Title: While they sleep
Pairings: None
Spoilers: Set sometime before Sam left in Season Four.
Characters: Senior Staff and the President.
Rating: K+ to T
Summary: How they sleep is telling.
Archive: Just ask.
A/N: Not sure where this came from, but there ya go. Sometimes you just get a line into your head, and -poof- angsty POV ficlet. (Also, anyone who reads my Fairytale Series, new part will be up shortly.) Also, unbetaed, sorry.
When Jed Bartlett slept, it was with an arm outstretched to reach his wife. When she was there he would put it around her, pulling Abbey towards him. When she wasn't, the questing arm was pulled back towards his chest. On those nights he woke up frequently, convinced that if stretched just an inch further he'd be able to pull her back. Recently, those nights are becoming more and more common.
& & &
When Leo McGarry slept, it was controlled. A marriage of years was nothing to the willpower of a man who would not let himself grieve. He refuses to let himself be one of those men reaching for a woman long gone. And he succeeds. But just sometimes, he rolls over to her side of the bed and wakes in the morning shivering. It's cold without her there.
& & & &
When CJ Creeg slept, it was cat-like, at full stretch. After a too-long working day spent in chairs that aren't quite tall enough to tuck her legs under, she enjoys the space. Sometimes though, she watches Donna watching Josh, or Josh watching Donna. She thinks of Danny, and Simon, and love lost through circumstance. Sometimes she thinks she wouldn't mind sharing.
& & & &
When Donna Moss slept, she curled towards a body that wasn't there, that had never been there. On the nights she wakes up screaming, she reaches for him blindly until reality reasserts itself. The mornings after those nights she toys with the idea of bringing him coffee, but doesn't. She's not sure that she would know how to say no when he asked her if anything was wrong.
& & & &
When Josh Lyman slept, it was fitful. He was never really able to turn off, and sleep was no different. He woke up with his lungs full of phantom smoke, or his chest in agony from a wound that was now just a red line. On the nights when he couldn't shrug it off and go back to sleep, he would phone her. In the morning he reassured himself that it was just because his long-suffering assistant wouldn't hold it against him. In the light it was easy to push away the thought that he just needed to hear her voice telling him that was okay.
& & & &
When Sam Seaborn slept, it was restlessly. He had thought that leaving corporate law would fix his insomnia, and it did for a while. But soon his dreams were once more filled with demons, figures admonishing him for sins his dream-self could not deny. When he left the White House, he explained to them with all the reasons they would understand. He couldn't tell him that he just wanted to be able to sleep at night.
& & & &
When Toby Ziegler slept, it was lightly. Ever since the first time one of David's missions had run into trouble, he didn't let himself sleep deep enough to miss the phone. And now he had heard enough late-night disasters that the habit had become useful. Leo phoned Josh, and then Toby. Toby could phone CJ and Sam. Whatever it was, he wanted to be the one to tell them. Seventy dead Americans in Iraq, three dead school-kids in Chicago, or one dead MS-sufferer in his Manchester home. Whatever it was, he would be the one to break the news.
FIN. Umm...feedback is nice. (Also, anyone know a good replacement for stars, without using a full line, since ff . net hates the asterix?)