Bourbon (Offered by Bartlet to Toby)

President Bartlet surges from his Oval Office perch, bourbon splashing into glasses under the Outer Oval's night-shrouded tension; he thrusts one toward fury-knotted Toby, who seizes it in whitening knuckles, acceptance slicing the air as Charlie hovers watchful and newscaster drones doom from the TV glow. Bartlet refills his own with deliberate pour, ice rattling like unspoken accusations, the amber liquid a fragile dam against erupting presidential rage and unearthed family scars.