Title: Blanket of Comfort Private Times Series 4/?
By: chipmunk and leosimpishgrin
Character:
Leo
Pairing: None
Rating:
MATURE P&V (See Rating Chart Below)
Spoilers: None really
This is not strictly cannon by the show.
Timeline is near the end of year one, to start with
and then it goes off to Never, never land.
Doesn't matter the year or the situation.
Plot Development and Beta By: Imp [email protected]
Disclaimer:
Without Prejudice, the names of all characters* contained here-in are the
property of NBC, WB, Bravo, A John Wells Prod., from TV show, The West Wing.
They are the creation of Aaron Sorkin. No infringement of these or any copyrights is intended, and are used here without permission.
No monetary benefit is received or anticipated.They own them; therefore, they do not belong to us. We only borrowed them , with our humble thanks to them. *Any Original Characters developed by us and found in this or any of our fics, belongs solely to us.***
Note: A 'grateful' and 'enormous' thanks, to the actors and actresses,
who portray these characters 'brilliantly' and bring them to life in our heads. *** Feedback: We’d love it hear your opinion! PLEASE!
It helps to improve our writing! Archived at: http://www.geocities.com/chipmunkswhimseys/StandAloneMain.html
Summary: Leo reflects how he finds comfort in time of despair.
Note: Thanks to Bev and Lynn for their helpful suggestions!!!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Leo is
standing at his office window and watching as twilight descends on the grounds
of the White House. His hand
unconsciously strokes the soft nap of his Air Force blanket with his name and
rank embroidered on it. It’s always
draped on the back of his favorite chair.
Most visitors to his office think it’s just a proud decoration from his
time in the service, but really it’s more personal than that, it’s his private
comfort item. When life gets really bad, he tends to gravitate to it,
especially in the dark of the night. He
seeks its comfort when he wants no one to see him fight his private
demons. It helps him, to wrap himself
into it and do his private thinking under the soft blanket, trying to right the
world, in his mind.
The soft
glow of his desk lamp gently lights the room behind him. As the setting sun
reflects a twinkle of light next to his head, he glances at a framed cartoon on
the shelf, smiling softly and sadly at it.
He remembers Jed teasing him about being Charlie Brown and later he gave
him the cartoon as a joke. But Jed was
wrong. He takes a moment to study the
cartoon that shows Charlie Brown lying on the ground and Lucy, holding away the
football. The irony of the cartoon is
that he’s more like Linus with his trusty blanket standing off to the side
watching. Jed will never know about the
connection. Looking down at his hand
resting on the chair back, he reflects back to the times that his faithful
blanket has comforted him. The times
when he couldn’t seek the comfort of others.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He quickly
remembers to when Jenny left him, and the time shortly afterward when she
completely broke his heart, as she unwaveringly told him ‘no’ and took his last
hope for their marriage, with her. He sadly, is still living in that hotel
room, he’s no longer in limbo, but it made him quietly cry with sorrow, more
than once, wrapped securely in his blanket in the still of the night.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
He rubs the
blanket more firmly, as if he needs its comfort right now, as he recalls back
to the day where he had to publicly reveal to the nation that he was an
alcoholic. It was like a self-inflicted
wound, but his friend collapsing that same morning nearly caused his heart to
stop, till he checked Jed for a pulse in his neck. Later in that day he was in a sad shock at Abbey’s confession
about his friend’s illness that will one day take Jed from him. He was so beaten up by that day that he had
sobbed miserably, as he held the blanket to his face to muffle the sound. He just wanted that day to have never been,
it had actually physically hurt. Leo
remembers lying still, as the clock struck midnight in the empty West Wing to
end that awful day. He was curled with his knees to his chest, his blanket
wrapped over him and a corner clutched to his chest, as his breath came in
shaky pants.
He gives a
soft smile remembering the one bright spot near the end of that same day, as
they are leaving for the State of the Union address. That wonderful moment when he overheard Jed say that your best
friend, the one that you’d trust with your life…that’s your Chief of Staff. It
helped keep him from seeking comfort in a bottle that night. His blanket did
just as well for comfort, because that is all he has now. What a hell of a day that was!!!!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now, with a
catch in his breath, his mind flashes to the time late in the night after the
shooting. His mind's eye sees him wrapped up in his blanket, shaking with
aftershock. Then tears started to flow,
and he cried both with the joy that his Jed was safe again and with the fear in
his trembling heart that Josh would not survive. God, to be torn in half like that!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
His fingers
tremble as they lightly rest on the blanket, as he recalls the night that the
man he loves like a son was again almost lost to him. It was the night that Josh put his hand through the window. Was he suicidal??? ~~God, not my son too!~~
Scared tears of a frightened foster parent silently merged with the
blanket that Christmas Eve. He’d been so close himself, once upon a time.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Then, when
Mrs. Landingham was killed, leaving him all alone to guide Jed on this journey
that they were all a part of, during their years in the White House, like a
storm battering a rocky New England shore.
He’s Jed’s rudder to guide him, but she was the ballast to Jed’s force
that filled the sails. And with Abbey watching over all of them with her
confident support, both mentally and physically, their team was complete. With the rest of the staff as crew, they
were a strong team. Now… they are minus
one precious member fallen overboard and there’s no way to throw her a life
ring, and bring her back.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
With
remorse he recalls when he was told he was guilty of war crimes, even if he
'was' following orders. That he had
killed eleven civilians. His mind tells
him that they were possibly someone’s parents and definitely someone’s children. Oh God, those innocent families who suffered
because of him. He really cried into
his blanket in the quiet of ‘that’ night.
He told Margaret, without explanation the next morning, not to have it
laundered any more. He wants his tears
to remain part of it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
When Jed
returned to him ‘the’ framed paper napkin, back before Christmas, it made him
cry and he again, after that long and trying day, found the comfort of this
blanket, still clutching the small, framed napkin that held so much meaning,
lovingly to his chest.
~ ~ ~ ~
~
Stroking
the blanket, he knows he has shared its comfort with his child, like the night
that Mallory came to visit his office, when Sam didn’t return to her from
California, seeking her Dad for a shoulder to cry on. Sitting her on the couch,
he wrapped her up in the soft, comforting blanket and held her tight. She snuggled into its warm comfort, leaning
into his side, unknowingly letting her tears join his on the blanket.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
In his
reflections, he includes the time he napped under it during Zoey's kidnapping
and then ‘his’ Margaret woke him up and he snapped at her, "What are you,
my mother?" With sorrow he remembers thinking, as she woke him, where is a
guy's Mom when he really needs some comfort in this cruel world? He remembers rubbing his stubbly beard
against the fringe of the blanket, trying to recall her soft touch on his
cheek, just before he sat up tucking the blanket onto his lap.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Sadly, he
recalls when his hero Kenny, lost his halo. It made him cry with deep sorrow
and ultimate disappointment. It seems
that all his heroes in life make him cry.
He had cried with Jed and he later sought the comfort of the blanket to
shed more tears of grief.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
But now only
the blanket knows how often he wraps it snugly around his shoulders giving him
the hug-like comfort he seeks, as he sits alone in the darkest hours in the
dead of night. With his tears rolling quietly down his time-lined face to once
again be absorbed, as usual, by the Air Force blanket.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After his
late night cuddles with the blanket he usually puts it back on the chair, just
so. It’s not that he doesn’t want anyone to know he was resting, but that the
chair is its place of honor. Once in a quiet moment, he muttered out loud to
himself that it wasn’t like when he was a small kid, and he dragged his ratty
blanket around with him whenever he was tired or upset. At the time he let it
slip, he was being instructed by a certain red head in the next room, to cover
up and rest for awhile, when he had to give in to the pain of a headache, so…
he’s pretty sure that Margaret, by now, knows that he finds some sort of
comfort in it. Then again, he knows
that if he leaves his blanket mussed or crumpled on the couch, she’ll
understand it’s his way of hinting he’s feeling better, for the use of it. Just
another of their silent communications, she knows him so well. Margaret always
takes good care of him, and of his blanket, making sure it gets folded the right
way, and puts it back on his chair, just so.
With a final pat to the blanket, as if to the shoulder of a dear friend, he’s so thankful that tonight he’s not in need of its consolation. He takes solace in its presence, knowing the blanket is there if he feels the need to seek its comfort, alone in the dark of the night.
The End
blessings
chipmunk
I would love it hear your opinion! PLEASE!
chipmunk aka: Betty Lou Riley [email protected]
Home web page http://www.geocities.com/chipmunkswhimseys/
Posted: May 15, 2004
As a Fan Reader rating
guide, we offer the following Rating System!
************************
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YTEEN (younger teens) - some content may not be suitable
for children
TEEN - suitable for teens and above
MATURE - suitable for mature readers
ADULT - adults only
P —
Profanity
SC — Sexual Content
V — Violence
GV — Graphic Violence
GS - Graphic Sexual Content