*~*~*~*

I was in the Army ROTC at the University of Virginia. I was a commissioned second lieutenant with the military police and I’ve trained for a year and a half for this position, but nothing could have prepared me for tonight.

It was a simple town hall meeting with the President scheduled to answer a few questions then head back to the White House. Zoey was only tagging along at her father’s request, her name wasn’t even on the list of attendees and I was her lead agent. Agent Butterfield told me categorically that there would be no rope line because of a softball game or something, but it seems the President changed his mind; apparently he never could resist a rope line.

Then all hell broke loose. There was gunfire in the sky above my head as people screamed all around me. I did what I had been trained to do, protected Zoey and got her the hell out of the way.

As ID agent, I had to stick around at the scene to give my account, not that I could tell them much. It happened so fast. I saw something, I called out and then the bullets were raining over my head. Once Zoey was safe and in the car I had time to survey the damage. It was chaos.

I’m at the hospital now, because whatever happened tonight, I’m still Zoey’s agent and she’s here with her father. She’s just a kid and her father got shot. I can protect her but I’m not sure what I can say to make her feel better about everything.

Zoey is in with her parents right now, scared out of her wits and I’m here in a doorway catching my breath, because, well, you can only get so many agents in the ER and we’ve well exceeded that number. Not that there are many agents left behind at the Treasury tonight, between here, the White House and the Newseum, we‘re pretty spread out.

I’m not really paying attention until I feel his presence, his arm against my shoulder as he leans against the wall.

The look on his face says it all - disbelief, but the first words out of his mouth are for my welfare. This doesn’t surprise me. He’s shown an interest in my well being ever since the first time we met. That first meeting he teased me about my interview with the President and asked me questions about myself. He wasn’t prying or intrusive, just kind. Since then we’ve had more than a dozen conversations, mostly work, but recently we’ve gone beyond that to a sort of friendship.

“Yeah,“ I tell him, because I am alright, no bullets hit me and I managed not to toss my cookies.

“Was there someone on the ground?” It’s a logical question. The whole thing was planned and executed with military precision and he was in the military himself, I know, from Zoey, and from our own conversations.

“There was a signal. I couldn’t give a description.” There’s this image in my head, a blur and then I looked up. I’m trained to pay attention but it happened so fast and then there was silence and Donovan was heading into the building.

“Did they close the airports?”

“And Union Station. We’ve got troopers on the bridges and 300 field agents working Rosslyn. I can’t tell them what they’re looking for,” I offer, and I know my face is scrunching in consternation. It’s there, just out of reach.

“You got the girl in the car, Gina,” Leo states as if it’s all that matters, and I guess to him it is. He adores Zoey, and she him. In the short time I’ve been guarding her, I’ve learnt more about this man than I know about some of my closest friends. I don’t think he could have bared it if Zoey had been injured tonight and I’m thankful that she’s alright, that I did my job.

“It’s right in front of my face.”

“Look…” he begins and then the sound of sirens approaching the building stops him. I can see it fleetingly across his face. The sudden concern as the paramedics wheel another patient into the hospital and his face crumbling as he realizes who it is. Then he’s gone.

This man has an unbelievable capacity for caring. I’ve witnessed it on many occasions and I know first hand because for the last few months I’ve been lucky enough to be on the receiving end of it.

*~*~*~*

I can remember the first time I met Leo McGarry. Zoey was visiting her father, although more likely she wanted to see Charlie. Now Charlie’s a really likeable guy. He wants to just be her boyfriend and he treats her like she’s a goddess. Sure he has his moments and stuffs up, but he always apologizes and does something nice. When she’s happy I’m happy.

Zoey was in the Oval Office and I was waiting out in the corridor when Leo came around the corner. He wasn’t hard to notice in his designer suit and suspenders.

His eyes barely registered me at first then he stopped and gave me that smile, the one that has the women around here falling apart. “You must be Zoey’s new agent.”

“Gina Toscano, Sir.”

“The kid making eyes at Charlie?” he asked, peering around the door.

I stayed silent, barely blinking as he seemed to size me up.

“I hear you had an interesting meeting with the President.”

“Yes, Sir.” Damn Zoey.

“And you’ve been wondering what you’ve gotten yourself into every since. Don’t worry, he has that effect on everyone.” His smile really did have the ability to make your legs quiver. “Were you really the first one to sign up?”

“Yes, Sir.” So it wasn’t Zoey.

Leo nodded and gave me a grin. “A girl after my own heart. It was good to meet you.”

With that he had disappeared down the corridor and I couldn’t help but watch him go.

“Was that Leo?”

I glanced across the corridor and caught Zoey’s eye. She was smirking, which as I’d learnt from experience was never good. “Yeah. You ready to go?”

“I need to get to class, and I left my books in the dorm,” she offered by way of explanation.

I started to walk and she continued to chatter in my ear, fifty words a minute and I half listened as we left the warmth and safety of the White House behind and I immediately went on alert.

“So do you have a boyfriend?” she asked and I shook my head. Sure I had dated, just not recently. It isn’t good for a relationship when you either can’t tell them what you do for a living or you actually tell them it’s your job to take the bullet. Besides the only guys I got to meet were other agents and that was against the rules.

Zoey was making a clucking noise with her tongue as we climbed into the car. “Pity. Cause what are dorm rooms for if not to have sex?”

I spluttered I know I did, and I envisioned standing before the President as he interrogated me about the nocturnal activities of his daughter.

“So you’ve met Leo?”

This kid has an amazing ability to jump between topics. Sex and Leo, interesting jump.

“And he’s divorcing Jenny. Mal says it’s all his fault but Mom says it takes two.”

“What are you doing tonight?” I asked, trying to change the subject because I really don‘t want to hear all about Leo’s personal life.

“Charlie’s coming over and we’re watching movies. Leo was a pilot in Vietnam.”

I breathed a sigh of relief as we pulled up at her dorm, not that it stopped her and for the next ten minutes she gave me the highs and lows of Leo McGarry, Chief of Staff. I finally gave up and listened.

He’s a mixture of a pit bull and a teddy bear, if she’s to be believed but she genuinely loves him. If she’s trying to convince me he’s a great guy she’s succeeded. But I’m not the kinda girl who falls for guys like that. Or at least I didn’t think so.

So I’m watching him now, at the hospital, chasing after Josh and the other staffers. He’s not the same Leo, I’ve gotten to know, but if anyone can get these people, and Zoey, through the next few days, it’s him, and that gives me some measure of security as I go in search of Zoey and the rest of the detail.

******

Josh is in surgery now. They started four hours ago and it’s likely to be a good few hours yet. I’ve been travelling backwards and forwards to the White House, trying to keep things together, but I want to be here. He’s like a son to me, I brought him into this madness and yet when he reached out to me today I pulled away. Would it really have been so bad to hug him? Or maybe I’ve just become afraid of emotions. After Jenny I threw myself into work and there hasn’t been anyone on the horizon. Or rather there has, but it would be a disaster and I don’t think I want to see that intense hurt on another woman’s face in this lifetime.

Gina is here now. I saw her a few moments again, hovering in the corridor as Charlie and Zoey had a heated discussion. I hope the kid can get over the guilt, I know he’s feeling right now, and let her in. They need each other now more than ever.

It’s because of Zoey that I met Gina, because of her that I got to know this bright and special young woman. The first meeting was a little awkward, out in the corridor, but I knew that she was someone I could talk to. Then there were the death threats. I shiver in the knowledge that they are the reason we’re here now.

******

“Leo, Gina Toscano’s here to see you,” Margaret announced and I glanced up from my desk.

“Well show her in.”

“She’s carrying a gun.”

“For heaven’s sake Margaret, she’s Secret Service. Gina, come in,“ I shouted and she appeared in my office. The President was right. If I hadn’t known she was in her twenties, I would have pegged her for a freshman. It disturbed me that I was appraising her and not for her ability to protect Zoey. “Hey, Gina.”

“Mr. McGarry.”

I smiled and motioned to a chair. She continued to stand and stared at me. “Gina, sit.”

Finally she slid into the visitors’ chair and waited.

“I asked Ron for a briefing and he informed me you were the person for the job,” I offered.

“Yes, Sir. As you are aware Zoey has been receiving death threats. And Charlie too. The most recent ones have been signed off with the slogan, '14 words' - We must secure the existence of white people and the future for white children.”

“These aren’t the usual random threats?”

“No, Sir.”

I had never considered myself intimidating but she seemed a little nervous of me, or maybe it was her professional stance in place. “Any hints on what we’re looking for?”

“I’m convinced it’s two fifteen year old boys,” she said and suddenly she was animated. I realized that we weren’t unalike. She was committed to her work and I was a workaholic. She strived to be the best at everything she did, her FBI file proved that, and I liked hiring the best.

“Well, if anything else comes up let me know,” I heard myself saying. I found myself wanting to prolong the conversation, to find out a little more about her. “Are you enjoying Zoey’s detail?”

“Yes, Sir.”

I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow.

“What?” she asked and for the first time I saw something other than an agent before me.

“You enjoy babysitting a nineteen-year-old hormone-raged girl? With a boyfriend? Living on university food and reliving your college experience?” I teased, leaning forward, and I found she did the same. For a moment the awkwardness slipped away and we were just two colleagues sat in a room.

“It is a privilege to serve the President,” she stammered. “Zoey is quite a kid.”

“Yeah, she is,” I agreed. “Look I need a coffee. Take a walk with me.”

Gina looked at me suspiciously, like she was trying to figure something out. Quite possibly why I had an assistant in the other room and I was getting my own coffee.

“Yes, Sir.”

“Do they teach you that at cadet school?” I asked flippantly as I picked up my mug and crossed to the door. “Everyone here calls me Leo.”

She gave me a rare smile and shook her head. “I couldn’t do that, Sir. It’s against protocol.”

“What about when you’re not on duty?” That sounded a little dodgy even to my own ears. She was walking ahead of me, only by a matter of steps, but she was at least five inches taller and my stride couldn’t match that. Her black jeans were fitted and her sweater ended just above the top of her jeans, revealing a little of a shirt, and I was fixated. You see, contrary to popular opinion, I’m not dead from the waist down. I do appreciate a good woman. I just don’t have the courage to do anything about it.

“If I met you at the gym would I call you, Leo? Yes, Sir.”

Gym? Did I look like I work out? I shook my head and traipsed down the corridor after her. “So you live in the dorm, go to the gym, what do you do for relaxation?”

She stopped and turned to face me, a wry smile on her lips. “I study FBI files.”

She was attractive, bright and funny and half my age. I was an old workaholic, with a checkered past. We had very little in common but I wanted to see her again. Something told me she could be good for me.

******

After she left that day, I called Ron and arranged for her to be my liaison on the death threats.

Every Friday afternoon she would come to my office and give me the latest updates on the letters. Sometimes she’d bring samples, and it was only as I read the letters that I realized just what her job entailed. Not only does she have to keep story-hungry reporters from Zoey, but would be lovers and crazy would be killers too. It doesn’t faze her though, she takes it as red that if it happens, it happens and she’ll be between Zoey and whoever. She’d take the bullet just as easily as I take the bullet for the President, the only difference is that I’d lose my career; she’d lose her life.

After the third meeting we started to have coffee. Gina would arrive and we’d sit on the couch, scanning the latest letters and discussing any leads the Service had. With each meeting, I’d find out something new about Gina, her love of jazz, her perverse hatred of pigs and the fact she grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.

Which is how I found myself talking about my past. Neither of us had an easy childhood and maybe that’s why she found it so easy to talk to me - the father figure she never had, or maybe it was because we were both so devoted to our careers.

I looked forward to those meetings and I know she did too, because she told me. It was the last time I saw her before tonight.

******

It was Friday night. There had been an emergency meeting in the Situation Room, which proved to be a false alarm and I’d had to cancel the arranged meeting. Instead she’d handed over Zoey to another agent and dropped by my office after her shift.

There wasn’t any coffee and she chose to sat in the visitor’s chair rather on the couch. Her body language was slightly strained, which I put down to a stressful day, but there was something about her that I couldn’t explain which told me there was something wrong.

“There have been several death threats in the last few days,” she announced, avoiding my eyes.

“Supremacists?”

“Yes, Sir.”

Her leather jacket was open and I could just make out the blue blouse. I had finally admitted to myself that I was more than a little attracted to her, but it was impossible to follow it up. The blouse was rapidly breaking my resolve. I snapped my head up to look at her face. “Are they over compensating?”

Her forehead furrowed and she pursed her lips as if trying to weigh up what to say next. “I’m going to recommend Zoey stays in her dorm and changes her routine. Charlie and I have talked and I think we’ve come to an understanding.” She smiled and I had to look away.

Charlie has been a little difficult for her to deal with. He is independent and not the type of guy to do what he’s told. He goes where he wants to go. At least he did until Gina and Zoey ganged up on him and now he’s more likely to do whatever it takes for a quiet life.

“Do you know. . .?”

“Yes, Mr. McGarry.” There was a touch of a sigh there, the one that said I know my job.

I nodded and leaned forward in my seat, my hands clasped between my knees. “So are you working this weekend?”

Gina shook her head. “I’m going to see my mom.“

Our conversation turned to family then and I must have gone on a little too much about Mallory because she gave me a coquettish smile and raised an eyebrow. I shrugged and glanced at my watch.

“You have work to do, I should go.“

Which was the last thing I wanted her to do, but the pile of work on my desk and Margaret typing away in the outer office suggested that my attention wasn’t going to be anywhere but there until midnight.

“Sir, I can’t make next Friday,” she started and I already began to miss her. “Zoey is going out of town with her mother and I’m on duty.” Her eyes betrayed something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

I wondered if maybe she’d caught me looking at her, and that was her way of getting away from my unwanted attention.

“Would Thursday be okay?”

“Yes,” I let out in a rush of breath, because I really didn’t want to go a whole week without seeing her or rather talking to her.

Gina had smiled. “Good.”

“Anyone would think you enjoyed these meetings?” I asked with forced sarcasm because I knew I did.

“I do.” It was so quiet I barely caught it. “Thursday it is.” She rose to her feet and headed to the door. “Goodnight, Sir.”

“Night, Gina.”

As I had watched her walk out of the door, I had gotten this churning feeling in my stomach, the one I got when something good happened. It was pretty rare. Of course we won’t be meeting on Thursday and I won’t find out my weekly piece of information because it’s Monday and the President was shot.

I glance at the clock and Josh is still in surgery but I need to return to the White House.

******

The hospital is quieter today. The press and public are still gathered on the sidewalks and there are agents everywhere but the panic has died down. The effects of last night will linger for a long time but forced normality has to return.

The President is resting and that’s why I’m here. Zoey is here, at her father’s bedside and I’m here to watch over her, not that I need to be. It’s my day off but I don’t want to be anywhere else, I couldn‘t not be here, doing my job.

I know Leo is in the building, and CJ and Sam and Toby. From what I’ve gathered from the agents on the door, they’ve been in and out all night. I doubt any of them have been home.

I glance down the corridor and see him, his brow furrowed and his grin absent. He looks as though he’s been through the mire and I know, probably more than most, that he has. His best friend got shot and he almost lost Josh, he still might. My eyes are drawn to him as he approaches the room and notices me for the first time.

“The kid here?”

“Yes.”

He nods and looks through the window. “How’s she doing?”

The other agent shuffles nervously and I know he’s thinking about the imaginary line. We’re not supposed to befriend a protectee, too get too close or it makes us ineffective. It’s hard with Zoey, because she’s young and fun to be around.

“I don’t know.” And I’m not lying; I really don’t know how she’s doing.

He nods again before opening the door and walking inside.

I stand and watch him for a second and it’s then that I realize it’s time to move on. I’ve become close to Zoey but not to the extent that I’m neglected my duties. These last few months, it’s Leo, our little chats that have made me distracted. I look forward to seeing him. I think about him when I’m lying awake in the dorm room and that isn’t good. Not to mention that mooning over a man is not something I need right now. I’m not the kinda girl to have a crush on an older man, especially this man. But something happened between our first meeting and last night in the corridor and I’ve fallen for him. If I stay my job will suffer. I can’t avoid him and the more time I spend with him the more likely it is that he will realize that I’m attracted to him. Which, under the circumstances is going to make his job, our professional relationship all that much harder. I have to leave.

*~*~*~*

It’s Friday and I told Zoey this morning that I’m leaving her detail.

She was upset, wanting to know why and I couldn’t tell her the truth, instead I gave her the story about being needed elsewhere. That I’d become too close to my protectee. She seemed to accept that, saying she’d miss me, and I‘ll definitely miss her.

It may seem a little extreme to give up the assignment I’ve worked so hard for but it’s a role you need to be focused on completely, and I can’t promise that anymore.

We’re now at the hospital. Zoey wanted to see Josh. We walk in silence towards his room and I see her hesitate before she opens the door. He is hooked up to machines and against the stark white sheets he looks awful, the poor kid must be frightened senseless.

I take my position outside the door and wait, scanning the hallway for any signs of trouble.

Zoey looks pale and teary when she leaves his room and I know it hasn’t been an easy week for her. Charlie isn’t returning her calls; her father is in the Residence driving everyone crazy with his demands, and the guy she looks on like a brother is connected to wires. I admit to feeling a little guilty at my sudden decision to leave but it really is for the best.

Leo is here again. We pass him as we leave and he looks good. I wish I could tell him I’m leaving but then he’d ask why and I’d be forced to lie. I’m not sure I’d be capable of doing that. Besides knowing him as I do, he’d probably find some way of blaming himself and I think he’s carrying enough guilt around with him already. So I leave, with a brief backwards glance. This is probably the last time I’ll see him, and I’m starting to miss him already.

******

It’s been four days since the shooting and I’m thinking of giving up my hotel room for the couch here. Apart from changing my clothes and grabbing a shower I haven’t seen the inside of my suite. If I don’t sleep in the chair by Josh’s bed, I nap in the office. Today I’m meeting Ron.

“Is he giving up anyone else?” It’s unlikely. These guys tend to stick together.

“Only the names of the two guys in the building, and they’re dead,” Ron offers calmly.

I only half listen to him as I catch sight of Gina with Zoey. I’ve seen Gina fleetingly over the last few days, the odd word in the corridor, but there hasn’t been time for anything else. When this is all over I’ll arrange a meeting and we can talk about that night.

“Miss Bartlet will be getting a new agent,“ Ron says, noting my distraction no doubt. I tune in.

“Oh?”

“Special Agent Toscano is moving to a new assignment.

There’s something in her sudden decision to leave that makes me think it has something to do with our last conversation and the sudden awkwardness. Gina doesn’t strike me as the type to quit, she held herself together on Monday night, offering Zoey support when she needed it. There has to be another reason and I wonder if she caught the way I was looking at her. Of course she wouldn’t complain or cause me the embarrassment of calling me on it. Stepping away from the situation is more her style. I wish she’d found the time to talk to me, tell me she was leaving because I may have been able to stop her.

Now it’s too late. Sure, I could go after her and ask her why and beg her to stay but nothing’s changed. She would never feel anything more than professional respect for me and although I am more than capable of keeping myself in check, there would always be a touch of awkwardness I guess. Even if it was reciprocated, as much as I like her, I’m not looking for emotional entanglements and I don’t know if I ever would be. Right now, my focus is on the Administration and Josh. It’s better this way, it won’t affect her career, and she’ll excel at whatever assignment she’s put on.

I won’t go after her; I’m not that kinda guy. Stealing one more look at her retreating back, I turn my attention back to Ron. Yes, it’s probably better that she’s moving on, because I won’t be moving on anytime soon.

The End