ARCHIVE: Yeah, go ahead. Let me know where.

NOTES: This is one of the longer, more involved stories of the KD universe.
It's almost a work in progress, cause I'm ALMOST finished with it, but not
quite. There's quite a bit of creative liscense in this, and also you might
recognize a few lines (some from WW, some from "The American President" and
maybe some from other sources, see if you can guess from where). Because
formatting doesn't work in this list, I've outlined flashbacks with
"~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~". Hope that it's not to confusing. Enjoy.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own "The West Wing" or any of its beautiful, wonderful,
enchanting characters. KD Brody is a figment of my imagination, so that does
make her mine, but hey, Aaron! You can ask!! :) Just kidding. I'm gonna shut
up now and hide. Enjoy.

SPOILERS: When part of the staff goes to Olympia, Washington, members of the
West Wing are scattered across the nation. In the meantime, pairs of people
get together to talk about the past.

A Life Less Complicated Part 1

"Do you have everything?" Toby asked as KD stuffed another packet of
papers into her briefcase. She laughed and nodded, moving to him and kissing
him very lovingly. He stopped worrying long enough to kiss her back, more
than willingly. In fact, he stopped everything altogether and concentrated
solely on kissing her.

"Take a break, you guys. Plane's taking off ten minutes ago." Josh
exclaimed as he walked into KD's office to check her white board.

"When you get a girlfriend, Josh, which is not looking to be soon, remind
me to always interrupt you when you get a spare moment with her, ok?" Toby
retorted as he reluctantly moved away from KD. Josh grinned, grabbed a note
off the bulletin board and walked back out of the office.

"I'll see you when we get back, Toby. Then we'll take a whole weekend or
something and find a place where Josh can't get through the door. What do you
say?" KD exclaimed as she traced a finger across Toby's cheekbone. He smiled
and nodded. Josh leaned back in.

"And I have a girlfriend. I just haven't told her yet." He exclaimed and
then disappeared again. Toby raised an eyebrow and KD just grinned in
surprise. They glanced at each other and then proceeded to speed out of the
room.

"I'm not sitting next to him." CJ snapped. Sam laughed as he walked
alongside her. "No, really, I'm not." She insisted. "We're flying across the
country. This is a six-hour flight. I can't sit next to him. I'd kill him
before we even reached a stable altitude."

"CJ, he can't be that bad." Sam exclaimed.

"When's the last time you sat next to him on a plane flight?" CJ
retorted. "You remember the fjord fiasco?"

"He did the fjord thing with you. The only thing I know about it is that
afterwards you mentioned something about dropkicking him into a fjord or
something." He replied with a grin.

"I was gonna dropkick his fjord. I'm not sitting next to him." CJ
insisted.

"There's nothing I can do about it. I'm not even going. You can probably
get KD to sit next to him. Or some gullible secret service agent." Sam
replied as he glanced through the list. To their right, KD and Toby walked
briskly along the hallway towards the motor pool.

"You gonna call me when you get there?" Toby asked softly. KD laughed.

"You're my boyfriend, not my father, but yes, I will call you." She
replied as she glanced nervously at her watch.

"How you feeling?" Toby asked. KD stopped and took him aside.

"I'm feeling fine. Don't say that too loud, okay?" She asked with a weak
smile. "If anyone knew that . . . that I'm not standing top par, they'd freak
out." She added. Toby nodded.

"Maybe that's why it should be mentioned. Katy, you shouldn't always go
about doing things even when they endanger your health, your life even." He
reminded her softly. She smiled and kissed him gently.

"Whatever you say, *dad*. I'll call you when I get there. Go check with
CJ." She exclaimed and then walked off to the limo where she tossed her
briefcase into the trunk. Toby sighed and moved to join his partner in time
to hear CJ mention something about a twenty-year sentence.

"Leo, I wish you would just relax. You're worse than Abbey has ever
been." Jed snapped as he grabbed the handles of his thin black briefcase.

"That's a compliment, Mr. President. Your plane was supposed to take off
twenty minutes ago." Leo retorted sharply as he glanced at his watch.

"I've got ten." Jed exclaimed as he glanced at his own.

"Settle on fifteen and get moving." Mrs. Landingham exclaimed as she
stepped forward to hand the president a last minute memo. "And I informed the
stewardesses that you're having the salad for your lunch, so don't even
bother trying to argue with them." She added before stepping back to her
desk. Jed frowned.

"Salad again? You're going to lettuce me to death, Mrs. Landingham." He
said in a half-whine.

"Oh, grow up, Mr. President. You need to start working on that diet of
yours." She retorted as she sat down and began to type slowly. He smirked and
started out the door, Leo on his heels.

"Mr. President, where you going to sit on the plane?" Josh asked as he
came up behind them, his assistant Donna Moss right behind him.

"Wherever. Why?" The president replied as they moved out towards the
motor pool.

"Just so I know where not to sit." Josh replied as he pulled Donna off to
the side. She raised an eyebrow and smiled as he leaned in close and leaned
his forehead against hers.. "Wanna go to dinner when we get back?" He asked
softly. She nodded as they kissed lightly.

"Your plane took off fifteen minutes ago, Josh." She replied softly. He
nodded, kissed her again and moved back into the hallway. Donna smiled, shook
her head and then moved back in the direction they came from.

"Josh, it's about time you got here." Sam exclaimed as he caught sight of
his friend. "Don't forget to stay away from the president in-flight. Plus CJ
is getting pretty riled about the trip."

"Remind me to stay away from everyone then. I never thought I'd see the
day when I'd be riding on Air Force One." Josh said absentmindedly.

"Josh, this is like the twelfth time you've been on Air Force one." Sam
retorted dryly as Josh tossed his own briefcase into the back of the limo.

"And it still amazes me." Josh replied with a smile.

"Okay, everyone. Let's go!" Jed exclaimed as he climbed into the limo. KD
smiled and moved in after him. CJ flashed Josh a look and then moved into the
car. Leo closed the door as Josh moved into the long black car and then
nodded to the secret service. As he stepped back from the curb, the limo
pulled away, surrounded by police cars, motorcycles and four secret services
black Lincoln town cars.

"All that to go to Seattle." Sam murmured. Behind him, Toby moved inside
quietly as the others stared at the departing motorcade.

"And we go back to work." Leo retorted before turning around and marching
back into the White House. Sam nodded and glanced at Cathy who was waiting
for him.

"Half the staff goes to Seattle for a State senate meeting, and I get
left with this. Leo is going to kill me before this day is done." He
murmured. Cathy smiled and took him by the arm.

"You should have thought of that before you started dating his daughter."
She retorted as she led him into the West Wing.

"This seat taken?" Danny asked as she sat down next to CJ. She looked up
at him and smiled weakly.

"As long as you're not the president, you can sit here." She replied.

"Fjords?" He asked.

"Rivers this time. He's torturing Josh with little known facts about the
Ohio river. Something about the rare species of algae that sucks up all the
sand or something like that." CJ murmured absentmindedly. "Anything I'm glad
I'm not hearing about." She added. Danny laughed as he made himself
comfortable in the airline chair next to her.

"So what happens first when we land?" He asked. She smiled.

"We unbuckle our seatbelts." She retorted. "Then we go to our hotels."
She added. He smiled back and nodded.

"Sounds good. Got any dinner plans?" He asked.

"Is this my interview?"

"If it isn't, will you answer the question?"

"No."

"You won't?"

"I don't have plans. It's going to be going on seven when we land, so
nothing was planned for the President tomorrow." She clarified.

"We go back to DC day after tomorrow, right?" He reaffirmed. She nodded.

"You know that. You're going to be on the plane too." She said with a
chuckle and a playful nudge. "The President is speaking to the Washington
state congress tomorrow at eleven, then he's going to do some other stuff
while he's in town, the usual stuff, and we'll be on our way home Tuesday."

"So you wanna have dinner with me tonight?" He asked.

"Do I want to?" She repeated. He nodded.

"Yeah, do you wanna?" He repeated with a playful grin.

"Where?"

"How about on top of the space needle? I hear they have great seafood."

"Seafood?"

"Goldfish?" He clarified. She slapped his shoulder playfully and he
laughed. "Is that a yes?"

"Yes, yes, it's a yes. Ok?" She retorted. He grinned.

"I knew you had the hots for me." He whispered softly. She glared at him,
a tiny sparkle in her eyes the only sign that she was anything but angry, as
her expression might have said. But she was less than angry; she was pleased.

Danny leaned forward and kissed her gently, and she kissed him back.

KD glanced down the aisle and saw her two friends. With a smile, she
grabbed her soda and a glass and began walking back towards the presidential
office where she was reading the statement that Toby and Sam had written for
the President to read the next day. As she pushed the door open, she saw the
president sitting in the chair she'd only vacated two minutes before.

"You know, you always did pick eloquent guys." Jed exclaimed as he peered
over the top of the paper. KD smiled and moved to sit on the small tan couch.

"What does that say about you?" She retorted.

"That I'm married." He replied as he tossed the paper on the desk.

"Oh, yeah. Did you kill Josh yet?" She asked with a grin.

"That's one thing I don't like about my staff. You don't have the same
thirst for knowledge that I do." He exclaimed as he stood up out of the chair.

"No, we just get bored and annoyed much more quickly than you do. You're
just weird that way." She retorted as he sat down next to her. She cracked
open the soda and poured a dollop into the glass. "Want some?"

"Yeah, I have to take my medicine. Damn pills. Think they'll be okay with
caffeine?" He asked.

"No. I'll get you some water." She retorted and got up to do so.

"Whatever you say, Dr. Brody."

"God, do you know how long it's been since anyone called me that?" She
said in wonder as she came back with a glass of cold water. "Where are your
meds? I'll get em."

"Zoey makes me keep em in my pocket." He exclaimed as he pulled out the
bottle. "And you are a doctor. It's a scary thought for some patients that
you could come at them with a scalpel, but it's the truth."

"I happen to be aware of that fact." She retorted as she sat back down
and sipped her cola. "I have the most vivid memories of medical school. Took
me six months to learn how not to throw up."

"I still don't know why you want to do the medical school thing. You
always did get squeamish on the sight of blood." He remarked as he stuck the
pills in his mouth and downed the glass of water, washing the white medicine
down his throat.

"That changed, and when I did ER work, the sight of blood wasn't a
problem because I wasn't given a chance to think about it."

"I think you were just following me and Abbey. The whole political
science thing and all that."

"We all get our doctorates, one way or another."

"You didn't have to get two."

"I had the time, had the money, and I didn't have much else to do. Didn't
really have a family to spend time with, and you guys were off playing the
political arena, better off too."

"Okay, okay. I wasn't asking for a life history." He joked.

"Now you know how your staffers feel when you go off on a lam about
rivers and fjords." She retorted with a grin.

"This is going to be a long flight." He murmured.

"Well, some people are finding ways to pass the time."

"Who?"

"CJ and Danny. You and me. I don't know where Josh went. Probably trying
to find a phone to call his mysterious girlfriend. Everyone is smitten." She
mused.

"Admit it, if Toby were here, no one would be able to find you two." Jed
retorted. KD smiled.

"Things are still relatively simple between Toby and me. I've heard the
rumors around, and we haven't gone nearly as far as some people are saying.
God, we've only been together five months."

"That's nearly half a year. So you two haven't . . . ?"

"Not that it's any of your business, Mr. President, but no, we haven't."
She retorted coldly. He frowned.

"You're right. It's not my business. I'm sorry." He said sincerely. "It's
just with being president and all, I'm used to have all the information." He
added with a playful smile. She glanced at him and smiled, then slapped him
playfully. He laughed and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I know you
hate it when we say things like this, but you really are like a daughter to
me, you know that?" He added softly as she rested her head on his shoulder
and he rested his atop her soft hair.

"I know. And you are the closest thing I've got to a father , except
maybe Leo." She added with a grin. Jed leaned back with a mock hurt
expression.

"You like Leo more than me?" He asked.

"Well, yeah. No offense, Joss, but he's just got that daddy aura about
him."

"I've got kids. I don't have a daddy aura?"

"He's got kids too, and that doesn't have a thing to do with it. Leo has
just always struck me as . . . the guardian I never had."

"What does that make me?"

"It makes you a really cool uncle?" She tried with a weak grin.

"Get over here." He retorted and tried to give her a noogie. She laughed
and wriggled away from him.

"No fair!" She said in a mock childish whine. He laughed as she sat down
in the chair behind the desk.

"What happened at the bureau?" He asked, suddenly getting serious. KD
sighed and looked down at the papers on the desk.

"There was a disagreement. They thought they were right, I knew I was. In
any case, they showed me the door." She replied honestly.

"You know, someone told me that when you first arrived, Toby tried to
access your file at the Bureau. Tell me the reason is classified is a good
one, cause I'm scared shitless that you tried to assassinate some high
operating official or something." He said with a nervous laugh.

"No, nothing like that. If you really wanted to know, you could call them
and get the damn thing." She retorted, looking up at him with a grin. He
laughed again and nodded, glancing at his own feet.

"I trust you." He replied, looking at her.

To Be Continued . . . .