Title: WHkid@aol.com Part Two Leo sat in front of the screen, the few inches around him a pool of green-tinged light. The maddening Ms Bennett had been right. There were sites about him. One, which he had on the screen, had a timeline. Everything from his birth onwards. He clicked on the ‘close’ icon and opened a site he’d already looked at. ‘The Chief and his staff’. His fictional counterpart seemed to have bedded every member of the West Wing staff in the various stories he read. At least he was different in that respect. As was the man who portrayed the Chief of Staff in the TV series, ‘1600’. But that didn’t seem to stop the people who contributed to the site. Then he brought up Sarah Bennett’s site. And, flicking through the archive, he saw it. Zoey’s fic. He only knew it was hers because of her unimaginative email address. ‘WHkid’. Like no-one was gonna work out who she was from that. Then he saw some of the other names. A couple made him smile. Slowly, he moved the cursor down to the ‘email the webmistress’ icon. As the mouse moved across the icon, a small box showed the full email address. He clicked on it and waited until the screen loaded with a blank email form. He sat back for a few seconds, then leaned forward, and began to type. When he was finished, he sat back again, staring at the screen for several minutes before clicking the ‘send’ icon. ************** ‘Blimey! Look at this.’ Ian Anders, Sarah’s partner in the design firm ran into the office in response to her shout. ‘Who is he?’ ‘He’s the White House Chief of Staff.’ ‘Why are you getting email from the White House Chief of Staff?’ ‘Long story.’ Ian scanned the long message. ‘Yeah. He doesn’t understand the concept of brevity, I guess.’ ‘Oh, I think Mr McGarry is well aware of the concept. And many others.’ **************** Leo clicked on the icon to open his email. And there it was. At the top. To: Leo McGarry From: Sarah Bennett Not bad for a first attempt. Try again. Ask Zoey for some tips. Sarah Bennett (Ms.) SaBIA Designs. There it was again. The ‘Ms’ thing. Leo didn’t like it. As far as he was concerned you were either married or not. There was no third option. ‘Margaret!’ ‘Yes Leo?’ ‘Are you Miss or Ms?’ ‘What?’ ‘Just answer the question.’ ‘Ms. I don’t want people knowing I’m single.’ ‘But wouldn’t they know cos you’re not Mrs?’ Margaret frowned. ‘I guess. It’s a modern thing, Leo.’ Leo sighed. ‘Yeah. What time is my thing with Josh?’ Margaret looked at her watch. ‘Ten minutes.’ ‘Thanks.’ Leo clicked on the reply icon. To: Sarah Bennett From: Leo McGarry I’m disappointed you didn’t enjoy my story. I don’t have time for a follow-up. I’m too busy. Want me to put some work your way so you don’t have any free time either? Leo ******************* Leo opened his email inbox and smiled as he saw the first message. He opened it, then his smile faded as he realised it was a line-by-line critique of the single page email he’d sent describing a typical day. Evidently, Ms Bennett was not impressed. There was barely a single line she hadn’t commented on. She ended the email with the comment: ‘I’m too busy to do this a second time. Find yourself a beta reader.’ Leo’s hand moved the cursor to the ‘delete’ icon. Then he paused, moved it across and clicked on ‘save’. The screen prompted him for a folder name to save the mail to. He typed ‘Sarah’ and clicked on ‘save’ again. Pausing briefly, Leo moved onto the second message. *************** Sarah smiled as she saw the message. Shorter this time. ‘Find myself a what?’. Laughing quietly, Sarah typed her reply. **************** ‘Hi Uncle Leo.’ ‘Hi Zoe. Written any more stories yet?’ ‘They’re called fanfic, and no, I haven’t. I’ve been busy with other stuff.’ ‘Good.’ ‘Mom called. She said to tell you they’d found a really great company to re-decorate the house, and could please you organise things. Here.’ Zoey handed Leo the sheet of paper, frowning at his reaction. ‘You okay?’ Leo managed to collect himself. ‘Er, yeah. Fine. I’ll get it done.’ ‘Great. I’m gonna say hi to CJ. See ya.’ ‘Yeah.’ Suddenly Leo remembered something. ‘Zoe, what’s a beta reader?’ ‘Someone who reads your stuff for you and corrects it before you post it online. Why?’ ‘No reason.’ Zoey looked at him for a second, then decided she wanted to see CJ to find out the latest gossip more than she wanted to ask her Godfather why he was interested in her online stuff all of a sudden. ‘Oh, okay. For several seconds after Zoey left, Leo sat with the note in his hand. Re-reading it didn’t change the words written on it. ‘Call Sabia Designs. Ask for Sarah Bennett.’ Leo compared the telephone number on the sheet with the one on the card in his pocket. There was a slight chance they were…nope, they were the same. Jed and Abbey had just hired Sarah Bennett to re-decorate their house. Great. Just great. Continued in Part Three Home Send me feedback on this fic Return to the X-Files Fic Index Return to the West Wing Fic Index