top 5 people you ship Andy Wyatt with!
Ask my top 5 anything!
Bless you. Other than CJ being number one always, this is not particularly in order cause I always change my mind a bit and it depends on what I'm in the mood for!
Also, honorary mention to Andy/Jenny O'Brien, because while I don't see them as anything but an impulsive one-night stand, it was so much fun writing them.
Claudia Jean Cregg The expected one. The girl Andy meets in a college class at 18 and falls head over heels for and never fully stops being a tiny bit in love with; first real loves do that to you. Of course I love them. Is there any basis of them in canon? None whatsoever. But that's okay. There is just something about that them that hits just right, and I was so excited seeing them as a ship on AO3 and seeing how well they can work in a relationship, it's just incredible. They're good if it's a college thing that never gets picked up again, but that importance in each other's lives lingers; they're good if they were clearly in love but not together in college and then finally get there by the end of the administration; they're good in a second chance romance where CJ gets to be a step-mom to two perfect twins; they're good as an emotional release fuck in season 7 if you want it. They're so good. I really enjoy the rougher takes on them (there's an excellent hate fuck pwp out there that I love), but to me they're just good; I could talk about them for hours. I want them to be happy or I want them to end So tragically or I just want them to live happy lives with each other as a fond first memory of what love felt like. I adore them.
Amy Gardner I've only written one fic for them, but I have so many thoughts on them and I love all of it. And I don't really see this as a long-term relationship, per se; like I'm sure it could be done, but the way I'm usually thinking about them is more of a friends with benefits kind of situation? They are both controversial (in slightly different ways) women in politics, they run in the same circles, Amy coaches a lot of Congresswomen in debates. As characters, they both occasionally just appear to act as a push to the left to their respectively assigned man, and they fulfill that purpose well. I think long-term they just wouldn't necessarily get along in a relationship, they look for different things? But there could be a lot of chemistry, a lot of late night policy meetings, a lot of venting sessions about being women in politics, with some wine. I love the idea of Amy giving her PR guidance during her divorce and her pregnancy? (And if there's any character whose opinion on Andy saying "oh yeah he bought a house for me, if I married him" I'd love to hear, it's Amy's.) Just. Political brothers in arms who have some really good sex (and learn to care about each other over time).
Toby Ziegler Now, I don't ever want to see them get back together. He owes her one hell of an apology for buying her that house. I don't think they're good for each other in any long-term way. But oh do I love a tragedy. And that's them! It's what I love about Mandatory Minimums, too; it is so clear what made them work for a while, it's so clear why they would be drawn to each other, and at the same time it's so painfully undeniable that a divorce was the only right option there. (In that vein, I always think that you're too sad for me in that house is Not the most important line of insight to the marriage; you bring the sadness home with you and I don't know if anything can change that, but I can't are and that just Hurts to think about. Like. Just think about it. It kills me.) But I love their relationship; I love thinking about their first meeting. I like to think about Andy as a Romantic and someone who falls in love very quickly; and we see Toby is kind of similar too with Tabatha, and it leads to the two of them not dating for very long before getting married? Which works out for some people and does not work out for them. The Debate Camp flashbacks break me; and while I often have a bit of a problem with the way he talks to her, I just !! They fascinate me, they're so Right for each other in plenty of ways but also there are these things about them that will just kill them in the end every damn time and oh I love that shit.
Angela Blake This is such a new ship for me in a way but also something I'd been thinking about for So long trying to make work. And while I am also still dying to try writing something about them during the time that Angela is Leo's COS at the Labor Department, I have fallen in love with the idea of the two of them not really meeting outside of meetings and networking events until they're like in their late 50s/early 60s. They've both been divorced for almost half their lives now, they have kids who have long moved out and might even be married themselves, they still have their careers and they've just lived full lives already, mostly by themselves. Again, similar to Amy, it's still that idea of both of them being slightly.. I don't think Angela's controversial in the same way, but she's outspoken and she's hard and God knows not everyone's gonna like that. And Andy loves that. And I just think they could really get it on, no matter at what point in the timeline it happens really, but especially later in life. Smart ambitious women with slightly complicated ties to the Bartlet administration, no real desire to be playing games or anything; very straight forward this is what I need in a partner right now, this is what's on the table that they both appreciate. Andy still falls in love very quickly, but she's sixty now and no longer in the mood to be losing herself falling for fascinating people, you know. And it works.
Ellie Bartlet This started as a crackship. This started as a friend of mine saying, as a joke, "Ryan and Andy are both going through it this episode (The Supremes), they should hook up about it, she deserves a younger lover". Later, @onekisstotakewithme jokingly suggested Ellie instead for a younger lover. And... Oh how I'm obsessed with them now. I love a bit of an age gap (though it feels much bigger, it's not actually much bigger than Josh/Donna or what I picture Andy/Toby's to be (I always picture Andy about CJ and Josh's age). I love the mentorship vibe to it. It's this casual but loving thing; Ellie wanting to rebel a little bit and having missed out on the typical College experiences, Andy coming out of a very public divorce, it's supposed to be one night only but then one night turns to like six years of occasionally hooking up, with some moments of genuinely just being closer friends sprinkled in between. It's a lovely journey from a one night stand to a found family dynamic and I love that so much actually, it just works so Right.
