"The Morning Report"
Part 2

"Where were you?" Toby asked softly as he moved into KD's office. She
lifted her head and looked at him with bleary red eyes. "We were supposed to
have lunch."

"I had a doctor's appointment." She replied simply.

"Why'd you leave the meeting this morning?" He asked.

"Cause I felt sick." She replied honestly.

"Are you all right? Did the doctor say anything?" He said softly, trying
not to convey the true flurry of emotions that flooded through his veins. He
didn't like the way she'd been acting recently. She seemed almost afraid, and
more than that, she was certifiably angry.

"He doesn't know yet." She replied just as softly, trying not to convey
the true emotions that were flooding through her own veins. She was worried,
she was angry, and she was more than definitely afraid. The doctor had told
her it would be anywhere from six to twelve hours before any definite results
came in.

"What doesn't he know? Katy, are you sick?" Toby asked softly,
approaching her desk. KD ran her fingers through her hair and shook her head,
not wanting to deal with inquisitions.

"Toby, I don't really want to deal with questioning right now. I know
it's because you care, but I'm obviously not in a good mood." She said softly
but sharply. Toby was hurt but didn't say so. In the past three months,
they'd grown very close, besides their obviously more romantic moments, and
he'd come to trust her, and also to think that she trusted him.

"I just want to know what's wrong, Katy. I mean, I thought we'd gotten to
a point where we could talk about things." He said softly, tracing his finger
across her desk. She sighed, stood up and walked over to him, slipping her
slender fingers around the edges of his face. She leaned forward and kissed
him gently. He kissed her back and slipped his hands around her waist. She
leaned into him and hugged him gently.

"I wish I knew what to say, Toby. But I don't. I can't. Just . . . do me
a favor and be patient. Wait until I do know what to say." She whispered. He
hugged her back and nodded, almost reluctantly.

"I'm here for you, Katy. I'm here for whenever you need to tell me
anything. I promise, I'll be here for as long as you'll let me." He replied.

She couldn't help but smile and kissed his neck.

"You don't know how much that means to me." She whispered. "But as much
as I'd love to keep up this unruly behavior, we both do have some work to
finish." She exclaimed as she pulled herself away from his grasp. He nodded,
pulled her back in for one more kiss and then stepped away. She watched him
as he disappeared into the hallway.

With a sigh, KD turned back to the computer screen and stared at it from
her stance in the middle of her office. She didn't know what to think, or
what to say, or what to do. She didn't want to be there that day. She didn't
want to have to suffer the wait while the doctor ran his damn tests. She
didn't want to be the subject of everyone's curiosity and gossip. She didn't
like having eyes follow her wherever she walked. She sighed again, moved to
her chair and sat down, carefully easing herself into the brown leather. She
was tired, she wanted to go home, and she missed playing chess with her
father.

"That's all for now. See you guys later." CJ exclaimed as the reporters
continued to shout questions. She smiled sweetly and moved away from the
podium towards her office. She smiled as she saw, out of the corner of her
eye, Danny get up and start after her, something he almost always did when a
briefing came to an end. It was part of his job as the Senior White House
correspondent to get a follow up briefing, but she had nothing more for him
that day. It's a very boring day, she thought with a smile.

"Carol, let me know if KD calls. I need to talk to her about the
environmental gauge." CJ exclaimed as she moved into her office. "Also let me
know if anyone else calls for that matter." She added with a grin. Carol
nodded and checked CJ's schedule for the next appointment.

"Hey, CJ." Danny said as he stepped into her office.

"Hi, Danny." She replied as she bent over to feed Gail, the office
goldfish that Danny had given her nearly a year before. Danny smiled.

"You busy for dinner tonight?" He asked.

"Yes." She lied.

"With who?" He probed.

"My fish." She replied, turning around and sitting in her seat. He smiled
and stepped forward to lean against her desk.

"You talked to KD lately?" He asked softly. CJ looked up at him abruptly.

"No, no one really has. Why? What's going on with her?" She asked
urgently. She knew that Danny and KD had had a past relationship, but she
still didn't know to what extent. Now it occurred to her that Danny might
know what was troubling CJ's newest friend.

"Nothing, really. I just was wondering." Danny replied softly. "What's
going on with the environmental lobby?" He exclaimed, obviously changing the
subject. CJ raised an eyebrow and sighed, reluctantly returning to her work.

"Told you everything I know." She admitted. "KD's working on it right
now." She added. Danny nodded and sat down in the chair opposite CJ's desk.
CJ looked at him.

"You free for dinner tonight?" He asked with a smile. She smiled back.

"Yes." She replied playfully. He grinned.

"I'll pick you up at seven? Your place?" he asked. She chuckled and
nodded.

"Okay. Sounds good." She replied. Things had been getting nice between
Danny and CJ, and she liked it. There were plenty of gossipers in the
pressroom that liked to debate their own ideas about the relationship, but in
the meantime, the two had fun. Things had not gotten extremely serious
between them, but they were at least having fun.

"Great." He responded, getting to his feet. "Tell everyone I said hi. If
you talk to KD, tell her to call me." He added as he started to move out of
the room. CJ raised an eyebrow.

"Should I be jealous?" She called playfully. Danny leaned back into the
room and smiled.

"Only if you want to flatter me." He retorted and then disappeared. CJ
smiled and looked at the phone. She wanted to call KD, to ask her what was
wrong but she couldn't think of some valid reason. No one remembered having
seen KD in quite so bad a mood before, and CJ was more than a little worried.

"Okay, what's going on?" Leo asked sharply as he stepped into KD's office
and shut the door behind him quickly. KD looked at him with an almost sour
frown and sighed.

"Don't worry about it. As soon as the workday ends, no one has to deal
with me any more." She retorted and looked back to the computer screen.

"We're trying to deal with you. We want to; can't you see that? Toby has
been moping all day, and no one has seen hide nor hair of you since the
meeting that you stormed out of." Leo retorted he strode forward and rested
his hands on her desk. She sighed and refused to look at him. "Does this have
to do with Friday?"

"Something like that." She admitted.

"What is it, twenty five years?" He asked.

"Twenty one. He died twenty one years ago." She corrected. "Twenty one
years, this Friday." She repeated softly. Leo sighed and tried to ignore all
the memories that were tugging at his brain, memories that he had ignored for
years before because KD wasn't around to remind him.

"You going to visit him?" He asked softly.

"He's dead. He's not going to notice whether I visit him or not." She
retorted sharply, still not looking at him.

"What's this I hear about you going to a doctor?" Leo exclaimed. KD paled
and glanced in Leo's direction. She didn't look at him directly, more like
she looked at his knees.

"Dr. Garret. He believes I may have Hanover's." She replied softly. Leo
paled and gulped. Hanover's syndrome. A rare neurological genetic disease
often rumored to be a lethal mutation of Alzheimer's, and the same disease
that killed Robert Brody at age 43. Leo still remembered the day he got a
call from Abbey that KD had shown up on the Bartlet's doorstep in tears to
say that her father had disappeared. Weeks went by and there never was any
additional sign of the man who had slowly lost his wits over the previous
year.

"When will he know?" Leo asked weakly, struggling to keep his voice from
cracking. KD sighed, apparently trying not to cry.

"How the hell should I know?" She retorted softly. "We always thought
this day would come." She added.

"Does Toby know?" Leo asked, regaining some strength.

"No." She replied.

"Katy, --"

"Before my father left, he always told me that he thought Carolyn had
stopped loving him. The truth was, she did. I'm not going to go through that,
Leo. I can't; not when I don't even know." KD exclaimed sharply. Leo sighed,
realizing how much KD was trying to sift through. She'd worshipped her
father, and she never did understand why he'd left until decades later.
Sometimes, she admitted to still not understanding, but she knew nothing
could change. Leo remembered when he used to watch Rob Brody play chess with
his young daughter in the backyard on a hot summer Saturday. Carolyn Brody
would be nowhere to be found, and yet father and daughter didn't care. Rob
Brody was a good man who suffered a bad thing. Leo often heard Jed talk about
how Rob had an IQ that would 'stun Einstein'. KD was lucky when she inherited
that from her father, but now it seemed she may have inherited his weakness
too.

Leo could still remember the day that they'd held a small barbecue in the
Bartlet's back yard, the day when Rob informed the adults of his painful
news. Leo could still see the young man, age 38 then, leaning against a tree
and sipping his beer with a solemn haze in his eyes. He was watching his
eight-year old daughter run with Elizabeth Bartlet and Mallory McGarry, and
he seemed close to tears. Jed was at the grill, laughing and joking with
Abbey and Jenny, when Leo called Rob over to join the crew. Carolyn was out
of town that day.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, Rob, come on. Don't be a loner." Leo called. Rob glanced at his
neighbors and smiled weakly. He pushed himself off of the tree trunk and made
his way over to their small circle.

"Thought you guys were having enough fun without me." He said playfully.
Jed and Abbey laughed while Leo slipped a loving arm around Jenny's waist and
kissed her gently on the forehead.

"What's new, Rob? You've been working so hard lately, we haven't had a
chance to catch up." Abbey exclaimed as she grabbed a spatula and began to
poke at the meat on the grill. Jed scowled and playfully swatted her spatula
with his own. She laughed.

"I've been diagnosed with Hanover's." Rob exclaimed softly, a dark
undertone seeping through his voice. Everyone stopped laughing and stared at
him solemnly. He took another sip of beer and looked to the grass where the
girls were playing.

"Seriously?" Abbey asked weakly. Rob smiled weakly and nodded, turning
his gaze back to his friends.

"Yes, seriously. The doctors don't know what to do for me, so they said
'wait it out.' Can you believe that?" Rob said nervously. He knew he had
their pity now, which was something he didn't want.

"Rob . . ." Jenny started.

"Listen, I only told you guys in case . . ." He paused and looked back at
his daughter who was laughing and playing on the lush green lawn. "In case
something happens and I can't take care of Katy anymore, I want you guys to .
. . to watch over her, ya know?" He said, looking back at them and struggling
not to cry. Leo could see the pain that overflowed his friend's heart. Leo
honestly couldn't imagine what it must feel like to be told you were going to
die. Rob sighed and took a long gulp of the beer and then placed the empty
bottle on a nearby table.

"We're here for you, Robert." Jed assured him. "And for Katy too." He
added. Rob smiled and nodded.

"Does Carolyn know?" Jenny asked. Rob paled.

"No. No, she's been so distant lately. I'm afraid . . ." He paused, not
wanting to say what he truly felt. "I think I'll tell her later, when she's
not so busy." He exclaimed softly. The others nodded, and Leo discovered that
each of his friends looked to their own spouse with a gentle look of sorrow,
including himself.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

It was three weeks before Rob ever got a chance to mention the issue to
his wife. Everyone noticed the differences right away too. She started
staying out more, neglecting her chores, and eventually even began to sleep
on the couch. She often said it was because she didn't want to bother Rob in
his 'weak state', but her behavior started long before the effects of the
illness compromised his health. And when it rained, it poured.

After a few months, Rob no longer played chess with his daughter but
rather sat in a chair in the back yard staring at the blue sky. When it
rained, he was still out there, staring at the grey clouds. He'd rant about
various quibbles, random events that meant nothing to anybody else and
everything to him. Leo could never forget the day he peered into the Brody's
backyard and saw KD staring silently at her father with a confused frown. It
had broken Leo's heart that day, just like it now broke his heart to see KD
sitting in front of her computer trying not to cry, trying not to stare at
the telephone that would ring when her doctor had come up with an answer to
the painful question.

"You should tell Toby." He murmured. KD sighed and looked away. "You
should trust him not to walk away from you. Your father didn't trust your
mother, and maybe that's why she walked away."

"My mother walked away long before dad ever got sick." KD interrupted.
Leo couldn't help but agree, but he declined to say so.

"What are you working on?" He asked softly.

"We pitch the environment bill soon. I've been working on it for three
months, and I still don't know if we're ready. President wants a briefing in
a week, and I need to figure out what I'm going to say." KD responded
quietly. Her face was tense as her eyes stared vacantly at the screen. Leo
knew she wasn't thinking about the environment.

"Maybe you should take the rest of the day off." He murmured.

"It's three o' clock, Leo. I can make it through two more hours." She
retorted. He nodded.

"I'll be in my office if you need me." He exclaimed and showed himself
the way out. KD glanced out after him and sighed, brushing away at her watery
eyes. She wasn't going to cry. There were no answers yet, and she may yet
live. She wasn't going to go out like her father. She wasn't going to walk
away from everything and die on the streets alone.

Her father had been her God. She worshipped him and the days they'd
shared. They'd played chess, they'd watched hockey, they'd discussed the
politics and news. Even on days when he worked late and she'd spend her time
with the Bartlets, they would talk when he got home. Then he got sick. And he
stopped talking. He stopped playing chess. He stopped cheering for the
Rangers. He stopped caring, she thought. Then one day, he stopped coming
home. He just wrote a note that said "I'm gone" and she never saw him again.
No. She saw him once more, actually.

Four years later, she got a call from some stranger who called herself a
medical technician. She looked at her friend Jed Bartlet who then took the
phone and started to grow more and more serious by the second. He finally
hung up the phone and asked KD to get in the car. He drove her to the
hospital where she'd been once before to get her shots, an event that did not
leave her with fond memories. It was May 8th, 1979; and thirteen year old KD
Brody stepped into the hospital to find herself being escorted to the morgue
where she was to identify her father's dead body. It had been four years, but
she still knew that face. When she and Jed stood there behind the glass,
staring at the bluish corpse, she felt nothing. She did not cry. Later, Abbey
told her that she was in shock, whatever that meant. Carolyn Brody was out of
town.

To Be Continued . . . .