Title: West Wing - Zen and the art of Leo ‘Leo, this just came for you. It’s from that group that wants to put contemplative spaces in every major US city.’ Margaret laid the box carefully on her boss’ desk and left quickly. Leo opened the box, marked ‘fragile’ and ‘this way up’ and ‘open carefully’. He lifted out the black ceramic dish, a small bag of what looked like sand, and a couple of other bags, wrapped in too many layers of plastic to be able to work out what they were. Josh knocked, came in, and looked at Leo’s desk. ‘Wow, a Zen garden.’ ‘A what?’ Josh tipped the sand into the small dish, unpacked the three grey pebbles and placed them randomly in the sand and handed Leo the small steel rake. ‘It’s a Zen garden. Designed to bring inner peace and harmony.’ Leo scowled at Josh, lifting the dish from his desk. ‘Here.’ ‘Leo, you’ll find it very calming. Besides, I don’t have room on my desk for something like that.’ Pulling his attention from the garden-thing, which wasn’t hard, Leo looked up at Josh. ‘Did you want something?’ ‘It can wait. Have fun with your garden.’ Bartlet wandered through the connecting door between Leo’s office and his own. ‘Where d’you get that?’ ‘Some stupid group gave it to me.’ ‘So have you reached a place of inner harmony yet?’ ‘What?’ ‘Never mind. You got a second?’ ‘Yeah.’ Bartlet sat across the desk from Leo, his fingers making a pattern in the sand. Distracted, Leo frowned. ‘You gonna concentrate, or you want me to lock that thing away?’ ‘Leo, don’t be such a grouch. When we’re done, take a couple of minutes and…’ Frustrated at how his day was going, Leo snapped: ‘Find a bin for that thing?’ Covering it protectively with his hand, Bartlet gasped. ‘Leo, this is a wonderful gift. Just cos you don’t appreciate it, don’t be unkind about it.’ Leo nodded at it. ‘You want it?’ ‘No. I’d never get any work done. Hey, I got a briefing. We’ll finish up later, okay.’ Leo couldn’t restrain a sigh. ‘Yes Sir.’ Sam sat across the desk from Leo, listening to the topics the President would be expected to cover in a speech to Public School teachers the following week. As he listened, Sam’s fingers brushed the polished stones in the dish on Leo’s desk. ‘Sam!’ Sam jumped, startled at the sharp voice. ‘Er, yeah. School teachers.’ Sighing, Leo shook his head. ‘Get outta here. And take that thing with you.’ ‘Leo, I couldn’t. I’m sure you need it more than I…’ Seeing Leo’s angry scowl, Sam stopped in mid-sentence, deciding that was a good point at which to leave. During the weekly staff meeting, everyone seemed to have a problem with anything someone else said. Leo sat behind his desk, hardly contributing, refusing to be pulled into any of the several arguments which were going on. Eventually, after several minutes of chaos, his office was quiet again. He leaned down and pulled the small dish out of his desk drawer. Raking the sand in swirls and straight lines with the small rake, Leo sat back and stared at it until his phone rang. Sighing, he carefully replaced the dish in the drawer before picking up the phone. End Home Send me feedback on this fic Return to the X-Files Fic Index Return to the West Wing Fic Index Return to the Short Fic Index