CJ Cregg strode purposefully through the halls of the White House until she came to the back of one unsuspecting Josh Lyman.  She proceeded to walk right past him, but gifted him with a smack to the back of the head as she went.  His yelp followed her.

"Hey, what the hell?"  Donna snorted gleefully at his misfortune.  He looked at her darkly.  "Shut up."

"I don't think so," she chuckled.  He went after CJ, who was now moving more calmly.

"CJ, what was that about?"  She went through the swinging doors to her side of the building.  She didn't answer until they reached her office.  She swiveled around and kicked the door shut with one of her freakishly long legs.  "That's not normal."

"You threw a water balloon at a member of the Aprop. Committee?"

"It wasn't a water balloon," he was quick to try and clear up.

"What was it, then?"

He looked away guiltily.  "It was...a muffin," he coughed into his hand.

"I'm sorry, a what?"

"A muffin," he coughed again.

"You really need to take something for that cough because it sounds like you said you threw a muffin at Max Rochester."

"Yeah."

"A muffin?" He nodded.  "I want to kill you.  You know that, right?"

"I had a vague notion."

"Leave my sight now."

"You know, you kind of remind me of Sherlock Holmes."

"Get out...now."  His smug grin withered beneath her steely glare and he beat a hasty retreat in another direction.

"Elementary, my dear Watson."

"Out!" she lobbed a bottle of lotion at his head.  He ducked down and skittered away.

On his way to further torment Donna, Josh passed Sam who looked a little worse for wear.

"Hey, you look a little peaked there, Sam."  He gave his friend a look that rivaled CJ's.  "Okay, I'm batting a thousand here.  What is everybody's problem?  Did no one," he asked to the general populace," get any sleep last night?"  No one bothered stopping to answer.  He did, however, feel the glower of a several dozen eyes on his back.  "Okay, stupid question then.  Jeez."

"You're certainly very chipper."

"I slept well."

"I can see that."

"You didn't, I take it."

"No, I didn't.  Well, I did at first.  But that was totally retroacted this morning.  So, I suppose we can say that no I didn't sleep very well at all."

Josh decided that some conversations shouldn't be pondered nor pursued.  "Okay, then.  I'm gonna go annoy Donna."

"I thought you always did that."

Josh stopped short.  "Yeah, but now I'm doing it on purpose.  It's different."

"Right."  They went on in their separate directions.  Sam passed Cathy who was munching on a donut early in the morning and handed him a glazed phone message.  "At least someone's enjoying the morning," he muttered miserably to himself.

"You shouldn't talk to yourself.  People are likely to think you're crazy."  Sam jumped and just missed dropping his coffee in his lap.  Instead, he dropped it on his laptop.  Wonderful.  "Oops, did I do that?"  There were times when Jed seemed to get a sardonic amusement out of their distress.  It really seemed that way.

"No, sir."

"Sit down, son.  It's seven in the morning and you look like you're already in hell.  That usually doesn't happen until around nine."

"Well, sir, the Republicans got up a little earlier than us this morning."

"Sounds like it."  Sam sat down and carefully wiped at his thankfully closed computer.  It seemed that the important parts had been spared, though he was sure to have a colony of ants by noon.  "What happened, Sam?"

He sighed even more miserably.  "The Devil made me do it."

"Okay.  Well, now that accountability's out of the way.  What did the Devil make you do?"

"He made me sleep with a high-priced call girl last night and wake up to meet her huge ex-boyfriend this morning," he said in a single breath.

"I'm hoping the he made you do it and that you don't just have a death wish."

"No death wish.  Just a case of abominable luck."

"You can say that again."

"I hate my life."

"Yes, well, it does sound unfortunate.  But you gotta remember, there are worst things you could be than hapless and unlucky."

"Like?"

"You could be a drug addicted alcoholic with a seventeen-month old daughter that you can't take care of."  His eyes snapped up to Jed's.

"April?"

Jed nodded.  "She's back.  Says that she's ready for a change.  She wants better for Kelsey."

"I think we all want better for Kelsey, for both of them actually."

"I know."

"You think she serious this time?"

"I hope so."  Jed said a silent prayer and put his concerns behind him.  Those were worries for home, this was work.  "Anyway, senior staff in ten minutes.  Let everybody know that we're meeting in my office and then, we're seeing the President."

"All right."  Jed rose from his seat and went back to work.  The day kept getting better and better.

A few minutes later, the entire senior staff was gathered outside of Jed's office, waiting to go in because apparently there was a last minute talk scheduled with the First Lady.  The lot of them argued over how best to goad him with that next.  There were few who didn't know how close he was to the First Couple and that he wouldn't hesitate to drop any meeting if they needed him.  So naturally, he'd make his staff stand in his outer office for as long as it took to clear up whatever the problem was.  The longer he made them wait the worse the wisecracks would be in the end.

Finally, the door opened and released the First Lady fresh from her trip to Rome with a stunning tan and a new hairstyle.  She looked good.  She thanked Jed for his time with a pat on the chest.  She greeted the staff with a 'good morning' and a smile and went on her merry way.  There was something about the way she walked away...

They turned to their boss and he knew that he was in for it.  He rolled his eyes and brought them in.  They at least had the decency to wait until he closed the door to start in on him.

"So the First Lady's in a good mood?"  He disliked Josh terribly at times.  Especially, when the boy had gotten a better night's sleep than all the rest of them.

"Yes.  The Rome trip was a success.  Her speech went swimmingly."

"Oh, swimmingly."  They shared conspiratorial looks.  He thought of all the ways he could fire them and it gave him comfort.

"You do know that I can fire you all right now and make up a reason later?"

"Yeah, but it'd be totally worth it just to mock you at this moment."  A pen went flying randomly from his hand and whopped Josh precisely in the center of his forehead.  He snapped back as though surprised.  "Ow."

Jed smiled.  "Anything else about that, Josh, 'cause I've got a letter opener with your name on it?"

"No, sir."

"Good.  Now, CJ, what has Josh done to upset the people at large?"

"Hey, I don't upset people."  They all stopped to look at him.  "I don't...often.  I mean, I don't try to.  I just have a naturally...strong personality."

"Irritating is more like it," CJ mumbled in a stage whisper.

"I'm not irritating.  I don't believe I am irritating.  I have strong convictions and a low tolerance for those who are wrong."

"Those who disagree with you--"

"Happen to be wrong."

"Okay, Josh."  CJ rolled her eyes to see Toby shaking his head at his misfortune of being locked in a room with these people.

"CJ, what did he do?"

She smiled tightly and glared at Josh again.  "He threw a muffin at Max Rochester."

"He what?"  Their boss leaned forward in his chair, staring at CJ grimly with a touch of displeased frustration.

"Threw a muffin at Senator Rochester from New York."

Jed turned to look sternly at Josh for an explanation.  "Is this true?"

Josh scrambled to try and salvage this conversation.  "See, what you have to know is that, it was the heat of the moment and there was some insane remark about the President and I may have just lost my temper...a little bit."  Not a lot, a little bit.

"Maybe, a little bit."  He nodded thoughtfully.  "You threw a muffin?"

"My options were limited."

"Let us all thank God for that and pray that Rochester doesn’t make more of it than it was.  Okay, what else do we have to worry about?” Toby started to say something, but Jed held up his hand again.  "I'm sorry, Toby, but Josh what was the remark?"

"Sir?"

"What did he say about the President?  If it made you go all about Eve then it may bear looking into."

"He claimed that he was an alcoholic and a drug addict and that he was snorting cocaine in the Oval Office.  He also said some very unattractive things regarding the First Lady's virtue."

If Jed wasn't already pissed (and he was quite), that definitely pissed him off.  "What exactly did he say about Dr. McGarry?"

Josh suddenly felt as though the full force of his boss's glower was all on him.  It was just he and the glower.  "He said the President paid for his drugs by lending the First Lady out evenings."

Jed didn't have to look at the rest of his staff to know that they were all having similar reactions to him.  At that moment, war was declared on Maximillion Rochester.  He was officially screwed, with the seal of this office and the one next door fully behind it.  Big boys don't call each other names, not like this.

"Take him out to the wood shed, Josh.  I don't want see him again.  He doesn't play on our field and insult our team.  Send him outside."

"I have your permission to destroy him?"

"You have my permission to decimate him."  Josh looked like a little boy in a toy store.  Poor Rochester.  He was modern history.