Through the Years

***

1. It's the sixth fight they've had in a week and the last one she will have with this man for close to fifteen years. She doesn't know this when she throws the pillow at his head and screeches at him from across her apartment. It's a small apartment, so when he starts yelling back and gesticulating, her belongings go flying.

They end up on the floor because they always do (did), and he is running his fingers up and down her spine, letting the sweat cool.

"We're not going to make it, are we?" He whispers this into the curve of her shoulder, and years later she finds it strange and more than a little sad that she can't remember what she was yelling, but she can definitely remember what he whispered.

2. "Avert your eyes!" She is wet and cold (okay lukewarm because this is L.A. and the only time you get cold in L.A. is if you're doing something silly in a freezer) and glaring. It's been two years since she'd seen Toby and to say she's damn surprised he's still upright is a bit of an understatement.

She'd poured him into his hotel room bed the night she'd left. Kissed him on the head and let him go because she didn't think she had another choice. Toby'd never been perky, but with Andy and the midterm loss. Well.

He looks better though. Not happy, but better. And too damn smug.

"AVERT YOUR EYES!"

3. "I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!" It's four a.m. and all is not well. Namely, she isn't.

"Why not? I do stupid things like that all the time!" And bless him, Toby is less than sympathetic. He should be. She's been something of a ravenous bitch to everyone not carrying a camera all day.

She doesn’t want to admit it’s because she’s dog-sick. They’ve got fifteen stops before she can curl in a bed for fifteen solid hours and die.

"And stop taking shit out on me because you’re sick!"

Still, when she bursts into tears, it feels really, really damn good when he pulls her close and hugs her. She’s missed this man.

“And try not to breathe on me because we have fifteen more stops before we can collapse.”

Really.

4. She yells at him a lot after she finds out that he’s the leak. Not to his face. Oh, no. She’s not allowed to actually talk to him at all. There are proprieties and protocols to follow and having the White House Chief of Staff talking with someone who’s committed something like treason is a Bad Plan.

But oh, she yells at him in her head. Curses and rages and cries and wants nothing more than to show up at his door and shake him until the whole thing goes away and he’ll come in and sit at his desk and she’ll come in and sit on his couch and everything will be okay.

5. Toby has gotten very, very good at being semi-awake and sounding rational when the phone rings at 2am.

“H’lo?” Admittedly, he’s gotten a bit out of practice in the last four years.

“You fucking idiot. You don’t realize what you lost.” And then there’s a dialtone.

He blinks at the receiver for a few seconds before hauling his tired ass out of bed and towards the computer. He’s got a plane to catch.

-fin-

Back.