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�No, Leo loaned me his �guy� for a few hours,� Donna said. �You don�t want to stop at the office, do you?�
�I think if I did I would never get to leave,� Sam said wryly.
�Toby was muttering something about actually chaining you to your desk this time. What was that about?� Donna asked as they approached Leo�s car.
Rolling his eyes Sam hefted the bag into the trunk. Leo�s driver was pushing eighty, suffered from osteoarthritis, and would probably break in half if he tried to lift the little girl�s luggage. �He was a little angry when I told him about Lorie,� Sam said, �and apparently he thought I couldn�t get into trouble if he chained me to my desk and sent someone in to feed me periodically.� Meredith giggled at that. Sam looked at Donna. �Yeah, she likes to torture me,� he said before they got in the car.
�Well, Meredith, I think I can tell you some stories about your uncle that you�ll like,� Donna said with a smile. Then, off of Sam�s look she added, �All G rated, of course.� It didn�t make Sam feel much better but he figured that Meredith deserved the chance to laugh after the ordeal she had just been through.
Zoey entered the anteroom for the Oval Office and greeted Charlie with a kiss. �Hey you,� she smiled.
�Hey yourself,� Charlie replied. �I thought you had study group after classes today.� Out of the corner of his eye he could see Zoey�s Secret Service agent standing in the doorway. At first it had been weird, dating someone who came with all the extra people that Zoey did, but he had gotten past that. He hadn�t, however, gotten past the fear of her father. Dating the daughter of the man who can order the Navy, Marines, and the Army, not to mention the Secret Service, to visualize you as the enemy was more than somewhat disconcerting.
�Got cancelled,� Zoey said as she perched herself on the edge of his desk. �I don�t suppose he�s got some time to spare for his baby girl,� she said, nodding toward her father�s office.
�Unfortunately not,� Charlie said. �Situation Room,� he added.
Zoey nodded. �Okay. I�m gonna go see if I can convince Josh to take a break, maybe grab a bite to eat,� she said.
�Uh, Josh is staffing your father. He�s waiting outside the Situation Room,� Charlie said. He had never really understood why Josh didn�t have the code word clearance that, as Deputy Chief of Staff, he should have had, but when he�d asked the President about it all he had been told was that it was Josh�s decision to turn down the NSA�s card and that the Administration stood by him. Whatever that meant.