#twwfic

"Sounds good!" Sam jogs to an area that roughly approximates left field, throwing him a mock-salute.

Mrs. Bartlet-- Doctor Bartlet, as CJ keeps reminding him-- is first in the batting order, or, well, kicking order. Josh and Toby have routinely made light of the fact that their candidate has no skill for or enjoyment of the 'national pastime', but they'd gotten the nomination from the DNC anyway, so Josh supposes he can participate in backyard kickball instead of baseball. Until today, he would've assumed kickball to be the easier of the two.

He makes an easy underhanded throw, but Abbey gets two bases out of her kick. Leo is shaking his head as he tosses the ball back to Josh. "C'mon, people! We want wider margins in the polls, not this score!"

Ellie is kicking next, Ellie being short for Eleanor and not Elizabeth. Josh hasn't gotten them mixed up even once during this 'working vacation', and he's determined not to break this streak. He gives another decent pitch, right down the middle, and Ellie actually kicks it, which is better than her attempt the previous inning. The ball sails through the air, Ellie starts running, and then a whole lot happens all at once.

Donna almost catches the kick, but it flies through her outstretched arms. Sam is the one to pick it up off the ground, just before Ellie reaches first base. Josh is already groaning, because there's no way Sam can make it to the base before Ellie, but Sam must've reached the same conclusion-- he throws the ball instead.

And, well-- yeah, he hits Ellie.

He hits Ellie square in the head, and she falls flat on her back with barely a yelp.

"Well," Toby calls loudly, "I think that's the game!"

Josh limps toward first base, where Liz and Abbey, the latter having scored another run during the chaos, are crouching next to Ellie.

"Deep breath, Eleanor," Abbey is saying. "Look at me? Good, now follow my finger with both eyes..."

"Dude," Josh whispers, stepping back as Sam comes up next to him, "good going."

Ellie is already sitting up, brushing off her mother's neurological exam. "Can I be done with family bonding now, Dad?"

The Governor is smiling as he helps her up from the grass, dusting detritus from her shoulder. "Thank you for playing, Ellie, and don't be bashful, now. You've always had more athletic talent than most of the family."

"Which isn't saying all that much," Leo digs. Bartlet groans and socks him in the arm.

"Hey, now, we still won!"

"Good game, Dad," Liz says, giving him a high five. Josh stands back, watching Zoey leap to wrap her arms around Ellie from behind, and chuckles at the celebratory sight before him.

"The Bartlets sure like winning," CJ says, coming up behind him and brushing dirt off her shorts.

and then about a year later, when toby is 30 and andy is 25, toby gets introduced to the new press representative of his latest campaign, a 26-year-old cj. and i think they actually even manage to get into an argument before they make eye contact - but it happens, and toby takes a step to the right into the office where andy has a meeting today.

“i found her,” he says. “the third one.”

andy, forgoing any other kind of conversation - that would only waste time - turns to the politician she’s meeting with. “i’m so sorry, something’s just come up,” she says. “we found another member of our cluster.”

“oh, of course,” says the politician. he smiles at her. “we’ll reschedule, naturally. and- good luck.”

andy thanks him and hightails it out of there. back at the campaign, cj and toby are still staring at each other. toby says, “you’re-” and cj says, “come here,” and grabs his arm to pull him into a broom closet, because you KNOW that was cj’s first reaction.

toby’s still kind of staring at her, because let’s be honest, young allison janney. cj says, “are there any more?”

toby says, “what?”

“in the cluster. have you found any others?”

toby blinks. “yeah, i’ve- yeah. she’s on her way. my girlf- my partner, andy. wait, wait, does that- have YOU found any others?”

cj shakes her head. “not yet. i’m cj, by the way.”

“toby ziegler.”

andy breaks SEVERAL traffic laws but gets to the campaign in a record ten minutes, which by the way are possibly the most awkward ten minutes of both cj and toby’s lives. she makes a beeline for the broom closet and makes instant eye contact with cj, because she is NOT going to lose this connection.

later, cj will think that that’s about when she fell in love.

it’s 1985, and bartlet is elected in 1998, so they still have a ways to go. they eventually fall into a collective relationship, as andy and toby realize that their relationship is never going to be able to return to a pre-cj dynamic. they met her a year after each other, but she’s just as important to the relationship as the two of them are.

cj moves to california eventually, fed up and cynical about the public sector. she takes a job with a media consultation firm, as she does in every world, they’re better at communication in this au. hard to be bad at it when you share a soul, bodies, talents. andy and toby move back to andy’s home state of maryland and andy starts to get closer to her goal of running for congress, while toby just keeps losing campaigns for honest politicians. i’ll say that cj moves to california in 1992, and toby and andy get married in 1993.

it’s a lot easier for you to stay in contact when you’re in a cluster. cj watches tv with toby and andy every night. it’s less of a breakup, in this au, and more of cj saying “i want to go work in california, and we have to be more careful”. she’ll only do romantic things in the psycellium, which is where, say, andy would perceive her if cj was visiting telepathically. no one else can see her, is the point. but she sits on their couch and watches tv with them and heckles toby when he makes dinner and goes to lunches with andy, where she sits on one side of the table and eats while andy makes herself at home in the other chair.

and it’s not great but it WORKS, and it works until jed bartlet calls them all in and cj closes herself off even MORE for the sake of andy’s career and andy and toby’s marriage falls apart. and then we get to their approximate relationships in canon.

toby and andy are divorced and spend a couple of years not speaking, but they’re still CLUSTERMATES and that MEANS something. they still hold to their rule of no blockers when in the same room and, once they start talking again (i think around mid s1), they start talking to each other for comfort and catharsis. oftentimes they’ll argue to get out their frustration with everyone else in their lives. it works.

toby and cj are as non-flirty as cj can manage, which is to say that they’re at canon levels of flirting. i would say it’s PRETTY FLIRTY. they’re keeping their cluster under wraps, and they’re even pretty good at it. senior staff knows because one time they got REALLY drunk during the campaign and had a conversation at normal volume about the boston globe. from opposite ends of a bar. but most of the press doesn’t know, except MAYBE danny, and they do their best to keep it that way. exceptions are at rosslyn and other situations like that.

neither of them generally take blockers, so toby’s attempts at briefing are SLIGHTLY less catastrophic than in canon, since cj can stand next to him and quietly advise. she doesn’t take over his body to do it, though, and they try to limit her advice, since it can get really obvious really quickly. toby takes blockers whenever they hide something from cj.

and cj and andy... are the most romantic of the three, just because cj and toby can get away with flirting and cj KNOWS that toby knows she loves him, but andy has always been better about physical affection - and they generally see each other in the psycellium, anyway. (look, i just want them to KISS.) if marriage equality existed at the time, they’d have probably gotten married and toby would’ve had a Crisis about it, but it didn’t and they don’t. they only very rarely see each other in public, generally at balls and the like, during which they both have to pretend they’re not about to burst out laughing. someone ALWAYS tries to introduce them, assuming they’ve never met before, and it’s worth it for the simultaneous “oh, no, we’ve met.” it’s explained by “cj was toby’s best friend while he was dating andy”, but you and i know the Truth.

okay, and then sam goes to california and meets a spirited young speechwriter and sends him back to the west wing, and he walks into toby’s office first.

toby looks up, meets will’s eyes, and something clicks into place. the last piece of the puzzle. the last member of their cluster. and toby goes, “oh no.”

will says, “uh- can we just. uh.”

“come in,” says toby, sighing and waving a hand. “we’ll handle that later. you have an appointment, right?”

they have their canon conversation, in which toby critiques will’s writing and refuses his help on the inauguration speech, and blah blah blah we get to the end of the episode where they’ve both revealed that they respect each other.

it’s the middle of the night, two days after they met, they’re sitting in the mess hall writing, when will goes, “and the cluster thing?”

“what?” says toby, glancing up. “oh, yeah. there’s two more of us. i’ve gotta introduce you.”

“i went home and looked it up,” says will. “there’s nothing on your cluster anywhere.”

“yeah, well, that’s on purpose,” says toby. “and it’s yours too, now. do you know cj cregg?”

he introduces will to cj the next morning, then gets andy to come into the west wing so she can pass will in the hallway and meet eyes with him. they’re very serious about keeping their cluster under wraps, and it would look REALLY suspicious if toby ziegler’s ex-wife came to the white house to meet the california speechwriter that sam seaborn recommended after two months of casual acquaintance. donna is the only one who notices it, but that’s another story.

the dynamics: toby and will are basically the same as in canon, complete with the s6-7 Rift™. toby isn’t as comfortable with will, hasn’t known him for as long, but they understand each other. they’re both writers. it’s something that andy and cj don’t know, even if they love toby more than will ever will.

as for cj and andy, they basically adopt will as their brother and move on. will and cj can’t be seen getting too cozy, but they talk through problems with each other a lot. andy and will can’t be seen in public together at ALL, but they make it a point to sit with each other in the evenings while they’re doing paperwork or reading or writing. it goes more easily with company, and they want to get to know each other.

It’s a beautiful morning, with a cloudless blue sky and a breeze rustling the bright green leaves on the trees. The weather channel says the temperature is in the sixties, utterly perfect weather for outdoor activities, but Abbey is, as has been true too often in her life, stuck inside a hospital instead.

Josh knows he’s losing his argument to Toby, so really, he’s already looking for any reason to escape the conversation and head back to his office. An unexpected voice in the bullpen quickly provides the perfect excuse.

“Annie, take your brother and go find Grandpa,” says the intruder, chaperoning a lanky teen girl and a younger boy with a backpack. She shoos them off, taking the backpack from her son. Josh leaves the threshold of Toby’s office to greet her with a chuckle.

“Hey, you can’t just set your kids loose in the West Wing!”

Elizabeth Bartlet hangs her sunglasses from her shirt and smirks at him. “I can do whatever I want, Joshua,” she says, tossing her hair and handing him the stupid dinosaur backpack. “I’m the First Daughter of the United States.”

“And modest to boot,” he shoots back. “How the hell have you been, Liz?” Her gives her an awkward half-hug, and she kisses his cheek.

“Too busy for this crap,” she answers flatly. “Where is she?”

Josh shrugs. “Zoey’s been around, she might be in CJ’s office if they’re fine tuning the announcement, or--”

“My mother, Josh. Doctor Abigail Bartlet? You know, the First Lady? Ringing any bells?” She gives him a smile that’s somewhere between teasing and patronizing, which is a gray area Liz lives in a lot, if memory serves.

“Oh, right.” He actually hasn’t seen Abbey, not since the night before, at least. “She… also might be in CJ’s office?”

“She’s in the Residence,” Toby corrects. “With the Surgeon General.”

“Thank you, Tobias,” Liz says, turning on her heel. She leaves him with the damn backpack. Josh turns to look at Toby again.

While Kate is standing there musing over the way Liz’s hair seems to change colors in the sunlight, the photographer gives more direction. “Alright, let’s split up a bit,” he calls out. “President Bartlet and the First Lady with the grandchildren, and then we’ll do Elizabeth, Eleanor, and Zoey together.”

Liz slips away from the tree, coming towards Kate and nudging their shoulders together even though she poses her question to CJ. “When can we start drinking?”

“You’re over twenty-one,” CJ retorts with a smirk. “I’m not in charge of you.”

“I’m gonna open a bottle of red,” Liz announces. “I’ll let it breathe for a bit, and then we can drink it after the photographers leave.”

CJ makes a noise of assent, but Kate can see she’s already distracted; she’s got her eye on Zoey and Charlie, sitting on a sofa together a little too closely for people who purportedly have neither time nor desire to date. Then again, Kate can’t really judge in that regard.

After checking her pager to make sure she hasn’t missed a call from the UN contact she’s waiting on, Kate follows Liz into the kitchen. Liz has popped the cork out of a bottle of wine, but before she pours it into the fancy decanting carafe sitting in front of her,  she half-fills a stemless wine glass and knocks it back in a few gulps. Kate lifts an eyebrow in question, and Liz shrugs.

“Doug’s got the kids for Christmas, I mean, for the holiday proper,” she says, lifting the bottle again to pour it into the decanter. “I haven’t told my dad yet.” She shakes her head slowly. “I just-- it’s gonna put him in a mood, like I have any control over this, and he doesn’t say it, but he looks at me like it’s my fault for getting divorced in the first place.” She shakes her head. “He’s so fucking Catholic.”

Kate snorts; it’s an accurate assessment, but she doesn’t dare agree out loud. “When Graham and I split, the first question my mother asked-- well, after all the ‘what were you thinking’-- was if I was still intending to give her grandchildren. I was like, yeah, sure, as soon as they start allowing babies on submarines.” She rolls her eyes.

“Annie’s already saying she’s going to stop agreeing to visits with him as soon as she’s eighteen,” Liz sighs, her voice quieter than usual. “It’s up to her, but whenever she brings it up Gus whines that he won’t go without her. Like Doug doesn’t already think I’m poisoning them against him.”

“You’d be well within your rights to,” Kate points out. She’s never met Liz’s ex, but the stories she’s heard-- not just from Liz, but from CJ and even Ellie-- have painted a pretty clear picture. 

Liz concedes the point with a nod. “I’m just… tired,” she sighs. “I want him to stop acting like we’re still in divorce court and remember we still have two kids to raise together.”

Kate suppresses a shudder. “I’m glad I don’t have kids,” she admits, glancing over her shoulder back toward the photoshoot. “Yours are pretty great, though.” She smiles when she turns back to Liz. “And I really doubt that has much to do with their dad.”

There’s a brief moment where Liz visibly relaxes, her eyes crinkling a little too fondly for the setting. Ellie’s voice interrupts them in the next heartbeat. “Liz, pictures!”

As the Bartlet sisters gather in front of the tree, CJ is pulling the President aside to update him on the headache-inducing meetings she and Kate have been stuck in all day. Kate joins her quickly, before her absence is noticed, but she can’t resist looking back toward Liz one more time.

She happens to see the pictures the next day, while Toby is asking CJ about the lighting on one of the whole family.

CJ’s surprised that Andy manages to keep a straight face at all when she turns to her and says, “she gets that from you.”

“You’re the one with the sweet tooth,” CJ retorts, already snickering again.

“That’s why I like you, sweetheart,” Andy tries, but she can barely give CJ a peck on the lips before dissolving into giggles. And then, CJ looks up and sees Josh’s face across the fire from them, and she can’t stop laughing, either.

Really, Josh is well within his rights to look as shocked as he does-- CJ and Andy had more or less just started dating sometime around Valentine’s Day without doing much in the way of coming out. It’s still an imperfect solution-- there’s a delicate balance between quietly letting their friends into the loop and still staying quiet enough to protect Andy’s professional reputation-- but CJ is happier than she’s felt in a while. Except, apparently, nobody had told Josh.

“I didn’t leave you out on purpose,” CJ insists, honestly feeling a little bit bad. 

Andy is still laughing hard enough that she’s clinging to CJ’s shoulders for support. “Josh, Matt and Helen both know,” she manages, gasping for breath between bouts of laughter. “At this point, you’re edging toward worryingly obtuse!”

Josh scrubs a hand over his face. “God, really? Honestly, CJ, maybe you told me and I forgot.” He chuckles. “These days I’m packing so much information into my brain that I think my head might explode. Hey, Gus, toss me a marshmallow, will you?”

Gus tears into the bag of jumbo marshmallows and lobs one underhand toward Josh. Predictably, it ends up in the fire, melting and turning back before their eyes. This just makes CJ laugh harder, although at this point, she suspects any little thing will set her off.

“Good thing you don’t play ball sports, hon,” Liz says, taking the marshmallows from her son before he can sacrifice any more of them to the flames. When she turns to Andy and CJ, her eyebrows lift. “What’s so funny?”

CJ shakes her head, trying to stop laughing long enough to take a breath. Finally, Andy finds words again, leaning in closer to CJ even as she answers Liz.