Whitening Toothpaste
Chapter Seven: Say My Name...
By: Eve Karma
Disclaimer: I only wish they were mine! I don't own Destiny's Child either! hee hee.
Spoilers: A little bit from The Fall's Going to Kill You through Two Cathedrals
Other: Does the White House actually have a payroll office? If it doesn't then oh well it does now, LOL :P
I'm not sure what day it is in Kate's little world. I think it's still Tuesday.
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On my way out to lunch, I made my stop at payroll. To my surprise, someone who I recognized was sitting behind the front desk.
"Lauren?" I tried to remember her name from the one time we had met. She looked up from where she was leafing through a magazine and squinted at me, as if trying to remember who I was.
"Kate Montgomery?" She asked, and I nodded, smiling. "Geez, I haven't seen you since orientation! What happened, you were gone after that?!"
I chuckled and shook my head. "It's a long story. Let's just say that I, um, work for part of the Senior Staff now."
"Huh? You mean you actually have a job here? I'm stuck at this desk and you're running around for the Prez and his posse?"
I nodded, and when her face registered a look of surprise, I threw my head back and laughed. "We've got to have lunch or something sometime," I told her, knowing that even though I wasn't an intern anymore, I had a friend from my old and very temporary group.
"Soon, Kate," she agreed. "I wanna know what happened!"
"Someday. Someday soon," I told her, knowing that I couldn't really tell her anything about what had happened until Friday.
I completed my business there and walked the 8 blocks or so to the Reagan Center. Along the way I recalled what had happened in the past week. I got tears in my eyes remembering Mrs. Landingham. "They've all been through so much," I thought of my co-workers. "And yet they keep going. Because they know they have to. God Bless their tired hearts." I managed a small smile.
I ate a quick but satisfying lunch and ran my errand into the drugstore across the street. When I arrived back at the White House I walked into Sam's office holding out a small brown paper lunch bag. I took from it two packs of whitening gum and tossed them on his desk in front of him.
"Thank you," he murmured without looking up. He couldn't even look at me? I needed to get his attention. "Oh, hey, Sam, CJ said to tell you that she uses the same kind, so if you ever run out you can get some off of her."
This time his head jerked up, his eyes went wide, and his jaw dropped. "CJ knows about this??" he squealed. Yes, that's right, squealed. He took off his glasses and stared at me.
I laughed at his reaction. "Just Kidding!" I grinned at him madly, turned, and sauntered out.
The rest of the day was pretty basic. Type memos for Sam, answer the phone for Sam, help Sam with his writing, get a bottle of Evian for Sam, ask Sam for help deciphering his own handwriting, make various copies for Josh....okay maybe that last one wasn't so basic, but Josh couldn't find Donna, and decided I could fill in. Yay. Actually, I didn't mind, except for when he yelled, which was, well, a lot.
"Do you always do that?" I finally asked him, nearly yelling to him in his office.
"What?" of course he yelled back.
"Talk so loud?" I lowered my voice slightly.
"KATE!" He groaned. I never knew you could groan and yell at the same time, but Josh proved me wrong.
"That's funny, it has so much more of a ring to it when he does that with my name."
I turned to see Donna standing thoughtfully in the doorway. "Kate, go back to Spanky," she told me, referring to Sam. "I'll deal with him."
I started out, then stopped. I whispered to Donna, "Can I give you some advice?" I asked.
"Sure, what?"
"Anger Management class..." I hissed, tilting my head towards Josh.
Donna and I both burst out laughing. Josh stared angrily and yelled "DONNA!" We only laughed more.
~~~~~
Around 6 pm, I fell onto the couch in Sam's office and sighed loudly.
"Tired?" Sam asked from his desk.
"Sure am," I told him.
"You can go home, I don't think I'll need anything else today."
"You sure?" He nodded at me. "Okay," I said, but stopped with my hand on the doorknob and stared at him until he met my gaze. He finally looked up and said, "What is it?"
"Sam, are you going to go home tonight?"
"Yeah, Kate, don't worry."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, Kate, I promise, really." He smiled.
"Okay then."
"Goodnight Kate. See you tomorrow morning."
"'Night Sam." I said.
~~~~~
I gathered my things and drove home. When I swung open the door to my apartment, I was astonished to see that everything was unpacked. The lamps were all plugged in. The dishes were in the cabinets. I wandered into my bedroom, and even my bed was made. There was a note from mom. "Oh, god, she did this for me!" I grinned.
I called my mom to thank her a thousand times, made myself dinner, watched some TV, and went to bed. It was all so normal. "This is my life now," I said as I drifted off to sleep. "I'm starting to really like this."
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