croissantkatie

Fandom: The West Wing
Pairings: Sam/Josh
Rating: T
Length: 11,539
Creator Links: thegoodthebadandthenerdy
Theme: Outsider POV, Happy Endings, Missing Scenes, Politics, Post-canon, Worldbuilding

Summary: It was practically fable around the office after that: Sam Seaborn, his old friend, and the state of New Hampshire.
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Or: A story told in six parts by three people who remember the guy that walked out on his future in the middle of a rainstorm.

Reccer's Notes: It's unusual to tag a nominally 'our universe'-setting fic with 'Worldbuilding' but this fic does just such a stellar job fleshing out Sam's network of relationships through his time as a lawyer with Gage-Whitney into the future, it really deserves it! Every character here feels just so real and full it's almost hard to believe they're all OCs, and each provides their own form of comparison and contrast to Sam and his relationship with Josh. This really is a fic about that scene in particular and the way it is mythologised in-universe (because, really: what kind of romantic comedy climax scene even was that, even in canon?!), but by the end, the fic has also provided my current favourite depiction of Sam's career progression post-canon. It reads like such a labour of love, and the result is so impossibly satisfying. <3

Fanwork Links: Heard the Grapevine Got Twisted