The door swung open with a whoosh and there stood Sam, dressed in jeans and a navy blue sweater, glasses riding low on his nose, a pencil behind his ear, book in hand.

Sam didn't look up from the book for a few moments. "Mallory. What a nice surprise. What brings you by?" He slammed the book shut.

"I came to see you, Skippy."

"How did you know-"

"Where you live? Dad told me. I came by to ask you a question?"

"Sure, why don't you come on in?" Sam opened the door wider and stepped to the side to let her in. "Make yourself comfortable, I'm just going to put this away." Sam held up the book in his hand and made towards a room in the back of the house.

Mallory shrugged out of her coat, hanging it on an antique coat rack next to Sam's trench coat and a Navy Pea coat. She meandered down the hall towards Sam, hearing the gentle sounds of a string quartet.

She stopped in front of huge book filled room and a desk that strained under the weight of folders and loose papers. A project desk sat nearby with books lying open around Sam's Laptop.

Sam was stooped over the desk, giving her a very nice rearview. He stood up as he felt her gaze and turned around. Taking off his glasses, he smiled at her.

"Isn't this place a breach of White House security?" Mallory walked into the room towards the desk. The top few had legislative agendas and summaries of bills currently in the House.

"Not really. So what brings you by today, Mallory?" Sam smiled at her again, edging towards the door. Mallory took a seat in the wing chair by the fireplace in the corner.

"I came to ask you a question."

"Shoot."

"So you'd call this thing between us a relationship?"

Sam looked at her curiously, and then opened his eyes in innocence. "I'm not sure what to call it, but yeah I guess relationship is good."

"You come by in the middle of the night, sleep on my couch, call me on the phone, take me for dinner occasionally?"

"Yes."

"What do I do for a living, Sam?"

"You are a Fourth grade teacher at Clearlake Elementary." He sounded pretty proud that he remembered that.

"So tell me, and a date is riding on this-"

"Wait, do you mean a date, or just getting together in a romantic fashion. Not that I really care, I just would like to know the stakes."

"A date, Sam."

"Thought so. This is going to be one of those questions I'm never going to be able to answer to your satisfaction, isn't it."

"How the hell could you confuse the placement of Kirkwood, California?"

"Oh, no, Mallory. I'm not going there today. You should have stopped by the White House to complain. Cause I've been the running gag there for the past week. Better yet, you should have had popcorn with Toby, Josh and CJ, as they watched me get my ass kicked by a girl, or better yet, you could have been there while every secretary in the West Wing had a derogatory comment for me. Even better, you could listen to the report I'm giving the President on the historical differences between Oregon and California. And I'm not allowed to use Kathy who screwed up the information in the first place, cause I may not know the history behind the Roosevelt room, but I can definitely tell you where my own fucking home state is."

"Wow, you really blew that one."

Sam sighed. "It was pretty much blown from the question, Mallory." Sam sat down in the chair across from Mallory. "Ainsley Hayes, may not have had a real job before, but I'm Deputy Communications Director, so that meant that last week I was busy prepping Toby for this nice little conference, wrote the President's remarks for the Environmental Lobbyist reception, as well as meeting with the new members of Congress to welcome them to Washington. Not to mention I was the one dealing with the backlash from the Jacob's incident. I had a total of five meetings with Al Caldwell, Mary Marsh, and John Van Dyke. They aren't pleasant on the best of days and last week wasn' t the best of days."

"So I guess that means you don't want to go on a date with me?"

"No right about now, I'd do almost anything to go on a date with you, but." Sam wiped a hand over his face. Silence sighed between them; the music filled the spaces, relaxing them both.

"So, the President gave you a report to do?"

"With maps. I haven't done Maps since I was in elementary." Sam stood up. "Do you want something to drink?"

"We need to go shopping." Mallory stood up and grabbed Sam's hand, yanking him out of the room.

"What?"

"You want a really good Map, don't you?"

"I was planning to."

"Do you really want to impress the President?" Mallory stopped at the front door, handing Sam his navy coat and grabbing her coat and purse.

"Where are we going shopping?" Sam grabbed his keys from the pocket of the trench coat and set the alarm, stepping out behind Mallory into the darkening gray clouds. "Oh wait." Sam turned around opened the door and made a grab for the pager and cell phone on the table in the foyer. He had the door closed and lock before the alarm finished it's forty-five second warning beeps.

"Do that a lot?"

Sam looked at her sheepishly. "Yeah."

"Let's go." Mallory headed out to the street metro station.

Sam hurried to catch up, attaching the electronic devices to his belt. "Where are we going again?"

"Come on, Skippy. They're going to close soon."

Sam caught up with Mallory and grabbed her hand as they entered the crowded station.

@@

Sam opened the door, juggling the large wood piece and a bag from Pappy's hobbies. Mallory followed with Chinese food and a grocery sack.

"I still think I have flour." Sam said as he walked towards the dining room area.

"No bachelor has flour. And where do you think you're going?"

"Dining room."

"Isn't that table in there an antique?"

Sam looked at his grandma's table and then back at Mallory. "Where do you think I did this when I was a kid?"

"Not with me here. The kitchen table is just fine."

"But I eat at the kitchen table."

"It's just flour and salt, Sam. You'll survive."

Sam struggled to get the board near the kitchen table as Mallory took her supplies to the counter and set them down. Routing through the bags of Chinese she pulled out and opened the boxes of Chow Mien, and Orange chicken. Intending to find silverware she turned to find Sam hold up ornate chopsticks. With precise fingers he picked up a piece of Orange Chicken and fed it to her.

"You were right. This is good enough to go the extra stops for." Mallory watched as Sam dug in with his chopsticks and took a piece for himself.

"I know my Chinese food." Sam leaned closer to Mallory and reached behind her. She felt the bump of a drawer, pushing her closer to Sam. They both stopped their movements, the boxes of food the only thing separating them.

Sam cleared his throat. "Fork. I'm getting you a fork."

"Thank you." Mallory held her breath and didn't move. Sam leaned closer to her and she heard fumbling in the drawer. His left hand came to rest on her back, bringing her closer to him. This near to him, she could smell his aftershave. Mallory thought she was going to loose her hold on the boxes of Chinese food. "Sam?"

"Yeah." He looked at her.

"Would you hold these for a minute?" Mallory handed him the white cartons. She stepped closer to him and wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. His lips, soft and smooth, met hers and opened, his tongue darting out to tangle with hers. His became a slow frontal assault, his hips pinning her to the cabinets, the Chinese food lost somewhere behind her on the counter and Sam's hands, his amazing hands caressing her back, slipping to her waist to slid under her sweater.

Mallory went weak in the knees. Her hands groped at his shoulders, admiring the way the muscles rippled beneath her touch.

"Sam." She sighed as his head dipped to kiss her neck.

"You have a great neck, you know that."

"Sam."

"Yeah."

"Help me take off your sweater." Between the two of them the sweater came off, and the t-shirt after that. Sam closed his eyes as Mallory started licking her way down his body. Each of her caresses made his skin tingle and the fucking phone started ringing.

Sam reached blindly in the direction of the phone, managing to grab it by the third ring. "Seaborn." He managed to yell, as Mallory's fingers started fishing beneath his waistline.

"Sam? It's Josh. What were you doing, working out? You're out of breath."

"I was working in the back room." Sam tried to concentrate on Josh, but Mallory was doing something to his neck with her tongue.

"I just thought I'd let you know it happened."

"What did?"

"The thing. The thing I came in today, hoping wouldn't happen."

Sam leaned back away from Mallory. "When?"

"Two hours ago. I'm just leaving for the day, thought I'd let you know."

"Did the President find my remarks?"

"CJ gave them to him."

"Okay."

"They shot him in the airport parking lot." Josh pointed out suddenly. "Just bang."

"Yeah."

"How can people do that, Sam?" Josh yelled.

"I don't know, Josh." Sam responded quietly.

"I'm just saying. How."

"I know, Josh. I don't know, okay. I don't understand it."

"Yeah. Sorry." Josh sighed. "I'd better go."

"Yeah. I'll see you on Monday."

"Yeah."

"What happened Sam?" Mallory asked quietly as Sam turned off the phone.

"The President of Kundu was executed two hours ago. They shot him in the parking lot of the airport."

"Oh Sam." Mallory reached up with her fingers and brushed away his hair. "I'm sorry."

Sam pulled her into a hug. "I killed the mood, didn't I?"

"Blame it on Josh."

"Okay."

"We should get started if we want to give it time to dry." Mallory turned around to get the Chinese again and found herself wrapped in Sam's arms.

She felt his warm breath in her hair and sighed. "Can we look for the mood after we finish the map?"

"Depends on how good you are." Mallory whispered as Sam's hands slid down to her hips and back up again.

"I can be a very good boy, Ms. O'Brien." Sam released his hold on her and reached for the Orange Chicken.

Mallory swatted his hand. "That is mine."

"Yes, ma'am."

@@

Sam leaned down and reshaped the peaks of the San Bernardino Mountains.

"Sam, it's done. Don't touch it again."

"The President is a geek. He'll want it perfect."

"No, you want it perfect." Mallory's arms wrapped around his body. "I thought you wanted to find the mood that Josh killed?"

Sam looked at the map before them. "Do you think that that mountain is a little lopsided?"

Mallory groaned in frustration. "Bedtime, Sam."

"But I'm not tired."

"You will be."

"Oh." Sam turned around and smiled at Mallory. "I was a good boy?"

"Entirely too good." Mallory led Sam towards the stairs. "I'm going to find a bed up these stairs, right?"

"Yeah." Sam leaned down to kiss her, his hands going around her. Mallory backed up and stepped up, finding Sam moving with her. They made it to the bedroom door before Mallory's shirt was stripped off her. Their shoes tumbled down the stairs as Sam led her into his bedroom.

@@

When Mallory came down the next morning she found Sam putting the final changes on the large 3-D map they had made the night before.

"Sam, Why is there a skeleton on California?"

"It's the Donner Pass."

"And that fruit basket?"

"It's Mt Shasta. The Native Americans of the area believe it's a sacred place, where the good of the planet can be found. You shouldn't set foot above the tree line."

"You know this how?"

"I had to write a paper on it. Fifty pages on the history of Oregon and California."

"Did you sleep at all last night?"

Sam looked up at her and smiled. "I seem to remember having this really wonderful dream of you asleep in my arms for about an hour or two. And I'm hoping since I finished my homework, that the teacher will help me with another lesson."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I need you to teach me how to make the bed." Sam grinned at her evilly, his eyes making contact with hers over his glasses.

"If I'm a good teacher do you promise to feed me?"

"I promise you can have breakfast as soon as we make the bed, and I'll promise you the moon, if you'll stay tonight."

"Why don't we see how today shapes up, skipper."

"Okay."

"So show me this bed you're having trouble with."

Mallory screeched as she found her feet lifted out from under her.

"Trust me, Mal."

@@

The rain pelted the window as Sam held Mallory in his arms. She had fallen asleep long ago, leaving Sam awake to hold her, watching each breath, listening to each sigh.

With light fingers, Sam traced Mallory's spine, her soft skin spread over her back in just that way. The feel of her fingers gently resting on his chest.

"Sam, go to sleep."

"Yes, ma'am." Sam pulled her closer to him and slid further down on the pillows, and the phone rang. Mallory groaned and rolled over, shielding her face from the light Sam flicked on. He fumbled with the phone picking it up. "Seaborn."

"Sam?" Josh's voice slurred over the line.

"Josh."

"Oh god." Mallory pulled the pillow over her head.

"Can you come get me? I have a delicate system and I can't remember Donna's new number, something with a lot of sixes. She complained about it the other day, did you know she complains a lot, but you know I kinda-can you come get me?"

"Where are you?"

"I think a bar."

"Joshua."

"I think its Phil's. In fact, there's Phil, so yeah this is Phil's."

"I'll be there in few minutes, and I swear to god, Josh. I don't want to hear another word about getting my ass whipped by a girl."

"You have a potty mouth tonight, Samuel."

"I'm leaving now, Josh." Sam hung up the phone and leaned over to kiss Mallory's shoulder. "I'll be back in a few minutes, don't go anywhere."

"Sam, shut up and turn out the lights." Sam flicked out the light and kissed her once again. Sam yanked some clothes out of the dresser and pulled them on, sitting on the side of the bed to put on his shoes. Mallory rolled over and touched his back. "Sam, hurry home."

Sam leaned down for one more kiss. "Yeah, right back."

Mallory rolled over and sighed. He never sleeps.

@@

Sam helped Josh from the car and shut the door, locking the car with the remote.

Josh staggered towards the door. "You have a really nice house, Sam. How can you afford a really nice house and a boat?"

"I can't believe you left your keys in your office."

"I'm sorry. How come the sky is blue?"

"That's physics, Josh. How should I know?"

"That's right, physics and geography aren't your thing. How could you let that girl beat you?"

"Josh, unless you want to wake up on the front porch naked, I'd suggest you shut up." Sam pushed open the door to house, noting the lights were on. Mallory sat on the stairs to the bedrooms in one of Sam's dress shirts. "Mallory. I thought you went back to sleep."

"Couldn't sleep."

"Oh."

"Hey, Mal." Josh smiled at her sweetly. "You sleep over often? How come I never see you?" Josh leaned against a wall as Sam took off his jacket and took Josh's jacket from him. "Did you know, Mal, that Sam got his ass whipped by a girl?"

"Yes, I did."

"He handed her her head though when she tried to tell him about gun control." Josh turned toward Sam, slumping down. "You should have yelled though. She talked as if she was right, and she wasn't. You had every right to yell. You haven't yelled at all. Every one else yelled, got mad, screamed. You should have yelled is all I'm saying. Hey Mal."

"One too many drinks, Come on Josh. We have to go up the stairs." Mal reached over and supported one side of Josh, while Sam grabbed the other.

"I hate Sam's house, always have to go up the stairs."

They took Josh into the spare bedroom and dumped him on the bed. Sam took off his shoes and socks; undid his tie and took off his dress shirt.

"You're anal, you know that, Sam." Josh rolled over and pushed his head under the pillows. Sam pulled the blankets up over his body and turn out the light walking to the door where Mallory was waiting. "Hey Sam, does Leo know Mallory's sleeping over?"

"Goodnight Josh." Sam shut the door to the bedroom. "Did you ask to borrow that, young lady?"

"You can have it back right now." Mallory started to undo the buttons.

Josh yelled from behind the door. "I didn't want to hear that."

@@

Sam walked into the reception area of the West Wing with Kathy and Ginger following behind him carrying the oversized map of California and Oregon. They struggled down the hallway while Sam whistled. He stopped and turned back around. Walking through the door towards Josh's office. Kathy and Ginger followed.

"Hey Donna."

"Hi, Sam. Have you seen Josh? He hasn't come in his office and I didn't see him from his window."

Sam tossed her his keys. "He's in my car. He has a delicate system."

"No, He didn't." Donna wailed.

"He couldn't remember your number, but next time I will."

"He's in your car?"

"Yep."

"Tell me you cleaned him up. Tell me."

Sam looked contrite. "I'm sorry, when he called me anal last night, I decided that he didn't actually want my help."

"Tell me he's not drooling all over himself."

"He has a bucket, if that makes you feel better."

"He has a meeting in twenty minutes."

"Then he's going to need these, huh?" Sam held up one of Josh's suits.

"He's NOT WEARING CLOTHES!" Donna shrieked.

"Have a nice day, Donna." Sam started walking towards his bullpen, behind him Ginger and Kathy followed still lugging the map. He set his briefcase down on his desk, shrugged out of his jacket, looked through his mail. He then headed out into the bullpen where Ginger and Kathy waited, still holding the map. Holding his report in one hand and motioning with his other, he walked towards the oval office stopping to chat as Ginger and Kathy lumbered behind him.

"Good Morning, Mrs. Landingham."

"Good Morning, Sam. Did you have a good weekend?"

"I had an excellent weekend. I wrote my report, did my map, double checked my facts." Sam looked pointedly at Kathy. "Overall a nice weekend."

"That's a very nice map you have there, Sam."

"Thank you, Mrs. Landingham."

"It must weigh a lot. My sons liked to do those maps for their teachers, it took their father and me both to get it to school."

"They do weigh quite a bit, Mrs. Landingham."

"Why don't you girls set that down while you wait for the President?"

Sam shot them a look.

"No thank you, Mrs. Landingham. We're fine." Kathy told her.

"That's not nice, Sam."

"Yes, ma'am."

"You don't get a cookie, Sam."

"That's alright, Mrs. Landingham, I don't need a cookie today." Sam smiled at her. Kathy and Ginger groaned. Sam looked at them, "Did you say something?"

"No, Sam, everything is fine."

The door to the Oval office opened and the President strode out. "What's first, Mrs. Landingham? Oh Sam, to what do I owe this honor?"

"I have that report you asked for, sir, on the history of Oregon and California. Ginger and Kathy have the Map you asked for, sir."

"Excellent. Let me see that." The President put his glasses on as Ginger and Kathy held the Map steady. He looked up as Charlie came in the door. "Charlie look at this map. This is wonderful detail. This citrus tree here is that for-"

"University of California, Riverside, Sir. Started out as a citrus experiment station."

"I knew that. I did."

"You are both freaks, Mr. President." Charlie said as he sat down at his desk.

"There you go with the non- support. This is excellent work. Is that Mountain a little lopsided?"

"I have an hour to kill before I'm due on the Hill and I was thinking we could go over the history I wrote up over the weekend. It's only fifty pages plus notes, footnotes and bibliography."

"No, no Sam. Busy day. Just leave it with Mrs. Landingham, she'll take care of it."

"Actually Mr. President, your meeting with Admiral Fitzwallace was cancelled. He had a problem with transportation." Mrs. Landingham said with a smile.

"You have some time, Mr. President. I'm sure you'll love this. I'm from California, you know."

"Yes, I knew that, Sam."

"Right in here, Kathy, Ginger." Sam pointed to the wall facing the desk.

"Why don't we start with the coming of the Spanish and the Russians? The French really didn't get this far down the coast; they mainly stuck to the Washington area and the Salish communities there. However, the Russians who were known as brutal people set up forts meant for trading goods for beaver and otter pelts. Have you ever felt an otter pelt, Mr. President?"

"No Sam, I haven't, why don't you tell me while I sit my head here on my desk and cry."

"Of course sir. After all I'm sure that you wouldn't assign me this task, unless it was of monumental importance. I did have over six hundred pages of legal briefs to catch up on."

"Alright, Sam. All right. I'm sorr-" The President stopped as they heard a thunk in Leo's office.

Sam smiled as the President opened the door between the offices and heard Leo scream, "JOSHUA, WHERE IS YOUR CLOTHING?"

"Where is he?"

"Who?"

"Sam, he left me in his car like this." Josh looked around at Leo's empty office.

"What the hell happened?"

"I have a delicate system."

"Josh." The President put in from his door.

"Mr. President." Josh tried to stand up tall and proud, but was hindered by the fact he was wearing his boxers and undershirt. Behind him Margaret's eyes were opened wide, her mouth slightly ajar.

"Where are my clothes, you maladjusted geek?" Josh shouted in Sam's direction.

"I gave them to Donna who has my car keys. So I guess you're going to have to find her, because I'm due on the hill in a few minutes. Mr. President."

"Go, Sam." The President directed with a grin.

"Could somebody, please find my assistant or my clothes."

Leo pointed to Margaret. "Go find Donna."

"HE'S WHERE? BUT HE'S NOT WEARING ANY CLOTHES!" Donna's voice could be heard down the hall. She stormed into Leo's office. "Are you going to listen to me?" She held Josh's clothes out of reach.

"Donna."

"I said ARE YOU GOING TO LISTEN TO ME?"

"Yes, Yes."

"You're just lucky Sam loves you. He took you in, he washed your clothes, and you even smell decent, which is just damn scary. You're lucky, I would have made you sleep in the cat's litter box!"

"Sam doesn't love me, he loves to get even." Josh took his clothes from Donna's hands and walked out of the room followed by Donna.

Jed looked at Leo and smiled. "We did deserve that didn't we?"

"Yes, Mr. President, I think we did."

"Well while you have a moment, come look at the Map he made, it's excellent. He put a lot of work into it." The President led the way back into the Oval Office. "See there's the border patrol being led by the devil. And the little skeleton at Donner's Pass. And here in the Wilmette Valley, an Indian."

"What does his flag say?"

The president leaned down and squinted. "'"I will fight no more forever." (Translated inaccurately by an Army Private.)'"

"Looks like he did a pretty good job there, Mr. President." Leo turned away.

"Oh Leo." The President turn to smile at his Chief of Staff. "He had some help."

"Oh, Mr. President?"

"Yes, see right here, it says Sam Seaborn and Mallory O'Brien. It must have taken them a long time to do this much work. I bet she stayed over at his house to finish it."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Mr. President, but thank you for that picture."

"You know he's gotten everyone of us but-"

"Who the hell ate all the Danishes with Cheese!" Toby's voice filtered into the office.

"He told you WHAT!" CJ's voice softened and moved away from the Oval office.

"Never mind." The President went back to examining the Map.

"You don't actually think--? Nah, never mind." Leo turned and entered his office wondering.