Security:
Act I


Kasey

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INT. Leo's Office - Day

LEO sits at his desk, reading something, and MARGARET enters.

MARGARET:
Leo.

LEO:
What?

MARGARET:
Josh is here.

LEO:
(Checks his watch)
Yeah, send him in.

MARGARET stands back to let JOSH enter, then she pulls the door shut.

LEO:
You're early for staff, so what's up?

JOSH:
Mrs. Bartlet's having me talk to Amy Gardner about the Women in Congress thing.

LEO:
The thing that came up before the break?

JOSH:
Yeah, NOW's fully into it now so she's…sent me to go talk to Amy.

LEO:
Why are you telling me this?

JOSH:
I…thought you should know.

LEO:
That's implying I give a damn. There's nothing we can do to change it, they're trying to get stuff from us because inequality still exists, it's not like-

JOSH:
Yeah.

LEO:
So anyway.

JOSH:
Yeah.

TOBY enters.

TOBY:
Hello.

LEO:
You're meeting with people from the Department of Education people today?

TOBY:
Yeah, before lunch.

LEO:
Listen - be nice to them.

TOBY:
I'm sorry?

LEO:
They still think we shouldn't have flipped on vouchers.

TOBY:
Oh, jeez, them too?

LEO:
Yeah.

TOBY:
Sam doesn't think we should've flipped, CJ's been yelling at me for it, now-

LEO:
Yeah.

TOBY:
So remind me again why we changed our position on it?

LEO:
Because we were running for re-election at the time.

TOBY:
Oh yeah.

CJ enters.

CJ:
Good morning.

LEO:
Hey.
(Pause as everyone sits/settles in)
Anyone know where Sam is? He's officially late-

SAM enters.

SAM:
Sorry I'm late.

LEO:
Well, that answers that.

SAM:
I was on the phone with Congressman Roth.

TOBY:
The speech?

SAM:
Yeah, he wants us to talk about security.

TOBY:
Talk about it how?

SAM:
Ways to improve it.

TOBY:
Well that's just great - as soon as we KNOW how to make schools safer, we can go right ahead in telling everyone else how to, but in the meantime-

SAM:
And that's what I told him.

TOBY:
And?

SAM:
And then I got yelled at about the vouchers.

TOBY:
(Cringing)
And?

SAM:
And what? It was fine.

LEO:
Please tell me you didn't start agreeing with him.

SAM:
Leo, if I can hold off Mallory for an hour and a half, I can hold off Roth for twenty minutes.

LEO:
(Smiles)
Yeah.

SAM:
So anyway. We're getting creamed on this speech.

CJ:
Not on the speech so much as on the part of the speech where we speak in favour of school vouchers.

JOSH:
Yeah, 'cause we changed to be in favour of them while we were trying to get Republicans to like us.

TOBY:
We see how well that worked.

CJ:
Yeah.

There is a KNOCK at the door.

LEO:
(Calls)
Yeah?

DONNA sticks her head inside.

DONNA:
I'm sorry.
(To Josh)
You've gotta leave for your meeting.

JOSH:
Tell her I'm not here.

DONNA:
We've already tried that once this morning - did it work then?

JOSH:
No.

DONNA:
So…

JOSH:
Yeah.

He stands.

JOSH:
(To room)
Here I go…defending the rights of women everywhere.

CJ:
Oh, thank God, Josh, whatever would I do without you?

JOSH:
Yeah.

He leaves and goes with DONNA down the hall toward his office.

DONNA:
So explain to me why they can get anything for their complaints.

JOSH:
They can't.

DONNA:
Then why are you even meeting with them?

JOSH:
Because it's a conspiracy of you and Mrs. Bartlet to make me.

DONNA:
(Smiling)
Oh yeah - I forgot that part.

CUT TO:

INT. Hallway outside CJ's office - Day

CJ walks from the Briefing Room Area into her office and sees a man, JIMMY, sitting at her desk.

CJ:
(Smiling)
Hey, you.

JIMMY:
I'm back.

CJ:
I can see. How's Europe?

JIMMY:
Multilingual. But nice for a week-long vacation. And now that I'm back I've got this nice little story as a sort of…welcome-home present.

CJ:
What sort of nice little story?

JIMMY:
Deputy Communications Director Sam Seaborn.

CJ:
What about him?

JIMMY:
Well, the good news is it doesn't look like he's seeing any more prostitutes.

CJ:
Thank God for small miracles. What's the other news?

JIMMY:
A woman named Alexia Morgan is being quoted as claiming Seaborn killed his wife.

CJ:
Sam's not married.

JIMMY:
Not anymore, this is back not too long before the President was sworn in.

CJ is speechless.

JIMMY:
So. I'd like a quote and/or some information 'cause I'm gonna run with it.

CJ:
(A little dumbstruck)
Yeah. Gimme a couple hours?

JIMMY:
Yeah.

CJ:
I can't tell you how much we all missed you.

JIMMY:
I know, I'm just that kind of guy.

JIMMY leaves and CJ sits down at her desk, looking puzzled and deep in thought.

CUT TO:

INT. Roosevelt Room - Day

TOBY enters and greets the three people already in the room: PATTY, a forty-something woman, TOM, a man of about fifty-five, and CARL, a young-ish guy.

TOBY:
Good morning, nice to see you all, would any of you like anything?

PATTY:
Well, Toby, you're being uncharacteristically nice, can we expect you to be this way all day?

TOBY:
That depends.

TOM:
Depends on what?

TOBY:
On what you try to get me to change in the speech.

CARL:
Cut vouchers and add more on security and reform.

TOBY:
Patty, I don't think you can count on this attitude for very long.

CUT TO:

INT. Amy Gardner's Office - Day

JOSH knocks on the wall as he enters.

JOSH:
How ya doin'?

AMY:
(Checks her watch)
You're late, J.

JOSH:
Yeah, but that doesn't really bother me that much.

AMY:
Imagine my surprise.

JOSH:
Amy, you're outta your head if you think we're gonna give anything in reparation for the fact that there aren't as many women in Congress as you'd like.

AMY:
It's not reparation.

JOSH:
Then what is it?

AMY:
Compensation.

JOSH:
How is it different?

AMY:
Well, by definition, reparation is for past wrongs which, I suppose, we could get as well, but what we want is for present situation, so it's compensation.

JOSH:
I'm…I'm sorry, were you speaking to me this whole time?

AMY:
J-

JOSH:
Amy, you've got no case. We don't appoint people to Congress and you know it.

AMY:
No, but you- you endorse various candidates and the majority of those candidates are men.

JOSH:
The majority of ALL the candidates are men, and it's not like we can do something drastic to change that.

AMY:
Sure you can.

JOSH:
Explain it to me.

AMY:
J, until women start being encouraged to run for political office, until they aren't vilified for being ambitious, there's no way they're gonna run.

JOSH:
They aren't -

AMY:
They ARE vilified for it, J, trust me on this one. Men act one way and are rewarded for it and women act the same way and are punished for it. It's a double-standard that's remained, y'know, to this day.

JOSH:
And what am I supposed to do about that?

AMY:
Guaranteed full removal of the glass ceiling.

JOSH:
It's not like that's something we can pass with a Constitutional Amendment, Amy.

AMY:
No, but the government can endorse women candidates more.

JOSH:
Amy-

AMY:
Lemme give you some numbers.

JOSH:
Okay, lemme just, y'know, hurl myself out the window.

CUT TO:

INT. CJ's Office - Day

CJ is working at her desk and SAM enters.

SAM:
You wanted to see me?

CJ:
Yeah, c'min, sit down.

SAM:
Okay…

CJ:
Close the door.

SAM:
So this is a serious thing?

CJ:
Sam-

SAM:
Or is this just a thing Josh brought to your attention regarding him being worried about me?

CJ:
It's a serious thing, would you shut the door and sit down?

SAM:
Okay.

He closes the door and sits on the couch, looking a little nervous.

CJ:
Jimmy Roscoe is back.

SAM:
I didn't realize he was gone.

CJ:
He was in Europe for a week.

SAM:
Why is it important that I'm here?

CJ:
He's got a quote.

SAM:
Okay.

CJ:
Sam, I…I wanted to ask if you…

It is obvious she is very uncomfortable.

CJ:
(Cont.)
You were married back…before the president was sworn in.

SAM:
(Nervous)
You were at the wedding, CJ…

CJ:
And then she…died after you'd moved down here.

SAM:
You were also at the funeral.

CJ:
There's a quote from a woman named Alexia Morgan, do you know her?

SAM:
She was a friend of Lisa's.

CJ:
She's quoted as saying you killed her.

SAM:
If I killed her, how's she giving a quote?

CJ:
Sam-

SAM:
I knew what you meant just there, I was just making a little joke.

CJ:
Yeah, well if you could sort of, y'know, give me any kind of response to -

SAM:
I didn't kill Lisa. I…I just…I didn't kill her.

CJ:
Then why would someone say that you-

SAM:
Because they don't know what really happened.
(Double beat)
Can I go now?

CJ:
(Beat)
Yeah.

SAM:
Thanks.

SAM leaves and CJ remains at her desk, looking a little thoughtful.

FADE TO COMMERCIAL. END ACT I

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Part 3

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