Fandom:

The West Wing AU

Pairing:

C.J./Danny

Rating:

PG-13 for topic

Distribution:

How much do I owe you for hauling it off?

Spoilers:

Up to and including Full Disclosure, from which the series follows on

Email:

exfilia at livejournal dot com

Disclaimer:

if I owned them, they'd have a lot more fun

Warning:

mentions nonconsensual sex

Note:

Hoynes lovers should probably be hitting delete right about now.

"He's still here," Abbey said from the door that connected Leo's office to the Oval. "Come have dinner with us, Leo."

"I got work to do."

She leaned back into the other room, then reappeared.

"The president says you work for him, and you can get your scrawny butt up to the residence and eat lasagne."

"You're letting him eat lasagne?"

"I lost a bet, and if you don't come eat your share of it, my husband is going to overindulge."

"Abbey, I can't."

Jed appeared in the doorway behind her.

"What's so important?" he asked.

"Your reputation."

"I have a reputation for poisoning my employees?"

"Danny told C.J....."

Abbey rolled her eyes, and came and put her arms around Leo.

"He told me, too."

"What?" asked the president.

"The press has had you two getting hot and sticky together since the beginning of the first term. They keep looking for other men you've dated."

"I've never dated anyone else!"

Leo covered his face with his hands.

"Mr. President, could you possibly rephrase that even a little?"

"I've never wanted...."

"Jed!"

"You're making too big a deal out of this," said Abbey. "According to Danny, this has been going on for at least six years, right? And the world hasn't ended."

"Depends on your definition," said Leo, leaning back against her.

"Leo, look at me," said the president. Leo tried to scowl, but couldn't maintain it when he met those clear blue eyes. "What John Hoynes did to you... look at me! It had nothing to do with you and me. He's like an animal mad with pain or hunger or fear or something. He's doing tremendous damage to the people around him, but it has nothing to do with sex. It's about power. You were vulnerable, and he hurt you, and...."

"You think I'm any less vulnerable if people think you and I...?"

"Are lovers? You can say the word, you know."

Leo laughed.

"I don't use that word about the people I actually am doing!" he said. "It sounds like cheesy internet porn."

"What are you doing reading cheesy internet porn when the world thinks you could be having sex with me?"

Leo decided that one more dinner with the Bartlets was better than continuing this conversation.

"Getting ideas," he said. "This lasagne--how many cheeses?"

Tracy was almost down the last flight of steps when the door broke. She thought about the garage, but she didn't think they'd have left the keys in any of the cars. She opened the garage door anyway as Bernard thumped down the steps. She stepped out into the back yard and waited until he was in the garage. There was nowhere to hide. She ran to the other end of the house and past it into a clump of shrubbery.

The baby was very quiet. Tracy looked down and found it smiling at her. It? She lifted the child away from her for a second. She. Brilliant. Another Amy Gardner with the stump of her umbilical cord still oozing. Tracy wondered how it had been cut. Or could they come undone of themselves? She didn't know. She didn't care. She only thanked God that the child wasn't screaming.

Bernard came around the house at a run, looked around, and rushed on to the front. Tracy stayed in her bushes for a few minutes, then slid out the side away from the house and raced into a line of trees.

Beyond the trees she climbed through a barbed-wire fence to a two-lane country road. There was no traffic, but Tracy turned in the direction of the sound she'd heard from the attic. It was either the ocean, and there'd probably be people there, or it was a busy highway. Surely they'd help her.

Yeah, out in the middle of nowhere they'd rush to help a madwoman with runs in her stockings and the blood of a naked newborn ruining her best office clothes. They'd take the baby and arrest Tracy.

Of course, that was probably still better than what Bernard had planned for them. Tracy made herself walk faster.