(Untitled)

[regtuesdaysuit]

Okay, just because he is important and influential, Josh does not want to know about your mindless trivia. This goes for the President telling him about every national park in the United States, and this certainly goes for Donna reading him factoids about what life was like a hundred years ago. It does not matter. Josh has to get a new Chairman of

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[amateur_spy]

"Bad day?" intones a casual British voice from a nearby table.

[regtuesdaysuit]

Oh, for crap's sake.

"Lady, even my good days are bad days. I swear to God, this job is gonna kill me before I turn 40."

Internally, Josh manages a double-take. He tries to be subtle about it, though. That... is not the kind of woman you see around the White House.

[amateur_spy]

Emma Peel is not the kind of woman you see around anywhere, unless you happen to hang around a swinging set of 1960's British jet setters. The double-take makes Emma smirk, not much more. "Perhaps you should find another job."

[regtuesdaysuit]

"I don't need a new job, I need a new staff. They're the ones who are disorganized and contrary, not me."

Also, there's this freaking bar that appears out of nowhere. Josh quashes the desire to kick something with very bad grace indeed.

[amateur_spy]

"Then why not acquire a new staff? That's what I would do, in your position. But then my business experience and yours might not align; what is it that you do?"

[regtuesdaysuit]

Josh's frown is completely down. "Believe me, if I had the time and the budget, there are days when it's tempting. Unfortunately, we're just not in a place right now where we can easily come by people who know how to work in the White House."

There we go, time to make himself feel better by pulling out the business card, so to speak. "I'm the Deputy Chief of Staff. Josh Lyman. What do you do?"

[amateur_spy]

"--nothing as impressive as that," she replies, smiling. "Hardly anything at all. I'm semi-retired."

[regtuesdaysuit]

"Yeah? Well, I'm on Year 2 of eight if I play my cards right. Sometimes I wish I could semi-retire. Today I'm convinced everyone else is getting a head start."

[amateur_spy]

He's in politics. Anything could happen. For example, he might slip up, say something unsavory, and get ousted as a result. Emma doesn't say that, but she does think it. "Unfortunately, politics doesn't work the way a business does. Not quite."

[regtuesdaysuit]

Ha! Been there, done that, sister. You've got to wake up pretty early in the morning to get Josh Lyman fired over making sense on TV at Mary Marsh.

...okay, maybe not so early. But it helps that Josh is very good at what he does. That's the best job security, even in a volatile market like Washington.

"Ma'am, I don't know what you're semi-retired from, but I've been in politics since student council. You really don't have to tell me that."

[amateur_spy]

"Semi-retired from running a fairly large business."

[regtuesdaysuit]

One eyebrow goes up. "You wanna be a little more euphemistic and vague there?"