By Karen T
© October 2001
Disclaimer: With the exception of Jenn, none of these characters are mine.
Notes: I came up with the idea for this story over the summer of 2001 as I impatiently waited for Season 3 to begin. The next thing I knew, the 1 story suddenly led to the inception of a whole bunch of other related stories. Plus, this is my very first fanfic (eep). Enjoy!
Early-September 2001
Jenn slowly filed off the airplane, sandwiched between families with cranky kids who'd been confined in a small space for too long a period of time. As she passed through the gate and stepped into Reagan National Airport for the first time in her life, a wave of panic swept through her. Despite the lateness in hour (close to 11 PM Eastern Standard Time), the waiting area around the gate was full of people, many currently straining their necks from their left to their right and then back to their left again in an attempt to catch a glimpse of a familiar face.
But no one was searching for her face. She'd arrived at the airport alone, and would leave the airport alone.
Sighing, she yanked the strap to her duffel bag higher up on her shoulder and bypassed the groups of hugging people who had assembled in the walkway. She could spend the rest of the night lamenting how alone and lost she was feeling, but that wouldn't get her any closer to accomplishing the goal she had set for herself when she'd first decided to travel to Washington, D.C. She located the arrow on the overhead signs that pointed her in the direction of 'Transportation.'
"Stay calm, Jenn. Stay calm," she murmured quietly to herself. She had to keep her priorities straight. First, she'd get a taxi. Then she'd get some sleep. Everything else she would worry about tomorrow.
With relative ease, she made her way to the line of taxis that were idling outside of the airport. Since her luggage consisted of only a standard size backpack and duffel bag, she'd been able to bring them onboard the plane as carry-ons. This allowed her to avoid the mob scene at baggage claim.
An uniformed man who looked to be in his early-sixties raised his arm and signaled the first taxi in line to pull forward when he saw Jenn approach him. He plucked a small pad of paper out of his coat pocket and asked for what felt like the millionth time that day, "Where to?"
A second wave of panic coursed through Jenn. In her haste to leave California, she'd forgotten to research a cheap place she could stay for a few days. "I-I...I don't know," she stammered, dropping her duffel bag to the ground. "I'd like to stay someplace that's pretty cheap but that's also within walking distance to the White House."
The man groaned internally. It was always late at night, when he was his most tired, that the crackpots and idiots came out of the woodwork to pester him. What did this girl think he was? A tour guide? His arms fell to his sides and he rolled his eyes, trying his hardest not to say anything rude. But when he looked at the girl's face and saw the confusion and despair in her eyes, his anger subsided. At that exact moment, her countenance almost mirrored how his daughter had looked at the age of four when she'd handed him her beloved teddy bear in one hand and its left arm in the other hand, her expression begging him, "Please, Daddy? Fix?"
He scribbled an address down on a slip of paper, tore it off, and handed it to the taxi driver through the open front passenger window. "Don't worry, honey," he said reassuringly as he opened the back seat door for her. "I know the perfect place. I've written it down for the driver on that piece of paper." Even though he was pretty sure she wasn't in town for business, he couldn't help adding, "And don't forget to ask for the bottom part of the paper back; that's your receipt."
She gave him a huge smile of gratitude. "Thank you."
"Sure, no problem. You have a good time and take care of yourself, you hear?"
And with that, he closed the door and the taxi pulled away from the curb. As she felt the car pick up speed, Jenn relaxed her body into the back seat, closed her eyes, and began rubbing her temples with her middle fingers. God, she hoped she was doing the right thing.
If anyone were to look into the room, he or she would probably think Leo was deep in thought. He was sitting on the couch in Toby's office with his hands cupping the sides of his lowered head. The truth of the matter, though, was that Leo was fuming. Toby stood before him, waving his arms around emphatically as he continued to push the fact that a strong statement needed to be added into the President's upcoming speech to his Texan supporters. A statement that he, the President, denounced the Texas energy producers who were blatantly trying to extort great sums of money from Californians during their current energy crisis. And whenever Toby would pause to take a breath, Sam would be sure to jump in and continue Toby's rant for him. This tag team effort had been going on for some time now.
Without raising his head, Leo muttered loud enough for those in the room to hear, "Do you two think I'm going deaf?"
Toby stopped in the middle of his sentence and looked at Leo oddly. "Huh?"
"Do you and Sam think I'm going deaf?" Leo repeated, this time raising his voice as he stood up.
"Of-of course not, Leo," Sam stammered, moving from behind Toby so that he could be seen. "Whatever made you think--"
"Oh, I don't know, Sam. Maybe because you and Toby have been saying the same things to me for the last fifteen minutes. Maybe because you keep beating the same dead horse no matter how many times I've told you to move on! For the twelve millionth time, you cannot and will not include a condemnation of Texas energy producers into a speech that the President will be giving to a crowd of Texans! Even though those Texans are our supporters, you will alienate every single damn one of them the minute you begin attacking one of their own!" With each sentence, Leo's voice grew louder and louder.
"This is the time for us to be aggressive!" Toby shouted back, the volume of his voice matching that of Leo's.
"Yes, it's the time to be aggressive, but not stupid!"
"But, Leo--"
"Dammit, Toby!" Leo bellowed. "Will you for once in your life--"
At that moment, a knock sounded on the door. Slowly, Margaret opened the door and stuck her head into the room. "Leo? Can I talk to you for a minute outside?"
"Margaret, I asked you not to disturb us. What in the world--"
"We need to talk." Margaret held the door open for him. "It has to do with your list."
Leo could feel the color draining from his face as his heart began to beat rapidly. When Margaret had first begun working for him, he'd given her a list of names with the explicit instructions that if any of them were to call or appear in person at his office, she was to come get him right away -- no matter what. There weren't many names on the list, the most notable being those of his mother and sisters. Leo nodded his head even though no one had asked him a question and stuck his hands into his pants pockets. "We'll continue this when I return," he managed to say to Toby and Sam. They nodded their assent to his back as he walked out the door.
Once in the hallway, Leo whispered, "Who is it, Margaret? My mother? Is there something wrong with my mother?"
"No--"
"Liz? Has something happened to Liz?"
"No--"
"Josie?" Leo cried in disbelief. "But I just saw her. She looked fine. An accident! Was she in an accident? Was she--"
"Leo," Margaret stopped walking and lightly touched her boss's arm, "it's no one in your family."
He breathed a sigh of relief and wiped away the perspiration that had formed along his hairline. Thank God it wasn't someone in his family. He began walking towards his office again, with Margaret in tow, when he stopped so suddenly that she almost crashed right into him. "Margaret, if it isn't someone in my family, then who...?" Leo's voice trailed off as it occurred to him who might have been the cause for this interruption in his day. "Is it...?"
"Leo," Margaret admonished, secretly loving the fact that, for once, her boss was the one who was behaving erratically, "we can't continue this constant stop-and-go. You're going to give me whiplash." She stopped to take a breath before continuing on. "I don't personally know who she is. All I know is that she walked to the guard desk at the North entrance of the lobby this morning, told Mike, the guard there, her name, and said that she wished to see you. When he asked her if she had an appointment, she told him that she did not. He was about to turn her away when he noticed that her name was listed under your name as someone who has 24-hour clearance to see you, regardless of whether she has an appointment. That's when he called me. I recognized her name and told him to have someone escort her in to the West Wing once they'd verified that she is who she says she is."
"Where is she now?"
"Waiting for you in your office."
"Good," Leo muttered, "good." By this time, they'd reached Margaret's desk. "Tell Toby and Sam that I'm going to have to reschedule the continuation of our meeting until tomorrow morning. How does my schedule look for the rest of the day?"
"No different from any other day. You're suppose to be in one meeting right after another."
"Okay, I'm going to need the next hour cleared, so do whatever you have to to make that happen. Then try to reschedule the rest of my appointments for the remainder of the day. Okay?"
"Okay." Margaret began to walk back to the Communications Bullpen, but couldn't help turning back to ask conspiratorially, "Leo? Who is she?"
"Margaret..." Leo growled.
"Okay, okay," she responded as she scurried away.
Now alone, Leo stood outside the door to his office, trying to collect his thoughts. He had a feeling that the day was about to get a lot more complicated...and it wasn't even noon yet.
Jenn wandered aimlessly around Leo's office. She was suddenly full of nervous energy; every time she'd try to sit down, she would begin either tapping her foot or drumming her fingers on her thigh, so she resigned herself to walking in circles. Even though she knew it was probably a bad idea, she couldn't stop herself from walking to the other side of Leo's desk. A notepad, manila folder, and pen sat on the top of his desk, and a few accessories such as a stapler and a tape dispenser formed a border at the edge of the desk. There were no personal effects on his desk except for one wooden picture frame that contained a 4x6 picture of a pretty young red-haired woman looking off into the distance with a preoccupied smile on her face. Jenn had this frame in her hand and was examining the picture when a door to Leo's office opened.
When she looked up and saw a familiar face looking back at her, she dropped the frame onto the desk and ran towards the man with her arms outstretched. "Uncle Leo!"
He broke into a radiant smile that matched hers and fiercely hugged the body that had flown into his arms. He couldn't be sure, but it felt like she'd grown since he'd seen her last. He'd remembered her as being shorter than he was, but she was now definitely inch-for-inch the same height.
Jenn clung on to Leo's body for dear life. For the first time since she'd boarded the plane in Oakland, she felt like she was going to be okay. As Leo slowly detached himself from her, she had to bite her lip to stop the tears that had formed in her eyes from falling. Leo walked over to his couch and motioned for her to join him there.
"God, Uncle Leo," she bubbled enthusiastically like a cheerleader as she sat down next to him, "it's so good to see you. You have absolutely no idea."
He smiled in response, but didn't say a word. He instead scrutinized her face with parental eyes, seeking any hint of what her current state of mind was under the carefree veneer she was currently sporting.
Sensing that Leo was inspecting her, she stood up and moved over to his desk, where she picked up the frame she'd accidentally dropped. "Is this Mallory? She's really pretty. Kind of looks like you...you two have the same eyes."
Leo moved over to her side and took the frame from her hands, momentarily glancing lovingly at the picture of his daughter before replacing it on his desk. "Yeah, that's Mal. You have to remind me to introduce you two. She's about your age...a little bit older, but much younger than me."
"Well, I would hope so," Jenn joked as she playfully poked him in the side.
An awkward silence fell upon the old acquaintances. Leo led her back over to the couch for a second time where she reluctantly sat down. For a split second, it had almost felt like she was just there to pay him a friendly visit with no ulterior motives. Now there was no avoiding the real reason she'd come.
"Uncle Leo, my mother," Jenn began to say just as Leo murmured quietly, "I'm so sorry about your mother, Jenn."
She furrowed her eyebrows and frowned. "How did you...?" She allowed the sentence to trail off uncompleted as she realized that Leo probably had many resources that could have informed him of her mother's death.
"It doesn't matter. How are you holding up?"
"It's been...rough," she allowed herself to admit. "It's still weird to think I buried my mother, of all people, three days ago. My mom, Uncle Leo. I still can't believe she's dead."
He placed his arm around her shoulders and pulled her towards him comfortingly. She slouched down a little in order to rest her head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to make it to the funeral. I wanted to come, but..." This time Leo was the one who allowed the sentence to go unfinished. He felt foolish trying to come up with an excuse. He knew -- and had a feeling she knew, too -- that he could have attended the funeral if he had really wanted to. "I sent some flowers. Did you get them?"
Jenn began to shake her head no when she remembered the tasteful arrangement of orchids (her mother's favorite flower) that had arrived at the funeral house without a card. At the time, she'd assumed the funeral house had donated the flower arrangement when they'd seen that only a handful of flowers had been sent by family and friends for her mother's funeral. Now she realized that the arrangement had been from Leo. "They were lovely," she whispered as she pulled herself away from his embrace.
Leo noted that a hard edge had entered her voice when she stated, "The whole funeral was pretty pathetic. If it'd been up to me, I would've just cremated her. But Mom had been adamant, even at the end, that she wanted a full burial, complete with a wake and everything. The wake was such a joke. No one came or dropped by except for our landlady and a couple of my co-workers. So it essentially ended up being me staring at Mom's casket for four hours in complete silence. The burial wasn't much better, but at least the priest had to be there with me to conduct the last rites."
Leo felt as if someone had punched him in the stomach. Jenn's retelling of her mother's funeral, which has been done in an emotionless voice, made Leo curse himself for not having made more of an attempt to fly out to California to be with her. He knew, from tabs he'd been keeping on her, that her life with her mother had been especially difficult during the past few years, and he hadn't been there for her when she'd needed someone the most.
"Jenn, I'm so sorry I didn't go," he began to say, but she cut him off as she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest.
"It's okay. It's doesn't matter. She got cancer, then she died, so I buried her, and now I'm here. That's that." After a slight pause, she asked, "Does...he know?"
"That you're here or that your mother died?"
"Both. Either or."
"Well, no and...no," he answered feebly.
"You didn't tell him?"
"It's been kind of crazy around here, Jenn. We had the Grand Jury hearings about the President's MS to go through, and for awhile it didn't seem like any of us were going to have our jobs for very much longer. Then the hearings finally finished up with us still standing, so we've been really busy trying to restore order to the country, faith in the President, etc., etc. I didn't tell him about your mother's death because..." Leo stopped mid-sentence as he realized that his mind was, at that moment, spinning -- spinning to construct a lie for him to tell a girl who'd just lost her mother. This realization saddened him. He couldn't lie. "I didn't tell him, Jenn, because I knew he'd become upset. And after all these months of him being upset day in and day out, I thought it would be nice to see him not upset for once. I'm sorry, Jenn. I should have told him."
She stared at him dispassionately and sighed. She was still standing with her arms crossed, and he was still sitting on the couch, but now his head was lowered in shame. She'd traveled across the United States to feel better. Now she not only did not feel better, but she'd made someone she cared about feel as badly as she did. "I should just?"
"Do you want to see him?" Leo interrupted. He walked over to her and placed a fatherly hand on her shoulder. "You should see him, Jenn."
"I don't know, Uncle Leo. I came here because I wanted to see him, but now that I'm here, I don't know if I want to anymore. We haven't seen each other since I was ten. What if he doesn't want to see me?"
"Trust me, Jenn, when I say that he'll want to see you. Should we check to see if he's available now?"
"Uncle Leo, I-I don't know." Jenn shook her head nervously and began biting an already gnawed fingernail. "Maybe this isn't such good idea."
"Only one way to find out, kiddo." Leo walked to one of the closed doors in his office and placed his hand on the knob. "Ready?"
Jenn nodded her head as her stomach lurched. Her fear was clearly exhibited on her face.
Taking a deep breath, Leo threw the door open and looked at the side profile of an old friend.
Hearing the door open, Jed looked up from the document he'd been reading and saw Leo staring at him. "Hi, Leo," he addressed cheerfully. "Do you need something?"
"Am I interrupting you, sir?"
"Not at all. I've just been wondering if there's any way I can bribe Charlie into ordering me a cheeseburger for lunch rather than a salad. Think I'll have any luck?"
"Doubt it, sir. Mrs. Landingham trained him well."
"Yeah, I was afraid of that," Jed groaned. "What I wouldn't give for a cheeseburger. And I thought being President was supposed to come with perks."
"Sir, a special young lady traveled a long way to see you, and I was wondering if you had a moment to chat with her a little."
"Of course, Leo," Jed replied enthusiastically as he pushed his chair back and stood up. "I always have time for a friend of yours. Where's the special girl?"
"Right here, sir."
Leo stepped aside to reveal Jenn, who'd been hiding behind him. As Jed paled and pulled off his reading glasses, she meekly held up a hand and waved. "Hi...Dad."
Shadows were beginning to descend upon the White House when the senior staffers heard from their assistants and each other that Leo was calling for another senior staff meeting in five minutes. Holding double staff meetings was not unheard of; as a matter of fact, they had held at least two of them a day while the Grand Jury hearings had been in session. But since the Grand Jury had ruled that the President and his senior staff had not obstructed justice by failing to report his MS to the public, the number of staff meetings had dwindled back down to the original once a day.
C.J. stopped by Sam's office and rapped lightly on his open door. "Do you know something I don't know?" she asked when Sam raised his head.
"C.J.," he began in a serious tone, "there are multitudes I know that you don't know." A smile broke out on his face.
"Ha-ha, Sam. That was just hilarious. I don't know why I bother to ask you anything."
"C'mon, C.J.," Sam beckoned after her departing figure, "I was just kidding!"
"Do you know what's going on?" C.J. demanded as she blocked Toby's doorway.
"It's nice to see you, too, C.J.," Toby responded wryly without looking up from the screen of his laptop.
"I'm serious, Toby. Do you know why Leo called for a second staff meeting?"
"I don't know. Maybe he didn't think we were all listening to him this morning and he wanted to touch base again before we call it a day."
"How can you be so blasé about this? It's only been three weeks since we were having these things three to four times a day. Things are finally going back to normal and now we're back to double meetings. Are you holding out on me?"
The sharpness in C.J.'s tone caused Toby to look at her in disbelief. "C.J., I honestly don't know why Leo wants another staff meeting."
"You're telling me the truth, right? Cause you guys have this really annoying habit of keeping me out of the loop right when I need to be in the loop."
"C.J., I swear that--"
"Hey, what's going on? Are you having a pre-staff meeting party without me?" Josh shouted from the Communications Bullpen as he made his way to Toby's office.
"C.J.'s having trust issues," Sam called back in response. He'd overheard C.J.'s exchange with Toby from behind her.
C.J. turned to look at Sam in disdain. "I'm not talking to you anymore, little man."
"Hey, don't kill the messenger."
By this time, Josh has reach C.J. and Sam, and was greeted with C.J. asking, "Do you know why Leo wants to hold another staff meeting?"
"Nope. I know that something's up, though, because Margaret had to reschedule most of his meetings today. And Donna overheard Charlie rearranging the President's schedule as well."
"Oh, God," C.J. groaned.
"Okay, everyone out of my office," Toby ordered gruffly as he began ushering people away from his doorway. "Why don't we just ask Leo why he wants another meeting instead of driving me crazy with your speculations."
With that command, they all regrouped in Leo's office. Even though everyone except C.J. was attempting to appear as if this second staff meeting wasn't bothering him or her, they were all internally worried. C.J. had been right; the days of high stress and tension from the Grand Jury hearings still occupied the front of their minds. Before one of them could speak, Leo hurried into the room and closed all the doors.
Shuffling some papers in his hands, he said, "I know you're all probably wondering why I've called you here again today, so let's just cut to the chase and get started, okay? Why don't you all have a seat?" When everyone remained standing despite his invitation, he shrugged his shoulders, dropped the papers onto his desk, and turned to face his staff. "Remember when we were celebrating the Grand Jury's decision and the President thanked all of you for your support and hard work and promised that there were no more skeletons in his closet?"
"Yeah..." Josh prompted.
"Well, he may have accidentally overlooked one little skeleton."
The senior staffers exchanged silent looks of alarm with each other before Toby cleared his throat and asked, "What sort of skeleton are we talking about, Leo?"
"Well..." Leo took a deep breath as he pondered the best way to break the news. "Twenty-six years ago, the President had an affair that resulted in the birth of a little girl. That little girl has grown into a beautiful young lady who's now in town."
Leo watched as his most trusted staff members stared back at him in shock at the news they'd just been told. "Sure you don't want to rethink that offer to sit down?" he asked.
After they had all collapsed onto a couch, armchair, or table, Leo pulled an empty chair towards them and sat down. Placing his hands in his lap, he leaned forward and said, "Now let me fill you in on some of the details and answer the numerous questions I know you all have for me."
Hours had passed since Jenn had entered the White House and made her way to the North Entrance guard's desk. Hours had passed since Leo had reintroduced the President to his estranged daughter. Hours had passed since Jenn had sat down with her father and told him about her mother's bout with cancer and her subsequent death. Hours had passed since the President had struck his desk in disgust that his best friend had not relayed the information on to him that Melanie Erickson had been sick...
"Dammit, Leo!" Jed roared, slapping his right hand against his desktop for added effect. "You had no right keeping that information from me!"
"I know that now, sir. At the time, I thought--"
"I don't care what you thought! I don't care if you thought you were protecting me or my Presidency. You should have told me the minute you knew."
"I should have told you," Jenn interjected quietly. "It wasn't Uncle Leo's place or responsibility to tell you. It's not like I didn't know how to reach you."
Jed struggled to suppress the anger that had overtaken him. He regarded the downtrodden face of his second-born daughter and went to sit beside her on his couch. As his arm encircled her shoulders, she cringed at his touch and pulled away.
"I didn't call you because Mom didn't want to see you. You know she didn't want to see you."
Hurt, Jed looked away, making sure to avoid any eye contact with Leo.
Shifting uneasily from foot to foot, Leo started inching towards the closest door. "I should leave you two alone. You both need some privacy to talk."
Jed began to nod his head in assent to the suggestion when Jenn turned around and beckoned him back to her. "Wait, Uncle Leo...please. What are you going to tell people?"
"Tell people?"
"I'm sure people who work here know something's going on. People saw me being escorted to your office. And then there's your assistant. What are you going to tell her?"
Jed scooted over towards her. "What do you want us to tell them?"
"I don't know. I'm not the President," she shot back, annoyed. The boisterous and loving girl who'd run and hugged Leo in delight when she'd first seen him had disappeared and been replaced by a sullen young woman protecting herself against potential rejection.
"Jenn," Jed began soothingly, "do you want to stay here for awhile?"
"Do you want me to stay?" she challenged, her eyes narrowing.
"What matters is whether you want to stay. But if you have to know, then yes, I would like you to stay. I would really like it if you stayed."
The wall Jenn had put in front of herself began to crumble as she covered her mouth with her left hand and looked at the floor, trying to blink away the tears that had formed in her eyes. She nodded her head vigorously, unable to speak any words.
Smiling, Jed patted her knee and rose to his feet. He pulled Leo aside and whispered, "I should speak to Abbey about this."
Leo nodded. "And I should speak to the senior staff, sir."
"Right."
"Thank you, Mr. President."
The two men parted ways then. Leo retreated to his office to plot what his next moves should be and Jed returned to the couch, every ounce of him wanting to pull his grieving daughter into his arms but knowing that he needed to take things slowly...at least for now.
An hour had passed since Toby, Josh, C.J., and Sam had huddled around Leo to hear a story they had never expected to hear...
"The President and the First Lady had been married for about five years when they began encountering some...err...marriage difficulties. I won't bore you with the details because, quite frankly, they're none of your business. Suffice it to say, the two were not getting along. Whenever they were speaking to one another -- which wasn't very often -- they would end up getting into a heated argument. This continued on for a couple of months before they agreed that maybe they should try a trial separation. Soon after that decision had been made, the First Lady filed for divorce. The President was crushed. Jenny and I invited him numerous times to come spend some time with us, but he always refused.
"I'm not exactly sure when, but I think the President and the First Lady had been separated for six weeks when he met Melanie Erickson at a town council meeting. Mel was relatively young at the time. She was in her mid-twenties, smart, witty, and fiercely independent. They enjoyed each other's company and began to spend a lot of time together -- platonically. He was still wearing his wedding ring, so she'd assumed he was a happily married man. One night she asked him if his wife minded how much time they'd been spending together. That's when he admitted they were getting divorced. She was the second person he'd confessed that to; I was the first.
"This admission brought them even closer together. I eventually got word from the President that they were exclusively dating one another and that he was happy. I don't doubt for a second that he ever stopped loving the First Lady during that period, but he was lonely and enjoyed the companionship Mel provided. I never met her despite the fact that he often invited me to spend a weekend with them in New Hampshire; I just never seemed to have the time. But the President sang Mel's praises every time we talked, and I half expected that they would marry after his divorce to the First Lady became final.
"But then Mel suddenly broke off their relationship. He told me that she'd never told him why. She just stopped taking his phone calls and wouldn't open the door for him when he'd go to her apartment. He tried to talk to her while she was work, but she made a scene in front of all her co-workers as she ranted that she never wanted to see him again. What could he do? He was crushed, but he certainly couldn't make someone talk to him when she didn't want to. So, as quickly as Melanie had entered his life, she disappeared from it.
"Shortly thereafter, at Elizabeth Bartlet's 6th birthday party, the President and First Lady sat down and actually talked to one another. They realized, after this discussion, that neither of them really wanted the divorce, so they ripped the divorce papers into pieces, began seeing a marriage counselor, and the rest is history.
"But, ten years later, Melanie popped back into his life. He hadn't heard from her at all during that ten-year period. He'd heard some talk that she'd moved to California, but he didn't know that for sure. Anyway, one night, she called his house and told him that, during the past ten years, she'd been bothered by the fact that she'd neglected to tell him something before she'd broken things off with him: she'd been pregnant; he was now the father of a ten year old girl. She invited him to fly out to California and meet his daughter, which he did, immediately. Things proceeded rather well from that point. He met this new daughter of his and they hit it off.
"Mel was really concerned about being a good parent. In some ways you could say she was overly critical of her own parenting skills; she would often put down the parental decisions she made, even though they were completely sound. Because she was so critical of herself, she insisted that she wanted the President to be a father to their little girl, which he readily agreed to. Over the course of the following year, the President flew to California numerous times, and his daughter flew to New Hampshire for a few weekend visits. During one of those visits, I met her for the first time. She was small --smaller than most girls her age -- and very timid. But once she'd become comfortable with you, she was quite an angel.
"Then, Mel suddenly prohibited the President from seeing his daughter anymore. It was almost a repeat of when she'd broken up with him. Whenever the President would call their home, Mel would hang up on him. She'd send his letters back unopened. She accused him of trying to corrupt her daughter's mind against her. When he persisted in wanting to see her, she threatened to take their daughter and disappear if he didn't stop. The President took her threat seriously and knew that living a life in constant flight was no way for a child to grow up, so he relented. Oddly enough, though, Mel had no problems with me calling and sending letters, so I began keeping tabs on the President's daughter for him. I'd fly out to California at least once a year and pay her a short visit, and in-between the visits, I would call and send letters.
"When I began running the President's presidential campaign, Mel barred me from coming out to California anymore. My letters began getting sent back to me and my calls would go unanswered. I never heard from either Mel or her daughter again. That is, until this morning."
Leo leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. The four senior staffers in his office stared at him in disbelief as they tried to digest all of the information he'd just thrown at them. C.J. was the first to recover from the bombardment and asked quietly, "What's her name?"
"Mel. Melanie Erickson."
"No. The daughter's name, Leo."
"Oh," he exclaimed, surprised that he failed to mention it. "It's Jennifer, but she prefers to go by Jenn."
Another moment of silence fell over them. Toby lips were pressed together into a hard frown as he stared at the wall behind Leo. Sam had taken off his glasses and was absently twirling one of the legs between his right thumb and middle finger. Then Josh began sputtering unintelligible words as he got to his feet and crossed his arms. "Wh-wh...It? Uh? How...How, Leo, how is it possible that no one knew about this girl's existence before today?"
"There were people who knew of her existence. You just didn't."
"You know what I'm getting at, Leo. The President has a child born out of wedlock while he's married to another woman. How was that not thrown in our faces during the campaign?"
"I don't know." Leo shrugged his shoulders, unconcerned. "I guess no one made the connection. Jenn didn't use the President's last name. Melanie had created a whole new life for them in California. Except for me, the President, and the First Lady, no one knew Jenn was his daughter; they didn't even tell Liz, Ellie, or Zoey who Jenn really was when she visited them those few times in New Hampshire."
"But Leo, how in the world?"
"Wait!" Sam held up his head and put his glasses back on as he stood up next to Josh. "What happened today? Did this crazy woman come to the White House with her daughter in order to expose this little scandal?"
"Sam..." Leo began.
"No, wait, I'm not done. What did she figure? That since the whole country now knows that the President has MS, why not threaten to tell them that he's a president who not only has MS, but also has an illegitimate daughter from an affair he had?"
"Sam," Leo tried to interject again.
"No, Leo, I think this could actually work to our advantage if that's the tack she's planning to use. It might not look good right now, but we could discredit this woman. Paint a picture of her as a mentally disturbed woman who wants to make a buck off the President and is using her daughter to do so. We could?"
"Sam!" Leo barked, finally succeeding in interrupting Sam's train of thoughts. "The 'crazy' woman you're trying to paint is dead."
"Dead?!" C.J. rolled her eyes and dropped her head in amazement. Things were just getting better by the second.
Sam fell back into his seat, his mouth hanging open in surprise as Leo explained, "Pancreatic cancer. By the time a doctor had caught it, it had already spread to her spine and brain. Chemotherapy was useless at that point, so she went through radiation in the hope of buying her some extra time. She ended up living four months more than they initially thought she would, but she passed away a week ago. Oh, and Sam, your brilliant idea of casting Mel out as a mentally unstable woman wouldn't have been a good idea even if she was still alive since she was mentally unstable. She suffered from severe manic depression for most of her life. The media would have castigated us for making light of her serious condition."
"Manic depression...is that why she...?" C.J. began to ask.
"Acted so erratically at times?" Leo finished for her. "Yeah, I think so. I found out about her condition about seven years ago. Jenn had, obviously, known for a long time, but had never told anyone because Mel had asked her not to. But Jenn was applying for college then and was worried about going to school far away and leaving her mother alone. So she confided in me. Partly, I think, to get it off her chest, but I think she was also hoping I might help her keep an eye on Mel."
"What is she doing here now?" Toby asked quietly, his voice muffled by the hand that was covering his mouth.
"What?" Leo asked, leaning forward in an attempt to catch his question.
"Why is she here?" Toby asked again, this time with his head raised and his tone curt.
Not appreciating what his tone was implying, Leo shot back, "Oh, I don't know, Toby. Her mother just died. Maybe she's here to seek some comfort from the father she never got a chance to know."
"Where is she now?" C.J. asked, uncrossing and then re-crossing her legs.
"With the President back at the Residence. He still has to tell the First Lady."
"Oh to be a fly on the wall when he breaks the news to her," Josh murmured under his breath. Sam nodded in agreement.
"Is she planning to stay, Leo?" C.J. asked.
"The President would like for her to."
"Does the President have any idea how bad this could get if she stays?" Josh asked, yanking on his tie in order to loosen it.
"Seeing as how he's the President of the United States, I'd venture a guess and say that he does."
"Then how can he possibly think that encouraging her to stay is a good idea?"
"Josh," Leo said sternly, "there are only two things the President truly regrets in his life. One is that you were shot and almost killed at Rosslyn. The second is that he didn't put up more of a fight to be a father to Jenn."
No one said a word in the room as they all tried to gauge how much damage this new daughter of the President's could hurt his reelection chances. To break the gloomy silence, Josh quipped, "Well, we had a nice three week run there without our world falling apart, didn't we?"
Leo slightly smiled in response as Sam added, "We're not going to get to go home tonight, are we, Leo?"
"Probably not, Sam. Probably not." Leo stood up, which they all knew was a sign that the meeting was over. "I'm going to head over to the Residence and see where things are now. I'll keep you all posted, and, obviously, this doesn't leave this room."
"Of course. Thank you, Leo," they all chorused mechanically.
As they began filing out his door, Leo detained Toby by lightly touching his arm. Once the other three were gone, Leo closed his door and said, "The President and I are going to be relying heavily on you if Jenn decides she wants to stick around."
"I know," Toby replied morosely.
Unsatisfied, Leo pressed on, "Toby, the President and I are going to need your?"
"I know," Toby repeated sharply. He sighed then and gave Leo an apologetic look for his brusque tone. "He really slept with another woman while he was married?"
"He thought he was getting a divorce."
"Yeah...somehow I don't think that's going to get us very far."
"It's the truth."
"Which doesn't always set us free." The two men looked at each other without saying a word. Both knew what the other was thinking because he was thinking it as well. "I'm going to go back to my office and think, Leo."
"Yeah. Okay."
And almost two hours had passed since the First Lady had gotten back from her trip to Chicago and had been intercepted by her husband on her way to see him in the Oval Office. They were now secluded in their bedroom with the door closed. Jenn sat waiting for them in their parlor, her fingers tapping out the passing seconds.
Suddenly, the outer door to the parlor opened and Leo stepped inside. He sat next to her and motioned to the closed bedroom door with his head. "They in there?" He could hear whispered voices speaking urgently on the other side of the door.
"Yeah."
"How long?"
"Unless time slowed down and no one bothered to tell me, it's been close to two hours."
"Two hours?" Leo's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Any yelling?"
Jenn shook her head.
He waited a few seconds before asking with a mischievous smile on his lips, "Any crying?"
Knowing that he was trying to lighten the mood, she turned her face towards him and tried to give him a smile. "Not funny, Uncle Leo."
"Don't worry, kid," Leo instructed, giving her body a small nudge. "Everything's going to work out. You'll see."
She bit her lower lip and looked at the closed door. "She can't be happy that I'm here."
"I won't lie; she's probably not."
"Right."
"Did you and your dad have lunch together?"
"Yeah, and dinner. He told me about his MS."
Leo chuckled. "Yeah, he's become pretty open about that these days."
"So I asked him if he was okay, and then he asked me if I was okay. We spent a good hour establishing that we're both okay."
Leo laughed and put his arm around her. "Baby steps, Jenn. It'll take awhile for you two to feel comfortable with each other again."
"He doesn't know me, Uncle Leo," she stated morosely. "When he looks at me, I know he still sees me as the ten year old girl he once knew."
"Give him some time. Today was a shock for him."
"Today was a shock for everyone." Without missing a beat, she asked, "You told some people, didn't you?"
"Just four: the Director of Communications, the Deputy Chief of Staff, the Deputy Director of Communications, and the Press Secretary. They needed to know...be prepared for what may come. You'll probably meet them soon."
Jenn nodded absently. "How'd they take the news?"
"Well, I'm pretty sure they would rather have heard they were receiving a raise."
"Yeah."
The two fell silent then as they realized that the urgent whispers had stopped. Before long, Jed emerged from the room -- alone. His tie was now gone and the top two buttons of his shirt were undone. He looked as if he'd just finished running a marathon, and he was obviously thrown by Leo's presence in the room.
"Mr. President," Leo respectfully greeted him as he stood up.
"Oh, sit down, Leo," Jed huffed, signaling him to resume his prior position. "I think we're past any silly formalities, don't you?" Looking at his daughter, he asked, "You okay?"
"Yeah," she replied for what felt like the hundredth time that day.
Instead of sitting down, Leo moved over towards Jed and pulled him aside. "How's Abbey?" he asked quietly, but not so quietly that Jenn wasn't able to hear his words.
"She's not the happiest person in the world right now, but that's understandable."
"Is she upset?"
"That would be an unbelievable understatement, Leo. Did you tell the troops?"
"Yeah. They're waiting to hear what our next move will be."
"And Toby's...?"
"Not terribly happy, either, but he's fine. You know he's always up for a challenge."
"We should probably--"
"I think I'm going to go home now."
Jed and Leo stopped whispering and watched in shock as Jenn stood up and grabbed the sweater that had been hanging on the back of her chair. "Excuse me?" Jed was able to croak out.
"This was a really big mistake on my part. United's got a flight to Oakland that leaves in three hours. I'll just catch that flight back home and we can pretend that today never happened. You guys can go back to running the country, and I'll go back...to Berkeley. No harm, no foul."
"Jenn, you've got to be kidding."
"I'm really honestly not, Uncle Leo. I don't...I don't know what I was thinking coming here. It was just a really big mistake."
"Jennifer, you are not going back to California," Jed commanded.
"Yes, I am," she insisted, her voice raising with every word. "I'm not some kid you can order around anymore. I'm a grown woman, and I can go wherever I choose."
"Jenn..." Leo began to say soothingly, hoping to calm her down.
"This isn't up for debate!" she shouted, her face turning crimson. "Why can't you two accept that I screwed up? I. Screwed. Up. I got scared, and I let my fantasies run away from me. I thought that if I came out here, everything would be okay and we'd become this big, happy family. Well, I obviously miscalculated. I just... I guess my expectations were just too high."
"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Jed mumbled.
"Only when it comes back to bite you in the ass," Jenn retorted.
Father and daughter stared each other down, both of them set on the decisions they'd made. "You said you wanted to stay earlier," Jed finally stated.
Jenn sighed and looked at her feet as she shook her head. "Look at what my coming here today has already done. I've disrupted your life. I've disrupted Abbey's life. I've disrupted Uncle Leo's life. I've even disrupted the lives of people I don't even know."
Jed moved towards her and softly asked, "Jenn, do you want to stay in Washington?"
She looked away and began biting a fingernail. "You're not listening to me."
"I heard what you had to say," Jed stated as he placed his right hand under her chin and lifted her head so that she would be looking right into his eyes. "But I'm asking you to please think about your answer this to question: do you want to stay?"
She began to utter her response but then hesitated, the word no caught in her throat. Looking away, she finally uttered, "I don't know." She pulled away and rubbed her forehead with her left hand. "I don't know," she repeated sadly, more to herself than to anyone in the room. " I don't want to stay, but I don't have a home to go home to."
Jed looked over Jenn's head to Leo and gave a slight nod. Leo nodded back at his old friend and left the room. It was time to prepare for another fight.
-the end-