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Both Sam and Josh were noticeably more relaxed the following day. They were safe. Lexi was safe. The atmosphere returned to something close to normal. But it was obvious to both Leo and Toby that their deputies were anything but calm. Josh jumped when Leo came up behind him without warning and Sam spilt a whole cup of coffee on Toby’s desk when Toby accidentally slammed his door closed. As the days wore on and it became clear that locating and arresting the person responsible was going to be a long task, everyone suffered. Eventually, the President suggested Sam and Josh take a few days off. But the logistics of visiting friends or family with their Secret Service shadows were just too complicated. Neither wanted to stay in the house, so they decided to carry on working, despite the combined opinions of Bartlet, Leo, and Toby being that they should get away from the West Wing. ************** ‘Oh, I am so sorry.’ The young woman whose coffee Sam was now wearing pulled away from him and, blushing furiously, began to dab ineffectively at the large coffee stain on his shirt with a handful of napkins. Josh had turned at Sam’s pained exclamation as the coffee spilled, and was now watching, amused, as the woman tried to clean Sam’s pale shirt of the dark stain. ‘Step away, ma’am.’ Gerry Parker moved between the woman and Sam. ‘Mr Seaborn, you okay?’ The woman laughed. ‘I knew you looked familiar. Sam Seaborn? Gage Whitney? I used to work there. Melissa Roberts.’ Sam nodded at the Agent. ‘It’s okay, Gerry. Melissa, how are you?’ Josh called across from where he sat at the counter. ‘Sam, we gotta go. We’ll be late.’ ‘Okay. Hey, great seeing you Melissa.’ The woman gestured at Sam’s ruined shirt. ‘At least you won’t forget me in a hurry.’ Sam looked down. ‘No.’ Melissa fished in her bag, handing Sam a card. ‘Call me. We’ll have lunch. Catch up on old times.’ ‘I’d like that. I have to run. Bye.’ ************* Sam pulled his shirt off, grateful he’d learned from Leo the trick of always having a spare shirt in his office. Unpacking the still-wrapped shirt, he looked down at the card on the desk beside him, frowning. He remembered Melissa, he just wasn’t sure why. And he was sure there was something. As he pulled the clean shirt on, he remembered. She’d had a relationship with one of the Associates, then she’d resigned when they broke up. Sam wracked his brains to try to remember the Associate’s name. When it wouldn’t come and he was even later for a meeting than he had been a few minutes earlier, he gave up, grabbed a couple of folders from his desk and almost ran from the room. As he lifted the folders, the card Melissa gave him fell into the waste bin. ************** ‘Todd Weldon.’ ‘What?’ Josh looked up from his book. ‘Todd Weldon. Melissa had an affair with him and then she resigned. I couldn’t think of his name earlier. I wonder if he’s still working there?’ ‘Call them in the morning and find out. Why do you want to know?’ ‘There were rumours at the time that Melissa was told to resign or be fired.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Because after she and Todd split up, she wouldn’t leave him alone. Kept pestering him, calling him in the middle of the night, that kind of thing…’ ‘Why did they split up?’ Sam got up, walking away from Josh, as he replied. ‘She found out he was bisexual.’ Josh dropped his book onto the floor and got up, following Sam into the kitchen. ‘Lit, how did she find out?’ Sam turned round, not realising how close behind him Josh had been. Sam stared at the floor for a few seconds before managing: ‘She saw us together.’ Sam both felt and heard Josh’s reaction. The sharp intake of breath and the stiffening muscles were a clear indication of Josh’s likely reaction to the end of the story. ‘Together or together?’ Sam tried to avoid answering the question. ‘JL…’ Josh wasn’t going to allow him to. ‘Lit?’ ‘It was a rebound thing. Didn’t last. But Melissa came round to Todd’s one morning. I didn’t know she had a key. He was in the shower.’ ‘Where were you?’ ‘In his bed.’ Josh swallowed hard then walked silently out of the kitchen. Sam followed him a moment later, just in time to see Josh pull his coat off the rack. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘Out.’ Josh yelled up the staircase. ‘Dave, I have to go out.’ ‘JL, please…’ Whatever Sam was about to say was cut off as the Agent appeared at the bottom of the stairs, pulling his jacket on to catch up with Josh who was already half-way out the door. Sam flinched as the front door slammed. ************** ‘JL?’ ‘Go back to sleep Lit.’ Sam turned onto his side, his back to Josh as he undressed and climbed into bed. After a few seconds, anger overcame hurt. ‘We have to talk about this.’ ‘It’s almost one. We’ll do it in the morning.’ Sitting up, flicking on the bedside light, Sam sighed. ‘No, we won’t.’ ‘She could be the person who’s been doing this to us.’ ‘You Lit. Doing it to you. No-one’s been doing anything to me.’ Sam’s breath hitched. ‘JL?’ ‘Tell Ron tomorrow.’ Josh dropped onto the pillow and lay with his back to Sam. ‘You knew I’d had other partners before we met.’ Sam ignored Josh’s lack of response to his comment. ‘Why is this one so different?’ Eventually Josh retorted: ‘Because it is.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Lit, we need to sleep.’ ‘Because it was Todd and not Melissa, right?’ Sam took Josh’s lack of response as agreement. He sighed. ‘JL, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.’ ‘Yeah, me too.’ Sam had had enough. ‘Okay, fine.’ He flicked the light off and lay down, unaware that they both lay awake until the alarm startled Sam from an exhausted doze he’d finally given in to about an hour earlier. *************** ‘It was on my desk. I put it there before my meeting. I asked Cathy but she said it wasn’t there when she came in after I’d left.’ ‘It’s not important Sam, we can find her now we know her name and that she’s living and probably working somewhere in DC.’ Ron tried not to show how relieved he was at having an actual lead to follow up. The business card would have been useful, but he could manage without it. And Sam looked like he’d had a rough night. As did Josh. Ron didn’t want to think what defined a ‘rough night’ in their circumstances. Living and working together, he guessed, was difficult enough without the added strain of Sam’s stalker. And the Agents living under their roof until the person was found probably didn’t help. *************** ‘Sam, I need to meet with you about…’ Josh got no further. ‘I’m busy.’ Sam didn’t even look up. ‘Me too. But I need to have some time with you…’ ‘Talk to Cathy, Josh, okay?’ Sam looked up automatically as his door slammed. He sighed when he realised Josh was on the inside, not the outside of the closed door. ‘Josh, I really don’t have time for this.’ ‘What? Us? Me? What?’ Josh’s voice was bordering on shouting, but Sam continued to read the folder he held, aggravating him further. ‘Look at me Sam!’ ‘Get out of my office Josh.’ Sam’s voice was a complete contrast. Calm. Quiet. Even though he was, in reality, anything but calm. ‘Both of you get out of here!’ Sam and Josh both looked at the suddenly opened door, and Toby standing in the open doorway. ‘Toby, do you mind?’ Sam frowned at the unwelcome intrusion. ‘Yeah, actually, Sam. I do. See, I’m trying to work, and you two are disturbing me, okay? Either shut up or get out of here.’ Sam and Toby stared at each other for several seconds, neither man moving nor looking away. Eventually, Sam gave in, dropping the folder onto his desk. ‘Fine. Whatever.’ Grabbing his jacket, Sam walked out of the office, pushing past an angry Josh and an equally annoyed Toby. Seeing Sam leaving the office, alone, Leo caught Josh as he walked back to his own office. ‘Where’s Sam’s agent?’ ‘I don’t know Leo. What am I, his keeper?’ As he looked at Leo, Josh realised he’d made his boss angry. Not a good move. ‘Josh, get him back. Now!’ ‘No.’ ‘Margaret!’ Leo’s assistant appeared in the doorway of her office. ‘Leo?’ ‘Find someone to stop Sam leaving. Find his agent. Now!’ ‘Yes Leo.’ Margaret hurried off. Leo jerked his head towards his office. ‘Get in here Josh.’ ‘I don’t wanna hear it. Ron called. He’s traced the girl. But the other guy…’ Leo made an irritated gesture. ‘Todd Weldon.’ Josh supplied. ‘Yeah. Weldon. He’s nowhere. But they’ll find him too. Josh, take a tip from me kid. Don’t piss Toby off, okay?’ Wearily Josh sighed. ‘Yes Leo.’ **************** ‘D’you come here often?’ Sam turned at the sound of the familiar voice. ‘Yeah. You?’ ‘Yeah. Buy you a coffee?’ Sam held up his half-full cup. ‘No thanks.’ Josh shrugged. ‘There’s a really, really pissed-off agent outside. Apparently, he could get fired cos you ran out of the building without him.’ ‘No way!’ ‘Yeah, Sam. He is not in a happy mood.’ ‘That makes two of us.’ ‘Three.’ ‘What?’ Josh handed over payment for his bagel. ‘Him, you, me. Three.’ ‘I’m sorry I yelled.’ Sam’s voice was flat, a monotone. ‘I’m sorry about last night.’ ‘I should have told you.’ ‘Yeah, Sam, you should have.’ Not wanting to argue in public, Sam asked: ‘D’you have to get back?’ Pushing the thought of his desk out of his mind, Josh shook his head. ‘No rush.’ ‘Let’s go home.’ Sam forced a smile. Josh’s was less forced. ‘Yeah.’ ************
Heedless of the still-angry agent sitting on the sofa downstairs, Sam and Josh rushed into the bedroom, undressing each other as they stumbled towards the bed.
Groping, scratching, biting, they each took out their frustrations on the other. Unusually, Josh felt Sam pushing him down, stretching across him as he reached for the nightstand drawer. Josh lay under his lover, part of his brain trying to assess just exactly what the agent in the room directly beneath their bed could hear. But Sam was rolling him onto his stomach, and he barely had time to grab a couple of pillows and get comfortable before he felt Sam’s insistent fingers probing him. Dominant Sam was not something he saw often. When he did surface, Josh made the most of his presence. Their love-making was frantic, both of them needing, if only for a few minutes, to forget the nasty turn their lives had taken over the past weeks. ‘We should…do this…again.’ Josh’s words were punctuated with deep, shuddering breaths. ‘I’m not sure I could.’ Sam lay across Josh, his arms wrapped around his ribcage. ‘I meant…’ Sam giggled. ‘I know what you meant JL.’ ‘Lit, promise me we won’t let our past come between us again.’ ‘Promise.’ Josh shifted slightly, wrapping an arm around Sam’s shoulders, breathing in the scent of coconut from the hair only inches from his face. ‘You used my shampoo Lit.’ ‘Yeah. It’s nicer than mine.’ Not wanting to provoke a row, and not having the energy for a discussion, Josh decided to end the conversation. ‘Okay.’ Sam chuckled at how easily Josh had given in. ‘What’s up JL? Pace too much for you?’ Although he was a little tired, Josh couldn’t let that remark go. He waited until he had Sam’s attention – he had been expecting a response, and when he didn’t get one, he twisted in Josh’s grip to look up at him – then Josh pulled him closer, his mouth covering Sam’s. When they broke for oxygen, feeling Josh’s hand on his groin, the fingers stroking him, Sam muttered: ‘I’m not twenty-one any more either JL. I need a couple of minutes, okay?’ Feeling Sam’s reaction to his touch, Josh laughed. **************
‘We’re heading back to the office.’ The agent, still angry with Sam, nodded tersely. ************ Josh wandered into Leo’s office with his sandwich in his hand, his tie loose, the two top buttons on his shirt undone. Flopping into a chair opposite Leo, Josh waited until Leo hung up the phone. ‘You two okay now?’ Josh nodded. ‘Yeah.’ Leo nodded at Josh’s neck. ‘You might wanna button your shirt.’ Josh’s hand went to his neck, and he flinched as his fingers brushed the deep scratches across his collarbone. Flushing, he dropped his sandwich onto Leo’s desk as he fastened the buttons. ‘Josh!’ Josh followed Leo’s gaze to his sandwich as the mayonnaise oozed out between the slices of bread, dripping onto the polished wood surface of Leo’s desk. He snatched it up hurriedly, stuffing it into his mouth. ‘Did you want something?’ Unable to speak, Josh shook his head and walked out. Continued (and concluded) in Part Four… Will be available October 2002
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