Feedback!
By: VegaWriters
Rating: Teen
Disclaimer: The West Wing and all its characters are a property of Aaron Sorkin, John Wells Production, Warner Brothers Television and NBC. No copyright infringement is intended. In other words, all West Wing characters are owned by NBC, Warner Brothers, John Wells, et al. I have absolutely no rights at all regarding them. I make no money with the characters that Aaron Sorkin created, or with the characters that were later created by John Wells.
Characters: Sam and Josh
For: rudhampaiel for the TWW_Minis Community
“I’m not happy.”
Sam watched Josh’s head rise from his paperwork, felt the sting from the glare, and knew that the other man was holding back something snippy. Josh wasn’t happy either. He hadn’t been for a while. Sam accepted the mixture of confusion and irritation Josh threw at him and took a seat in the extra chair in his office.
“Want a drink?”
“No.” He frowned, not realizing that he’d been doing it for days. “I didn’t mean to bug you.” He had meant to come in here, but he’d been hoping to find Josh unable to concentrate. Instead he found him actually working. He wanted to know how Josh could work with this mess going on. He wondered what Josh was working on.
“Sit down, Sam.”
He did. He also took the bottle of water Josh handed to him. He even took a sip from it, but would admit later that he couldn’t remember doing it.
“You gotta come to grips with this.”
“Have you?” He watched Josh stare at him for just an instant before he pulled the mask back into place and cover up the emotional turmoil he was also going through. In that instant, he regretted his tone. He knew, more than anyone, just how deeply Josh loved Josiah Bartlet, how this announcement brought him back to that day, five years ago, when Noah Lyman had announced to his son that he had cancer. He knew, without ever having talked about it, how close this hit to home for him. Josh had already lost one father. Could he loose his self-appointed guardian angel? “I’m sorry, Josh.” He wasn’t sure exactly what he was apologizing for.
“Don’t be.” The quick tone did nothing to cover the anger.
“I’m not happy,” Sam found himself repeating. “I was a week ago. I don’t know what happened.” He nursed the water, wishing for something stronger.
“You don’t know what happened?” The tone was completely incredulous and Sam actually found himself wanting to laugh. He didn’t. But he wanted to.
“I was kidding.” He looked back at Josh’s hand as it rested in his curly hair and sighed softly, wondering if he’d ever work up the nerve to do something about his crush, wondering if all it would do would be to ruin the closeness they had, wondering why he was thinking about his libido in this, very strange, moment. Josh wasn’t into boys anymore than Sam was into girls. He knew that. “He hasn’t apologized.”
“He’s not going to. You know it. Stop.”
“Josh.”
“Stop.”
Sam recoiled from Josh’s tone, frightened at the anger in it. He couldn’t answer, so he just rose and walked out – he’d been doing that a lot lately. He wanted Josh to follow him, to apologize. Maybe if Josh did, he wouldn’t need it elsewhere.
“I’m sorry.”
The voice caught his attention and he stopped, mid stride, the water bottle still clutched tightly in his hand.
“I’m sorry.” The voice repeated. “But we can’t let this get to us we have to keep working.”
“How?”
“I don’t know, Sam, I don’t. But we do.”
He just turned and stalked down toward his office again.
He wasn’t happy.