Rating: PG
Archive: Just ask me
Disclaimer: If you know it from the show, it's not mine. If you've never heard of something, I probably made it up.
Spoilers: No specifics, but seasons one and two are fair game.
Summary: A picture is worth a thousand words….

It was just a picture. A black and white picture on the society pages of Saturday's Washington Post. A group of people, the women dressed to the nines, the men in dinner suits, champagne glasses in hand, talking during the intermission of the opera. A group of friends enjoying a Friday night out.

It was just a picture.

There had been hundreds like it before. There would be hundreds like it after.

But this wasn't just a picture.

This was a picture that could tear worlds apart.

>*<*>*<

Ainsley Hayes was almost out the door when the ringing phone called her back to her sitting room. Cursing silently to herself, she dropped her files on the table, crossing the room in a couple of swift strides. She didn't even bother to check caller ID before picking up. "Hello?" she said, slightly out of breath.

"Ainsley?" The voice was familiar, as it should be, the owner having only left her bed a couple of hours before.

"Hey you," she replied, breaking into a smile. "I'm on my way, I promise. I fell back asleep after you left and…"

"Yeah." He interrupted her, and from the tone of his voice when he said that single syllable, Ainsley knew that something had happened. She gripped the phone tighter.

"What's wrong?"

"Do you have this morning's Post?"

"Sure." Ainsley looked to the hall table where she'd left it without even opening it. She'd been planning to leaf through it in the office before she got down to business.

"Get it. Open the society pages." Frowning, Ainsley did as she was told. "See the picture? The one with Stackhouse and his wife and their friends?"

"Yeah…but what's…." Her voice trailed off as she looked again at the picture. She didn't need his next prompting.

"Ainsley, look in the background."

Her voice was soft as she whispered aghast, "Shit."

The background of the picture was slightly out of focus, but it was definitely a man and a woman. The man was saying something, and the woman looked like she could have been laughing, long blonde hair catching the camera's eye as she looked at the man just a little too closely, with a little too much interest. The man was standing beside her, not touching her, but close to her. On the surface, there was nothing incriminating, nothing unusual about the two. On second look though, on closer reflection, there was an air of cosiness about them, an intimacy that couldn't be denied. There was no doubt that they were a couple.

And to anyone who knew them both, out of focus as the picture was, there was still very little doubt about who they were.

"Yeah." His voice was terse.

"H-has anyone…?"

"Not yet, but it's early. Are you still coming in?"

"I think I should. Otherwise it'll look like I'm hiding…" Ainsley chewed her lip nervously. "This is bad isn't it?"

There was a pause, and she prayed that he would lie to her. "It's not good," he finally said.

Ainsley closed her eyes. "I'll call you when I get in," she whispered.

Before he could reply, there was a loud bang at his end of the phone line, accompanied by a familiar female voice, promising death and dismemberment to the next individual to cross her path. Ainsley winced again, knowing what was coming next. "I'll call you later," she heard, before the line went dead.

She stared at the receiver for a long moment before placing it back on its cradle gently. Her gaze then fell on the newspaper, the black and white dots of the picture fading into a blur of grey as her eyes filled with tears. "It's just a picture," she whispered. "It doesn’t mean anything." Her voice bounced off the walls of the silent apartment, sounding hollow even to her own ears.

The paper made a satisfying thud as it hit the wall.

Across town in the White House, a door was slammed shut, and an irate woman stood in front of the desk. She waited until the phone was put down before she threw the Post down on the desk, the offending picture on top, the offending portion circled in blood red marker. "Are you kidding me?" she demanded.

He leaned back in his chair, meeting her gaze head-on, something almost defiant about his bearing. "Good morning CJ," he said. "How are you?"

"Don't 'Good morning CJ' me," she hissed. "Did you see this?"

He picked up his glasses, looked at the picture. Removed his glasses, placed them on the table. "It's a nice picture," he told her.

From the exasperated look on her face, from the position of her hands on her hips, he knew CJ wouldn't be fended off for long. Nor was she. Shaking her head, she asked him the question that he'd been asking himself for six long months. "What the hell are you thinking Leo?"

>*<*>*<

By the time Ainsley had collected herself and made it across the city, it was nearly an hour since her world had begun to fall apart. She made her way hurriedly through the halls of the West Wing, head down, feeling the stares of her fellow co-workers burning her back as she descended the stairs to the Steam Pipe Trunk Distribution Venue. The part of her mind that was still functioning rationally told her that most of these people couldn't possibly have seen the paper, couldn't possibly have noticed the background of that particular photo. The majority of her mind knew how Hester Prynne must have felt.

She was sitting in her office staring at a vitally important brief, not registering a thing written on the page, when there was a knock at her door. Hoping that whoever it was would go away, she sat quietly. The knock came again, this time accompanied by a soft voice. "Ainsley?"

Hope and despair waged war in Ainsley as she recognised the voice. Hope won out. "Come in," she called.

"Oh you are here. I wasn't sure." Margaret entered quickly, closing the door behind her. She looked at Ainsley, then away again, her eyes lighting on every corner of the room. "I've never been down here before. I like what you've done with the place."

"I had a little help." Ainsley leaned forward, resting her arms on her desk, regarding the other woman curiously. She'd never had much contact with Margaret, although she knew the prevailing theory among the senior staffers that Margaret was a touch eccentric - odd was the word most people used. She did know however that Leo thought the world of her, and that Margaret was loyal to a fault. To cross Leo was to cross Margaret, and it was a toss-up between most staffers as to who they'd rather have angry with them.

"It's nice." Margaret was pacing restlessly, hands moving endlessly. "Isn't it a little hot though?"

"You get used to it."

"I wasn't sure you'd be here. It being Saturday and all." Sitting down in the visitor's chair with her back perfectly straight, Margaret arranged her hands on her lap, clasping them tightly together.

Ainsley looked at her desk, memos and files everywhere. "Well," she began.

"I wasn't supposed to be in today. Leo gave me the day off. Then I saw the Post. So I came in. I thought Leo might need me."

Ainsley opened and closed her mouth. "Margaret -"

The redhead carried on as if she hadn't spoken. "CJ's in with him now. Has been since I got in. There's yelling. So I thought I'd hide."

"In the last place you thought people would look for you right?"

"No. Yes." Margaret looked flustered for a minute, and paused to regroup. When she spoke again, her words floored Ainsley. "I knew he was seeing someone." Seeing Ainsley's jaw drop open, she hastened to add, "Not you. But someone. I know Leo. I've worked for him for a long time. Since he was Secretary of Labour."

"I know."

"I was already there. He kinda inherited me with the job." Margaret shrugged. "When he left to work on the campaign, I quit too. Rented out my house, put my life in boxes and hit the campaign trail right along with him. I told him that I wasn't going to spend months breaking in a new boss when I had him just the way I liked him. I've seen a lot since then. You know?" Ainsley nodded slowly, wondered where she was going with this. "When things got bad for him…with the pills…that was horrible. But watching him work on the campaign, seeing how much he loved it…it was one of the best times in my life. Then when Jenny filed for divorce-" Margaret's jaw tightened, and Ainsley felt her own follow suit. "-He never said anything. But I knew something was up. It nearly killed him."

Ainsley nodded again, Margaret's gaze nearly piercing her in two. "Why are you telling me this?"

Margaret ignored the question. "I knew he was seeing someone," she repeated. "Because he was acting different. I'm not sure how exactly. I couldn't describe it to you. But I could see it. And I didn’t know why no-one else could. So I just thought I was imagining things. Then I saw the Post this morning and it all made sense."

Ainsley took a deep breath. "Margaret, before you say anything, please allow me to speak. I know you may not care to hear what I have to say, but I've heard you out, and I must please ask you to extend to me that same courtesy." She knew she was babbling, and she hated herself for it.

"I'm not finished," Margaret said quickly, jumping in as Ainsley paused for breath. "I guess I knew because he was different. Good different. Not bad different. He's happy Ainsley. You make him happy. And anything that makes Leo happy is fine by me."

Ainsley blinked, not quiet sure of what she hearing. Tilting her head, she let those words run through her brain a couple of times. "Margaret, are you saying-?"

Vigorous nodding greeted the question. "For whatever it's worth…you have my blessing."

Ainsley found herself fighting back tears. Margaret's condemnation she could have handled, but this unexpected show of support almost made her break down completely. "It means a lot Margaret," she managed. "To me, and to Leo too. He adores you you know."

Margaret blushed, and she and Ainsley shared a smile. Then she seemed to remember who and where she was, and she nodded briskly. "Good then. I should get back upstairs."

"OK. And thank you. Again."

"You're welcome. Oh, and Ainsley?" Margaret was standing at the door, one hand on the handle when she turned back to face the desk. Ainsley looked up at her expectantly. "I hope it goes without saying. If you ever hurt him? I will stab you to death with a letter opener."

Ainsley looked her straight in the eyes and smiled. "If I ever hurt him, I'll lend you mine."

Margaret nodded again and closed the door behind her, leaving Ainsley with a bemused smile on her face.

>*<*>*<

Leo watched the door close and heaved a sigh of relief as he looked at his watch. He shook his head as he realised that CJ had only been in with him for a little more than an hour and a half. It had seemed much longer that that. Much, much longer.

The worst part of it was that this was only the beginning. He hadn't seen anyone else since he'd come into work, hadn't had to run the gauntlet of the stares and the whispers. He'd even harboured the vain hope that no-one would notice the picture, that no-one would see what he had seen straight away. CJ's noisy entrance had blown that idea, and he knew for sure now that he and Ainsley were on borrowed time. If CJ knew, that meant that Carol probably did. Which therefore meant that most of the assistants did. From then on, the story was community property.

Which meant that it could get out easily. Too easily.

He sighed as he stood up. Thinking of assistants, he realised that he could find out what public opinion was very easily indeed. "Margaret!" he yelled.

As expected, the door opened and Margaret came in, looking agitated. "Leo…"

For once, he didn't let her say anything. "Sit down Margaret. And close the door. I want to ask you something."

She stayed standing, wringing her hands. "Leo, there's someone here to see you."

"I don't want to see-"

"It's Mallory."

He had to swallow hard against the lump in his throat. "Send her in."

Margaret nodded, unable to even rustle up a reassuring smile as she left the room. When Mallory came in, Leo knew at once that he was in real trouble. "I saw the paper," she stated without preamble, not even giving him a chance to give his usual greeting.

He nodded. "I thought so." He took a deep breath. "Mal, you gotta know, I never meant for you to find out like this."

"Oh, so you meant for me to find out." She sat down in the visitor's chair that CJ had just vacated, and Leo suddenly wished more than anything in the world that it was CJ sitting there again. "That's comforting I suppose."

"We wanted to tell you," Leo tried again. "But there never seemed to be a right time…"

"We?" Scorn dripped from Mallory's voice. "Well, I'm certainly glad to know when you were making time to screw a girl young enough to be your daughter that you also made time to think about how best to tell me."

Leo blanched visibly at her words. "It's not like that Mal-"

"You told Mom that this job was more important than your marriage. You spent every waking hour at the office when you guys were together. I hardly get to see you. But you make time for her?" Her voice rose sharply as she spoke. "What makes her so special?"

Leo could only shrug helplessly. "I don't know what to say to you Mal. I wish I did."

"Me too." As quickly as Mallory's anger had risen, it disappeared, and she slumped back in her seat, defeated. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Ainsley Hayes." This at least, Leo could handle. "She's a lawyer-"

"I know that name. Why do I know that name?"

"She's written a few op-ed pieces…been on a few TV shows…"

The moment he said "TV shows" Leo could see the proverbial light-bulb go on over Mallory's head. "She's the Republican."

"Ainsley is a Republican, yes."

Mallory's eyes were narrowing suspiciously, anger setting up to make a return appearance. "She's the Republican who made mincemeat of Sam on TV." Too late Leo recalled Mallory talking about that appearance with him, and he knew that she was remembering it too. "You offered her a job here."

Leo was finding it hard to meet her gaze. "She's working in the Counsel's Office."

"She works for you?" Mallory's yell could have rivalled CJ on her best day.

"Technically, she works with me."

Mallory's jaw dropped, and she uttered a harsh laugh. "Well that just makes it ok then. She works with you. Did your little lawyer come up with that?"

"Don't talk about her in that tone Mallory." Leo could feel his own temper rising.

"Why shouldn't I? Isn't it obvious what she's doing?"

"Not really." Leo had the strange feeling that he'd missed part of the conversation, but he was sure that Mallory was about to fill him in. He was just as sure that he wasn't going to like her conclusions.

"Dad. You think that she's just doing this for fun? She's after something Dad. How long will it be until she asks for your help to get something done? Before she's whispering in your ear, trying to influence you? Before she-"

"Mallory, that is enough!" This time, it was Leo who did the interrupting, and the tone of his voice brooked no argument. This was the tone he used with truculent staffers, with senators and congressmen. This was the tone he had once used with Mallory when, as a little girl or rebellious teenager, she had refused to do as she was told. It had never failed him before. It didn't fail him now. "I don't understand Mallory. I don't understand how one little picture could cause this much trouble. It's not even a story yet. And yet, everyone is talking about it, everyone's got their own opinion. CJ was in here earlier, and you came in here, and both of you were treating me like I'm some dirty old man, seducing this impressionable girl who's young enough to be his daughter. That's pretty much what you said, isn't it? Then, you start acting like she's some gold-digging hussy who seduced me, just so she could get a better job or something. Let me tell you Mal, I don't recognise me or Ainsley there. Where's the man and the woman who met each other through work, and ended up falling for each other, even though they didn't want to? Even though every scrap of common sense either one of them possessed told them that this was a bad idea? Where's the worry that if they were found out both their careers would be ruined? That it could cause a scandal for an administration that's had more than its fair share already? The worry about what it would do to their families? How he's heard her cry at night because she's scared of what her family and friends will say? The nights he's not been able to sleep because he's afraid that his daughter will end up hating him? Do you know what it's like to want to be with someone, to enjoy being with someone, and have something like this hanging over you?" He sighed. "We didn't want this to happen Mal. It just did."

Mallory was staring at him, eyes wide. "You're in love with her aren't you?" she whispered incredulously.

Ever since she came in, Leo had been pacing restlessly behind his desk. Her words stilled him however, and he dropped heavily into his chair. "I don't know. I don't know if we're in love or not. It's not just some office fling though. I know that. I know that I care about her. I know that it hurts when I see her cry, and she thinks I don't, and I know that it's because of us. We tried to stop it Mal. We did. Stopped seeing each other outside of work, avoided each other in the hallways. I gotta tell you, it was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do." Meeting Mallory's gaze, he could see sympathy replacing anger. "The only thing worse than being with her, knowing what's at stake, knowing the worst that could happen, is not being with her."

Mallory stared at him for what could only have been a few seconds, but in reality, felt like an eternity. Eventually, her jaw set and her eyes shifted to the ceiling. Leo knew his daughter, and knew that she was trying not to cry as she spoke. "Then you should be with her," she eventually whispered.

"Excuse me?"

She nodded as she continued, her voice full of tears that she was just about keeping at bay. "You should be with her Dad. If she's that important to you, if she makes you that happy - you should be with her."

"Thank you Mallory. That means a lot."

Mallory nodded, looking everywhere but at him. "Yeah. Well. I'd better get going."

She was at the door before he spoke again. "Mal?"

"Yeah?" She turned, managed a smile.

"Her name is Ainsley."

Father and daughter stood still for a moment, finally looking at each other, before Mallory nodded again and walked out.

>*<*>*<

Ainsley had buried herself in her work for most of the morning. Or at least, she had tried to bury herself in work, with very little success. She would read an entire page, turn it over, only to forget what she had read almost at once. All she could think about was her and Leo and how their lives would change if this became a story. If she snorted to herself, knowing that from this morning, it was more a case of when. The entire West Wing was probably talking about the two of them, and from there to the Press Room was only a matter of time. She'd spent the entire morning in her office, refusing to venture out, praying that no-one would come to the door. So far, apart from Margaret, no-one had. She didn't know if that was a good or a bad thing.

Her reverie was interrupted by a knock at the door. "Ainsley?' a female voice called out.

Ainsley leaned back in her chair, recognising the voice. "Come in Donna," she called.

"Hi." Donna pushed open the door, a shy smile on her face, arms laden with food. "I thought you might be down here, and that maybe you didn't want to come up to the mess, so I brought down some lunch."

Ainsley shook her head. "I'm not hungry."

Donna stopped dead and stared at her, mouth agape. "Oh my God. If I'd known it was this serious, I would have come down here sooner."

At her friend's deadpan expression, Ainsley chuckled and smiled her first genuine smile since the phone call that morning. "I have been known to refuse food before."

"When?" Donna held up two boxes, and even though Ainsley knew that she was acting as if she was making a joke, Donna was being deadly serious. "It's just a sandwich Ainsley. You've got to eat. You want ham or chicken?"

Recognising Donna's tone as one that she had honed from long years of working with Josh, Ainsley knew she was beaten. "Chicken."

Donna grinned, handing it over. "I got you some Fresca too."

"Thanks." Ainsley took a bite of her sandwich, chewing it slowly. When she swallowed, she looked back up at Donna. "You can ask me you know."

"Ask about what?" Donna blinked a couple of times, the very picture of innocence. Innocence vanished with a raise of Ainsley's eyebrow. "OK, so I came down here to see how you were. How are you?"

"I'm fine." It was Donna's turn to raise an eyebrow. "OK. I'm not so fine." She picked at her chicken. "Is everyone talking about us?"

"No?"

"How do you outsmart Josh Lyman when you lie so badly?"

"It's all anyone's talking about. I'm not sure who saw the picture first, but it went the rounds of all the bullpens."

"I heard CJ was in with Leo?"

Donna nodded. "There was shouting. You could hear it from the other side of the hall. Carol's been staying as far away from her as she can all morning. But it hasn't come up in any of the briefings, no-one's asked CJ about it. That's got to be good right?"

"But how long will it last?"

"Margaret told me she was down here with you."

"She was great. I thought she was going to kill me with a stapler."

"Not a letter opener?" Donna was trying to get Ainsley to laugh, and she grinned when she succeeded. "She told me about that too."

Ainsley checked the clock on the wall. "I'm surprised it took you this long to come down here," she observed.

"I'm trying to be discreet. Did it work?"

"It worked. But you've got something on your mind Donna. Spit it out."

Donna took a bite of her sandwich before she did as she was told. "Leo? Leo's the guy you're seeing?"

"You knew I was seeing someone? How?"

"I recognised the signs. Just because a lot of people here are oblivious doesn't mean that I'm one of them. I knew you were seeing someone. I'd never have thought of Leo though."

"Why? Because he's my boss? Because he's old enough to be my father? Because he's a Democrat and I'm not?"

"Something like that. I've just never thought of Leo that way."

"Neither had I." There was a sad smile trying to break through Ainsley's melancholy.

"How did it begin?" Donna leaned forward in her seat, eyes aglow with interest. "I'm not being nosy," she hastily added. "I'm just wondering."

"It started small. I had plans with this guy and he stood me up. I had tickets to the opera, and I'd already changed by the time he got around to phoning me. I was wearing this long black dress - it looked good on me. And it should have for what I paid for it. Anyway, I decided that if I was all dressed up, that I might as well go on my own. On my way out, I had to drop some files up to Leo. Margaret wasn't at her desk, so I just went in. He complimented me on my dress and asked me where I was going. So I told him, and I told him about the jerk who had just dumped me for the last time. He told me that he loved the opera, that he and his wife used to have season tickets. And I don't know what got into me, but I asked him if he wanted to go with me." Ainsley shrugged. "And he said yes."

"And?"

Ainsley laughed. "And he was a perfect gentleman!" Donna leaned back in her seat, a disappointed pout on her face. "He was Donna. Nothing happened that night. But the next week, he had tickets to an art exhibition. And he asked me to go with him. And from then on, we just started seeing more and more of each other. And before I knew it, I was falling for him. I tried to stop it the moment I realised what it was. And he did too."

"But it was too late." Donna's voice was soft and distant, and Ainsley wasn't quite sure which one of them she was talking about anymore.

"That's about the size of it. Then one day, we literally bumped into one another in the hall. He grabbed my arm to steady me and I swear Donna, there were fireworks. Just from that. I managed to make it down here, I don't know how. And I was sitting here, trying to figure out what to do when the phone started ringing. I didn't even have to answer it to know who it was. So he came over to my place that night, and we talked. Just talked. And we realised that we wanted to give this, whatever it was, a chance."

"Wow." Donna sounded impressed. "And we never knew."

"You weren't supposed to. We knew how bad it would look. We knew what people would say."

"And you still went ahead?"

"I can't explain it Donna. It's just…" She waved her hands, trying to put words to what she was feeling. "I mean…it's Leo. You know?"

"Not really," Donna laughed. "I know, I know, I'm one to talk. I mean, look at me and my track record with relationships." Ainsley nodded, knowing just what Donna wasn't saying. "I've never thought of Leo…" Her voice trailed off, shaking her head as if she was trying to picture it, and failing utterly.

"He was the first person in the White House to be nice to me. Everyone else was avoiding me, as if being a Republican was some fatal contagious disease. And he didn't have any reason to be. I wrote an op-ed piece about him when Lillienfield released the story about him. I said some horrible things Donna. Such horrible things. And he knew, and he was still nice to me."

"It's a long way from nice to…the other thing."

"There was always something. Even when he offered me the job. I kept him there for ages, giving him all the reasons why I didn't want to work in this White House. And at the end, he told me that the president was asking me to serve. And that everything else was just crap. And he had this little smile on his face…you know the smile he gets?" Donna was nodding with a smile of her own. "And when I started here. He helped me find my office. He was nice to me when he saw me in the halls. And I thought that whatever I was feeling for him was just gratitude."

"Ah." Donna nodded sagely. "That happy land of denial. I know it well."

"I was there for a long time. And then I figured it out. He makes me laugh Donna. He's the sweetest, kindest man I think I've ever met. And I can talk to him, and he listens to me. And the thoughts of what people are going to say about him -are saying about him…" Her voice trailed off as tears threatened to overcome her.

Donna leaned forward in her seat, reaching out an arm to touch Ainsley. "It's going to be ok Ainsley. Leo's a good man. And we're not going to let anything happen to him or you without a fight." When Ainsley managed a smile at that, she continued. "Have you seen him today?"

"He called me this morning to warn me. But I haven't seen him yet. And that has me scared. I mean, what if he thinks that I'm not worth all the trouble? What if he's up there trying to come up with a way of letting me down easily? What if-"

"Ainsley, stop it! Leo's not like that, you just said it yourself. He's probably up there as scared as you are. Plus, you only had to deal with Margaret. He's had a pissed off CJ and Mallory so far."

It took a moment for Donna's words to register, and when they did, Ainsley's face paled. "Mallory was here?" she choked out.

Donna got pale too and her mouth opened and shut again several times before she spoke. "Ainsley, don't go getting crazy on me…it doesn't mean anything…"

Whatever else Donna was going to say was interrupted by a knock on the door, and before either of them could speak, the object of their conversation came in. "Hey Donna," he said somewhat awkwardly when he saw her sitting there. Then he looked at Ainsley, and Donna felt as if she might as well not exist any more. There was a look on his face that she'd never seen before in all the years she'd known Leo McGarry, and she hardly recognised his voice when he spoke. It was deep and husky, almost a whisper, as he said, "How's my girl?"

There were tears in Ainsley's eyes and all she could do was shake her head silently. Standing up, she was across the room in a couple of strides and she flung her arms around Leo's neck, burying her head in the crook of his shoulder. One of his arms went around her back, the other came up to stroke her hair. From her vantage point on the visitor's chair, Donna could hear him whispering something to her, although she couldn't make out the words, but she felt tears come into her own eyes at the tableau before her. Without a word, because as far as they were concerned, she wasn't in the room anyway, she left the office.

It was the soft sound of the door closing that disturbed Ainsley, made her pull her head back to look up at Leo, step away from him a little. "I’m sorry," she whispered, apologising for hugging him in front of Donna, for her tears, for the whole situation they found themselves in. "I was just sitting here, and I was so afraid that you…"

"Ssssh," Leo pulled her closer to him again. "There's no need for that." His hands moved up and down her back slowly.

Ainsley let her forehead drop against his shoulder for a moment before straightening up again. "Is this the part where you tell me that everything's going to be ok?" She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand as she spoke, trying to manage a smile.

Leo's hands found her shoulders and he rubbed up and down her forearms gently. "You know I can't tell you that."

"Spoilsport."

"But I can tell you that we're in this together. However bad it gets." He smiled reassuringly.

Ainsley matched his smile with one of her own, looking down as smoothed his already perfectly smooth tie. "I needed to hear that," she admitted quietly.

"I should've come down here sooner. I'm sorry."

She shook her head, cutting him off before he could say anything else. "Donna told me about Mallory. Was she angry?"

"She was pretty pissed," he sighed. "But believe it or not, when she left, I think she was coming around to the idea." Ainsley's face betrayed her doubt. "Slowly." He looked over her shoulder at the remains of lunch on her desk. "You've eaten?"

"Donna made me. I wasn't hungry but she insisted."

Humour and horror combined on Leo's face. "Oh God. I should've come down here sooner."

She swatted his chest, laughing despite herself. "Why does everyone say that?"

Leo laughed too. "Because your appetite is legendary. One might even say feared. Sam still bears the bruises from the time he tried to beat you to the last crab cake-" He was cut off by a none too gentle slap on the arm from Ainsley, but any sting from the slap was offset by the look on Ainsley's face. She'd lost most of the haunted look he'd worn when he'd first come into the office thanks to their long-standing joke. As he looked down at her, he knew why he'd come down there, knew why he hadn't just picked up the phone and called her. He'd needed this, needed the physical contact. He'd needed to see her. "Come over tonight." The words were out before he realised.

Doubt flooded back across her face. "Leo, I'm not sure that's a good idea. I mean, what if..?"

He shrugged. "If it's gonna break, it's gonna break. With or without anything else. The photo they already have isn't fooling anyone." When her expression didn't change, he continued talking. "Please. I need you tonight."

That broke her as she recognised the truth in the statement, and that the feeling was mutual. "OK."

"OK." He hugged her again, pressing her as close to him as he could, as tightly as he could. She returned the intensity of his embrace as he kissed the side of her head before finding her lips quickly. "I'd better get back."

"OK." She let him slip out of her arms, before catching his hand and pulling him back to her for another kiss, this one longer, before releasing him again. "See you later."

Grinning, he went back to work.

>*<*>*<

"And that concludes our briefing everyone. The lid is on, enjoy the rest of your Saturday." With a grin that she didn't feel, CJ concluded her final press briefing of the day, and thanked a God that she hadn't believed in for far too long that she hadn't got The Question. "Carol, if anyone is looking for me, tell them that I’m off the clock for the day."

"Hot date?"

"No. The Senior Staff are just going to get rip-roaringly drunk."

"Enjoy!"

Carol went one way, CJ the other. CJ was just congratulating herself on getting through the day intact when she heard a voice behind her. "That sounds like fun. Can I come?"

"Not tonight Danny."

"Ah-kay. Can I ask you something?"

CJ stopped and spun to face him. "Danny, I'm not in the mood for round 302 of 'The Dating Game' tonight ok?"

"Fine." Danny shrugged and watched her walk away. "I'll just go over to Leo's office and ask if he enjoyed the opera last night."

She stopped in her tracks and turned slowly. There was no smile on his face, no twinkle in his eye. One look at him told her that he wasn't putting her on. A second look told her that he was trying to give her a break. "My office."

>*<*>*<

"I'm coming, I'm coming." Leo was muttering to himself more than anyone else as he went to answer the door, wondering who on earth would be calling now. He'd been looking forward to a quiet night in, and entertaining visitors wasn't high on his list of priorities. In fact, it wasn't anywhere remotely in the same neighbourhood as his list of priorities. He swung the door open, and any words he might have spoken died on his lips when he saw who was standing there.

Sam and Toby still clad in their "Saturday-casual" office clothes stood on his steps, looking at him as if they'd never seen him before. Which he supposed he shouldn't be surprised at, since they hadn't seen him in anything except a suit since the days of the "Bartlet for America" campaign. And even then they'd never seen him as he was now, in faded blue jeans and a black woollen jumper. Wordlessly he stepped aside to let them in.

They stared at each other in the hall for a couple of moments before Toby spoke. "Leo, we may have a problem."

Leo nodded. "It's gonna break?" It wasn't really a question. Their presence here on Saturday night could mean only one thing.

"Yeah." Toby's reply was curt, but Sam filled in the blanks.

"Danny gave CJ a heads-up. Apparently, someone in the Post's gossip section saw the picture and put two and two together. We don't know what's going to be in it, but the copy editor owes Danny a favour. He's going to get CJ a copy of the text some time in the next couple of hours."

"OK."

"CJ's coming over here when she gets it. Josh and Donna are on their way to Ainsley's to bring her here too."

Leo was looking at something over their shoulders. "Then you'd better give them a call and get them over here."

The penny dropped simultaneously and Toby and Sam's heads swivelled slowly so that they were looking in the same direction as Leo. Standing in the living room door was a barefoot Ainsley, clad in a blue towelling robe, hair still wet from the shower falling in tangles around her shoulders. She looked right through them, her gaze locked on Leo, bottom lip caught between her teeth.

"You heard that?" Leo asked her. When she nodded, apparently unable to speak, he went to her and wrapped his arms around her. So quietly that Toby and Sam were barely able to hear him, he told her, "We'll get through this."

Toby and Sam stood awkwardly watching, until Toby cleared his throat. "I'll call Josh."

His words broke the spell, and Ainsley straightened, pulling away from Leo. Acknowledging Sam and Toby for the first time, she nodded at them, a slight blush staining her cheeks. "I'll go put some clothes on."

When she was gone, Leo ushered Sam through to the sitting room while Toby stayed out in the hall to call Josh. Sam's eyes swept the room slowly, taking in the television tuned to CNN with the sound turned low, the pillows scattered on the couch, the fire dancing in the fireplace. On the coffee table, there were two glasses of water, side by side. The Times crossword stared up at him half-done, partially obscured by a dog-eared copy of Wuthering Heights. "I'm sorry this is spoiling your evening," he finally managed.

"Don't worry about it." Leo shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "We didn't have plans….we were going to order in food later. Ainsley wasn't hungry."

Sam did a double take. "My God. I knew this would be hard on her but…"

In spite of the seriousness of the situation, Leo chuckled. "Don't let her hear you say that. She's starting to get a complex."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Starting?"

Toby strode into the room, snapping his cell phone shut as he did so. "They're on their way," he told them. "And they said they'd bring the food."

"None for me." Ainsley followed him into the room, almost walking into him as he stopped dead and turned.

"None for you? Who are you and what have you done with the real Ainsley Hayes?"

Ainsley shot him a look of death and levelled the same stare on Sam and Leo, who were trying in vain to stop their laughter. "Shut up." But she was smiling too. Sam took in her appearance - she'd quickly brushed her hair, and now it lay brushed away from her face, falling down her back. She was more dressed down than he'd ever seen her, in grey sweatpants and a matching Michigan sweatshirt, and she was still barefoot. But in that brief instant of joking with the three of them, he couldn't remember her ever looking more beautiful. There was something different about her, something softer, more relaxed. She didn't look as stressed as she did when she was ploughing through legal briefs, or battling with Democrats who still didn't quite trust her. She looked younger, more innocent somehow. Peaceful. Contented. Tearing his gaze away from her, Sam looked at Leo, and saw something on his face that he hadn't seen in a long time, since the days when Jenny used to come to campaign events with Leo.

In those instants of looking around, of seeing the room around him, Sam swore he heard something click into place in his mind, and he wondered how he'd missed it, how everyone had missed it, for so long. How these two people who he worked with every day could make a life together and hide it from the world. And how they could be so happy doing it.

Once that clicked in his head, Sam knew that he was going to do everything he could to help them.

Leo motioned for them all to sit down, and busied himself cleaning off the coffee table. "Can I get you anything to drink?" he offered, mentally calculating what he had in the house. Picking up the newspaper, something caught his eye, and he turned on Ainsley suspiciously. "You did it again, didn't you?"

Sam and Toby's heads swivelled from one to the other like spectators at a tennis match as Ainsley grinned. "30 across? 'Sport where precipitously the French run'?"

"And from that you got 'steeplechase'?"

"Well, it was the right answer. Steep-le-chase?"

Leo looked closer at the crossword, cocking his head to one side. "And it worries me that you knew that." Seeing Sam and Toby looking mystified, he took pity on them. "The Times crossword."

"He's possessive," Ainsley informed them.

"And she does this all the time."

Toby rubbed his forehead. "I can't believe I'm sitting here," he muttered.

Sam was much perkier. "I can't believe you two." He was looking at Ainsley, knowing that he'd never ask his next question if he was looking at Leo. "How long has this been going on?"

"And he speaks in song titles. This just gets better."

Ainsley ignored Toby. "Six months."

"Well, I'm never playing poker with you, that's for sure. And no-one knew?"

Both Leo and Ainsley replied in the negative. "Not until they saw that picture," Ainsley continued softly. "Just pure dumb luck."

"Dumb is the right word."

"Toby…" Leo's word was a warning, which had never stopped Toby as long as they'd been in power, and didn't stop him now.

"What, I can't point out the idiocy of your actions? Of entering into this...this thing …whatever it is…despite the fact that we were finally, finally, for the first time in our terms of office, free of scandal? I can't point out that bad and all as it was that you did this at all, that it was the height of stupidity to go out where people could see you two together and take photographs? At least when Sam did it, he was set up…"

"Toby, that is enough." Leo was furious, Ainsley was blinking back tears, and Sam was sitting quietly, not knowing where to look. "I will not have you talk about Ainsley and me like that. I will not have you treat us like we're 'some thing' that you resent having to deal with. This is not some thing Toby. Not to us. This is everything." He might have gone on to say more, but the doorbell stopped him.

When he'd left the room, Ainsley's gaze fluttered from Sam to Toby. "You'll have to excuse him - it hasn't been an easy day for him."

"Or for you." Toby was shaking his head disgustedly, but Sam was trying to be fair.

"I didn't have CJ beating down my door first thing this morning. I didn't have to go twelve rounds with Mallory either. He's the one who's taking all the heat for this." Ainsley shot a pointed look at Toby. "It wasn't his fault. And it wasn't mine. It just happened."

"Mallory knows?" The name had caught Sam's attention, and Ainsley doubted that he'd taken in anything she'd said after it. "What did she say?"

Ainsley let out a breath, shaking her head. "He won't tell me. He thinks he's protecting me. But he did say that he thought she understood a little before she left."

Sam's eyebrows all but disappeared into his hair. "Wow. If he can work that kind of magic on her, maybe we should let him loose in the Press Room."

"Please don't joke about that." Toby rubbed his forehead, looking up as Leo re-entered the room, followed by Josh and Donna, with CJ bringing up the rear.

"Look who we found on the doorstep," Josh joked.

The attempt at levity fell predictably flat, and Donna shot him a glare. "We stopped at Wongs on the way over." Matter-of-factly she set the bags down on the coffee table. "We weren't sure what everyone wanted, so we got plenty." She looked pointedly at Ainsley, who shook her head.

"I'm really not hungry Donna."

Donna's mouth opened but it was Leo who spoke. "You're eating." The authority in his voice left her nodding meekly and he turned to Donna. "You'll find plates and forks and stuff in the kitchen."

Donna disappeared, and as she did so, CJ cleared her throat. "I hate to be a party pooper, but I'm not so sure anyone's going to have an appetite after this."

"Bad?" Sam was the only one brave enough to venture the question.

In reply, CJ simply opened the envelope she was carrying and began to pass around sheets of paper. "I made copies," she explained. As they were reading, Donna came back, and after placing the plates and cutlery on the table, seated herself on the arm of Josh's chair and began to read over his shoulder. When they were all finished there were varying expressions of worry on everyone's faces. Donna was pale, although her cheeks were positively rosy in comparison to Ainsley's.

"Well…" It was Josh who spoke first. "They haven't pulled any punches."

"They certainly haven't." Toby's hand was once again moving across his forehead.

Sam's face was turning from worried to outraged, and he stood up and began pacing. "You mean they can print this? They can actually get away with publishing this? How can it not be libel?"

"Because the basic facts are true Sam." All heads swivelled to Leo. "I did hire Ainsley, albeit at the specific request of the President. I am technically her boss, if you trace it back far enough. There is an age difference, and I am a divorced alcoholic and drug addict. It's the tone of the piece that's the problem, and you can't sue for that."

"Well, that's just plain wrong." Sam wasn't letting the point go, but Toby wrestled it away from him.

"Well, right or wrong, that's the way it is." He looked at each person in the room in turn. "The question is, what do we do now?"

The silence greeting that question was broken when CJ leaned forward and touched Ainsley's arm. "Ainsley?" She asked gently, noting the woman's pallor, and the fact that she hadn't moved since she'd finished reading the piece. "Are you ok?"

Her question seemed to snap Ainsley out of whatever trance she was in, and she nodded at CJ as she looked at Leo. "You need to call Mallory. And Jenny. They deserve to hear this from you, not from some reporter calling them for a reaction." Leo nodded as the rest of the group looked from one to the other. "And then, we need to work on a statement, announcing my resignation."

"No." Leo's response almost drowned out the gasp from Donna and the intake of breath from the others.

"You have a better idea?" Ainsley was on her feet, thrusting the sheet of paper at him. "Look at what they're saying about you!"

In contrast to her animation, Leo was calm. "We remind the press that it's White House policy not to comment on the personal lives of its staffers."

"You think that's going to hold them off? Leo, you barely survived the Lillienfield thing intact, and you took another beating over the President's MS. Does the phrase 'three strikes' mean anything to you? These people smell blood Leo, and they're going to hang you out to dry."

Leo smirked. "Don't mix your metaphors like that. You'll upset Toby."

"Jokes? You're making jokes?" She smacked him with the paper. "This is serious Leo. If I resign now, if we make a statement, then it won't be a story anymore."

"And you'll never work in this town again." All traces of jocularity had vanished from Leo's face. "You're not going to sacrifice yourself for me Ainsley. I won't allow it." He reached out and took the paper from her, crumpling it into a ball and letting it fall on the floor before taking his hand in hers again. "We're in this together, remember?"

Tears were pooling in her eyes. "Dammit Leo…" she whispered. Snatching her hand away, she turned and left the room quickly. They could hear her footsteps racing down the hall before a door slammed.

Awkwardly, Leo looked around the room. He considered saying several things before dismissing them all, settling on a simple, "Excuse me."

He closed the bedroom door behind him, standing against it for the moment, hoping that Josh's relaxation method would do him some good. It didn't. Not when all he could see was Ainsley's back, her head buried in her hands, shoulders shaking softly. He hadn't been lying earlier that day when he'd spoken to Mallory - it killed him when he saw Ainsley cry because of their relationship. Until now, it had only been the fear, the secrecy that had driven her to tears, and even then, only when she didn't think that he heard her. She hated to cry in front of him, thought that it made her seem weak. No matter how often he tried to talk to her about it, it was still something that she could never quite seem to do.

Until today.

Not for the first time, he cursed their decision to go to the opera that night, cursed the fates that just happened to have them in that camera frame at that precise instant. Cursed the narrow minds that even now were planning how to use this to their best advantage.

"Do you hate me?"

Her question startled him, both in its subject matter and its suddenness. His response was quick and instinctive however. "No. I could never hate you."

"You should." Her head came up, and he knew that she was wiping away her tears, but she still didn't turn to face him. "You should hate me. Look at me. Look at what I'm doing to your life."

Heaving a deep sigh, Leo came around to sit on the edge of the bed beside her. He sat down gingerly, leaving a space between them, not touching her, knowing instinctively that she wasn't ready for that yet. "Yeah. Look at what you're doing to my life. You're someone I can talk to about anything, and I know that you'll understand. Someone that I can go to for advice, be it personal or political and I know you'll always be honest. You're someone who's given me a reason to go home every night, and to go to the office every morning. You make me laugh…you make me think. And when you chatter on and on like you do, you drive me absolutely crazy." He chuckled in spite of himself, and out of the corner of his eye, he could see her smile slightly too. "And I wouldn't have it any other way Ainsley."

"Really?" Her voice was hoarse.

"Really. These past six months…I wouldn't swap them for anything. No matter what anyone thinks."

She was silent for a moment and he waited for her to speak, knowing that it was up to her now, hoping against hope that she wasn't going to make any hasty decisions. Because his worst fear all day had been that she was going to call things off, and he honestly didn't know how he'd handle that.

"I didn't know it would be this bad," she finally whispered. Anticipating his questioning look, she continued. "Oh, I knew that it'd be a scandal. And I guess I knew this morning when I saw the picture that people were going to talk. But that article…" A shudder coursed through her body. "God Leo, the things they said about us…about you…" When she looked up at him, the anguish in her eyes was like a knife through his heart. "I don't understand why they say those things."

"Because they can. Because we've left ourselves open." He spoke bluntly. "We always knew this could happen. We've just got to deal with it."

"How?"

"Any way we can."

His words made her breathe out for a long moment. Then, without breaking eye contact, she reached out and took his hand. He squeezed it tightly, a smile breaking out across his face. She still looked worried though. "Are we going to be ok?"

He raised her hand to his lips, holding it there. "Better than that," he promised.

She grinned, and leaned into him, closing the distance between them. Her head rested on his shoulder, and he wrapped an arm around her. "I'm sorry for what I said in there."

"No more resignation talk," he ordered. "Together, remember?"

"I can live with that."

"Good." He kissed the top of her head. "Ready to go back out there?"

She grinned again as she stood up and led the way. Her bare feet made no sound as she walked down the hall, but her gait slowed as she neared the living room, listening to the voices from within. It was Toby's that carried first. "What do you want us to do? You heard Leo, you know the facts of the story. What can we do?"

"They're reporting their version of the facts," was Donna's contribution.

"There's only one version." Josh was resolute, but his tone of voice changed almost immediately. "Ow! Donna! I didn't say I liked it!"

Donna may or may not have snorted, but Sam's voice cut off all talk. "There may be only one set of events, but there's two versions."

"And they pay you to write?"

"I'm serious Josh. All that article focuses on is the age difference, and the White House."

"That's pretty serious grounds there Sparky. Leo said it himself. That's the tone they're using."

"So we change the tone."

"How?" There was hope emerging in Donna's voice.

"Look around you guys." Sam's voice gathered enthusiasm as he went on. "Look in this room. That's what our focus should be. Not on who hired who, or on who's older than who and by how much. That's not what this is about. It's about two people who work together and who ended up falling for each other. It's about both of them wanting so much to protect the other that they're in there fighting over who gets the bigger black mark on their reputation. It's about her first reaction not being to try to save her skin, but remind him to tell his daughter. And his ex-wife. It's about Saturday nights in front of the fire, and bickering over the Times crossword because he hates it when she gives him the answers. It's about her wearing his sweatshirt and him trying to get her to eat because he knows she needs to, even if she doesn't want to. It's about a good man and a good woman who don't deserve to be vilified for caring about each other. That's what our focus should be."

By the time he finished speaking, there were tears in Ainsley's eyes, and she felt Leo's arms slip around her from behind, and he placed a kiss against her temple. "We have each other," he murmured in her ear. "And we have good friends. We're going to be way better than ok."

For the first time all day, she really believed him.

Entering the room, she was amazed to see how they turned as one, eyes flickering between her and Leo, seeking reassurance without words that she was ok, that they were both ok. Donna went straight into mother hen mode, sorting through cartons for whatever food she could find, dividing it up between two plates. She handed one to Leo as she indicated that he should sit down on the chair that she had just vacated, and he accepted it gratefully. Ainsley also had a plate thrust into her hands, and thought about rejecting it, but one look from Leo had her sitting down on the arm of his chair and digging a fork into the food. She didn't miss Donna's satisfied nod, or the smile that she flashed Josh as she sat down on the arm of his chair.

Almost immediately, Josh and Toby and CJ and Sam entered into a lively debate about how best to spin the press, about what they should say to the no doubt myriad questions that would face CJ at the press briefing the next day. "I still say we should deny everything," Leo muttered through a mouthful of chicken.

CJ shook her head. "That won't make it go away Leo and we all know it."

"It's no-one's business but ours." Leo was being very insistent.

"And that's our strategy," Sam piped up.

"It's a strategy now?" Toby raised an eyebrow. "A few minutes ago, it was just a nice speech."

Sam shot him a look, continuing with his point while looking each one of them in the eye. "We admit that there's a relationship. We point out that there's no direct working relationship between Leo and Ainsley. We point out that anything else is no-one else's business."

"But there is a working relationship. Leo is her boss," Josh frowned.

"Actually, he's my boss's boss. I report to Oliver Babish. He reports to Leo."

Josh shook his head. "Semantics."

"But a legitimate point." CJ scratched something into a legal pad already filled with scribbles and crossings-out. "We can use it somewhere."

"But where?" Toby's voice was barely a whisper.

The doorbell prevented anyone from answering. "Who could that be?" Leo wondered. He didn't notice Josh stealing the remainder of his chicken, or Ainsley slipping from the arm of the chair into the seat. When he came back, she expected him to bluster about either or both events, but instead he looked vaguely puzzled as Margaret followed him into the room. His look only grew more puzzled as Donna leaped up.

"Did you get it?"

"Yes, and let me tell you, you got the easy part of the deal." Margaret handed Donna a folder, before leaning over and grabbing a carton of food.

"Remind me to put you in a car with Josh sometime, and we'll see who got the easy job." Donna was flicking through the contents of the file and ignored Josh's indignant cry. "This is great."

"Would someone like to tell us what's going on here?" Toby sounded very tired.

Margaret and Donna exchanged a look. "Well," Margaret started. "Donna and I were talking earlier on…"

"About Ainsley and me?"

Josh was shaking his head. "Donna, you really shouldn't have done that."

"Yeah well, we did." Donna sounded and looked exasperated. "Are you going to let her finish?"

Josh waved a hand, and Margaret nodded. "Thank you. Now, as I was saying, Donna and I wanted to do something to help. And we talked about it." The look on her face dared them to stop her. "And we figured out that there was something we could do." A shadow of doubt crossed her features then, and she looked at Donna. "Did we do it?"

Donna beamed, her eyes still fixed on the folder. "Oh we did it all right."

Margaret beamed too, and the rest of the room looked between the two women. It was Ainsley who finally spoke. "Well?"

>*<*>*<

The next morning dawned bright and clear, and despite it being Sunday and therefore a day of rest, Donna and Margaret found themselves sitting in the bullpen outside Josh's office. They'd all had a pretty late night, leaving Leo's apartment at nearly midnight, having exhausted every possible question that CJ was likely to be asked. Even now, the senior staff were in Toby's office, fine-tuning anything that they weren't happy with, while Donna and Margaret sat at computers, monitoring the news sites, keeping up with the reaction to the story. So far, they'd been busy.

They took a break when Ainsley came in, with Donna in particular regarding her sternly. "You look tired," she said critically.

"Late night." Ainsley drained her black coffee.

"If you're going to go into details, I'll leave now." It was hard to tell whether Margaret was joking or being serious, but it had the desired effect of making Ainsley smile.

"If you must know, I got up at half past four this morning so that I could go back to my apartment and change."

Donna looked her up and down, admiring the red suit that Ainsley was wearing. The jacket was buttoned, showing a hint of the white top that she was wearing underneath, and the skirt fell to her knees. "That's a good colour for you," she told her.

Ainsley blushed. "Leo asked me to wear it - he likes me in red."

Donna and Margaret looked at each other, their expressions somewhere between amusement and horror. Donna managed a chuckle. "I don't know if that's really sweet, or way too much information."

Margaret on the other hand had fixed Ainsley with a stare. "You two are so disgustingly cute I might just have to kill you."

Ainsley looked down at her shoes. "Where's everyone else?"

"Toby's office. They're going to come here when CJ goes in, and we'll watch from CJ's office." Donna tilted her head. "You coming?"

Ainsley shook her head. "I'm going to go to Leo's office…you know…" Nods of understanding from Donna and Margaret reassured her that they understood. "I'm on my way there now…I just wanted to come by and say thank you to the two of you for what you did last night."

"It hasn't worked yet," Margaret reminded her.

"You know what I mean."

Donna grinned. "Hardly ever."

"I'm serious Donna." The tone of Ainsley's voice stilled the other two. "You two were the first two to come down to me yesterday. The first people I knew who offered me support. Neither of you judged us, neither of you told us that we were wrong. You took it upon yourselves to come up with a plan to help, and you sold the rest of them on it too. You didn't have to do that for us."

"Yeah, we did. That's what we do here Ainsley," Donna told her. "We look after our own."

"That's what friends are for." Margaret added.

"What you two have done goes beyond friendship. And I can't tell you how much it means to me. To Leo and me." There were tears coming into her eyes, and she was trying very hard to keep them back. "Thank you."

Just then, footsteps came down the hall. "CJ's going in now." Led by Josh, Sam and Toby walked into CJ's office, leaving the door open for the two assistants. Ainsley heard the TV blaring to life as she made her way to Leo's office. She didn't even knock, just slipped in quickly and quietly. He was standing in front of the TV, remote control pressed against his chin, deep in thought as he studied the empty rostrum on the screen, and he turned and grinned at her quickly when she came in. He was wearing a navy suit with the dark grey shirt that she liked and she complimented him on it as she kissed him hello.

"You don't look so bad yourself," he told her, slipping his hand into hers.

"Well, as Momma always said, if you don't feel good, look good."

"Words to live by." The small talk stopped when CJ appeared on the screen.

>*<*>*<

Seconds before she had stepped into the Press Room, CJ had smoothed down her hair, straightened her jacket, and basically made sure that she looked calm, composed and confident. Then, with a deep breath, she stepped into the lions' den.

"Good morning everyone," she began, blinded momentarily by the barrage of flashbulbs. She'd done enough press briefings to know that there were definitely more cameras popping than usual for a Sunday morning briefing. "I'll do my best to keep this short - I'm sure that many of you have plans for Sunday with your families, and I certainly don't want to keep you." She ran through the issues of the day in as normal a manner as possible while waiting for a bomb to go off, and she was surprised when the room didn't interrupt her, only asking questions about the subject at hand.

Then she asked if there were any other items.

Immediately, every hand in the room shot up at once, and every voice started shouting her name. "Danny?" She had argued long and hard the night before about who she should ask first, and Danny had been her first choice. He had given her the heads-up, he'd given her the draft so they wouldn't be surprised. She owed him.

"Does the White House have any comment on the reports this morning that Chief of Staff Leo McGarry is having an affair with Associate White House Counsel Ainsley Hayes?"

"Danny, it's not White House Policy to comment on the personal lives of its staff."

Danny wasn't going to let it go that easily, nor did CJ expect him to. "But surely it's a violation of White House Policy when a boss is dating his subordinate?"

CJ smiled slightly. "Leo McGarry is the White House Chief of Staff. Ainsley Hayes does not report to him directly, rather, she reports to the White House Counsel, Oliver Babish. Most of her work involves sitting in on meetings, writing policy reports, or summarising memoranda and judgements, translating legalese so that people like me can talk somewhat knowledgeably to people like you. Most of the work she does ends up on several desks, for the attention of several people, before it makes it to the Chief of Staff's office, if he gets to see it at all. It might interest you to know that in the years that Miss Hayes has worked at the White House, that some three hundred case files have crossed her desk. Of those, the cases that involve her working directly with Leo McGarry number twenty-three. That's less than ten percent of her workload spread over some three and a half years." She looked out at the room again. "Katie?"

The blonde reported looked at her notebook as she spoke. "CJ, Mary Marsh was quoted this morning as saying that it 'speaks volumes of the moral infirmities of the Bartlet Administration that they would countenance a relationship between the Chief of Staff and a woman who could be his daughter.' Any comment?"

"Both Leo McGarry and Ainsley Hayes are single people, over the age of consent. What they do in their free time is their own concern." CJ's reply was clipped, and she shook her head as she finished it. Then, removing her glasses, she looked over the room and spoke slowly.

"Something that you should all bear in mind. I mentioned free time a second ago. Well, when you work for the White House, that's not something you get a lot of. Most of the Senior Staff work seven days a week, getting into the West Wing as early as seven o'clock in the morning, not leaving often until midnight. I don't remember the last time I was in bed before one o'clock in the morning. Families suffer. Friendships suffer, because you don't have the time to see other people outside these walls. In a very real sense, the people you work with become your family. We spend nearly every waking hour together, and I knew more about the rest of the Senior Staff within one year of working with them than I did about my college roommate, who I lived with for four years."

"When you're working in that situation, relationships arising as a result is inevitable. Some would call it natural. You all know my assistant Carol." CJ glanced over her shoulder at the woman who was doing her best to disappear into the wall. "What you may not know is that six months ago, she became engaged to Steven Jackson, who works in the White House Counsel's Office. They met in the mess, when they literally bumped into each other, and he ended up wearing my chicken salad sandwich."

"Then there's Nancy, one of the assistants in the Oval Office, who has been dating Mark Thompson. They met when he was an aide on the re-election campaign. Hilda Montgomery, who works at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, and her husband Jason Montgomery also met through work. Glenn Thomas, who works for the National Economic Council is dating Lilli Mays, who is the First Lady's Chief of Staff. Justice Department Spokesperson Amelia Marshall and Education Department Spokesperson Daniel Wolfgramm are involved, as are Lindy Jensen from the Education Department and Steven Earl, who used to work for the Office of Strategic Initiatives. White House Deputy Chief of Staff Joshua Lyman used to date Mandy Hampton during the Bartlet for America campaign, and they maintained a successful working relationship when she was Media Relations Director in the White House after their break up." Those who knew Josh and Mandy waited for lightning to strike CJ where she stood, breathing a sigh of relief when she was spared. "I could also make reference to a certain reporter from the Chicago Sun and another from the Detroit Free Press who met in the Press Room and married last year." Two faces in the Press Room grew red. "And of course, the President's body man, Charlie Young is dating Zoey Bartlet."

"I have a list of names here," CJ patted a folder for emphasis. "Including those names I've just given. All have dated or are dating other White House staffers. All are willing to speak to the Press about how this has affected their working relationships, as well as how others viewed it. This, of course, only scratches the surface. We can only know roughly how many staffers were asked this question, not how many weren't. We can't count the people who dated colleagues but have left us for pastures new. And we have no way of knowing how many may not have answered truthfully for their own reasons."

"In addition to this anecdotal evidence, there are also references to studies which show that upwards of sixty percent of people asked said that they either have dated or would date a work colleague. Some forty percent of respondents said that they were more likely to meet a potential date through work than through any other means."

"Workplace dating happens. The White House is no different. Leo McGarry and Ainsley Hayes have broken no laws, have committed no crimes. All they did was enter a relationship." CJ emphasised the last word with a pointed look at Danny, and repeated herself so that her point wouldn't be missed. "A relationship, not an affair. A relationship that has made them both happy." She looked out over the room again, making eye contact with as many of them as she could. "In the end, isn't that all that matters?"

>*<*>*<

Leo clicked off the TV and turned his full attention to Ainsley. The remote landed on his desk and bounced as he wrapped his arms around her and twirled her off her feet. She was laughing when he deposited her gently on the ground again. "She was terrific," she told him breathlessly.

His lips on hers cut her off, and his arms tightened around her. When he pulled back, he was beaming. "I never thought she'd pull it off."

"Never doubt the Sisterhood."

Leo rolled his eyes at her choice of words. "I'm guessing that's your subtle way of telling me that I should thank Donna and Margaret for all their research."

"Just remember this when you catch them gossiping instead of working."

"Oh, so this is their way of getting away with it?" He looked as if he was going to say more until Ainsley's pout stopped him.

"Are you going to complain about Margaret and Donna, or are you gonna kiss me again?"

He didn't pause to ponder that, and it was only a knock on the door that made him pull away from her minutes later. "Come in," he called, his irritation at the interruption vanishing as CJ peeked in. Instantly, she was engulfed in a hug by Ainsley, Leo settling for a nod and a smile across the room. She didn't wait long before telling them why she was here.

"Danny wants to do an exclusive."

>*<*>*<

Ten days later, there was an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, with Danny Concannon's by-line. It ended up being the last word on the subject.

They are an odd couple these two, she the young, conservative Republican Associate White House Counsel, he the older, Democratic White House Chief of Staff. They are a couple that not many would ever have pictured together, a couple that many could not believe are together. In the week since their relationship became public knowledge, many things have been written about these two people. She has been portrayed as everything from a woman seduced by a Svengali-like figure, to a scheming harlot who will stop at nothing to work her way up the political ladder. He is either the aforementioned Svengali, or going through a belated mid-life crisis, dating a woman young enough to be his daughter.

We meet on a Sunday evening at her apartment. There was no work today, just a leisurely Sunday spent together, the kind of Sunday enjoyed by any couple in any city across the nation. When I arrive, they have just returned from a walk through the city. Both are dressed casually, in jeans, his paired with a Michigan sweatshirt, hers with a baggy jeans shirt. They are both relaxed, although she chatters as she invites me in, offering me every beverage I've ever heard of, and quite a few I haven't. I accept her offer of coffee, and shoot him a look as she goes to get it, asking him without words if she's always like this. If the answer was yes, I'd want to know if it didn't drive him crazy, but the look on his face tells me that he finds it endearing.

Yet her nerves can be easily forgiven. Here she is, after all, inviting a member of the press into her home to discuss the very thing that they've both tried to keep private for the last six months. It's nine days since a night at the opera produced an out-of-focus picture that threatened to tear their lives apart. Eight days since whispers about them began to echo through the halls of Washington buildings. Seven days since Press Secretary CJ Cregg confirmed the relationship.

In those seven days, every aspect of their lives has been scrutinised by a press and public. They have been on the front page of every newspaper, every tabloid. Every radio and television show from coast to coast has talked about them. They have kept silent, going about their business as they would normally do. The only show of defiance has been the outing with the White House Senior Staff and assistants last Sunday night. At one of the busiest restaurants in the capital, they sat side by side, talking with their friends and colleagues as if they hadn't been running the gauntlet all day.

What must the past seven days have been like for Ainsley Hayes and Leo McGarry? That's the question that I've been asking myself ever since this story broke, so it's the first question that I ask them when she joins him on the couch across from my chair. It is he who answers first. "It hasn't been easy, that's for sure. We've just been trying to keep our lives going on as normal, not to say that that's been easy with all the hoop-la surrounding us. But we're doing our best." Have they been following the media coverage? He shakes his head no, but she speaks up. "I have. Everything." She looks over at him, unsure of how that admission will play with him. He shrugs. "I figure I know what they're going to say," he explains. "Why make it real?"

I ask them how their families have reacted to the news, and Ainsley's face falls visibly, probably recalling the quotes attributed to her parents in the press. "They're having some problems with it," she tells me, refusing to be drawn further on the subject. And his daughter? "She wasn't real happy at first," McGarry admits. "But she's coming around." Any plans for the two women to meet? "Leo called her last week when we knew the story was coming out. We spoke on the phone then. We're going to meet for lunch when everything dies down."

And the President? "President Bartlet and I have been friends for over forty years. We've been through a hell of a lot together, good times and bad. And while I can't tell you what exactly he said to me, I can tell you that he wished us well." I remind him then about the statement that the White House released, signed by President Bartlet. Did he read that? He looks at Ainsley for clarification, and she shakes her head, smiling slightly. "He didn't read anything," she repeats. "Although I told him to read this one." He tilts his head. "That's the thing that made you cry, right?" She flushes red before nodding.

How did all this begin I wonder. What was their first meeting like? They look at each other, both smiling, before they both begin to laugh. "I called her and asked her to come to the White House. The President had seen her on TV making mincemeat of one of our guys and wanted me to hire her." "And I was terrified, because I thought he was calling to reprimand me for what I said on TV." So how did she react when she heard why she was there? "You mean when she stopped talking long enough to listen to me?" he laughs, earning a smack for his troubles. "She protested long and loud about all the reasons why she couldn't possibly work in this White House." And what did he say to make her change her mind? "He didn't. I was all set to turn the offer down. And I went there to do that. But there was a thing going on, and Leo was tied up and I met a few people while I was waiting for him. I saw a few things….and I realised that I might not have considered the offer carefully enough. Although I did wonder if I'd made the right choice my first day." Many of the Senior Staff - hell, most of the staff - questioned the appointment including, surprisingly enough, the Chief of Staff. "I thought he'd lost his mind. But when the President tells you to do something, you do it." And why her? "Because he likes smart people who argue with him. After one meeting, I knew she'd fit in fine."

Fitting into a Democratic White House was hard at first, and still it's not always easy. There were rumours of harassment against her, and even now, it's not uncommon to hear whispers about her, especially now that their relationship has become public knowledge. There has been talk that she only got her job because of this relationship, or that she keeps her job that way. They both say they never listen to talk like that, and that their friends know better than to tell them. As he said earlier, why make it real? "Stuff gets said," she admits. "But that's not my problem. I can only do my job the best I can." When asked the question this week Josh Lyman, the Deputy Chief of Staff replied like this: "Ainsley Hayes, as well as being a good friend, is one of the best lawyers I've ever worked with. She's had to put up with more scrutiny and more talk than any other person who works for this administration, and she's come through it with flying colours. Believe me, if there were any screw-ups on her part, she'd have been out the door before her feet could touch the ground, all the quicker because of her party affiliation. Anyone who says otherwise doesn't know what they're talking about."

Any staff member when asked said that they didn't know about the relationship between Hayes and McGarry, and as CJ Cregg was so quick to point out in her briefing last week, it is a relationship, not some tawdry affair. Staff members have also pointed out in the last week that they don't know how they missed it, now that it's all out in the open. "It's so obvious," said one staffer, who declined to be named. "Now that we see them together, we can see how happy they make each other." Another agrees. "You'd never think that they'd go together. But then you see them, and it just works. You can't explain it, you can't analyse it away, you can't deconstruct it. It's just there, and it works."

In the years that they've been working in the White House, they've been to any number of functions, State Dinners, parties, fundraisers. It's seven months since a spare ticket to the opera led to their first outing alone together. It took four weeks after that before they stopped trying to deny that the friendship between them was now more than simple friendship. Four weeks where they tried to stop seeing each other for fear of the circus that their lives could become, the circus that came to town last week, six months into their relationship. They didn't want to be another scandal, a story, a cheap affair. It was their relationship, and theirs alone, not for public inspection and prying eyes.

Certainly, sitting here in this room with them, it's a relationship, not an affair, that I see. They sit beside each other, finishing each other's thoughts, knowing instinctively what the other is going to say. All around me is evidence of their life together. Even though this is her apartment, his files sit on her desk, his briefcase beside hers. Books belonging to him are on the shelves, on the coffee table. There is a picture of the two of them on the mantel. When I leave here, they'll talk about the day, about how they think this interview went, about what they can face tomorrow and the day after that. They intend to order in some food, and they even ask me if I want to join them. I decline, telling them that I've got everything I need. As nervous as she was when I came in, Ainsley protests my leaving, perhaps worried that I haven't been here long enough to take in everything, worried that I've made a hasty judgement and that they've just left themselves open for another negative headline. Nothing could be further from the truth. Much of what I was told hasn't gone into this article. That doesn't matter. All I know, all that needs to be said is this - these are two people who have done nothing wrong. In spite of their jobs, these are two ordinary people. They could be anybody - you, your family, your friends. They are two people who happened to work together and fall for each other. And in spite of everything, it works.

It just works.

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