[email protected]
�Okay, I�ve got a thing today so, Josh, you�re me for the next twenty four hours,� Leo said. Josh�s eyes lit up as CJ and Toby hung their heads. Handing Josh a position of power almost always led to no good for anyone.
�What could possibly be so important that you leave this moron in charge?� CJ asked bluntly. For someone who made a living being tactful she was more than adept at cutting right to the heart of the matter.
�Mallory,� Leo said. CJ and Toby nodded, not understanding because neither one of them had children of their own, but knowing that Leo had given up a lot for his career, especially when it came to his family, and there was no way that they could begrudge him something that he shouldn�t have to fight for to begin with�time with his daughter. �CJ, make sure that Education Reform is your first and last stop at every briefing today because you�re right. The press isn�t going to want to sit on a White House staffer who might be running for Congress, especially when we don�t even know if the President is going to run again. Make education the big story. Toby, I need you to meet with Greg Talon. I need to know what side he�s going to come down on and I need to know by lunch. Josh, Donna and Margaret are going to double-team you to make sure that you don�t screw this country up in the next fourteen hours. If you screw up or create a secret plan to fight anything I will kill you in so many ways they won�t even be able to ID your body through DNA, am I clear?�
Josh paled slightly but didn�t lose his composure. �Crystal. Is Mal okay?� he asked, concerned for his childhood friend and surrogate sister.
�Chicken pox. She never had it as a kid. Apparently it has already run through half her class and is expected to get the other half by the end of the month. Her mother is in England, shopping with money she stole from me in the divorce and you know how Mallory gets when she�s sick,� Leo said. Josh nodded and smirked slightly. �Okay. Get out. I have calamine lotion to buy.�
CJ and Toby headed out quickly. �This is going to be eighteen kinds of bad,� CJ said to Toby.
�Uh-huh,� Toby nodded.
Miraculously Josh managed to keep his mouth shut unless his opinions were called upon and the day was smooth sailing until the President was called to the Situation Room. The only thing Josh said to Donna before racing after the President was that she would need to pick Sam up from the airport, which was fine with her because it meant that she got to go home early for the first time in many moons.