Air Force One: Ten Days Later

Josh stormed out of the meeting, slamming the door of the conference room behind him. He stalked down the corridor, the angry look in his eyes a clear warning that told everyone else to stay away. 'What kind of idiots do we have working for us?' his mind shouted at him. 'How in the hell are we ever going to win with these morons planning campaign strategy?'

"What crawled up your butt and died?" CJ asked him, as she caught up with him near his seat.

"Who the hell does he think he is?" Josh cried out. "I mean, he actually has the balls to come into that meeting and tells us we not only have no chance at Missouri or Georgia…"

"Which we probably don't," CJ tried to cut in.

"But that the President should keep Abbey hidden away like some dark family secret! How are not as pissed about this as I am? As a matter of fact, how come I'm the only one who seems pissed about this?" Josh argued.

"Because you are the only one who's pissed about this, at least out loud," CJ told him, poking him in the shoulder for emphasis. "Of course we hate that Abbey can't even open her mouth down here but we all knew that was going to happen. We knew the South was gonna hate her ten times as much as they were gonna hate the President. It happened and it's stupid but we have to accept it otherwise our high morals are going to come back to bite us in the ass come November. Got it?!"

"Yeah," Josh sighed, sinking down into his chair.

CJ sat down next to him, concerned. "What's wrong?" she gently asked him. "And don't say nothing is because we both know that you'd be lying."

"I hate campaigning," Josh said honestly. "I can't stand it. It's jumping from state to state listening to everyone ask the same thing and get the same answers, over and over again. I swear, it's gonna drive me crazy." He looked over to see CJ smiling softly at him. "What that's look for, Claudia Jean?"

"You miss them," CJ stated in a little singsong voice. "You are missing Donna and Emma so much that you're starting to complain about the thing you used to love to do more than anything."

"It's stupid, I know," Josh said with a roll of his eyes.

"It's not stupid, it's incredibly sweet," CJ countered. "I think I might mention it at my next briefing." She paused for a second, trying to gauge what his reaction would be. "Speaking of news, I've got something I want to ask you."

"Shoot."

"I got a call yesterday from the editor of "People" magazine. Apparently, she got wind of what happened to Donna and what the outcome was and how it involved you so…"

"CJ, I'm tired and I need to call home before Emma goes to bed so just spill it."

"They want to do a feature story on Donna for their next issue," CJ informed him. "What do you think?"

Josh was confused. "Why would they want to do a story about Donna?"

"Well, their doing an election run-down in the November issue, so they figured…"

"But what happened between Donna and I has no bearing whatsoever on the outcome, so why would they want to write a story about us?"

"It's a human interest story, Josh, that's why," CJ explained. "A…A young woman battling for her life recovers thanks to the child she never told anyone about and ends up getting engaged to her boss? And they both happen to be working for the President of the United States? Danielle Steel couldn't have written this, it's that unbelievable."

"But we agreed, no press whatsoever," Josh countered. "Our personal lives are our personal lives. Not to mention, this is not the kind of thing we want to be starting a new term with, a sex scandal between a high-ranking government official and his assistant? The Right would us alive."

"It wouldn't be like that," CJ assured him. "It's "People" magazine, not some conservative Christian Right recruiting material disguised as news. And we all knew that this would get out sooner or later, with this way we can at least control it somewhat. Besides, it's Donna they want to interview not you."

"Then why are you asking me?" Josh inquired, frustrated that we couldn't find any loopholes in CJ's arguments.

"Because I just talked to Donna about this and she agreed to do it," CJ told him. "And I wanted you to have a chance to jump up and down on someone else's throat before you talked to her again."

"She agreed to do it?" Josh asked, stunned. CJ nodded to the affirmative. "Did she say why?"

"Because she doesn't want any of Emma's new classmates to go up to her and say, 'My Mommy read in "See the Light" magazine that your Mommy is a whore.' Which is not completely implausible, by the way."

This humbled Josh for the moment. He thought for a second. "We pick the reporter?" he asked professionally.

"Absolutely."

"And anything that makes it to the press room afterwards is strictly 'no comment'?"

"Within reason, yes."

"And they have no access whatsoever to Emma," Josh demanded.

CJ paused. "They mentioned they might want pictures…" she tried

"If these people are as so much within hearing distance of her, it's off," Josh stated in a tone that was not meant to be questioned.

"Okay," CJ conceded. "I'll set it up." She got up to leave as Josh was picking up the phone. "By the way, Leo wanted to talk to you about something."

"What about?"

"I don't know, he just said he wanted to see you as soon as you had a free moment. Which it looks kind of like you do right now." She winked at him and exited into the galley.

Josh groaned quietly and got up to find Leo as he glanced at his watch. If he hurried with Leo, he could call home just as Emma was brushing her teeth. He only hoped that Leo didn't want to discuss anything of national importance with him or anything to do with the campaign.

"Josh, I need to talk to you about the campaign," Leo told him when he stepped into Leo's office area.

"Is this some sort of punishment for a crime I committed in a previous life or something?" he asked, staring up at the ceiling. He looked back to find Leo staring at him with a blank face. "Never mind, what do you need?"

"Ever heard of a guy named Robert Harrington?"

"Um…he's some sort of spokesman for the, uh, AAFO, right?"

"Yes, he is their national spokesman as well as the newly named director for the African-American Freedom Organization," Leo explained, going through some papers on his desk. "You're meeting with him when we land in Atlanta tomorrow."

"What for?" Josh asked. "I thought Georgia was long gone."

"Oh, it still is but this guy is about to go to D.C. next month and start pushing hard for a law that would allow for tougher penalties against habitual drug offenders."

"But that's something that everyone in America wants."

"Except for the fact that the people he wants these tougher penalties enforced upon all happen to be under the age of eighteen."

"He wants juveniles to get prison time if they're caught selling drugs?" Josh asked bewildered.

"No he pretty much wants any kid who's so much as looking at a sandwich bag of grass to be locked up with the key thrown away," Leo said, signing some papers. "Just talk to him and straighten him out. Tell him it's an interesting notion but it's not something that the President could get behind now."

"Okay," Josh said distractedly, looking at his watch.

"Am I keeping you for something?" Leo asked sarcastically.

"Oh, no," Josh tried. "Except yes, you kind of are. I just wanted to call home before Emma goes to bed."

Leo looked at him hard and said gruffly, "Then what the hell are you standing here for? Go say goodnight to the kid already." As he was putting papers into a folder, he looked up at Josh and gave him a quick wink, giving his permission. "And give my love to her mother, if you would be so kind."

"Yes sir," Josh called back, already out the door.

"Oh, one more thing, Josh," Leo called out to him.

"What?"

"You wanna lighten up a bit in there on Mark? It's not easy coming in and taking over a campaign from a bunch of seasoned veterans when you're only thirty-three years old. You're certainly not helping by causing him to have an ulcer before every meeting."

"Leo, the guy has no idea what he's…"

"Yes, he actually does have an idea what he's talking about, Joshua," Leo interrupted. "In fact, he has a better idea than most about it. Sure he's young but…"

"Young?" Josh scoffed. "Leo, the guy was in middle school when I was working on my first campaign, he was in grade school when the President first became a Congressman, for God's sakes! He has no idea what this administration has been through in the past year…"

"Which is exactly the reason why he was hired," Leo cut in. "Mark Sampson has a lot of things going for him and one of them happens to be that he is one of the few people working for us right now that was not up to his neck in political bullshit last year. He can get the job done and not get emotional about it. That's why he was hired and from this point forward you are to give him your courtesy and your time whenever he sees fit. Is that understood?"

"Yes, sir," Josh answered, sufficiently chastened.

"Okay then," Leo told him, settling back down in his desk. "Go call your family."

"Yes, sir," he responded, hustling out the office and going back to his seat so he could talk with them privately. He picked up the phone and dialed home, hoping that they were still up.

"Hello Josh," Nicole answered without preamble after a couple of rings.

"How'd you know it was me?" he asked, a bit perplexed at her seemingly psychic ability.

"Oh I don't know, it might have something to do with the fact that you've called every hour on the hour ever since you left. Or that no matter what meeting you've been in, you've always managed to call in time to say goodnight to Emma. And it might even be due to the fact that all of the operators who monitor calls coming out of Air Force One now know Donna and me by voice identity. But in actuality, it was probably just the caller ID."

"Well I think someone's a little bit irked that their plan to steal Dalmatians to make a fur coat got thwarted by the do-gooders," Josh shot out sarcastically.

"What message can Cruella deliver for you tonight?"

"Are either of them up?"

"You are in luck, I'm just about to bring Emma her bedtime drink. She's in your room with Donna. Care to join me?"

"Of course," he paused for a second. "How are they doing?"

"Well, Emma's teacher wants to meet with both of you when you get back," Nicole said. "It's nothing serious, she just wants to get a feel for Emma's home life. As for the other one, she's doing fine. Dr. Flynn told her that her red count increased slightly from her last visit, which is great and that he thinks she'll be able to go back to work within a month or so. And here we are." She stopped for a second and Josh assumed she'd arrived as he could hear her rustling a little as she sat with Emma and Donna. "I believe I got the order correct, Miss Emma?"

"Put her on," Josh demanded nicely.

"Who are you talking to, Aunt Nicole?" he could hear Emma ask.

"Oh, no one special," Nicole told her.

"Nicole!" Josh shouted in an annoyed tone. He could hear her laughing on the other end.

"On second thought, I think they might want to speak with you," she added.

"Hello?"

"Hey you, it's Josh," he told her happily, relaxing for the first time in hours.

"Hi!" she squealed out. "Guess what I did today?"

"Uh, went sky diving?" Josh asked dumbly.

Emma giggled. "No!"

"Um, did you eat a monkey?"

"Ick! No way, guess again."

"Did you fly off to England and spit over the side of Big Ben, young lady? Because I'm gonna have to tell your Mommy if you did."

"No!" she cried, her laughter reaching near hysterics. "I got a friend for Petey today."

"Oh well that's great," Josh replied. "What kind of friend is this?"

"A kitty cat," Emma gleefully answered. "Her name is Lulu and she's orange with white lines and she sleeps in my bed and she meows really sweet and…"

"She meows?" Josh questioned, getting a little nervous. "Like she meows for real or for pretend?"

"For real and her paws are so little and pink and her tail kind of curls up when she sleeps," Emma continued, not noticing the slightly pained tone Josh's voice took on when he found out he would once again be subjected to dealing with the inherent arrogance of a cat.

"So how was school?" he asked her, moving on to a topic that was less excruciating than domesticated animals in his home.

Josh could practically hear Emma scrunching up her face. "It's okay," she drawled out. "But it's really boring there."

"It is, huh?"

"Yeah, I'm way smarter than everyone else and all we do is draw pictures and sing songs. It's worse than getting a shot at the doctors."

"Well I'll let you in on a little secret: it gets better as you get older. Before you know it, you're going to be doing math and reading. Then you get to do science and history, all day long."

"Really?" she asked awed. Josh smiled at the wonder she held in learning. "When do I get to do that?"

"That's a ways off," he explained. "And in order to get there, you have to finish kindergarten first. Think you can handle that?"

"I guess," she sighed. "When are you coming home?"

"In a couple of weeks," he explained sadly.

"But I want you here now."

That comment made Josh feel incredibly guilty. "Believe me, I want to be there with you and Mommy too, sweetheart. But I have to do my work here for the President so he can still be the President. Remember how we talked about this?"

"But I miss you a lot," she whined.

"I miss you, too," he said, his voice constricting a little bit. "I promise you though, the time is just gonna fly by."

"What does 'fly by' mean?" she asked, her desire to learn distracting her from her sadness for a minute.

"It means that I'm gonna be home before you know it. And we're gonna have so much fun together when I get there."

"You promise?" Emma questioned.

"I cross my heart, hope to die…"

"And stick a big hot poker in your eye!" Emma finished for him.

"Who taught you to say it like that?" Josh demanded playfully.

"Lily did. Mommy wants to talk to you now."

"All right, well I love you and I'll see you soon. Goodnight, Em."

"Goodnight, Daddy. I love you too." And with that she handed the phone off to her mother and ran back into her room to get into bed with Nicole trailing behind her.

"Hey, so guess what I'm wearing right now?" she asked him, a teasing note in her voice. She noticed the irregularity of his breathing and grew worried. "Josh what's wrong?"

He let out a shaky breath. "Did you just hear her now?"

"Emma? What about her?"

"What…what she just called me. She just called me 'Daddy' didn't she?" he asked elation lacing his words.

Donna smiled brightly, even though no one could see her. "Well that's what you are, aren't you?"

"I…I guess so," he replied. "She's just never…."

"Yes she has," Donna corrected him. "Everyday at school, she tells all her classmates that her Daddy calls her every single night just to tell her that he loves her. And that he's gonna make sure the President gets to keep his big, white dollhouse." She listened to him chuckle. "You really need to be a bit more careful about the spin you put on her bedtime stories."

"She really calls me 'Daddy'?" Josh asked her. Donna could almost hear his dimples cracking as the grin spread across his face.

"Joshua Lyman," she scolded him mildly. "Would I ever lie to you about our daughter?"

"God, you have no idea how amazing that sounds," he breathed, "or terrifying for that matter."

"Well get used to it, you're gonna be hearing it for the rest of your life. So what's up?" she asked, changing topics.

"Nothing much," Josh replied, settling back into his chair as Donna settled into their bed. "Leo told me I have to be civil to Sampson from now on."

"You should be," she told him. "He's helping us win this election. We should be grateful he even took the gig. I don't even know how many offers he got from law firms and he decided to get paid barely minimum wage while traveling nonstop across the country. You should kiss the ground he walks on."

"Please tell me you're not serious," he ordered.

"Of course not, he's a slimy putz who doesn't know up from down, he pushes you guys to the brink, and his teeth have this weird crooked thing going on, like he never got braces as a child," she deadpanned.

"Thank you," he replied. "Hey listen I had an interesting conversation with CJ today. She happened to mention some crazy notion you had about giving an interview to a national news publication." He listened for her response and got none. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because you were going to throw a hissy fit like no other and I'd rather have you do it to CJ than to me so…" Donna answered.

"I didn't throw a hissy fit, thank you very much. I was very calm and reasonable about the whole thing after I explained to CJ that you absolutely shouldn't be doing this."

"Josh, don't do this now."

"I don't understand," he complained. "I thought we agreed that we shouldn't talk to the press about this." He heard her take a deep breath before she continued.

"The President's numbers are low right now, aren't they? He isn't doing well in key districts in Michigan, Oregon, California…"

"That doesn't warrant you throwing yourself on the sword for the team," he tried to reason with her.

"Josh, I'm basically on bed rest for the next month. This is the only way I can help you guys and I'm going to do it. I'm sorry you don't agree with me about this."

They were both silent for a minute as they each tried to gauge how much the other had heard of their argument, whether or not this was a fight worth fighting.

Josh finally broke the stalemate. "I can't say I agree with it but if you feel that it's something you need to do, than do it. I just want to make sure that no one's pressuring you to do this."

"No one is, I promise you that," she assured him. "Are you really okay with this?"

"Not particularly but I've long since learned that it's better to work with you than it is against you so I'll just swallow this pill and be done with it. As long as you understand that if this reporter gets within ten feet of Emma, I won't be held responsible for my actions."

"You are so cute when you go all cave man on me," she mocked.

"Hey I'm just trying to protect my daughter," he laughed out loud."God that feels so right to say that. 'My daughter'. It feels good."

"Just good?" Donna prodded, happy and a little freaked that he seemed to be sliding into the role of fatherhood so easily.

"No there's also that searing pain of fear that's welling up in my chest right now whenever I think of it in those terms but that's normal for any father," he said nonchalantly. "Right?"

"Well, seeing as how I've got those blasted mammary glands, I'm afraid I'm not entirely sure I can answer that for you, my darling," she joked.

"Oh yeah, speaking of supposed female superiority, what this about Petey's new friend living with us?" he asked in his lawyer voice.

"Would you be referring to Lulu?" she asked as she began stroking the feline nestled next to her.

"You got her a cat?" he asked groaning to himself.

"No, I got her a kitten, there's a distinct difference between the two," she countered. "Besides, she was lonely and she needed a friend here with her. And Lulu was just looking at us with those cute little brown eyes in the pet shop window, we couldn't say no," she cooed, more to the animal than to Josh.

Josh shook his head with a smile on his face. "And you call me the pushover." He heard her laugh over the other end and felt the familiar pain begin his chest that he recognized as the pain that came from being away from his family. "You have no idea how much I want to be with you right now," he told her seriously.

"We miss you too, Josh," Donna responded thinking back to the calendar that hung in the kitchen. To make Emma feel better, she and Donna had designed the calendar so Emma could see how many more days it would be until Josh came home. "Only twenty more days. What have you got scheduled for tomorrow?"

"I'm meeting with a guy named Robert Harrington, ever heard of him?"

"Yeah, isn't he the new director of the AAFO? Why are you meeting with him?"

"He's gonna be lobbying for harsher punishments for underage drug users. Leo needs me to dissuade him until after the election."

"Well do you think it's a good idea?"

"I don't know yet." The two of them kept talking like that for a couple of hours, about everything and anything, not willing to relinquish their long-distance connection. Eventually, he heard the captain announcing their final approach. "I got to go," he told reluctantly. "I'll call you in the morning."

"Try to get some sleep," she instructed. "And vegetables, make sure you eat some. And don't forget to…"

"All right, all right I won't," he said to appease her. "As for you, rest up. Drink plenty of fluids, don't overextend yourself, try to stay indoors as much as possible…"

"Joshua there's a distinct line between endearing and smothering and you're coming up on it pretty quickly. So why don't you just quit while you're ahead."

"I miss you," he told her regretfully.

"I miss you too," she whispered. "Do your job and make me proud"

The bell signaling that it was time for passengers to take their seats dinged, causing them both to sigh in disappointment. "I'll see you in a couple more weeks. Bye."

"Bye."

Josh went to hang up the phone but he found himself listening to the sounds on the other end. He didn't want to hang up on Donna so he kept waiting to her the click of the receiver. But he didn't. "Donna? Are you still there?"

He heard let out a deep breath. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "I just didn't want to say goodbye yet."

"Don't be sorry," he replied. "We just, you know, kind of need to hang up so I can get to my seat and prevent bodily injuries upon landing."

"'Kay," Donna laughed softly. "Goodnight."

"I'll call in the morning if I can. Give Emma a kiss for me in the morning."

"Okay. I love you."

"I love you too," he repeated. He took the phone away from his ear and stalled before finally putting the receiver back on the cradle and heading back to his seat. As he sat down he glanced down at his watch a saw that it was past midnight.

'Only nineteen more days,' he thought to himself as he settled back into the leather seat, not knowing that Donna was having that exact same thought as she nestled into the bed.

On to Chapter 3: A New Face
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