Fic: Living In Dangerous Times (Carry-On Baggage Remix) [The West Wing; ensemble; PG-13]

[addison-rock.livejournal.com]

Title: Living In Dangerous Times (Carry-On Baggage Remix)
Author: elishavah
Summary: When Toby compared Josh's backpack to a tesseract, he might not have been far off the mark.
Fandom: The West Wing
Characters: Joshua Lyman, Donnatella Moss, Sam Seaborn, Toby Ziegler, Leo McGarry, Charles Young, Bonnie, Ginger, Margaret, Danny Concannon
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: From the mind of Aaron Sorkin, not mine.
Original story: Dangerous Items Include... by sangerin
Notes: Set in the first half of S2. Many, many thanks to greensilver for seeing where I meant to go with my sentences.

***

Living in Dangerous Times (Carry-On Baggage Remix)


"Okay, but I'm just saying, it's like Josh's giant man-purse."

Cut off in the middle of an intricate story having something to do with Toby, a pen, and possibly a black-ink fetish, Ginger went silent, her mouth still open. Donna sucked down another mouthful of her smoothie, then shrugged when nothing but a faint whine emerged from Ginger's throat. "Well, it is."

"Sorry, Ginger, we're done -- that wins," Bonnie announced, her voice shaking with laughter. As Donna broke into a smug grin, straightening her shoulders, Bonnie lifted her eyebrows and challenged, "So. Does he know you call his backpack his 'man-purse'?"

"Giant man-purse," Margaret corrected. Her eyes narrowed, and Donna's grin disappeared when Margaret leaned in closer, leveling all the intensity on her that Margaret put into the most serious of matters. "It's because he's started sometimes carrying it with him into the bathroom, isn't it?"

Ginger giggled, "Really?"

"Yeah." Margaret nodded enthusiastically while Donna stared at her, because she hadn't ever noticed that. "It started about a week after he got back, and I always wondered, you know, if he would really be able to take not being at work for that long--"

"He was working!" Donna protested. "He was sitting there in his pajamas demanding more work."

"Of course he was," Margaret immediately said in her most appease-the-irrational-official tone. "But he wasn't at work, and, well, he's the kind of--"

Bonnie rapped her knuckles on the table. "But does he know?" she asked.

Donna shook herself and worked up a lighthearted sneer. "Pfft. Do I look like--"

"Yes," came the chorus.

She let the sneer fall into a pout. None of the other women cracked a smile.

Ten seconds into the waiting game, Donna huffed, "I'm saving it."

The arguing started up on cue, quickly turning into a thorough discussion of the rules, including a minor but heated debate as to whether there were rules if they hadn't written any down.

Donna deliberately finished off her smoothie, taking her turn to wait them out. During a collective pause for breath, she finally stated, "It's not just something to be pulled out for any everyday emasculation."

Ginger frowned, her whole face twisting in a concentrated search for a comeback. Margaret blinked, then let out a deep sigh.

"Yeah, I can't argue with that," Bonnie agreed.


~*~


When Toby compared Josh's backpack to a tesseract, Sam thought, he might not have been far off the mark.

It had been a comment probably meant only for himself, muttered into a tired hand as they rode in the back of yet another official car being driven down more ancient streets they'd never get to wander. Hours later, though, that comment stuck in Sam's head with more tenacity and possible meaning than anything the Greek foreign minister had said that afternoon about troop contributions, or international debts and honor.

Sam suspected that it was the phrasebook that did it. Josh had rarely come along on these trips before, and he hadn't wanted to be out of the West Wing for two days now, but Leo had informed him that after a month, the novelty of having him underfoot again had well and truly worn off and Greece was nice during its rainy season. Why Josh had a modern Greek phrasebook, though, when he could hardly be bothered to remember all the ancient Latin that law school and the president should have drummed into him by now, that was completely beyond Sam's formidable powers of imagination. But have one he did, and it wasn't a pocket edition, either. He'd been digging for several minutes for a pen when he'd found it, and who really needed to look that long through a confined space. Plus, how else to explain where all the papers Josh was always stuffing in there went...or how all those bags of airline mini pretzels never came out crushed.

"Space-time," Sam breathed.

"Mangled, not folded," was the caustic evaluation from the seat to his left.

"Huh."

Sam bent forward at the waist to get a clear look down the length of Air Force One. All he could see were closed doors and CJ slipping into her own seat -- no Josh, and no president, and that probably meant that before they landed again, Sam should really try to remember everything about the meeting with the foreign minister.

The pilot announced the flight time and Sam sat up straight again, pressing his lips together. The faint whine of the engines built to a steady, low hum before he offered, "If he knew how it worked, you think he'd be able to do that to the agency budget submissions."

Toby's mouth twitched in a momentary, twisted smile. "You'd think."


~*~


Charlie didn't officially carry personal items for anyone other than the president. Officially, he wasn't supposed to; not unless directed to do so by the president, in which case it effectively became the president's business, and thus, Charlie ended up carrying a number of things "for" the president.

Logic had had that kind of simple complexity a lot during the last year.

He'd noticed something, though: lately, the number of times it was impossible to not practically trip over Josh's backpack was running up. Last time he'd thought to check what that number was, Charlie had lost count, and not just because he'd thought of it while watching CJ actually trip over one shoulder strap while dashing into a coat room with a cell phone pressed to each ear.

"Have you ever considered something smaller?"

Josh's eyebrows went up as he made a vaguely questioning noise. He never took his eyes off of what had to be at least the fifth draft of the Statement of Administration Policy on H.R. 2811.

This, however, was the first time all day that Charlie had more than two minutes free, and watching CJ hop back to stability on one high-heeled foot hadn't been anywhere near the laugh riot that many people in DC would imagine.

Now that he'd at least fractured Josh's concentration, Charlie held up both hands in a rough demonstration of size. "I'm just suggesting that something small enough to fit into a pocket would not be a bad thing."

The frown between Josh's brows deepened before he closed his eyes, shaking his head. He leaned back, and raised a hand to push up his glasses and rub at the new lines.

"Is it animal, vegetable, or mineral?" he asked with his eyes still shut tight.

"Um, cloth, I'd imagine. Although," Charlie said as it occurred to him, "a leather one might be more durable."

Josh cracked open one eye and peered across his desk from under the fingers still pressed to his forehead. "What are we talking about? And do I need to throw together a law to make it legal, or should you just close the door?"

Charlie quickly turned his snort into a cough. Sighing, Josh gave him a bemused smile.

"Seriously, Charlie. My brain is still working on central corn time; if it's not buried under three layers of obfuscation or fertilizer, it's too simple for me to process right now, okay?"

"Okay." Charlie nodded. "Right." He cleared his throat. "Your backpack--"

Josh eyes shot wide open and he jerked forward, blurting, "Is not a purse!"

"Yeeeah." Charlie looked at him carefully. "I didn't say it was."

Josh didn't settle back completely, but he did roll his shoulders and visibly relax. "No. But it has been said by some people," he said, his voice rising again at the end.

"Like a man-purse!" Donna called from the outer office.

"Whatever, Joan Rivers," Josh muttered.

Charlie raised his eyebrows at that.

Josh took one look at him and grimaced. "What about my backpack?" he sighed.

"You've kind of got it with you everywhere, these days," Charlie told him

"I've always carried it with me," Josh said, confusion coming over his face. "It's got all my-- all my papers in it."

"Everywhere," Charlie repeated. He gave Josh an apologetic shrug. "And you're not always carrying it. I've had to--"

Josh's expression went hard and he asked, "Has the president said something?"

"No," Charlie quickly said. He'd thought approaching this on a lighter foot would make it seem less like he was trying to tell Josh to do something, like giving him an order not to just leave his bag lying around everywhere, but... "No, just..."

Charlie trailed off as Josh nodded and looked pointedly back down at the papers in front of him. He was about to try to rephrase, or at least give a way more straightforward explanation, when Josh spoke in as curt a tone as Charlie had ever heard him use on a wavering phone call from Congress.

"I'll make sure to hang onto it."


~*~


There were things Leo liked more than defying logic, but that ranked up there at the top, all right.

"Margaret!"

The door between their offices swung open before he got out the "t."

"You want Josh."

"I want--" Leo stopped. Scowled. "Yes."

Margaret didn't pause. "I'll call Donna."

Genuinely surprised, Leo waved his hand at the doorway and asked, "What, you mean you don't have him stashed out there?"

Her mouth tightened, and Leo idly wondered whether she in fact took that as an insult, or if her expression was entirely self-directed irritation.

"I believe he's on the Hill right now," she said a bit snippily.

That was right, Leo remembered. Meeting with Senator Smalls on the fisheries. Or Representative Bass on small interest loans. "So it'd be quite a feat if you had him already, then," he observed.

Her lips flattened even further. "Yes," she said. But she didn't move, and Leo began to lean more toward "insulted."

"Well, how about we get him off the Hill?" he suggested after another twelve seconds of silence.

Margaret's nod was almost as tight as her shoulders as she went back out to her desk.

Logic was something Leo used every chance he got, and he did so with lethal effectiveness. Defying logic, though, that meant defying expectations, and Leo jumped on that at every opportunity. Just because.

The person he had to explain that to, he didn't want anywhere near his team.

Josh defied both expectations and logic on a regular basis in the best of circumstances, of which now was not one. It had taken until now, almost two weeks after the New Year, for Leo to realize just how true that evaluation was.

Charlie had given him the first hint, which wasn't as unexpected as it seemed on the surface; he was a good kid, bright, and he noticed everything almost as well as the president.

In the last few days, his own observations had led to discreet questions posed to Donna, the answers to which had led Leo to Sam. Josh without his backpack would be just as wrong as Josh lying on a hospital bed with tubes down his throat and blood on his chest, but Leo had to face that it had never been such a constant companion. And even he had noticed Josh carrying it differently, like there was far more weight in it. He should have started questioning everything that was going on in Josh's life as soon as he'd realized why Josh had spent all of December on ever-sharper edge.

Getting shot was a far from pleasant experience. Leo knew this better than just about any other member of the Bartlett administration, just like he knew full well that surviving the experience wasn't a done-and-over kind of thing. And while Josh was getting better, growing steadier again after the meeting with the ATVA counselor, Leo could tell, there was still--

"Donna says he's scheduled to be back in the West Wing at 1:10," Margaret said as she knocked once and walked in without pausing. "Is that soon enough, or shall I--"

"That's fine," Leo cut her off, a little more abrupt than he'd meant to be.

Margaret tilted her head in stiff acknowledgment.

Leo sighed. Margaret and Mallory: the only two women he still had regular contact with who could make him feel younger than he actually was. That would be a good thing if the age he felt was somewhere in the double-digits.

"Thank you," he said just as Margaret started to turn away.

She halted mid-step. "You're welcome," she said over her shoulder, then, "Admiral Germain is on line two." And she left, closing the door again behind her.

Leo cast his eyes to the ceiling, wondering if it would be possible to, in the future, avoid making the acquaintance of any women whose names started with "M."


~*~


When Josh returned from the Hill and walked right past her into his office without a glance, Donna pushed her chair back until she could see him drop his backpack on the floor, sit down at his desk, and just sit there.

Staffers and interns buzzed and moved smoothly around her as she watched Josh blink. An incredibly lost look flashing over his face before he shook his head and turned toward his computer while starting to strip off his coat. Her chest tightened.

Leo wouldn't consciously hurt Josh. She trusted Leo on that more than she trusted just about anyone. Leo hadn't been chatting about how heavy Josh's backpack seemed, lately, though. She knew that Leo didn't chat, but...well, she shouldn't have mentioned the fork. Joking about Josh's man-purse with the other assistants while wondering to herself why Josh kept silverware in his bag was one thing; it was an altogether different thing to wonder something like that out loud to your boss' boss, irregardless of whether he happened to be the second-most powerful person in the country.

But Leo wouldn't hurt Josh. So whatever Leo wanted to tell him when Josh got back from his meeting on the Hill, it had to have been a helpful thing. It had to.

A quick call to Margaret set off a chain of events across the West Wing, resulting in a visit from Ginger. Soon after, Donna breezed into Josh's office with a folder in each hand.

"Farm subsidies or deforestation?"

He twisted his chair around and eyed the folders with wary grimace. "I thought Toby..."

"Leo sent Toby to talk to Representative Bass," she said.

"Really? Huh."

"Mm-hm." Donna nodded, keeping a small smile on her face. "And Toby told Ginger that even if he had no choice, others should always be afforded one."

She was pretty sure Josh wanted to roll his eyes; he dropped his chin to his chest and pinched the bridge of his nose instead. "So..."

She held out the red folder, "Saving farmers," and then the blue one, "or trees."

Looking up at her without raising his head, Josh proposed, "Puppies?"

Donna dropped both folders on his desk. "Toby also said that those who can't choose, lose," she informed him.

Josh coughed out a laugh. "He would."


~*~


"Josh!"

Josh didn't stop marching down L Street. South or not, warm, good coffee waited for no man or woman at this time of year.

"Hey, Danny," he said when Danny finally came even with him. "What's up?"

"Farm subsidies, apparently."

Josh turned his head and grinned. "Yeah, looks like."

Danny shook his head, a rueful smile tilting his mouth. "In direct contradiction of the story I've got in this Sunday's magazine."

"Apparently," Josh said. And he didn't bother excising the smugness from his voice.

The rough sound that came from Danny's throat was almost a laugh.

They walked on in easy silence, automatically turning right onto 17th together.

"You know, that bag of yours gets any lighter, you're going to be floating to the White House," Danny said suddenly.

Josh tried to cover the hitch in his step by making like he needed to readjust to step around a barrier, but the sharp look Danny sent him said he wasn't fooling anyone. "Hm?" he tried.

Danny shrugged. "I'd noticed you were having to put a lot of work into carrying it around the last few months."

They were almost to the front gate. Josh stepped closer to the black bars and out of the way of the bundled-up family of four gaping at the whiteness of the building in front of them, because god knows, they should have expected a gray building.

"What else have you noticed?" he asked, relieved to hear how even that question came out.

Danny leaned in, his posture casual, like they were just another two of the many men in suits wandering this pedestrian strip of Pennsylvania. "Oh, that you guys have been getting a lot of things done for an administration that didn't win back a single seat in either house at the midterms."

"Yeah," Josh sighed. If that's the explanation Danny had come up with, he wasn't completely wrong. "Yeah, been clearing off more than, well..."

"Off the record," Danny told him with a grin.

"You better believe it," Josh said. "Anyway, more than I expected, really."

"Congratulations."

Josh looked at him carefully for a moment, but Danny's smile didn't waver and wasn't false. "Thanks."

He turned and had his hand on the metal, ready to pull it open when the buzzer went, when Danny said, "And I noticed you look good."

"What?" Josh spun around, trying not to let his mouth hang open.

"Happy," Danny clarified quickly with both hands up and reassuring. "Happier."

"I..." The gate buzzed behind him, and Josh reached back to pull it open without thought, weighing his response as Danny just looked at him. As his friend looked at him.

"Thank you," he finally said.

"You're welcome," Danny said.

Josh huffed out a laugh, waving as Danny headed up through Lafayette Park and watching him pick a different path from the one clogged with a camera-toting, tag-wearing tour group. Then Josh turned and walked through the gate that separated his office from the people he worked for.


end

Comments

[paranoidangel]

I love that Josh's bag shows how he's feeling. All the characters felt spot-on in this.

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

It was the mention of the tesseract that initially grabbed me (yay Madeleine!), but then the story just took hold of its own volition. :) Fantastic character voices - all of them! I particularly loved Leo and Margaret, and Charlie and Josh, and of course Josh and Donna - and Toby! Very nicely done! *hee* Man-purse! :)

[oxoniensis.livejournal.com]

Lovely character voices - it's such nice to read such a rich ensemble piece.

[sangerin.livejournal.com]

The voices are great (Donna and Charlie, especially, although Leo and Margaret and Danny are also spot-on). I like the idea of the heavy backpack, getting lighter later on.

[the-jackalope.livejournal.com]

Oh, spot on character interactions. Lovely.

[thistlerose.livejournal.com]

This is a lovely piece! I like how you were able to capture the voices of so many characters in such short segments. Kudos.

[justdreaming88.livejournal.com]

Awww that was great :D Thanks for posting it

Fic: Living In Dangerous Times (Carry-On Baggage Remix)

[secondsilk.livejournal.com]

Brilliant.
I'm so glad I can read West Wing fic again, and fic like this!
The ensemble works really well and the dialogue is sharp.
Meeting with Senator Smalls on the fisheries. Or Representative Bass on small interest loans. Cute. :-)