culpable. The funny thing was - as pissed as CJ had been, and in some ways still was, she understood why Abbey did it. She was protecting her husband. It was the same reason that she was probably bouncing off the walls in frustration and anger that her husband had just announced he was going to run for re-election. She was scared- scared of what it was going to cost him. She was scared for her husband. </div> <div>    CJ turned away from the window and saw the footage from the interview earlier in the evening, followed directly by the President’s statement at the press conference, playing on the television in the corner of her office. The sound was muted, but she knew the words- she could recite them verbatim, if she had to. Her father was right about one thing- all the preparation in the world couldn’t prevent a good old fashioned sneak attack. In this case, though, she was glad. Surprises, even P.R surprises, weren’t always bad- but playing catch-up on your feet, when the whole world was watching was a bitch. </div> <div>   CJ was still shaking her head at the capricious nature of life, when she saw Donna standing in the doorway of her office.</div> <div>   " Hey- I thought you’d have gone home by now", CJ said.</div> <div>   " I was going to- but Josh was so hyped about what happened at the press conference that it kind of rubbed off . Even though I can’t exactly keep up with him at the moment, I didn’t quite feel like going home", Donna said, coming in and sitting down on the sofa, " You don’t mind the company, do you?"</div> <div>   " No…I was just sitting here trying to get a handle on everything- and since when can’t you keep up with Josh?" CJ asked, a smile just barely turning the corners of her mouth.</div> <div>   " When he’s bouncing around in such a hyper frenzy that it hurts my head to watch him. Thankfully , he’s in with Sam and Toby. They can tire each other out", Donna replied ,wearily.</div> <div>   " That’s my spin boys", CJ replied with wry humor, wondering to herself how long it would take before they began to speculate over who was going to pay the piper for this one. She didn’t think it would occur to Sam, not at first anyway. Sam just wasn’t built to think like that, Sam was more about presentation than anticipating which way the dominos were going to fall and who’s head they were going to fall on. Josh was the one in the trio who would try ,by the sheer force of his will, to make the dominos fall where he wanted them to. Of them all, Toby would probably connect the dots first. The very thinking that had led him to ferret out this little mystery in the first place, would lead him to the same conclusion she had come to.</div> <div>   "CJ?", Donna spoke, breaking into her thoughts.</div> <div>   " Yeah?"</div> <div>   " This is going to get messy pretty soon, isn’t it?", Donna asked, unknowingly mirroring CJ’s earlier thoughts.</div> <div>   " I’d bet on it." </div> <div>   " For who?" Donna asked after a long moment of hesitation. She felt strange asking CJ something like that. It would have felt totally out of place to do it before all this had happened, but now the lines were blurring a little. They were all in the trenches together, so to speak.</div> <div>   " It’s hard to say… I think some of us are going to get a slap on the wrist and some of us are going to get fed to the wolves." , CJ observed  with resignation. As she said it , CJ wondered whether she would get a pass, or end up as a free lunch.</div> <div>   " It’s not right, CJ", Donna declared. </div> <div>   " You’re preaching to the choir , sister", CJ replied.</div> <div>   " I don’t understand why they can’t remember that he’s just a man- a human being. That he and his family are dealing with it the best way they can- just like any other family would", Donna stated, her indignation level rising with each word.</div> <div>   " Because Donna, the public doesn’t want their president to be human. They want him to be some odd cross between Superman and Einstein , with all the folksy charm of Will Rodgers and the moral fiber of a saint. Nobody can live up to those expectations. You’d think that people would realize just how unrealistic those standards are, but they don’t. That’s why people like me and Sam and Toby have jobs."</div> <div>   " We can make them understand, CJ. Given enough information, people can understand anything", Donna stated with absolute conviction.</div> <div>   " Do you really believe that?" CJ asked, and while she was somewhat incredulous at Donna’s apparent naiveté , part of her wanted to believe what she was saying.</div> <div>   " Yes, and so do you. If you didn’t you would have picked up your marbles and gone home days ago", Donna said ,smiling confidently at CJ. </div> <div>   " My marbles?" CJ replied, smiling  in spite of herself at Donna’s playground metaphor.</div> <div>   " Yeah." </div> <div>   " Oh, please- I thought it was apparent that I’d lost those some time ago. What the hell do you think I’m doing still hanging around here?" CJ retorted, on the brink of laughter.</div> <div>   " You’re a fighter CJ. That’s what got you here in the first place. I’d like to think that’s what got me here too. I’ve just gotten better about picking and choosing my battles. The one I left, before I came to the campaign- that was not worth fighting for. This is."</div> <div>   CJ had to smile at her. She’d come a long way, and there was no telling how much farther she’d go before she was done. CJ had never seen anyone achieve so much through sheer tenacity as Donna had. It wasn’t just the things she did for Josh, or how smoothly she made things run in his office. It was that, but it was her sense of self, her determination, her brains and her quick wit…and her compassion. </div> <div>   " You’re right, and on that note, I say we leave the boys to their fun and get the hell out of here. Let’s go somewhere and have a drink to…Mrs. L., and all the great women who know when to walk away and when to stand and fight."</div> <div>   " That’s the spirit, CJ", Donna said, joining CJ as she walked out the door.</div> <div>   They left the building together that night, and anyone who saw them couldn’t help but think how spirited and strong and determined they looked. Sisters in spirit, if not in fact.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>