That's the question after The West Wing's outgoing deputy communications director made curious comments Thursday about his future on the NBC show.

Lowe, who this summer announced he'd be leaving the hit presidential drama when his contract expires in March, told Good Day LA, a local Fox morning show in Los Angeles, that "nothing would make me happier" than to work out a deal to stay with the series.

"...[But] at the moment, no one has told me that anything has changed," Lowe added.

Then he capped the remark with the hopeful, the nebulous, the curious: "We'll see."

We'll see?!

Do those sound like the words of a bridge-burning David Caruso? Do those sound like the words of a man who's ready to toss Sam Seaborn, Lowe's West Wing alter ego, out to sea?

Unfortunately, it's unclear what those words mean.

As Lowe said, he's still scheduled to exit in March. And there's been no noise on any new deal with the actor from either NBC or Warner Bros., which produces the series for the Peacock.

Like the just-thwarted pro-baseball strike, the Lowe-West Wing situation comes down to the big, fat bottom line.

At issue: Salary. Lowe's making what he made when West Wing debuted in 1999: $75,000 an episode. This is, as economists will tell you, a lot of money. But costar Martin Sheen, for instance, is making a whole lot more money than he used to: Up to a reported $300,000 an episode to occupy the Oval Office as President Jed Bartlet.

On Wednesday, Sheen took to lobbying for Lowe's return.

"We're hoping he will have a change of heart and that [his exit is] not a forgone conclusion," Sheen told TV's Access Hollywood, teasingly adding, "It could happen. He could come to his senses and stay with us for a little while."

Sheen further jabbed the onetime Brat Packer, noting, "I don't think he has ever been better in anything else. Are you listening, Rob?"

Perhaps he is.

On Good Day LA, Lowe, while declining to go into the specifics of his departure, conceded he was "disappointed" to be leaving.

"My contract takes me to March, and I'm going to live up to it," Lowe said on the broadcast, "and when I do go I'll have been there longer than a lot of people in the real White House."

Spin doctors, included.