Dinner Meeting Private Times Series 1/?
By: chipmunk
Pairing: Leo/Margaret
Rating: TEEN – P&SC (See Rating Chart Below)
Spoilers: None
This is not strictly cannon by the show.
Doesn't matter the year or the situation.
Beta and
Disclaimer:
Without Prejudice, the names of all characters* contained here-in are the
property of NBC, WB, Bravo, A John Wells Prod., from the 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 me. I only borrowed them , with my humble thanks to them. Any resemblance, herein, to any person living or dead, is just a coincidence.*Any Original Characters developed by me and found in this or any of my fics, belongs solely to me.Acknowledgement: A 'grateful' and 'enormous' thanks, to the actors and actresses,
who portray these characters 'brilliantly' and bring them to life in my head.
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Archived at: http://www.geocities.com/chipmunkswhimseys/
Summary: Margaret finally goes on a trip
with Leo.
Note: Just the two of them! Spin-off from Daylight Series.
~ For his wonderful
gift to us of Leo, I humbly dedicate this fic to John Spencer. ~
*********************
Leo walks briskly into the Oval Office. “Mr.
President, you wanted to see me,” Leo asks, as he stops in front of the desk,
waiting for the President to finish what he’s reading
and respond to his question.
“Yeah, Leo, I talked to the head of the ‘Pep Boys in
“Sir, Josh was going to meet with them on the quiet, Thursday
night at a dinner meeting. I’ll have to juggle a few things, but I can do it. Josh could take a few of my meetings. Margaret will give him the files on what he
needs to cover. I’ll
fly up Thursday afternoon, meet with them for dinner and fly back on Friday
morning. When I arrive back, I’ll meet
with you and Josh, to let you know what took place.” Leo
plans out loud.
“Ok, fine, you set up the arrangements. Talk to Josh and let him know the change in
plans.”
“I’ll have Margaret to return a call to the ‘Pep Boys’ and let them
know that I will be meeting with them.
She’ll be able to book my flights and lodgings,” Leo informs the
President that his office, Margaret, will take care of the details.
“Leo, about Margaret, you better take her with you. She can sit in on the meeting and take notes,
the meeting might get a little tense and I don’t want
them to try and slip anything in on us.
She never gets to go on trips, like Donna or Charlie. She’ll get out of DC
and have a nice dinner. She’ll like it,”
the President is pleased with his additional plan.
“I’m sure, Mr. President, but she’s not going to be happy,” Leo
sighs and sounds a little unhappy now.
“Oh, how’s that,” the President doesn’t
see the problem. He’s
looking with great attention at Leo.
“It seems, Sir, the only time she goes out of town with me, it’s to a cold climate.
You just want me to suffer, right?” Leo’s
looking at the grin on the Presidents face. “Thanks a
lot!”
“Anytime, Leo, anytime,” the President’s
smiling now. He’s
happiest when he knows he’s getting Leo into trouble, just like when they were
boys together.
“Thank you, Mr. President,” Leo ends the conversation, knowing
that he just lost that decision, to the great ‘pleasure of the President'. He leaves the Oval Office, by way of the door
to the Presidents outer office, to inform Josh about the change in plans. ~I’ll call Margaret
from Josh’s office and have her bring over the files that Josh will need. She can return to book the flights, while I
update Josh. Best of all, she’d be calmer about accompanying me to
*******
It’s now, early evening Thursday, in
the
“Coming, Leo, just a minute,” she acknowledges his knock. He can hear her approaching the door, by the sound of her
voice coming closer.
“I’m ready early. Are you
getting ready? Are you decent,” he asks though the
door. Leaning forward to hear her answer.
“Mostly, Leo.
Are you alone,” she asks from her side of the door, before opening it.
“Yes. I was just pacing the
floor in my room,” he explains why he’s there.
She unlocks the door and opens it, while still standing behind
it. After he’s
inside, she shuts the door and Leo finds out why she asked if he’s alone. She’s dressed in
just her slacks and bra, obviously still getting ready.
“Now, I know why you asked if I was alone,” he states while
grinning. ~Good thing she asked, if the
Pep Boys were with me, she would’ve had a heart attack.~
“Leo, quit grinning. I know you’re not
surprised or impressed,” she flips him a smart answer. ~Act casual.
Maybe I should’ve grabbed my blouse. I know I going to blush, but he ‘has’ seen my
bra before. He’s a big boy. I mean
“Not too shy there, are you, Margaret,” he teases her. ~I can’t resist
smarting back to her. She’s
not too hard on the eyes either. You
won’t hear me complaining.~
“Nothing new to you, Leo.
You turn up at all hours at my apartment and find me half dress or you
run around half dressed there yourself,” she answered back, with something he
couldn’t deny. “So, you’re not too shy yourself.”
She starts for the bathroom to finish her makeup and hair, as she
passes the bed she pulls out a pillow. “We still have
almost an hour till we’re due downstairs and I’ll be a little more than thirty
minutes to finish dressing. Your hyper
pacing tells me you are running on overdrive.
If I know you, you’ve been up since before
dawn. Here,” she throws the pillow in
the middle of the far side of the bed.
“You stretch out and take a power nap.”
“OK, maybe I’m a little tired,” he admits. “I had a short night and I didn’t get any
sleep on the flight.”
She watches as he stretches face down across the bed, with his
shoes still hanging over. She’s satisfied that he’s at least resting and goes in to
finish getting ready. More than half an
hour later, she emerges and rubs Leo on the calf of his pants to wake him.
“Leo, I’m done in the bathroom,” she lets him know she’s close to finished getting ready.
“I’m awake,” he says as he sits up and looks around amazed that he
was actually asleep.
“You better go in and freshen up,” she firmly suggests.
He rubs a hand down his tie.
“Ok, I’ll just be a minute.”
Margaret goes to her carry-on case and retrieves her jewelry and
then grabs her shoes from the suitcase. She sits down at the small table in
the room, to put on the shoes and has just finished putting on her earrings,
when Leo comes back onto the room. She’s having trouble with the necklace, due to her hair in
the way. ~I’ll never get this necklace
fastened, at this rate, it has such a small clasp that it’s hard to get closed,
with my fingernails.~
Leo sees her problem, “Here, turn in the chair and let me
help! Hold your hair up out of the way
for me,” he suggests. He has little
trouble, since he can see what he’s doing. “Hold still a second, your blouse needs to be
fastened,” he warns as he quickly helps by buttoning closed the loop at the
back of her neck. To cover that he might
have over stepped a personal boundary, he switches the topic, “I’d better check
that I have my cell phone and door card with me.” Taking the cell phone from his pocket, he
opens it and remarks, “Well, good thing I checked. My cell phone was off. I had it turned off when I was quick charging
it in my room.” His cell phone rings
while he’s helping Margaret into her suit jacket.
Margaret heads back to the mirror to recheck her hair, since they’re ready to leave.
********
“McGarry,” he crisply answers.
“You’re at the meeting already,” the President asks abruptly.
“Not yet Sir, we’re just about to leave to go downstairs,” Leo
answers to updates him that everything is on schedule.
“Where have you been Leo? I’ve been
trying to reach you for almost an hour.
Your cell phone wasn’t working. I’ve even had the desk to ring your room,”
the President isn’t pleased that Leo has been out of
contact, with a tone in he voice, that this just isn’t done.
“I’m in Margaret’s room. My
cell phone was off from charging it,” he simply explains.
“So, what were you doing in Margaret’s room, for almost an hour,”
the President asks with lighthearted curiosity, changing his tone
immediately. Leo could tell the
President was grinning from that tone in his voice.
“Sir, don’t go there,” Leo has a warning in his voice, which the
President should be able to understand from the years of knowing each other.
“What are best friends for anyway,” the President questions, with
a smirk this time.
“I just did ‘nothing’, Sir,” trying to cut short where the
President was heading with this inquisition.
“You never do ‘nothing’,” he stating with a voice, which is a
reminder to Leo, that he’s the President.
Leo sighs and drops his head to look at the floor, “OK, if you
must know, I stretched out across the bed and napped while she got ready,” Leo
knows that the President’s going to run with that bit
of information.
“I’ve a question for you Leo.
When did you two get married and not invite me to the
wedding? I’m
serious. I’m your best friend, after
all,” Jed, his friend, is now roasting him.
Leo can just see him with his hand spread wide across his chest,
wearing an innocent and sincere look on his face. “I
don’t know sir. I haven’t figured that
out myself, yet.” With confidence between best
friends, Leo confesses his mutual confusion and adds to himself, ~If he only
knew, that she let me in the room and she was only half dressed, I’d never hear
the end of it.~ “Sir, she bosses me,
just like Abby bosses you,” Leo’s trying to turn the table on Jed.
“And you let her, like I do Abby,” Jed admits this weakness to
Leo.
“Yes sir,” Leo also admits, with a soft smile.
“You two are like an old married couple. You just forgot to do the ceremony,” Jed’s now stating his personal observation of their
situation.
“Yeah, and no sex either,” Leo sighs, as he reminds his friend.
“Poor Leo, you always were slow when it came to girls,” Jed’s now enjoying Leo’s discomfort in this conversation.
Leo, trying not to be too sarcastic replies, “Thank you, Mr.
President. That was kind of you. Might I remind you sir, we’re not seventeen
anymore,” trying with little hope, to get the President to cease. “Sir, we need to leave for the meeting now,”
Leo was definitely wanting to end this conversation; he was coming out at the
bad end of it.
“See you tomorrow, Leo,” the President’s
still chuckling as he disconnects the call.
******
Margaret grabs the files Leo brought and puts them in her tote
bag, with her note pad. She follows Leo
out of the room and checks that the door is locked, while Leo is pushing the
button for the elevator. After the nice
dinner and a most productive meeting, Leo escorts Margaret back to her
door. Once outside her door, Leo’s just looking at the floor while Margaret swipes her
door card. Just as she starts to open
the door, he glances at her and speaks up, “Margaret, we really need to review
your notes and get them organized with the files, tonight. When we get the White House tomorrow, you
could type them up straight away.” He continues with
another reason, “tomorrow is Friday and I’ll need to go straight to the
President with them. We may have to make
some decisions, about the bill, before CJ calls a lid for the weekend.” Leo says all this, sounding like he’s trying to convince her.
~We could do the work now and I could spend more time with
Margaret. I don’t want to be setting
alone, as usual, in a hotel room for the rest of the evening.~
“Sure, of course,” she readily agrees. Leo follows her into the room and she lays
the files out of her bag onto the small table.
“First, let me call the President, to tell him that the meeting
went well and we’re organizing the information.
He did want to know tonight. I’ll
tell him we’ll have the information ready for him shortly after we arrive,” he’s confirming this to her.
OK,” she’s agreeable to his plan. She removes her jacket and walks over
to put her jewelry away in her bag. She
then removes her shoes and wiggles her toes in the soft carpeting. Leo watches her while he’s
talking to the President and he smiles at Margaret’s simple pleasure. Leo ends his short call and sits at the table
with the files, ready to start.
Margaret pipes up, when she sees he’s
already opening the first file, “Before we start, answer me a question.
”What is it, Margaret,” he asks without looking up.
“We ‘are’ going to be half the night at this,” she asks, knowing
his answer, but wanting it confirmed.
“What do you think,” he asks the question right back at her.
“Then I want to be comfortable in my pajamas, it’s not like any of
the other staff is on this trip and will knock at the door,” she rationalizes
to Leo.
“Why, I’m still wearing my suit,” he teases her.
“You could change,” she suggests.
“I’m not going to my room to change and then walk back down the
hall in my sweats,” he refuses.
“Did you unpack your bags earlier, in your room,” she digs for
information.
“What do you think,” he repeats his answer, just like before.
“Leo, give me your door card,” she demands and holding out one
hand, as she slips her shoes back on.
“Why, you’re not hiding in my room. We’ve work to do tonight,” he states, like she’s forgotten already.
“I know. I know. You would just hunt and find me,” she
sarcastically replies, she then playfully sticks out her tongue at him.
~She better keep her tongue to herself, unless she’s
prepared to use it. With me
hopefully.~ He stands up and retrieves
his card, then hands it over. She heads quickly out
the door. He just shakes his head as the
door shuts behind her. Leo removes his
suit coat, hangs it on the back of the chair, before he sits again and
continues with the files. ~I don’t think I ‘even’ want to know what she’s up to. She gets a little ‘kooky’ at night when she’s tired and it’s been a long day. The night’s work, for us, is just beginning.”~
Margaret’s quickly up the hall and swipes his
card to enter his room. She finds his
suitcase is opened on the bed and his briefcase is on the table. She sticks her head in the bathroom and grabs
his kit bag, which she places back into his suitcase, closing it. She has a plan. She grabs the case and snags the brief case
on the way out the door.
Back at her room, she bangs on the door with her hand that’s holding the briefcase. “Leo, open the door,” she requests help.
“Margaret, what are you doing and why do you have my bags,” he
sounds a little bewildered, as he’s taking the
briefcase from her. She sets his
suitcase on the end of her bed and opens it.
Ignoring his questions. “Margaret, why are you digging in my private
suitcase? My unmentionables are in there,” he tries to
sound indignant, but he’s grinning now and looking very interested in what
she’s doing. The files are forgotten for the moment.
“You mean these lovely dark green, silk boxers,” she asks, as she
holds them out on the tip of her finger, while she’s
still digging in his case with the other hand.
~How does he like it when the shoe’s on the other foot?~ “Ah ha,” she exclaims.
“Ah ha, what,” he asks with a worried tone.
She pulls out a pair of navy blue sweatpants. She holds them up in front of her. She reads, out loud to him, the logo on the
front “U S Air Force and it even has a jet under it. Once a flyboy, always a flyboy,” she inquires
with a smirk and wiggles her eyebrows at him.
“Woman,” he roars. “Why do
you have my sweatpants out? This is not
a fashion show,” he declares.
“Because, Leo, I’m going to change and so are you,” she explains
booking no opposition.
“Here, Margaret? In your
hotel room,” he asks, in a loud whisper, like she has a screw loose.
“Yes, here. You do at the
apartment,” she points out.
He tries to find a flaw in her plan and can’t
find one, “OK.” He grabs the sweats from
her. “Go change, Margaret. I’ll change out here,” he agrees, wanting to
get her to hurry up so that they can get to work. ~You know, Jed, just might be right. We do act married at times.~
She smiles since she’s getting her way
and grabs her pajamas from her case, which is setting on the floor and heads to
the bathroom to change. She comes back
in to find, he’s already changed and working at the
table. His suitcase is on the floor next
to hers, out of the way. She grabs her
notepad and sits in the middle of the bed.
Leo glances over at her and notices that she’s wearing a navy silk
tank top and matching silk, long pants as pajamas. He
also notices she’s quite comfortable with her legs
crossed under her. Her hair’s falling forward and is shadowing most of her face,
from the light of the small room lamps. She’s already intent on work. “Are you comfortable there, Margaret,” he
asks, being smart with her.
She pops her head up and looks at him smiling, “Perfectly. This is much better than working late at the
office,” she sounds delighted as she wiggles her toes.
He notices her bare feet. “You are
incorrigible,” he states.
“I know,” she gives him a big grin.
He grins in return and reaches down and
removes his socks. He tosses them at his
suitcase. ~It may be cold in
They work late into the night, while the meeting is still fresh in
their heads. At
“We’re done, Margaret,” he sounds relieved and tired. ~Good thing she insisted I take a nap or I’d
have been up almost 24 hours, by now.~ Margaret has moved to the head of the bed and
is propped up on the pillows. She’s rewriting the notes by the night table lamp. Leo continues, “I better get my stuff back to
my room. I’m still going to be walking
the hall in my sweats,” he finds and points out the flaw in her plan.
“Leo, we need to get up in four hours. Just stay here,” she calmly suggests, not
looking at him and trying not to blush.
Leo just looks at her a moment. ~ Jed was
‘so’ right,~ Leo agrees to himself, as he touches his
left thumb across his palm, to his wedding ring. ~Feels married to me.~
He watches her get out of the bed. “Margaret,
there’s just one bed. You were being
frugal again, when you booked our rooms.
You didn’t book us rooms with two double beds,” he’s
pointing out another flaw he found in her plan.
Margaret’s turning down the bedspread, while
he’s explaining this to her.
“I trust you. We can cuddle
for the rest of the night,” she softly replies.
She knows his weak spot. “It’s
only for the four hours and I set the alarm clock,” she adds.
Leo grins and agrees, “You twisted my arm.”
“Wasn’t hard,” she boasts as she gets in on the other side of the
bed.
“You know me too well,” he moves to the near side and tosses a
pillow to her, from where she had them stacked behind her to work.
He remarks a little grumpy like, “Do we have to use the blanket
and a sheet. It’s a little warm tonight
in the hotel.”
“Leo, you know I’m never warm,” she states with a tired and
pleading voice.
“OK, fine, we’ll leave the blanket,” he gives in to her unspoken
request. He turns off the lamp on his
side of the bed. He turns to sit on the
side of the bed and slips out of his sweats.
She gets a glimpse of the back of his boxers, by the light from her
bedside lamp.
“I really like your navy silk boxers too, Leo,” she teases him as
she climbs into the bed, but her face is turning red, in spike of her flippant
remark.
“Good, our sleepwear matches,” he remarks, as he turns and slips
his legs into the bed. He turns while he
reaches over for her and pulls her close.
Margaret now remarks, being a little silly, this late at
night. “No one at the White House would
suspect your soft side. They just see
your gruff side.”
“That’s to scare and keep the ‘kids’ in line,” he explains his
leadership theory.
With a sleepy voice she agrees, “Yeah, they’re your ‘lost boys’,
so that makes you Peter Pan. You ‘can’
fly,” she reminds him, adding to the silliness.
He chuckles and remembers her ‘flyboy’ remark from earlier in the
evening.
“So, then, you’re my Tinkerbell,” he adds softly.
They both have the same thought ~Tinkerbell always loved Peter Pan.~
He pulls her tighter and quotes softly in her ear, “First star on
the right and straight on till morning.”
They
both smile at the sentiment and fall asleep in each other’s arms.
The End
~ In memory of John Spencer ~
~ Thanks for the hugs, John! ~
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