Title: First Hundred Days (1/1) - sequel to Rules in Politics, prequel to The Short List
Author: Alice J. Foster
Summary: It's the First Hundred Days of the Santos administration and it's time to come clean.
Rating: PG-13. Mentions of post-coital bliss.
Author's notes: I intend on writing a prequel to this but I don't know when I'll get to it. You should be able to understand everything from this though.
First Hundred Days (1/1)
"You really ought to change your name to Lyman." Josh says in his 'oh I swear this is not me trying to push an issue' voice.
"We've been through this, Josh. I am not changing my name to Lyman. If you want us to have matching last names, you can change yours to Moss."
"That's a stupid idea."
No, buddy. "Stupid doesn't begin to cover the sexist concept that every woman should legally change her name at the time of marriage. Not that I'm against women being able to choose whatever they want as their last name after matrimony, but we have previously discussed this issue many, many times. Should I point out the fact that it's 3 a.m., we have to get up in 3 hours? I can't believe this is your idea of pillow talk."
"Donna?"
"Yes?"
"How long have we known each other?"
"Nine years."
"How long have we been sleeping together?"
"Three and a half months."
"How long have we been married?"
"Is this the Spanish Inquisition? Or maybe you're channeling McCarthy there, Mister. Don't make me call the President and let him know you're channeling McCarthy." I joke but the look on his face tells me to answer the question because he is trying to make a point. Since I would like to enjoy my post-coital bliss through some sleep, I realize that indulging him is the quickest way to get him to shut up so we can get some much earned rest. "Fine, we've been married for two months."
"And how long have we been in office?"
I roll my eyes but again, I offer a reply: "Two weeks, four days and 15 hours, give or take a few minutes. Are you going anywhere with this, Josh?"
He smiles, "Well Donna, in the nine years you've known me, nothing clued you in to the fact that discussing important strategic matters in bed is exactly my idea of pillow talk? Because even if you were ignorant of this fact for eight plus years, the past three months should have definitely offered some evidence of it."
"Fine, Josh, point conceded. Now can we sleep?"
"As soon as you agree to change your name to Lyman."
"No, Joshua, I am not changing my name to Lyman." I say, more brusquely than I intended at first. When the hurt registers in his eyes, I feel a sharp pang in my chest. "I'm sorry, Josh. But we have to be up soon, I really don't want to argue about this anymore. We've discussed that we need to establish ourselves in this administration before disclosing this particular part of our lives to the President and the staff. If I change my name, don't you think it'll tip them off?"
His nod tells me he feels like he's lost the battle but not the war. "Fine but for that, you're not getting any cuddling."
My arsenal is not empty, so I pout slightly and sigh dramatically.
"Ok, maybe 5 minutes of spooning, then you're off to your side of the bed, Donnatella Moss. And just so you know. Lyman is a perfectly agreeable name."
"Yeah, I know." My cheeks hurt from beaming at him but I can't help it, really. "I might know one or two people with that last name who are truly amazing." Who said that boosting my husband's ginormous ego wasn't in my job description? Of course, bursting said ego is also in my job description. Something in his expression tells me I said something right. "But really, Josh, don't you think that Chief of Staff Lyman and Chief of Staff Lyman sounds kind of dumb?"
"Well… no. We can go by Chief of Staff J. Lyman and Chief of Staff D. Lyman. Okay, maybe it sounds a little dumb."
"How about we go to sleep now?"
"Good idea, Chief of Staff Moss-Lyman." He says with a new smile.
I ignore him as I turn away from him so I am lying on my side. Not even a minute goes by before I feel his body molding itself to my back and I fall asleep while contemplating his last words.
Chief of Staff Donnatella Moss-Lyman. Not bad after all.
You know, Donna's office is not that far from my office, considering it's in a different part of the building. I wonder if during the Bartlet administration's First Hundred Days, Leo came to see Lilly half as many times as I usually come to see Donna in a day. If he had, it probably would've avoided a lot of the problems that arose between our staff and the First Lady's staff.
So, you see, this marriage is truly a tactical advantage for this administration. And that's what I have to remind Donna right now before anything chaotic happens.
Her assistant looks up when she sees me and waves me in. Can you tell how proud I am that my wife has an assistant? And that her office is almost as big as mine? Because honestly I don't think there are enough words to define and explain how proud I am.
"Hey Josh," she says as she makes notes on a piece of paper and her pen keeps circling and writing for a couple more minutes before she's done. When she looks up, I meet her eyes with what must be a nice smile because instantly she's grinning too. "Sorry, I was reading up on the Bill of Education briefing. The First Lady is going to want us to meet on some of these points and she wants me to sit in on the Committee next week--" Something about my expression must betray my true reason for being here because her eyes narrow slightly as she adds, "— but you're not here to discuss the Bill of Education, are you? What's going on?"
"Do you know what day it is?"
She glances at a calendar on her table. "Is it today?" She asks, completely surprised. I know she's been working hard on this Bill of Education but I can't believe she forgot. I reminded her about 5 times this past week.
"Of course it's today! Just check your calendar, and your tv, and your e-mail. It's been One Hundred Days since we took office. If you'd like to know how our administration has done so far, you can turn on MSNBC, CNN, hell you can even turn on Fox News if you want although I have no idea why anyone would watch--"
"Josh!" Donna interrupts me before I go on for an hour about how the media is supposed to be unbiased, and how the Founding Fathers didn't mention anything about a Fourth Estate when they conjured up checks and balances.
"Donnatella, my dear, I believe you know what this means."
She sucks in her lips like she usually does when she's in deep thought but she doesn't say anything.
"We're having a comprehensive Staff meeting in an hour to discuss today's reports on the administration. I'll see you and Annabeth there." I leave the room before she can conjure up a reason to postpone our agreement.
One hour. This should be interesting.
I must be nervous. I say that because I'm currently chewing on my nails, which although it is very disgusting, it also happens to be one of my many nervous outlets. Another one is dancing in my underwear but I don't think I can do that in the Oval Office.
The President is talking and I'm listening, but I'm also going through the many reasons why I should stop Josh before he makes his announcement -- our announcement?
Blah-blah-blah gun control, blah-blah-blah economy. Sure, I'm jotting everything down -- I just can't exactly concentrate on any of it right now.
Sam's voice kind of brings me back to the meeting – well not his voice as much as what he says: "… and President Santos's approval ratings polled at 71. The First Lady polled even higher, at 78, the highest this country has seen for any First Hundred Days." The First Lady squeezes my shoulder and I smile back at her, then she moves on to kiss the President.
Everyone cheers and my eyes immediately meet Josh's as we mutually congratulate one another.
When I walked into those campaign headquarters almost a decade ago, I imagined I would campaign with the team, then we'd lose but I would have something really great on my resumé to offset all the job-hopping I had done before.
Bartlet Presidential Campaign – Aide to Campaign Director Josh Lyman.
Pretty impressive, if you ask me. In my wildest dreams, we would win; I would become a low-level aide, maybe even an assistant to an assistant. As the campaign went on, my faith in Jed Bartlet grew and I became valuable to Josh Lyman, a man who took me under his wing and inexplicably taught me about real-world politics. He was also an egotistical jackass with unrealistic expectations about people and society and he tried to control every aspect of my life, which seems almost fair since I had control of his.
Nine years later, I am sitting in the Oval office, during my third term working at the White House, listening to the Senior Staff brag about our history-making, unprecedented First Hundred Days. The President and the First Lady, Josh, Lou, Sam, Otto, Bram, Annabeth and me are all here, and there are no dry eyes or glum faces in the White House today. I wish Leo was here and I know Josh must be missing him too.
When Lou finishes reading The Wall Street report everyone cheers again and there are even some hugs. Ronna comes in bearing two bottles and Lisa, Sam's assistant, come in bearing (plastic) glasses for everyone. Champagne is quickly served and everyone starts raising their glasses and offering toasts. I don't have to meet Josh's eyes to know exactly what he's thinking. He quickly crosses the room to stand by my side and clears his throat.
"Uh—Donna and I have an announcement to make." Chatter slowly dies down and everyone turns to stare at us. "I am sure you will all understand why Donna and I withheld some information—"
God, my husband has a bad case of mouth diarrhea. "Josh and I got married." I blurt out before he can finish his sentence and before I can chicken out. Josh looks like a little kid and I might've just stolen his candy. I offer him an apologetic look.
Everyone seems to be speechless for several seconds. I am terribly afraid of what they'll ask, what they'll assume and how they'll react. My stomach is so tight I'm afraid I'll pass out in the Oval Room.
The President is the first one to break the silence, "When did this happen?"
Ok, not exactly congratulations but he looks happy so we'll go with it. Josh answers for us, saying, "Remember the vacation Sam convinced me to take during transition?"
President Santos nods then breaks into a wonderful grin. "Of course."
"So, should we call you Chief of Staff Lyman as well?" Sam asks. "Because it might get a little confusing. In any case, I believe congratulations are in order." Sam raises his glass and everyone toasts to Josh and me-- as if I weren't feeling teary already.
"We, uh, wanted to make sure we were settled in before telling everyone." Josh explains.
I link my hand through Josh's arm in support. "And Sam, to answer your question, I'll be going by Chief of Staff Moss-Lyman from now on."
Josh's head moves so fast I'm afraid he might pull a muscle.
"Really?" He excitedly asks me and I nod. It's not what he wanted, but I daresay it's a very nice compromise on my part. He seems to compose himself enough to put his mind to work. "Lou, Donna and I have a statement ready. We can leak it to the press today so it rolls with the good press or you can wait another week so we can lead with it next news cycle, I'll leave the decision up to you."
He hands me another copy of our statement so I can give it to Annabeth.
The President raises his glass again, "Well, it seems like we have several reasons to be grateful today, my friends. So what do you say that we go out there and make some more history?"
Countless nights I stayed up, trying to imagine a way Josh and I could be together without complications, without a scandal, without any of us giving up our jobs…all those nights paid off. Sometime I feel like we lost so much time but right now, as I look around this room and I see the faces of these people we've befriended over the years, I see that we were right.
I make a mental note to call C.J., Will and Toby later. I hope they'll be as happy.
And this is it, the meeting is over and we're back to governing.
Life could not be more perfect.
The End
Sequel: The Short List