The Early Hours – Chapter 2; The Other Half

A/N: I'm amazed at the response form the West Wing Fan Fiction community. It seems that there is scope for expansion of this story. This second part is from Helen Santos' point of view – a character who I thought was under used. With a little artistic licence I've created a back story to her. This angle of the story takes place on the same night as part one of The Early Hours. Now on with the story.

Now I'm going to start by saying that I didn't ever envisage living in the White House. I'd only been to Washington half a dozen times during Matt's time in Congress. Until just after the Election, I hadn't even set foot in the White House. I'd only really seen Air Force One and the Presidential Limo on television screens.

I was born Helen Bonnington on June 1st 1966 at the University Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. An only child, my parents were both registered Democrats – my mother was a nurse from Washington State and my father was an Air Force Instructor and veteran of the Korean War. He flew F-86 Sabres. We moved to Houston in 1983 after my father retired from the Air Force. He later became a property developer and invested in real estate. After graduating from high school I went to the University of Houston where I majored in English and minored in education. I had always wanted to become a teacher. I qualified and started teaching English in a middle school in suburban Houston.

I met Matt while he was still on active service in the Marine Corps as a Lieutenant Colonel. He was home on leave and we met through mutual friends. We took a liking to one another and started courting – or dating if you want to call it that – until about 18 months later when he finally asked me to marry him. My father is very fond of Matt ever since he found out that they had something in common – they were both pilots – and my mother finds him very charismatic. A year into our marriage Matt had left active service and was starting to find his feet in politics. He started by being elected to Houston City Council. We also bought our own house, a two floor suburban detached property in the neighbourhood of Westbury in the south-west of Houston.

1995 was a pivotal year for us. I became pregnant with Peter that August and later quit teaching while Matt rose further up the political ladder by starting his campaign to become Mayor of Houston the following year. He served two, two year terms in the Mayor's office. Peter was born in April 1996, 4 months into Matt's first term as Mayor. Although now affluent, Matt's background had been steeped in poverty, when he became Mayor in 1996, 17% of the city's population were living below the poverty line. Matt became very focused on making things affordable. During his time as Mayor, he spearheaded a new affordable healthcare initiative opening 4 new health clinics across Houston. He also created a new housing assistance program to make rent more affordable.

After two terms as Mayor, Matt set his sights even higher. The US House of Representatives. He was elected as House Representative for Texas' 18th Congressional District during the Midterm Elections of 2000. Matt took 73% of the vote. Matt bought a small apartment in Washington to use when he was attending Congress. He'd usually stay there during most of the week and fly home. I was very pessimistic when he became a Congressman because he would be away from home for most of the time, it would have been different if we lived in Virginia or Pennsylvania, then he could commute daily. However, he always called me every night to check in and ask how Peter and I were doing. Matt was elected to a second term in 2002, with 68% of the vote – the integrity of the Democratic Party having taken a hit after Bartlet announced he had MS.

Becoming more experienced in Congress, he gradually spent a bit more time at home with me and Peter. Two months after he was voted into his second term we had our daughter: Miranda. He took a few months paternity leave and stayed at home whilst Congress decided whether they should censure the President. Peter was now 5 and attending kindergarten. It made things easier for us as we only had to look after baby Miranda for most of the day rather than worrying about what Peter was up to.

Matt served on the House Administration Committee during his second term and was later elected to Ways and Means in his third term. Matt was beginning to tire of politics. People had tipped him to be the next Governor of Texas but he was frustrated with Washington. Personally I wanted him out of DC. Matt spent so much time away during Peter's early years and I didn't want him to do that with Miranda (now three). So Matt was all ready to retire, to quit while he was ahead. To expand on his healthcare initiative in Houston. Then Josh Lyman turned up.

Josh knocked on our front door a few days before Christmas 2005. He stood as bold as brass and asked him to run for President. President of the United States. I think my husband must have taken leave of his senses because he went back to Josh a few weeks later and told him he'd run, if Josh would help him. At first I didn't really mind. I didn't think he'd get to the Democratic Convention, he'd be blasted in the Primaries. He was up against Russell and Hoynes – they were household names, nobody had heard of Matt Santos outside Texas.

Now I will say I'm not overly fond of Josh Lyman. He is the only reason we're living in the White House now. I think it could be a blessing but maybe it's more of a curse. There I was, 18 months ago finally thinking we could settle down as a family into something resembling family life. It would have been peaceful. Matt and I could walk the kids to school, help them with their homework. Matt could play football with Peter, it's been years since he has really taken some time to play again – he was on the team at Annapolis. Matt would go out to work at half past eight and be home in time for dinner. He wouldn't work unsociable hours, he wouldn't be away from home for long periods of time.

Then his polling ratings began to climb. During the California primary Hoynes was engulfed in another sex scandal. Suddenly Matt had come from being the outside chance who wouldn't survive past Super Tuesday – when we would all go home and resume normal life – to a guy who was now ranked neck and neck with Russell.

At the Convention, competition was too tight. Nobody gained enough votes for the nomination on the first day. Then Baker proposed his candidacy from the floor, only to be shot down the next day by Will Bailey when he leaked Baker's wife suffered from clinical depression. Matt told me later that he was offered the opportunity to leak but turned it down despite Josh urging him to. He said it was dirty politics. Matt was told to stand aside in favour of Russell by Leo McGarry on the last day of the Convention. Instead of honourably retiring, Matt gave a rousing speech where he asked delegates to vote with their conscience rather than on political standing.

His speech reached President Bartlet's ears and he had the teacher's unions throw their support to him giving Matt the necessary 2162 votes for the nomination. Then Matt did something unexpected, (it wasn't really the first time he had done something 'unexpected' – look at him running for President, so maybe 'unexpected' the wrong definition), after Baker declined the invitation to be VP, he declined Russell's offer to be the bottom half of the ticket. Then he asked Leo to run with him.

I did feel for Leo. He like me, never expected to end up on a third Presidential campaign. It was more strenuous as he became he was thrown into the media spotlight once again. He was asked by the President to organise the convention. Then he was pushed onto a Presidential campaign on the bottom half of the ticket. Leo he expected to do something useful. He warned us, "it may kill me" – he had had a severe heart attack 18 months before but for most of the campaign, all he did was reiterate Matt's speeches and look good in photo shoots. Leo did have the experience, the 'foreign policy savvy' (as one talk show had said) that Matt lacked, but he was in poor health and he really shouldn't have been anyway near a Presidential campaign. But he was a workaholic and the work killed him in the end, he died aged 58 on Election Night, 90 minutes before the polls closed on the West Coast.

The race seemed in the bag for Vinick until San Andreo, the nuclear power plant experienced a meltdown at one of the reactors. It was a power plant that Vinick was influential in the planning of. The Republicans lost their lead and we became neck and neck in the race for the White House. On Election Night it came down to 30,000 residents of Nevada who voted blue.

Then it really dawned on me that I was expected to be First Lady. Before then it was a matter of if we lose we can go back to Houston and live like ordinary people. My first thought was the kids. Their Dad is going to be President, their Mom is the First Lady – I suppose this is going to make them the First Children (if there is such a title). I don't really want them in the spotlight, I want them safe and being the children of the leader of the Free World makes them a target. They've also got a set of people they hardly know (Secret Service) guarding them 24/7.

The second thought was what should I do to make any transition to the White House as relaxing and stress free as possible, for me, the kids and Matt who I am still not sure knows what he has got himself into. My third thought was that I needed help. Help came in the form of Donna Moss who is now my Chief of Staff – the fact that I even can employ someone to help me with all this astounds me, I get a Chief of Staff! Donna's office is even bigger than the Oval – in a moment of curiosity she looked at the plans.

Donna has been a great help. She was Josh's assistant since Bartlet's first campaign and then went and worked for Russell's Presidential Campaign. She often met Josh during the Primaries and he always looked hurt but happy when he saw her. When Matt got the nomination, she went to Josh for a place on Santos for America. Ronna (one of Matt's staffers since his time in Congress, now his executive secretary – Matt has many secretaries but she is top of the tree) then told me that Josh threw Donna out of her office in tears after quoting many of her Russell Campaign statements and refusing to hire her. Word got to Leo and he had her placed out in the Mid-West before Lou (Matt's Communications Director) hired her on the main arm of the campaign much to Josh's disapproval. The two of them got over it and I think they are seeing each other now – put it this way, during Transition they went away together for a week to Hawaii.

Donna has also become a great friend although she still insists on calling me "ma'am" or "Mrs Santos", I don't know why and I have to keep remind her that it is "Helen". I think she is getting used to the fact that I don't really like any of the formalities between friends in the workplace. Donna always retorts that Leo never called President Bartlet, "Jed" during the eight years he was in office. It was always "Mr President" or "Sir" and they had known each other for decades. My response is always "…that was the Bartlet West Wing, this is my East Wing, and here we'll do things differently." Of all the staff I have, I think it is her I connect with most, only because towards the end of the campaign we spent a lot of time together. It also helps that she is with Josh. Consequentially she can update me on the situation in the West Wing, especially the things Matt doesn't bother mentioning (which are often the most interesting).

As for the White House – a national treasure that has somehow become partly my responsibility – I hadn't ever set foot in it until Transition. I hadn't even gone on a tour. Now I have been to D.C before – I've been to Matt's office in the Capitol and I've seen the Washington Monument, the Cathedral, the Mall, the Smithsonian… I visited practically every major attraction in Washington when I came with the kids to see Matt or left Houston to have a break from them – 24 hour childcare is strenuous. If I had a bucket list for "Things to see in D.C" the only notable thing missing would be the White House – I've seen the building from Pennsylvania Avenue but I have never been inside.

My first impressions were that it was a very large house connected to an even larger office. It is probably the most secure residence in the Western World. My next impression was that the nation hired the most annoying White House "decorator". Honestly, that woman! She ranks as one of the most annoying people I have ever met (that group includes a particularly vicious cleaner at the City Hall in Houston, the tabloid press and my 8th Grade art teacher). She practically wanted to strip the residence and start afresh. No doubt she would have the White House demolished and rebuilt in a "more appealing style" if she had the power. Fortunately she doesn't. She had the nerve to start planning how to redecorate the White House the minute the Election was called for Matt. Everything, down to the kid's bedrooms had its own little piece of concept art. In the end I decided to let the kids decide what to have in their rooms. Peter chose a space theme – he has had an infatuation with the subject since elementary school, NASA's Mission Control being in Houston. Meanwhile Miranda stuck with the princess theme that the "decorator" proposed. As much as I hate that woman, girls will be girls and I let my daughter choose the look of her bedroom.

Personally I was surprised how quiet it can become when you are in the Residence. Despite the large windows and how exposed the building actually is, it can get really spookily quiet. The bullet proof glass helps to muffle the sounds from Pennsylvania Avenue – which itself is pedestrianized. It also muffles the sound of Marine One when it lands and takes off on the South Lawn. The Residence is also large and airy thanks to high ceilings and huge windows. But the windows rattle a little in the wind and the room amplifies the sound of rain striking the glass.

The rain is the thing currently keeping me awake in the vast presidential bedroom. When I wake, Matt is nowhere to be seen, the lights are off in the en-suite bathroom and "Presidential Dressing Room" – the President has a dressing room, it's like something you would find in some Austen novel! I wander down the dimly lit hall and check on the children in their freshly decorated bedrooms. Whatever light there is streams through the large fan window at the end of the hall or comes from the small nightlights strategically placed along the corridor. The sight of the hallway bathed in a dim glow reminds me of all the films I have watched featuring the White House in a starring role. Those have all been film sets. Film sets that were staggeringly accurate. I wouldn't be surprised if a replica White House was sat in some hanger in Hollywood. All is quiet. Matt isn't in the "President's Private Study" – he gets a lot of rooms named after him just because he is President…it's like the Residence wasn't designed with a family in mind.

After a final look down the hall, I finally ask the agent at his post near the lifts to tell me where my husband has got to. He could be in the Situation Room for all I know, preparing to authorize an attack on a foreign power. The agent did let him out of the Residence with a member of his detail; "Yes Ma'am, Blackbird, the President, went to the Oval about 40 minutes ago."

"Do you know what he was doing?"

"I'm sorry Ma'am I don't know, he took an agent from his detail with him, I can ask Control but I doubt they'll give me an answer."

"Can you tell Control to send one of my detail up, I'm going down to see him. If he is sat doing paperwork at three in the morning…"

"As you say Ma'am, she'll be here in a couple of minutes, if you would like to wait," he then radios Control. "Control, this is Nightwatch 2, could Nightingale 1 come up to the Residence, and Bluebonnet is going to take a walk down to the Oval."

A few minutes later I'm walking through the halls of the West Wing with Agent Kathy Chase. Kathy is an ex-FBI agent who transferred to the Secret Service, she was on Abby Bartlet's detail for several years. The lights in the corridors are dim as we briskly stride down the hall. Kathy leaves me as I enter the outer office of the Oval. All is quiet.

It is almost surreal, the lobbies, bullpens, offices and hallways are quiet and almost devoid of people. The only other person I have seen is the night guard in the North Lobby. No phones ring, no sound comes from the coffee makers or computer keyboards. There is just a low electric hum of computers on stand-by. The outer office is softly lit, the curved walls of the Oval Office aglow. The door to the Oval is closed. I knock but there is no reply.

When I open the door the office is empty. Through the window I can see Secret Service Agents on the terrace, braving the winter storm. The rain is audible through the windows, lashing at the glass. I must look faintly ridiculous, stood in a dressing gown and slippers in the most famous office in the world at three in the morning. On the Resolute Desk there are a couple of files and an empty envelope addressed to "President Santos". The hand is unfamiliar. Although the office is empty, the door to the Chief of Staff's Office is slightly ajar and I can hear Matt talking on the other side of it. The other voice I can hear is Josh's. The melody of one of Bach's cello concertos. They're talking about something or other, it sounds like something that happened during Bartlet's time as President. Matt is laughing. I silently open the door a little further so I can actually stand in the doorway.

Matt's got his back to me and he and Josh are sat in armchairs drinking hot chocolate. There is a pile of paper work on the coffee table and Matt, dressed in jeans, t-shirt and dressing gown, is clutching a sheet of paper. "Now Josh I've been meaning to ask-" but then I cut him off.

"Matthew Santos, it's three in the morning and you're down here in the West Wing!" I say a little too shrilly. But I'm angry, because it looks like he is working at an unearthly hour instead of sleeping.

Josh is the first to speak, a beaming, dimpled grin on his face. "Good morning Mrs Santos," he chirps from his chair, "care to join us? Can I get you a hot chocolate?" He doesn't stand as he should when I enter the room but I'm really not bothered about every formality. It all gets a bit stuffy. It's why I insist Donna doesn't call me "Ma'am" or Mrs Santos.

Matt follows up Josh's offer. "Seems we've been rumbled Josh," he remarks to his CoS. "Helen, I couldn't sleep with the rain," he turns and explains to me. He then reiterates the offer of hot chocolate. Now I've always had a soft spot for hot chocolate and saw it as a childhood treat when we would go to Washington State in the winter to visit my Grandparents. Grandma would always send me to bed with a mug of hot chocolate. "Josh was telling me about some of the shenanigans he was involved in during the Bartlet Administration. You'll enjoy them," he reveals.

I'm a little unimpressed that he is down in the West Wing joking with his CoS instead of being in bed. Josh is already up out of his chair and pouring a third mug of hot chocolate which he hands to me. He is very courteous, I can see why Donna likes him although at the rate he is going I think he may become married to his work rather than married to Donna. I accept the drink and then explain to Matt why I'm up and about. "I guess I'll have a drink. The only reason I'm down here is that I couldn't sleep and you were nowhere to be seen. I had to ask an agent in the hall where you'd got to. This rain is so noisy. We didn't get this in Houston." I then curl up in the third armchair.

Josh surveys the scene with his boyish grin. "Well that makes three of us."

I'm curious, I want to know more about what happened in the Bartlet White House. So I press Josh for more. "So tell us Josh, what shenanigans did you get up to, in the Bartlet White House?"

A/N: I'm not sure whether my Helen Santos is quite frosty enough or whether I have her portrayed accurately. It's up to you to decide. Thank you to chai4anne, alix33, lcf328, Kaiden Gipson and daisydadog for your reviews of part one. I'm sorry if this chapter seems a little repetitive but I like context. I have a few ideas of where to take this story next but I will need to find the time to put them to paper. As always please take the time to review. Thanks for reading.