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.

"Steve's back," said Donna.

"Where's he been?" C.J. asked.

"Delaware, checking out a... lead. I helped him download a photograph from his camera to his laptop. It's the bathtub."

"What else?" asked Josh.

"Nothing. The place is a wreck. There were lots of pictures of empty rooms. He called the Delaware police after he posted the story."

"Son of a bitch," said Danny.

"If there was nothing there," said C.J., "there was nothing to gain by calling them earlier."

"Except time. Their forensics experts could turn up something that would help them find Amy, and she's getting farther away every second. Steve knew that. He just didn't want to give them the chance to tell him to hold the picture."

"Butterfield?" said Josh.

"Leaning on him now," Donna told him. "Steve's not talking."

"They found the building."

"Secret Service?"

"A reporter."

"Did they find the tie-in?"

"They had that to begin with."

"Interesting. I wonder where they got that."

"I think I could probably tell you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. I really love people who've just come into power. They think they're invulnerable. They squirm like bait on a hook when they find out they're not."

"And you're about to educate this guy?"

"Kind of appropriate, don't you think?"

"Just don't forget that he's not the target."

A white stuffed duck sat on the First Lady's desk, a yellow ribbon tied around its neck.

"Nice waterfowl," said Leo.

"Don't mock me," Abbey told him. "I'm not in the mood."

"You didn't do this."

"Did you need something, or did you just come up here to depress me?"

"A list of the people from your office who're going to Katie Witt's funeral."

"Danny didn't get with Donna?"

"Danny has been closeted with Josh and Donna and now C.J. for most of the day, but nobody said anything about travel arrangements."

"How did this become the Chief of Staff's bailiwick?"

"Busted. I volunteered so I could come mock your duck."

"Yeah? Well, volunteer to go back downstairs and find out what my Chief of Staff is up to when he's supposed to be undermining a misogynist regime in Deburras."

"Abbey, please don't start."

"Female circumcision, Leo."

"You know, we should get a photographer up here to get a shot of that duck...."

"Twelve year olds. Do you remember when Mallory was twelve? Can you imagine...?"

"And this has what to do with the United States?"

"Foreign aid."

"I beg your pardon?"

"We funded forty rural clinics in Deburras, almost the whole health care system outside the capitol."

"And these clinics...."

"Are doing female circumcisions."

"Okay, this we have to get on, but it needs to come from the president."

"That's a cop-out."

"It is not a cop-out, Abbey! He needs a women's issue right now!"

"He has several, and as far as I can see, he's not doing anything about any of them!"

"Is that what this is about? This is about Amy? You can't do anything to help her, so you're going to ram every other feminist issue you can find down our throats?"

"This is not a feminist issue. This is a medical ethics issue."

"Yeah, and you're going to be really easy to sell as the poster child for that one!"

"That is beside the point!"

"Yeah," he said, suddenly calm, "but it won't help those little girls if you get accused of exploiting their predicament. Let us take care of it, okay?"

"You're really...?"

"We really will cut off their funding, and we really will find Amy, and we really will hang John Hoynes out to dry. Really. Trust us."

"Tell that to a whale or an Indian."