"I've never been so scared in my life, Sam."
"War is a terrifying thing, but these people are well trained. They know what they're doing."
"Not the war. Well, yes, the war, but I meant the other...thing."
"You're doing fine."
"I can't do your job, Sam."
"You are doing my job, Will. You've been doing my job for the past few months. You even talked back to the President."
"I've been writing a speech. A speech, the layout of which had already been determined. This...this is policy, and giving advice to the President of the United States which, oh God, he might actually follow-"
"We kind of aim for that, yes."
"I can't do this, Sam. This is your job."
"It was my job. Now it's your job."
"I'm going to have a problem now."
"I thought the hazing had stopped."
"It has. I even got to be one of Josh's bad cops. What's going on with him and Donna, anyway?"
"Believe me; that's six years' worth of you don't want to know. But if he's taking you along on his ill-advised midnight rambles, you're in. So, no problem."
"Thank you for the vote of confidence, but I meant the other problem. I've already had the President accuse me of trying to asking him out. When I was just a mercenary from the DNC, this wasn't a big deal. Now I'm senior staff, and I won't live in the closet. I did that for too long."
"And you want to just...come out?"
"Why not?"
"To Josh and Leo? To the President?"
"Yes, and I think they'll be grateful for it."
"Grateful?"
"When gay issues come up—"
"You'll be 'the gay staffer.'"
"Better than being 'Tom Bailey's son.' Definitely better than being 'the new guy.'"
"I think the ramifications will be larger than you want to take on."
"I sense here that you're talking about the ramifications for us."
"I'm running for office in the California 47."
"I'm not planning to tell anyone about us. I'm not going to say, 'I'm gay, and by the way I'm dating Sam.'"
"Somebody will find out."
"Somebody will find out anyway. My history is a matter of public record. I worked for Project 10; I am dues-paying member of the Human Rights Campaign; I was in a fairly mundane five-year relationship with a perfectly normal man named Wes until our amicable and unremarkable break-up last year. Any cub reporter could find all of that with about an hour of work. I'll keep you out of it as much as I can, but I cannot go back to lying."
"Okay."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"That was way too easy."
"I know. I hate myself when I'm in love."
"I love you too, Sam."
"Josh made you one of the bad cops?"
"Fortunately, we were never called upon to perform."
"I would hope not. You're a good cop."
"Tell me about it."
"No, I mean...you're a good cop. You're one of the good guys. The best. Don't ever doubt that."
"How can I? How does a man like me get a guy like you besides some sort of karmic reward?"
"There's my Eastern mystic. You should go to bed; early morning tomorrow."
"And every day after that. I'm never going to get a normal amount of sleep again, am I?"
"Not so much. You get used to it."
"If you say so."
"Seriously, Will, the speech was fantastic. You're halfway there already."
"Thank you, Sam."
"You're welcome. Go to bed."
END