Five things meme answers
My answers to the five things question memes. Most of these are around drabble length, though some are much bigger or smaller. And not so much for me with the triple-checking, so there may be the odd spelling or tense muck-up. Also, for some reason a lot of these are in the present tense. No idea why.
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Five Times Willow Did the Spell Wrong for raedbard
1.
”Willow?”
Tara found her in the kitchen, cheery note sitting in front of her:
Hey Tara!
I accidentally muted myself. You think you could read the spell in the book and undo it? I already made the potion :-)
Love you,
Willow
Xxx
”Wow. That really wasn’t meant to be like that at all.”
“Umm... What was it meant to do?”
“Oh it was a muting spell, it was the keeping me all mute-y for hours that wasn’t meant to happen.”
“Did... did we not talk about not doing spells by yourself?”
“But it wasn’t really by myself, by myself. You were gonna be back soon. I knew you’d find me.”
”Yeah?”
“Yeah. Wiccan intuition. Or, you know, cause you’re a really good girlfriend. What with the spell reversals with narry even an ‘I told you so’ or anything.”
“Sweetie, did you think that would work?”
“That depends!” she answered brightly. “Is it?”
2.
The my-will-be-done spell is high on the list of spells that should probably never have happened. Willow knows that the spell was undone, and infatuation spells like that don’t cause lasting effects. But then Spike falls for Buffy, and they end up doing icky and wrong things to each other in his crypt. So she can’t help but feel a little responsible. Willow does a detection spell, just to be sure there’s nothing weird going on. Apparently there are lots of weird things going on, and the only un-weird thing is Buffy and Spike. She does that one again, just to make sure. But no, this is just normal wacky, not Hellmouth wacky at all. Who’d have thought a tiny innocuous spell like a will-be-done could be the start of something like this?
3.
The first time Willow thought of Tara when trying out a spell alone was also the first time she set a carpet on fire. It was only meant to light the little candle - just a practice run for some instant-immolations she had planned for later. In a cool ‘vampires of the world - beware!’ kind of way. But somewhere between starting the incantation and finishing it, her thoughts filled with the way Tara’s blush spread right from her hairline down to what Willow could see of her breasts. And - poof! - instant flambéed upholstery. Maybe Tara would come rug shopping with her?
4.
A little mishap with the Latin, and suddenly instead of a light to guide them home, Anya was glowing. And, to be honest, freaking Willow a little bit with her assertions that she was fine. She could just tell that this was going to be a sex-with-Xander thing. And she didn’t want to hear about sex with Xander anymore. Wow - growth!
”Come on, Xander. It’ll be just like a runway for those little airplanes - you won’t be able to miss!”
She knew it was going to be a sex-thing.
5.
It’s a simple enough spell - a variation on one of the many protective charms they have around the room. The only itsy-bitsy problem is that it calls for a tiny bit of blood. Oh, hers, not anyone else’s - she wouldn’t go around spilling other people’s blood! But the books are all kinda twitchy about blood-spells. They tend to lead, according to the books, to bloodshed in a less controlled way. Massacres, zombies, other generally bad things that she doesn’t want to see in Sunnydale. They have enough of those already.
But this one is such a good spell. What harm could it possibly do? Willow nicked her finger and dripped the blood in. The tincture glowed fuchsia, just like it was supposed to. Take that ‘only-for-level-twelve-and-above” books! Nothing went wrong at all.
Dumb books with their overblown warnings!
Five Times Sam and Toby Almost Kissed for raedbard
1.
They watch the President - spellbound at so much more than the simple fact that they get to say that word and mean Josiah Bartlet. Sam looks at Toby, knowing that each word the President utters sounds in Toby’s head first, echoed and smoothed off by the President’s strong voice. In Sam’s own head he hears them both.
When the speech finishes, Toby turns to him and smiles, giving Sam partial credit for this unexpected perfect moment. Sam leans in and smiles back, doesn’t know the words to reciprocate. In the end he bumps Toby’s shoulder gently, and they walk to the motorcade together.
2.
”When have you ever needed the word acalculia?”
“I have to require a word regularly to know what it means?”
“Not regularly. At all - perhaps.”
“I have an extensive knowledge of words I’ll never need to use, Toby.”
“Sam...”
“Eosophobia. Zymurgy. Qiviuts.” Sam finished the last with a triumphant smile.
Toby stared at him.
“Toby...?”
Toby’s intent, silent, focus on Sam made him nervous.
”Scrabble, Toby. That’s all.”
“Acalculia is a nine letter word which I can’t see you ever being able to add to something else.”
“Calculi,” Sam countered.
Toby watched him with dark eyes, pupils dilated. “Get out.”
Eosophobia - a fear of dawn
Zymurgy - the branch of applied chemistry dealing with fermentation, as in winemaking, brewing, the preparation of yeast, etc.
Qiviuts - The soft wool lying beneath the long coat of the muskox, valued for its use as a fiber.
Acalculia - inability or loss of the ability to perform arithmetic operations
3.
It is a little after the drop-in, and the President’s speech has the audience on their feet in wild applause. Sam laughs, rocking back on his feet, and looks across the room at Toby. Who is standing with his hands in his pocket, already looking at Sam, and seeming unsure. When this has been such a good night for them, and it is Toby’s words as well as Sam’s that they’re applauding. Sam walks to him, wanting to tilt his forehead to Toby’s and cry forgiveness into his mouth. Instead he leans beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and tries to make the ovation wash over them both the same way.
4.
New Year’s Day 2002 and the clock had long struck twelve. Sam resolves, perfectly seriously, not to get subpoenaed again this year. He tilts his head back, dangerously close to Toby’s. The Bartlets and Leo had celebrated at the residence, and CJ, Josh and Donna had left when the fireworks stopped. Sam’s hair brushed against Toby’s as he shifted to make himself more comfortable. He showed no signs of moving again soon. Toby patted Sam’s knee reassuringly and announced his resolution to re-elect the President. Sam does not believe that counts, then changes his mind and decides to share Toby’s resolution instead of following his own. He has nothing to hide anyway, he says. Toby resolves, silently and regretfully, that they should probably keep it that way.
5.
Campaigning from Air Force One was different to campaigning from a bus. Sam had a certain amount of affection for the plane, and it was certainly the best way to travel, but it was too easy to see the differences between this campaign and the first. He walked down the length of the plane, passing Josh in deep conversation with Leo and the President. CJ was with the press. At the back, hidden away, Toby was reworking the stump speech again. Sam sat down beside him and curled up in the seat. Toby offered him half a pillow without looking up. Sam watched Toby’s eyes flicking over the paper, hand moving in swift red strokes. Sam looked at him for a long moment and put his head down, turned to face Toby and huddled towards him; a tight circle against the echoing chaos.
Five Ways Toby Avoided Telling Sam 'I Love You' for raedbard
1. Toby left their Midterm porch-party early, and Sam walked with him. Leaving behind CJ and Donna, and Josh with his arm held tellingly over his chest even now. He turned to Sam, his own chest aching with the near-loss. The awareness that it could have been any of them and that it was still his fault the President hadn’t been under a canopy. Sam looked back at him, concerned and warm and alive. And it shouldn’t have been Sam he thought of then, but it was, and it was Sam he saw with the blood pouring out of him, black against the midnight and Toby’s white hands. He slung an arm around Sam and squeezed his shoulder once. Toby pulled his hands back to his sides before Sam could react.
2.
Sam is there at the back of the room, looking sombre, and Toby can yell at these people and be disappointed in them if he wants because there, at the back of the room, is all the proof he needs of loyalty. Sam would do anything for him, as Toby would for Sam. Toby thinks to say this to him, tells him he’s a good deputy instead.
3.
Sam is going to get married to a blonde Californian lawyer, with Toby as his best man because Josh had said the wrong thing when he heard the news. They are standing at the front of a chapel in Orange County - she wanted a church wedding - with his and her friends and relations around them. Toby has no reason to suspect anything bad of this woman, she had moved to DC for Sam’s career; she is a lawyer and not a politician. A mixed blessing - they have less chance of clashing heads when one of them succeeds and the other does not, less chance of accidental legislative betrayal. More chance that she has not yet grasped entirely what this means to Sam. More chance that she is unprepared for a run at being First Lady, and if she holds Sam back from this Toby knows he will not stand by and watch. But Toby has not met her often enough to be sure of any of these things.
Sam is beautiful in a tuxedo and a smile for this woman Toby does not know. He reaches across and straightens Sam’s tie, pressing his lips as tight together as he can make them.
4.
Sam says the words against his mouth, Toby kisses them away.
5.
As avoidance techniques went, showing up on his porch after a year was not high on the list. It saved having to say the words, but Sam looked at him as if he understood; as if this suddenly made sense.
Five ways Toby would have seduced Sam, if it weren't for their careers. for scrollgirl
1.
The President says good oratory is like music. Toby would have composed symphonies on paper for Sam to recreate into something better. Sam’s tone and meter turning Toby’s words into a different sort of melody. Sam would pick up the themes and sing them back to Toby, making them a duet and not a serenade. He writes the letter in his head and knows it will never be committed to paper.
2.
Sam’s blue eyes were wide and sleepy behind his glasses. Toby reached up to his face, and took them off. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind Sam’s ear, and ran his finger behind it. Sam’s eyes were even wider now, startled out of reflection into something dark and hazy. He reached up to Toby’s face, and for a moment they mirrored each other, until both hands moved, and things got interesting.
3.
It would be too easy to do, with Sam who cannot recognise the overtones, no matter who they come from. So he thinks about it sometimes, leaning over his deputy (deputy he reminds himself) and telling him he did a good job. Making Sam look up at him with that devoted smile is simple - Toby does not think turning devotion to lust would be so much of a stretch. And he would be free to do it slowly because Sam will not recognise the signs. So he thinks about it, sometimes.
4.
If it were not for Laurie, and the fact that the press know where Sam lives, and find him scandal-worthy. He would drive Sam home, after a long day and a longer night, and walk him to the door. Toby would carry Sam’s jacket, forgotten on the back seat, and pass it back to him on the front-step. He would run his thumb along the palm of Sam’s hand, tracing the lifeline, and Sam would invite him up. Because this was his fantasy, so Sam would understand without needing any more words.
5.
If Sam does not stay in politics, Toby will tell him. Will fly down to California, though he hates it there, and catch up with everything he has missed. Sam will touch his arm, and ask him about the near-prison experience. He will make a joke that Sam will see through, because he always does. Sam will ask him again, reaching up to his shoulder, or down to his wrist. He will confess some small truth which Sam will take as both more and less than it is. Sam is a gracious host, and he will be offered a couch in some beautiful LA apartment. They will talk some more, and he will end up alongside Sam in the bed.
But Sam stays in politics.
Five times Toby covered for Sam and Will, out of the goodness of his heart (or maybe it was out of pity) for scrollgirl
1.
Calling Sam’s apartment on speaker-phone from the office (with Josh, of all people, beside him), Will answered. It was nine a.m. in California, and he’d said that before he called, damned them by his own mouth.
“Sorry, Will, wrong number,” he said, hanging up before Will could reply.
And when he called back, receiver firmly on his ear, Sam whispered a heart-felt thanks before agreeing to go back on the speaker-phone.
2.
Toby does not know how Sam has managed it, but he is allowed into the White House again. Sam has adopted Toby’s office for Deputy Chief of Staff rather than Josh’s old one, a gesture which Toby finds amusing and endearing in equal parts. He sits on the familiar couch and talks shop with Sam who is straight-backed and commanding one moment, head-ducked and grinning the next.
Sam looks happy, and Toby is glad for him. Their first two years in office he had seemed... quiet perhaps, or maybe just lonely. It had only really been Josh and Donna left with him in Washington after Santos was inaugurated. A dark haired man Toby vaguely recognises as the Deputy Communications Director walks in, asking Sam for a memo. Sam gestures at the table, and Toby looks down. He snags the page before the guy can take it, and mutters something about a first draft.
When it is just them, Toby passes the page back to Sam, who blushes and thanks him. If it were just the words, Sam might have got away with only some embarrassment. It’s the From the Desk of Congressman Will Bailey that would have caused the problems.
3.
The night of the second presidential election victory, when he walked into Sam’s office to find him explaining, in graphic detail, what Will would need to do to make up for this. He closed the door quietly and told CJ that Sam was talking to his mother.
4.
Again, a few weeks before Sam’s election, walking past Will’s office to hear Will explaining what Sam would need to do to make up for his room being full of bicycles. He slammed the door that time - Will may have thrown in a line about ‘leaving me to work with Toby!’ along with a demand for something special. He still gave Ed and Larry his best glare when they walked up to Sam/Will’s office looking suspiciously innocent.
5.
The night he left CJ trying to balance eggs on their end, and Will was in his office and not on his way to Cheyenne.
”Sam, I swear to you, if I had been hit by anything but Toby at full stretch, I would tell you.... No, I’m not playing it cool and, for that matter, when have I ever done that?”
Will has the phone tucked under his shoulder, presumably so he could collect papers at the same time. It still looks like he’s trying to shield the phone, holding it tightly, as if in some arcane way the intimacy will be transferred down the line.
”Sam, we’re all fine. I give you my word as an officer in the United States Air Force... Yes, I do get to wear the uniform.... No there will not be more bullets.... Can we go back to that part before where you were picturing me in uniform? A gladiatorial fighter for justice in air-force blues?”
Will laughs - a low, comfortable laugh that Toby never hears from him.
“Yeah,” he whispers, “I’ll come and see you soon.”
CJ walks up to Toby and slaps his arm, exclaiming that she was right all along. Toby lets her lead him back to prove it without protest, before she can discover that Will is still here too. She would have no particular compunction about just marching in there to drag Will out. Toby walks with her back to her egg, checking along the way to make sure there is no one else who might need the Deputy Communications Director. He makes a mental note to ensure Will’s next weekend off actually happens; with the White House you can never be sure, and he’s getting sick of the phone bills.
Five 'Dates' That Toby Takes Sam and/or CJ on. for celbalrai
1.
”Up.”
”What did I do?”
”Come with me.”
He distracts Sam from his paying for the coffee by asking about falling SAT scores in public schools.
2.
The first time, the model of all the times they will later pretend they don’t work together, is at his apartment. The drink in the bar had felt like friendship; this does not. This is her, legs folded up underneath her, toasting him solemnly and surprising him with a deep, rich laugh. He watches her neck as she swallows, and toasts her back to see if he can make her do it again.
3.
Neither Sam nor CJ comments that it is just them tonight, eating Chinese food with Teddy Roosevelt looking down at them. They do not ask where Josh or Donna or Leo are, so he can pretend this means nothing at all. He passes Sam his mu shu pork, and CJ reaches over with chicken in her chopsticks and places it into his mouth. The fortune cookie tells him to be open to the idea of meeting someone new. He crumples it up and steals Sam’s.
4.
Toby leads the two of them into Yankee stadium, knowing neither will appreciate what this gesture means. The guy taking tickets looks at them, and Toby can see him trying to work it out. Toby stands in between the two of them, one hand round Sam’s elbow, the other on CJ’s back, and dares him to guess.
5.
CJ and Sam are both sun-hungry Californians. Toby burns too easily, and the hard light makes him cover his eyes. He has no need of sandy beaches and the glare of the sunlight on the waves. Toby shields his eyes and lies back. CJ catches Sam around the waist when he splashes her and tries to run. She cups a hand and dips it into the hip-deep ocean, flinging water up into his face. Sam sputters, laughing loudly. She laughs back, and tucks her loose arm around him to meet the first. They turn to him, all the way up the beach, and catch his eye. He laughs too, and waits for them to come back to him in the shade.
* * * *
Yee. That was fun, but kinda tricky. One, I haven't written Willow in a *long* time. And two, I needed lots of different ways for Sam and Toby to get together!
* * * *
Five Times Willow Did the Spell Wrong for raedbard
1.
”Willow?”
Tara found her in the kitchen, cheery note sitting in front of her:
Hey Tara!
I accidentally muted myself. You think you could read the spell in the book and undo it? I already made the potion :-)
Love you,
Willow
Xxx
”Wow. That really wasn’t meant to be like that at all.”
“Umm... What was it meant to do?”
“Oh it was a muting spell, it was the keeping me all mute-y for hours that wasn’t meant to happen.”
“Did... did we not talk about not doing spells by yourself?”
“But it wasn’t really by myself, by myself. You were gonna be back soon. I knew you’d find me.”
”Yeah?”
“Yeah. Wiccan intuition. Or, you know, cause you’re a really good girlfriend. What with the spell reversals with narry even an ‘I told you so’ or anything.”
“Sweetie, did you think that would work?”
“That depends!” she answered brightly. “Is it?”
2.
The my-will-be-done spell is high on the list of spells that should probably never have happened. Willow knows that the spell was undone, and infatuation spells like that don’t cause lasting effects. But then Spike falls for Buffy, and they end up doing icky and wrong things to each other in his crypt. So she can’t help but feel a little responsible. Willow does a detection spell, just to be sure there’s nothing weird going on. Apparently there are lots of weird things going on, and the only un-weird thing is Buffy and Spike. She does that one again, just to make sure. But no, this is just normal wacky, not Hellmouth wacky at all. Who’d have thought a tiny innocuous spell like a will-be-done could be the start of something like this?
3.
The first time Willow thought of Tara when trying out a spell alone was also the first time she set a carpet on fire. It was only meant to light the little candle - just a practice run for some instant-immolations she had planned for later. In a cool ‘vampires of the world - beware!’ kind of way. But somewhere between starting the incantation and finishing it, her thoughts filled with the way Tara’s blush spread right from her hairline down to what Willow could see of her breasts. And - poof! - instant flambéed upholstery. Maybe Tara would come rug shopping with her?
4.
A little mishap with the Latin, and suddenly instead of a light to guide them home, Anya was glowing. And, to be honest, freaking Willow a little bit with her assertions that she was fine. She could just tell that this was going to be a sex-with-Xander thing. And she didn’t want to hear about sex with Xander anymore. Wow - growth!
”Come on, Xander. It’ll be just like a runway for those little airplanes - you won’t be able to miss!”
She knew it was going to be a sex-thing.
5.
It’s a simple enough spell - a variation on one of the many protective charms they have around the room. The only itsy-bitsy problem is that it calls for a tiny bit of blood. Oh, hers, not anyone else’s - she wouldn’t go around spilling other people’s blood! But the books are all kinda twitchy about blood-spells. They tend to lead, according to the books, to bloodshed in a less controlled way. Massacres, zombies, other generally bad things that she doesn’t want to see in Sunnydale. They have enough of those already.
But this one is such a good spell. What harm could it possibly do? Willow nicked her finger and dripped the blood in. The tincture glowed fuchsia, just like it was supposed to. Take that ‘only-for-level-twelve-and-above” books! Nothing went wrong at all.
Dumb books with their overblown warnings!
Five Times Sam and Toby Almost Kissed for raedbard
1.
They watch the President - spellbound at so much more than the simple fact that they get to say that word and mean Josiah Bartlet. Sam looks at Toby, knowing that each word the President utters sounds in Toby’s head first, echoed and smoothed off by the President’s strong voice. In Sam’s own head he hears them both.
When the speech finishes, Toby turns to him and smiles, giving Sam partial credit for this unexpected perfect moment. Sam leans in and smiles back, doesn’t know the words to reciprocate. In the end he bumps Toby’s shoulder gently, and they walk to the motorcade together.
2.
”When have you ever needed the word acalculia?”
“I have to require a word regularly to know what it means?”
“Not regularly. At all - perhaps.”
“I have an extensive knowledge of words I’ll never need to use, Toby.”
“Sam...”
“Eosophobia. Zymurgy. Qiviuts.” Sam finished the last with a triumphant smile.
Toby stared at him.
“Toby...?”
Toby’s intent, silent, focus on Sam made him nervous.
”Scrabble, Toby. That’s all.”
“Acalculia is a nine letter word which I can’t see you ever being able to add to something else.”
“Calculi,” Sam countered.
Toby watched him with dark eyes, pupils dilated. “Get out.”
Eosophobia - a fear of dawn
Zymurgy - the branch of applied chemistry dealing with fermentation, as in winemaking, brewing, the preparation of yeast, etc.
Qiviuts - The soft wool lying beneath the long coat of the muskox, valued for its use as a fiber.
Acalculia - inability or loss of the ability to perform arithmetic operations
3.
It is a little after the drop-in, and the President’s speech has the audience on their feet in wild applause. Sam laughs, rocking back on his feet, and looks across the room at Toby. Who is standing with his hands in his pocket, already looking at Sam, and seeming unsure. When this has been such a good night for them, and it is Toby’s words as well as Sam’s that they’re applauding. Sam walks to him, wanting to tilt his forehead to Toby’s and cry forgiveness into his mouth. Instead he leans beside him, shoulder to shoulder, and tries to make the ovation wash over them both the same way.
4.
New Year’s Day 2002 and the clock had long struck twelve. Sam resolves, perfectly seriously, not to get subpoenaed again this year. He tilts his head back, dangerously close to Toby’s. The Bartlets and Leo had celebrated at the residence, and CJ, Josh and Donna had left when the fireworks stopped. Sam’s hair brushed against Toby’s as he shifted to make himself more comfortable. He showed no signs of moving again soon. Toby patted Sam’s knee reassuringly and announced his resolution to re-elect the President. Sam does not believe that counts, then changes his mind and decides to share Toby’s resolution instead of following his own. He has nothing to hide anyway, he says. Toby resolves, silently and regretfully, that they should probably keep it that way.
5.
Campaigning from Air Force One was different to campaigning from a bus. Sam had a certain amount of affection for the plane, and it was certainly the best way to travel, but it was too easy to see the differences between this campaign and the first. He walked down the length of the plane, passing Josh in deep conversation with Leo and the President. CJ was with the press. At the back, hidden away, Toby was reworking the stump speech again. Sam sat down beside him and curled up in the seat. Toby offered him half a pillow without looking up. Sam watched Toby’s eyes flicking over the paper, hand moving in swift red strokes. Sam looked at him for a long moment and put his head down, turned to face Toby and huddled towards him; a tight circle against the echoing chaos.
Five Ways Toby Avoided Telling Sam 'I Love You' for raedbard
1. Toby left their Midterm porch-party early, and Sam walked with him. Leaving behind CJ and Donna, and Josh with his arm held tellingly over his chest even now. He turned to Sam, his own chest aching with the near-loss. The awareness that it could have been any of them and that it was still his fault the President hadn’t been under a canopy. Sam looked back at him, concerned and warm and alive. And it shouldn’t have been Sam he thought of then, but it was, and it was Sam he saw with the blood pouring out of him, black against the midnight and Toby’s white hands. He slung an arm around Sam and squeezed his shoulder once. Toby pulled his hands back to his sides before Sam could react.
2.
Sam is there at the back of the room, looking sombre, and Toby can yell at these people and be disappointed in them if he wants because there, at the back of the room, is all the proof he needs of loyalty. Sam would do anything for him, as Toby would for Sam. Toby thinks to say this to him, tells him he’s a good deputy instead.
3.
Sam is going to get married to a blonde Californian lawyer, with Toby as his best man because Josh had said the wrong thing when he heard the news. They are standing at the front of a chapel in Orange County - she wanted a church wedding - with his and her friends and relations around them. Toby has no reason to suspect anything bad of this woman, she had moved to DC for Sam’s career; she is a lawyer and not a politician. A mixed blessing - they have less chance of clashing heads when one of them succeeds and the other does not, less chance of accidental legislative betrayal. More chance that she has not yet grasped entirely what this means to Sam. More chance that she is unprepared for a run at being First Lady, and if she holds Sam back from this Toby knows he will not stand by and watch. But Toby has not met her often enough to be sure of any of these things.
Sam is beautiful in a tuxedo and a smile for this woman Toby does not know. He reaches across and straightens Sam’s tie, pressing his lips as tight together as he can make them.
4.
Sam says the words against his mouth, Toby kisses them away.
5.
As avoidance techniques went, showing up on his porch after a year was not high on the list. It saved having to say the words, but Sam looked at him as if he understood; as if this suddenly made sense.
Five ways Toby would have seduced Sam, if it weren't for their careers. for scrollgirl
1.
The President says good oratory is like music. Toby would have composed symphonies on paper for Sam to recreate into something better. Sam’s tone and meter turning Toby’s words into a different sort of melody. Sam would pick up the themes and sing them back to Toby, making them a duet and not a serenade. He writes the letter in his head and knows it will never be committed to paper.
2.
Sam’s blue eyes were wide and sleepy behind his glasses. Toby reached up to his face, and took them off. He tucked a loose strand of hair behind Sam’s ear, and ran his finger behind it. Sam’s eyes were even wider now, startled out of reflection into something dark and hazy. He reached up to Toby’s face, and for a moment they mirrored each other, until both hands moved, and things got interesting.
3.
It would be too easy to do, with Sam who cannot recognise the overtones, no matter who they come from. So he thinks about it sometimes, leaning over his deputy (deputy he reminds himself) and telling him he did a good job. Making Sam look up at him with that devoted smile is simple - Toby does not think turning devotion to lust would be so much of a stretch. And he would be free to do it slowly because Sam will not recognise the signs. So he thinks about it, sometimes.
4.
If it were not for Laurie, and the fact that the press know where Sam lives, and find him scandal-worthy. He would drive Sam home, after a long day and a longer night, and walk him to the door. Toby would carry Sam’s jacket, forgotten on the back seat, and pass it back to him on the front-step. He would run his thumb along the palm of Sam’s hand, tracing the lifeline, and Sam would invite him up. Because this was his fantasy, so Sam would understand without needing any more words.
5.
If Sam does not stay in politics, Toby will tell him. Will fly down to California, though he hates it there, and catch up with everything he has missed. Sam will touch his arm, and ask him about the near-prison experience. He will make a joke that Sam will see through, because he always does. Sam will ask him again, reaching up to his shoulder, or down to his wrist. He will confess some small truth which Sam will take as both more and less than it is. Sam is a gracious host, and he will be offered a couch in some beautiful LA apartment. They will talk some more, and he will end up alongside Sam in the bed.
But Sam stays in politics.
Five times Toby covered for Sam and Will, out of the goodness of his heart (or maybe it was out of pity) for scrollgirl
1.
Calling Sam’s apartment on speaker-phone from the office (with Josh, of all people, beside him), Will answered. It was nine a.m. in California, and he’d said that before he called, damned them by his own mouth.
“Sorry, Will, wrong number,” he said, hanging up before Will could reply.
And when he called back, receiver firmly on his ear, Sam whispered a heart-felt thanks before agreeing to go back on the speaker-phone.
2.
Toby does not know how Sam has managed it, but he is allowed into the White House again. Sam has adopted Toby’s office for Deputy Chief of Staff rather than Josh’s old one, a gesture which Toby finds amusing and endearing in equal parts. He sits on the familiar couch and talks shop with Sam who is straight-backed and commanding one moment, head-ducked and grinning the next.
Sam looks happy, and Toby is glad for him. Their first two years in office he had seemed... quiet perhaps, or maybe just lonely. It had only really been Josh and Donna left with him in Washington after Santos was inaugurated. A dark haired man Toby vaguely recognises as the Deputy Communications Director walks in, asking Sam for a memo. Sam gestures at the table, and Toby looks down. He snags the page before the guy can take it, and mutters something about a first draft.
When it is just them, Toby passes the page back to Sam, who blushes and thanks him. If it were just the words, Sam might have got away with only some embarrassment. It’s the From the Desk of Congressman Will Bailey that would have caused the problems.
3.
The night of the second presidential election victory, when he walked into Sam’s office to find him explaining, in graphic detail, what Will would need to do to make up for this. He closed the door quietly and told CJ that Sam was talking to his mother.
4.
Again, a few weeks before Sam’s election, walking past Will’s office to hear Will explaining what Sam would need to do to make up for his room being full of bicycles. He slammed the door that time - Will may have thrown in a line about ‘leaving me to work with Toby!’ along with a demand for something special. He still gave Ed and Larry his best glare when they walked up to Sam/Will’s office looking suspiciously innocent.
5.
The night he left CJ trying to balance eggs on their end, and Will was in his office and not on his way to Cheyenne.
”Sam, I swear to you, if I had been hit by anything but Toby at full stretch, I would tell you.... No, I’m not playing it cool and, for that matter, when have I ever done that?”
Will has the phone tucked under his shoulder, presumably so he could collect papers at the same time. It still looks like he’s trying to shield the phone, holding it tightly, as if in some arcane way the intimacy will be transferred down the line.
”Sam, we’re all fine. I give you my word as an officer in the United States Air Force... Yes, I do get to wear the uniform.... No there will not be more bullets.... Can we go back to that part before where you were picturing me in uniform? A gladiatorial fighter for justice in air-force blues?”
Will laughs - a low, comfortable laugh that Toby never hears from him.
“Yeah,” he whispers, “I’ll come and see you soon.”
CJ walks up to Toby and slaps his arm, exclaiming that she was right all along. Toby lets her lead him back to prove it without protest, before she can discover that Will is still here too. She would have no particular compunction about just marching in there to drag Will out. Toby walks with her back to her egg, checking along the way to make sure there is no one else who might need the Deputy Communications Director. He makes a mental note to ensure Will’s next weekend off actually happens; with the White House you can never be sure, and he’s getting sick of the phone bills.
Five 'Dates' That Toby Takes Sam and/or CJ on. for celbalrai
1.
”Up.”
”What did I do?”
”Come with me.”
He distracts Sam from his paying for the coffee by asking about falling SAT scores in public schools.
2.
The first time, the model of all the times they will later pretend they don’t work together, is at his apartment. The drink in the bar had felt like friendship; this does not. This is her, legs folded up underneath her, toasting him solemnly and surprising him with a deep, rich laugh. He watches her neck as she swallows, and toasts her back to see if he can make her do it again.
3.
Neither Sam nor CJ comments that it is just them tonight, eating Chinese food with Teddy Roosevelt looking down at them. They do not ask where Josh or Donna or Leo are, so he can pretend this means nothing at all. He passes Sam his mu shu pork, and CJ reaches over with chicken in her chopsticks and places it into his mouth. The fortune cookie tells him to be open to the idea of meeting someone new. He crumples it up and steals Sam’s.
4.
Toby leads the two of them into Yankee stadium, knowing neither will appreciate what this gesture means. The guy taking tickets looks at them, and Toby can see him trying to work it out. Toby stands in between the two of them, one hand round Sam’s elbow, the other on CJ’s back, and dares him to guess.
5.
CJ and Sam are both sun-hungry Californians. Toby burns too easily, and the hard light makes him cover his eyes. He has no need of sandy beaches and the glare of the sunlight on the waves. Toby shields his eyes and lies back. CJ catches Sam around the waist when he splashes her and tries to run. She cups a hand and dips it into the hip-deep ocean, flinging water up into his face. Sam sputters, laughing loudly. She laughs back, and tucks her loose arm around him to meet the first. They turn to him, all the way up the beach, and catch his eye. He laughs too, and waits for them to come back to him in the shade.
* * * *
Yee. That was fun, but kinda tricky. One, I haven't written Willow in a *long* time. And two, I needed lots of different ways for Sam and Toby to get together!