Sam and Josh post series? Also I understand the struggle of moving, so I am sorry
I have written so many of these already, how do I still have 11 requests in my inbox? They are multiplying like the boxes in my new living room! Just one today, I’m too sleepy for more.
Sam is the only reason that Josh survives his first year as chief of staff. Not because Sam is a particularly good DCOS, mind you. His skillset rests neither in personnel management nor in harassing Congress. Half the time he uses the assistant deputies to get most of his work done while he is busy harassing the speechwriting staff into doing better work. Josh relies on Sam because Sam is the only person in the West Wing who is almost as good as Donna at reading Josh’s stress levels and reacting accordingly. He heads off roughly four meltdowns a week in the first three months, after which point things start settling down naturally. And Sam is never overt about it, which is very important. People can’t thing the COS is about to fly off the handle all the time, after all! But sometimes Josh just needs a little space or a minute to breathe to put him back on an even keel, and Sam is very good at attracting attention onto himself when he wants to be.
It takes Josh a little while to warm up to the idea of Sam as an affianced man again, after living through all the trauma and tears of Lisa a decade ago. I don’t have a good name for Sam’s unnamed fiancee, so I’ll call her Erica (not with a K, just for any Night Vale fans out there.) He would rather dislike Erica in advance just in case, but she gets along really well with Donna and the three of them all conspire against him till he’s finally willing to make friends. It takes a little while, and a few too many reminders from Josh that he, too, is a real-life lawyer, but they settle down into a nice couples friendship. Those are important and awfully hard to find. Josh is the best man at Sam’s wedding and Sam is the best man and Josh’s wedding, and Sam’s speech is definitely better but Josh throws a more interesting bachelor party (just ask Charlie!)
After the first year of the administration, Josh caves in to the inevitable and promotes Edie Ortega to Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and retitles Sam Deputy Chief of Staff for Outreach and Planning, which basically means Edie will now take over the work Sam’s been pawning off on the assistants and Sam can officially bother the Communications staff all he likes .Everyone is happier, with the possible exception of Lou, who is hard to read. Sam winds up working closely with Amy for awhile in this capacity. She finds him deeply frustrating because he is almost impossible to wind up and instead absorbs all her best snide comments, thinks about them, and then lets them slide off instead of stepping up to the plate like Josh would. They still get a lot done together before she returns to the private sector.
In the third year of the administration, Josh and Sam overhear a couple of assistant deputies arguing over whether it would be possible to set a fire in the fireplace in the mural room, and realize that they’ve gotten old. It’s a bummer of a feeling, but at least they’ve also gotten a little bit smarter. When Donna gets pregnant that same year, Josh suddenly feels very callow and inexperienced again, it all balances out. Sam tries to volunteer as backup coach, but Donna points out that any crisis that would keep Josh away would keep Sam away too and that doesn’t make much sense. He proclaims himself honorary uncle instead, which works much better. A couple of years later, Sam and Erica wind up adopting her cousin’s two small children as the culmination of a long and complicated family story (all unhappy families are unhappy in their own way!) and Josh returns the favor.
After the Santos administration, Josh and Donna stay in DC while Sam and his family go back to California. With a bunch more years behind him and a new confidence, Sam runs for Congress and wins, then wins reelection. He finally persuades Josh to leave political retirement and help him run for the Senate. The whole Lyman family comes along for the ride, even the kids stuffing envelopes at HQ, and it pays off with a win. Sam is satisfied, for the moment, but someday the kids will be grown and the big office with the round walls will be open again. He and Josh will both be ready for that.
