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"Leo, get in here, please." Jed called as he slipped his glasses off. A
moment later, the elderly chief of staff moved into the Oval office from his
own side office and arrived in front the president's desk. Jed looked at his
best friend with tired eyes.

"What is it, Jed?" Leo asked, getting a little worried. Jed sighed and ran
his fingers over the white paper that was his schedule for the day.

"You know that executive folder that's basically a hyped up press release for
Bill 217?" Jed asked, dropping the papers on to his desk. Leo nodded.

"Yes, sir. I gave it to Josh to give to you." He replied. "He wanted to take
a quick look at it." He added carefully, reading the perplexed commander in
chief's expression.

"Well, I just got a call from Irwin up on the hill. He just found out that
the executive folder for Bill 217 was turned into the lost and found for the
restaurant that's on the first floor of his building. Apparently Josh and
Irwin's secretary had a meeting there, and Mr. Lyman left my folder behind."
Jed said, his voice elevating an octave every six words or so. Leo nodded,
trying to create an expression of submissiveness.

"I understand. Want me to go get it, sir? I'm on my way to the hill anyway to
deliver something to Senator Mathis." He exclaimed, waving his palms to the
side as if it were no big deal. Jed sighed.

"Mr. Lyman will be suffering for this, Leo."

"I understand, Mr. President, and more than completely agree. I'll be back in
an hour with your folder." Leo replied quickly and moved back out of the
office and towards the motor pool.

"Damn it. Had to pick lunch hour to have a traffic jam." Leo exclaimed,
pounding the leather seat in disgust. The man in black secret service agent
across the limo from the annoyed chief of staff just rolled his eyes behind
his dark sunglasses and nodded.

"Yes, sir." He retorted darkly.

"Whatever you do, don't become a yes man, Gary." Leo snapped and glanced out
the window. Gary noticed that whatever Leo saw immediately grabbed his
attention and he began to roll down the window.

"Sir, what are you doing?" Gary started to ask.

"KD Brody, is that you?" Leo called out the window.

"Sir!" Gary snapped. Leo just waved the eager agent off and leaned out the
window to get a closer look at the woman he saw out on the street. The young
woman turned at the sound of her name and quickly brushed her short brown
hair out of her eyes and behind her ears. With a smile that revealed
marvelously straight, white teeth, she moved over to the car, not minding the
standstill traffic and leaned against the limo.

"Leo McGarry, who'd have known? What are you doing in this mess?" She
exclaimed, shaking his hand.

"I'm stuck. What can I say? Get in here. We'll give you a lift." He replied.

"Where ya headed?" He asked as he moved to push open the door.

"Sir, I can't allow you to-" Gary started to exclaim when KD peered at him.

"Second rank secret service, eh? KD Brody, FBI." She exclaimed, fishing out
her badge and license for him to glance at. He opened his mouth, a little
dumbfounded, then closed it and nodded. She nodded back and climbed into the
limo, taking a seat opposite Leo.

"You're still with the bureau, eh?" Leo asked with an amused grin. KD smiled
and shook her head as she stuffed the badge holder back into her pocket.

"Nope. I'm on indefinite leave. In other words, I get to keep the badge and
the license thingy, but I don't get a paycheck or an assignment. If they ever
need me, they'll call my agent." She replied with a grin as she eased into
the leather seats. "So in a way, I'm currently unemployed." She added,
winking at the somewhat stunned secret service agent. Leo couldn't help but
chuckle.

"Well, then, you can tag along. Maybe your presence will calm the president
down a little. He's been having a bad day." Leo exclaimed. KD sighed and
nodded, giving Leo a special look out of her eye.

"I aim to please." She replied with an ironic smile, receiving the same look
back from him.

"And Josh, if you ever, I mean ever do that again, I swear you'll be out of
here. There are things in that folder that that would give the press a field
day we wouldn't soon forget." Bartlet snapped at the young nodding deputy
chief of staff. Josh Lyman glanced at CJ for help, and got the answer he
already knew, which was that there was no help to give.

"Yes, sir. I understand. I realize it was an incredibly thoughtless thing to
do. I know that, and it will never happen again." Josh replied, nodding with
each of his boss's words. Bartlet smacked the back of the chair Josh was in.

"I know it won't. Damn it, where is Leo? I need that folder." The President
exclaimed.

"Right here, Mr. President." Leo exclaimed as he walked into the oval office.
To everyone's surprise, and Bartlet's anger, he was empty-handed. "Thanks for
the exercise, Lyman." He added with a playful, yet strongly annoyed, grin.
Josh nodded weakly.

"Hey, Leo. Welcome back. Where's the folder?!?" Bartlet said the first few
words in a feigned kindness and then the last question he snapped loudly, his
temper already fuming.

"Right here, boss." KD exclaimed walked in with the folder in hand. Jed
looked at her and his mouth immediately dropped open. She grinned and kept
walking, arriving in front of him and holding the folder out to him. He
grabbed it and tossed it on to his desk, moving forward to grab KD into a
joyful bear hug, lifting her off the ground. CJ and Josh exchanged confused
looks and then changed their gaze to Leo.

"My god, KD! What in blazes are you doing here? Leo, I thought I told you
that I wanted to keep this administration respectable!" Jed exclaimed
playfully, planting the young woman back on the floor.

"In that case, maybe you should resign now and get it over with." She
retorted just as playfully.

"Um, am I the only one here who's confused?" CJ exclaimed. Josh raised his
hand in agreement.

"Oh, hey there. KD Brody." KD introduced herself as she offered her hand to
CJ, who shook it with a friendly grin. Upon letting go, KD turned and did the
same with Josh, who was still confused.

"CJ Cregg. The speechless guy over there is Joshua Lyman." The friendly press
secretary exclaimed. Josh glanced about and nodded.

"Yeah, that's me." He affirmed. KD grinned.

"So you're the young man who is in a whole lot of trouble, from what I hear."
She said. Everyone chuckled, and Josh smiled sheepishly.

"Yeah, I suppose that's me." He affirmed again.

"Well, if you want a hint how to curry favor with these guys, they love
Italian food." She proclaimed close to his ear.

"Is that true, sir?" Josh asked with a hopeful grin. Jed and Leo smirked at
each other and then at KD

"We always knew it was a bad mistake telling you our powerful weaknesses."
Leo retorted with a grin. KD nodded enthusiastically and moved to sit on the
president's desk, something Jed didn't seem to mind.

"I'm sorry. Maybe I missed something, but who exactly is the charming,
beautiful stranger that is sitting on the President's desk?" Josh asked,
still at a loss as to who she was and where she came from.

"Ooh, a ladies man. Don't worry about it, Lyman. I'm an old neighbor of your
boss. He used to tutor me in history and that kind of stuff. A long time
ago." KD clarified.

"This kid graduated with honors a year early. Got out of med school before
she was 24." Jed boasted. KD raised a finger with a small grin.

"Nope, I graduated two years early with honors." She exclaimed. "Age 23 upon
graduation from med school."

"Whatever. In any case, she's almost as smart as me." The president added.

Everyone laughed. Suddenly the door opened revealing the entrance of Toby
Ziegler and Sam Seaborn, both of whom stopped up on seeing a strange young
woman sitting on the president's desk. She was not in the typical dress of a
staff worker, wearing regular denim jeans and a dark red, very tight t-shirt.
She wore a black leather jacket over it all.

"Mr. President, I didn't know you went for that sort of thing." Sam murmured
sarcastically.

"No, that's just you, Sam." Leo retorted.

"Sam Seaborn, Toby Ziegler, this is KD Brody, a very young, very old friend
of mine and Leo's." Jed introduced. Toby and Sam nodded their polite hellos.

"Hey, there." Sam exclaimed.

"Hi, nice to meet you. Listen, Mr. President. We really need to get your
statement on the Work Bill. We gotta write the release by the deadline." Toby
exclaimed, raising his hands in order to emphasize his urgency. Jed sighed
and walked behind his desk.

"You have decided, haven't you, sir?" Sam asked. Jed avoided looking at the
two men, which made Toby extremely upset.

"Sir, you have to decide. I mean, how long have we been discussing this?"
Toby exclaimed.

"We've gone over all the figures, Mr. President. You've got the whole
picture. We've told you how we feel; we've pitched our ideas, every last one
of us, and now it's time you made the decision." Sam added.

"The way you stand on this is going to influence what we do in office for the
next six months." Toby snapped. Jed gave him a sharp look.

"You think I don't know that? Why do you think I'm stressing out about it so
much? Goddamn it, Toby, I don't need the extra pressure from you, ya know?"
He snapped back. KD winced and glanced back and forth between the two
stressed men.

"Hey, Joss, what's the problem here? Work bill, what's that, four twenty
eight?" She asked, stepping in. Jed glanced at her and nodded slightly.

"Yeah, the party is on the fence. Congress is going pro, but I'm not sure I
want to do that. There are a lot of responsibilities that come and go with
the fate of this bill." He replied, returning to the role that he had played
with her years ago, only now something had changed. She was older, and more
experienced, more capable of helping him make up his own mind.

"So you want to go negative, but you're not sure about the overall
repercussions of the president going opposite Congress? Figure you'll get
better percents if you go pro?" KD summarized. Jed smiled weakly and nodded.
She was still as smart as back then in any case.

"Is he consulting her?" Toby whispered to Leo. Leo shooed the grouchy
communications director away. Toby moved to a place right behind Josh's chair.

"You pushed it back?" KD asked, glancing at Leo, who nodded.

"Twice. Tonight's the night." He added. KD nodded and glanced back at the
POTUS.

"So you're caught between a rock and a hard place. Between your guts and your
votes." She exclaimed rhetorically.

"You got advice these suckers can't divulge?" Jed asked, glancing at his
staff with a twinkle in his eye.

"Well, if you go pro, you got the party eating out of your hands next time a
more important issue comes up. The public has a general vote for pro, save
the few liberal republicans that want the working votes smashed down cause
it's anti-regress." KD exclaimed.

"Does that mean I should vote yes?" Jed retorted with a grin.

"Heck, no. I'm just reciting the article I read on the back cover of Opinions
This Week. My opinion is that the party will eat out of your hand if you vote
no too, and the liberals are manipulating the public's vote behind the
scenes." KD replied as she traced the desk casually. "And if you go pro, the
unemployment rate is going to soar over the next fifteen years. There's no
budgeting in the bill that's could possibly benefit the country, and the only
allowances it makes is for the politicians to gain more freedom in the long
run of the beginning of this millennium."

"How do you know all this?" Sam exclaimed with a shocked expression. Jed
flashed Leo a proud glance. Leo just chuckled and looked back to the
conversation.

"Hey, ya know, out on the street, people talk. After all, this is
Washington." She retorted.

"The street?" Jed asked sharply, his head perking up with a worried frown.

"You sure about this?" CJ asked, moving closer to KD hopefully.

"What are you doing out on the street?" Leo snapped, sharing Jed's worried
expression.

"Yeah, I'm sure. Go veto. Let the bill come back around on the rerun, which
it will, and re-examine it's principles. That way, at least, you'll buy more
time." KD added with a grin.

"Kid!" Jed exclaimed. KD looked at him, as did everyone else.

"Yeah, Joss?" She said softly.

"You're on the streets?" He asked slowly.

"Yeah, it's no big deal." She said absentmindedly, avoiding the glances of
the other people in the room.

"Leo, get a room ready." Jed barked. Leo nodded and moved for the door as
fast as anyone had ever seen him move. KD looked around and saw him moving.

"What? Oh, no. Not gonna do-" She began to protest.

"CJ, write out a presidential order. KD Brody does not live on the streets."
Jed exclaimed in all seriousness. CJ smiled and pretended to write it down.

The others smiled too, save Toby who was staring intensely at KD with a
somewhat suspicious expression.

"She's gonna stay here?" He asked.

"No, I'm not. What's Abbey gonna say?" KD exclaimed. Jed waved his hands
nonchalantly.

"She won't mind a bit. She'll be glad to see you. Yes, Toby, she's staying
here." He insisted. KD opened her mouth to protest again, but Jed pointed a
finger at her, stopping her vocal cords from functioning.

"There's a game we like to play in this office." CJ interrupted. "It's called
'let's pretend Jed is the president and we all do what he says'." She
explained with a playful grin. Jed nodded.

"That's right. Very good work, CJ. You get a gold star for that one. All set,
Leo?" Jed exclaimed as his chief of staff briskly walked back into the room.
Leo nodded.

"Mrs. Landingham is taking care of it, yes, sir." Leo replied. KD turned a
slight shade of pink and opened her mouth again in order to protest, but
again, Jed cut her off.

"Now, let's see. Toby, you were about to scurry off to your office and write
me a release for the bill tonight, right?" Jed exclaimed. Toby opened his
mouth to respond, but didn't get a chance. "Good. Sam, go with him. Josh, KD
here has saved your butt by cheering me up. Get out of here. CJ, I assume you
have something to do. I know I do. KD, tag along with Charlie and me while we
run around and get some things done. Dismissed, everybody." Jed exclaimed and
began shooing people out of his office.

"Ginger? Where are you? Ging-" Toby started to repeat when his aide appeared
out of nowhere with a file she'd been leafing through. "Good, there are you
are. Come with me. I need you to cancel my 1:00." He exclaimed as he led her
into his office.

"Why? What's going on?" She replied, a little confused. Toby sat down behind
his desk and turned on the small iBook. Sam stepped in behind Ginger and
watched his boss.

"I need to work on the release for tonight's statement on the Works bill.
Plus get on the phone and get me the file for a KD Brody. I don't know what
the initials stand for, but-" Toby started.

"Why you checking up on Brody, Tobe?" Sam exclaimed as he moved further into
the room. Toby glanced at Ginger who placed the file on his desk and nodded
her understanding.

"Got it. Anything else, Toby?" She exclaimed. Toby shook his head and made a
shooing motion. She gave Sam a look and walked out the door. Sam moved closer
to Toby's desk as the older man began to type on the elegant black and white
laptop.

"Why are you checking up on Brody?" Sam asked again. Toby looked up at Sam
again.

"Because I wanna be sure that not just anyone can waltz in off the streets
into the White House. When the Press gets wind of the fact that the President
has given room and board to a homeless thirty-something, I'm going to need to
be prepared. The only way to do that is to know everything there is to know
about her. Does that make sense, Sam?" He retorted harshly. Sam eyed him for
a few moments, mulling over the words.

"You need my help with anything?" The younger man finally said. Toby sighed
and looked at the file that Ginger had placed on his desk. He grabbed it and
tossed it to Sam.

"Take care of that, whatever it is. Oh, and get out of my office." Toby
exclaimed and turned back to the computer. Sam took the file, glanced it
over, groaned and walked out with a boyish grimace on his face. Toby grinned
and continued to work.

With time, he managed to get out a release statement regarding the bill that
he was sure would be satisfactory for the president. If it wasn't, it
wouldn't matter, because the President would agree to it and then just change
the words on his feet anyway, a practice that he was engaging in more and
more often, much to Toby's dismay. As he printed out his final revised copy,
a soft knock brought his attention to the door of his office.

"Uh, Toby? I tried, but as far as I've been able to discover, Miss Brody's
file has been deemed classified by the FBI." Ginger exclaimed timidly,
waiting for his response.

"Did you tell them who was calling?" Toby asked softly, unsure of whether or
not to lose his temper yet.

"I did try, but they said that unless you can come up with a good enough
reason, or you get permission from either the President, Miss Brody, or one
of the Bureau executives, they cannot give you access to the file." Ginger
replied, trying desperately to remember the exact words she had been given.
Toby frowned.

"Damn it. Don't worry about it, Ginger. I'll try myself later. I've got to go
over and see the President now to go over this with him. Have I got any
appointments to worry about?" He said with his normal rushed tone as he
grabbed the last paper out of the printer and started out the door. Ginger
breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to answer his question.

"I know there's something called a Green room around here somewhere. Is green
still your favorite color?" Jed asked as he tried to poke his way around the
elaborate hallways. KD laughed.

"No, it was always my second favorite. Blue came first, and you know it." She
retorted with a grin. Jed chuckled and nodded. The President's day had
cleared up for a few minutes, allowing him to attempt a tour of sorts. KD
ended up knowing more about the house than he did.

"I'm not so sure there's a blue room. I may have to check the tour book." He
replied and glanced at the oncoming sight of a worried looking pair made up
of Leo and Josh.

"Where's the fire, boys?" KD asked with a frown as she noticed the same thing
as her friend did.

"We've got a problem. Senator Mathis has just unloaded a responsibility
charge on the White house that the works bill be affirmed for the sake of a
better nation. He also stated that any move to do otherwise by the President
would be of a selfish and unjustified nature." Leo exclaimed, handing the
report to his president.

"To put it gently. Our statement's in two hours. Toby's already finished it
and he's waiting in your office. He was going to go over it with you, but now
we're caught in between a rock and a hard place." Josh added, flashing a
worried look to KD who was listening with intense interest.

"Again." KD murmured.

"So basically, Mathis has got us screwed before we even screw ourselves." Jed
muttered. KD stifled a chuckle and glanced at her friend who was giving her a
paternal glare.

"By doing this, Mathis has changed your priorities. He probably knew that the
gun control legislature was next on your list after the works bill, and he
probably wanted to push that back as far as possible." KD exclaimed. Jed and
Leo exchanged approving glances while Josh just kind of stared, somewhat
dumfounded.

"He more than likely wanted the industry bill shoved aside too while his
people got some extra time on it." Leo added. Jed nodded.

"KD, you mind sticking around the office for awhile and helping us out with
some of this stuff? After all, you do have the experience, and we may be a
bit underhanded for this sudden change of events." Jed exclaimed, looking her
in the eye. She fumbled a bit and glanced at Leo, who just nodded with a
happy grin. She smiled back and looked back to the president.

"Why not? You need all the help you can get." She retorted. Jed laughed, as
did Leo and eventually Josh.

"Great, come on. Let's get this show on the road. We're not going to let
Mathis push us around. Josh, get over to Toby. Tell him to prepare a press
conference for CJ to address the issues that Mathis brings up. I'll follow in
with a revised statement that clarifies our case. This is Toby's big chance
to give us a save on second base." Jed exclaimed, patting KD on the back and
leading the way back towards the oval office. Josh nodded and ran ahead while
Leo stayed behind to work everything else out with the president.

To Be Continued . . . .