Torn
by: Rhiannon
"If we ignore it, it'll go away." Josh said. "Who cares what those jokers
think anyway?"
"The people who read their papers, Josh. That's who." CJ answered.
"Then those people are stupid!" Josh exclaimed.
Jed closed his eyes. He had been listening to his staff argue for the past
five hours... He was tired and he was beginning to sweat. His head was
throbbing, "Josh, could you do me the favor and please not talk so loud?"
"Yes, Mr. President."
"Thank you," Jed replied. "Now, listen to me. We've been up and down on this
for the past five hours and you're all starting to piss me off and I don't
think any of us want that... Now, Toby ... ignore or address?"
"Address."
"CJ?"
After a moment's hesitancy, "Address."
"Josh?"
"Ignore," was the decidedly loud response from Josh.
"Josh, what did I just tell you?" Jed asked, wincing as he rubbed his head.
"Sorry, sir."
"Thank you," Jed looked up. "Sam?"
"Ignore." Sam answered, promptly receiving a glare from Toby.
"Leo?"
"Address, Mr. President."
"Cool," Jed responded. "Now, that I know what you all think, I'll go ask my
wife what she thinks... Cause I have to live with her if this bites us in the
ass."
His staff laughed quietly at his remark. They filed out of the Oval Office
one by one, leaving Jed and Leo alone.
Leo turned to Jed, "What are you going to do?"
"Address it..." Jed trailed off. "I think a press conference, officially
announcing the coming adoption it this right course to go... Have Abbey and
the girls there..."
Leo raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah... I know." Jed conceded, waving his hand. "The press conference will
be a breeze, the hard part is going to be convincing Abbey..."
Leo stared at his President and best friend, "Are you all right, sir?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Are you sure? Because you don't look fine to me." Leo began. "You might want
to have Abbey take a look at you."
"I have a headache, Leo." Jed warned. "Nothing more."
"Fine." Leo responded, walking to the door. "Good luck with Abbey."
"Yeah... I'll need it." Jed said as he unhappily faced the argument he knew
he would be having in a very few minutes.
TBC...