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Category: Leofic
Rating: R for language Characters: Leo and Sarah Bennett (new character) Series: Yes Spoilers: From Season One onwards Summary: Zoey takes up writing. Leo takes up a crusade against fanfic. If only no-one had mentioned Hoynes… Archive: Just tell me where it’s going Additional ‘stuff’: I’m sure the Government would hire contractors to decorate the President’s home. But this is my fic, and I make the rules! From Part One: ‘Mr McGarry, I need a few minutes of your time. There’s a problem with Zoey.’ ‘Sir, what Zoey’s doing, it’s not illegal.’ Leo snapped: ‘Stop doing it! ‘Everyone get back to work. And for God’s sake don’t do anything tonight which we’re gonna be reading about on the Internet tomorrow!’ From Part Two: ‘ Why are you getting email from the White House Chief of Staff?’‘Long story.’ ‘Zoe, what’s a beta reader?’ ‘Someone who reads your stuff for you and corrects it before you post it online. Why?’ ‘No reason.’ Jed and Abbey had just hired Sarah Bennett to re-decorate their house. Great. Just great.
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Title: WHkid@aol.com Part Three ‘Sarah Bennett please.’ ‘Who’s calling?’ ‘Leo McGarry.’ Leo waited, trying to decide what to say, as the line clicked, then went silent, then clicked again. ‘Mr McGarry.’ ‘Ms Bennett. I understand you’ve been asked to submit ideas for redecorating the President and First Lady’s home.’ ‘Yes. And?’ ‘When you’re ready, let me know. I’m gonna be organising the work.’ ‘You?’ Leo was as pleased about the President’s decision as Sarah evidently was, and snapped: ‘Yeah, me. Still wanna do it?’ Sarah Bennett laughed. ‘It’s the President’s house Mr McGarry. If having to deal with you is the price I have to pay to get this job, then I’ll pay it. Willingly. I’ll send you something by Monday. Goodbye.’ ***************** ‘Leo, this just came for you.’ ‘Thanks Margaret.’
Leo tore open the manilla envelope. He spread the drawings onto the desk in front of him and looked at each in turn. Each apparently represented a different room in the Manchester house. Each was annotated with hand-written notes, splashes of colour and tiny scraps of fabric and wallpaper attached to the edges. Leo had no idea whether the colours were good choices or not. ‘Margaret!’ ‘Yes Leo?’ ‘Find out if the security check on Sarah Bennett came through yet.’ ‘Okay.’ Ron Butterfield came into Leo’s office through the open door. The air conditioning was playing up, and Leo’s office was alternately hot and cold. After almost four hours, Leo had decided that the best way to maintain a relatively constant temperature in the room was to leave the door ajar. ‘Mr McGarry?’ Leo looked up. ‘Ron. Well?’ ‘Sarah Bennett’s never had so much as a parking ticket.’ Leo was wary. ‘How is that possible?’ ‘She obeys the law, Sir.’ Leo’s voice indicated his feelings. ‘Yeah right.’ ‘If it wasn’t for the Internet thing, she’d be cleared.’ Leo frowned. ‘She’s not cleared?’ ‘No Sir. When you asked me to investigate her Internet site, we started a file. And while that’s still open, she can’t be cleared.’ ‘Close it.’ ‘Sir, I can’t…’ ‘Yeah, Ron. You can. I’m telling you to close it. Is she cleared if it’s closed?’ Clearly unhappy, Ron paused as long as he could before replying. ‘Yes Sir.’ ‘Okay, I’ll let her know.’ Ron shrugged inwardly. Not his problem if she turned out to be a raving lunatic. He’d make damn sure the file recorded Mr McGarry’s instructions. Clearly. Very clearly. ‘Yes Sir.’ *************** ‘Guess what that was about?’ Sarah hung up the phone and turned to Ian, who had been walking into her office as she finished the call. ‘We didn’t get the job.’ ‘We did.’ ‘What?!’ ‘Yeah. We can start straightaway. Someone from the Secret Service is coming here later to discuss the arrangements for access and so on. We are going to re-decorate the President’s home.’ Ian still couldn’t quite believe it. ‘We should celebrate.’ ‘We should indeed. But first I have to thank someone.’ ‘Leo McGarry.’ ‘Yes. He could easily have prevented us from getting this job.’ Ian frowned. ‘I’m not sure why he didn’t.’ ‘Who cares. Just enjoy it. I’ll be back later.’
**************** ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, but you’re not on the list.’ The agent on the gate flicked through several pages of names, just making sure. After all, this was someone who wanted to see the Chief of Staff. He didn’t want to make any mistakes. Sarah flicked her cell phone open. ‘Leo McGarry’s office please.’ ************* ‘Other people make appointments.’ As she followed Leo into his office, Sarah nodded. ‘Yeah, but I’m not ‘other people’.’ Leo didn’t know whether to smile or be cross. ‘I noticed.’ ‘And you should be nice to me. I bought you a present.’ ‘Oh?’ Leo watched as Sarah fished in her briefcase. ‘Here.’ ‘A disk. You’re giving me a disk.’ ‘Look at it later. For now, I wanted to talk about the decorating.’ ‘You can do that through Margaret.’ ‘Who?’ ‘My assistant.’ Disappointed, Sarah got up. ‘I’ll leave you this, then, and get out of your way.’ ‘Hey, I didn’t mean…look…’ Sharply, Sarah interrupted him. ‘We’re both busy Mr McGarry. I won’t take up any more of your time.’ It was after nine when Leo finally remembered the disk. He opened the document called simply ‘One’, and scanned the text, laughing as he read. ‘Share the joke?’ Josh walked in and stood behind Leo, far enough away that he couldn’t read the screen if Leo didn’t want him to. Leo turned in his chair. ‘Hang on.’ He pressed the print button, and, after a couple of minutes, handed Josh the sheets, still warm from the printer. ‘Did you write this?’ Josh asked incredulously. ‘No, Sarah Bennett did.’ ‘Who?’ ‘Her company has the contract to re-decorate the President’s place in Manchester.’ ‘Where did you get this?’ ‘She also writes fanfic.’ ‘The stuff about the TV programme?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘I like how she describes you as ‘easily annoyed and short-tempered’.’ Leo scowled. ‘It isn’t me, it’s the guy who plays me.’ ‘Yeah? Then how come he’s called Leo?’ Leaving the sheets on the edge of the desk, Josh walked back into his office, leaving Leo to work out why he hadn’t noticed Sarah had changed the names. Then he realised. Not names. Just his. Opening his e-mail programme, Leo began to type. ************* ‘Oops.’ ‘I worry when you say things like that.’ Sarah turned at the sound of Ian’s voice behind her. ‘What now?’ ‘I don’t think Mr McGarry appreciated my little joke.’ ‘Define ‘little joke’.’ ‘I wrote a storyline involving people from ‘1600’. I just changed some of the names.’ ‘Whose?’ ‘Well, his.’ ‘Just his?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘But you said nice things about him, right? Sarah?’ ‘I said he was short-tempered. And snappy. And…’ Ian interrupted her. ‘I get the idea. How do you know he read it?’ ‘Because I gave him a copy on disk.’ ‘Do you not want this contract?’ Sarah was angry with herself, and decided to take it out on Ian, snapping: ‘Of course I do.’ ‘Then stop pissing Leo McGarry off.’ ‘He just so deserves it.’ ‘And I deserve a new couch. Which I won’t get if you can’t pay me at the end of the month.’ ‘Okay! I’ll be nice to him from now on.’ Ian scrolled through the text of the e-mail. ‘It may be a little late for that.’
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