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.

"Three seats in Washington, one in Oregon and four in California, counting Sam."

"Leo," said the president, "if I try to make eight speeches in one day, I'm going to be mixing up candidate's names."

"You do that anyway," said Leo. "You'll be wearing an earpiece, and Toby will keep you straight."

"Not C.J.?"

"C.J.'s introducing you. The candidates asked for her, and we certainly didn't object."

"Do they know why?"

"Sam does; Russell asked him first. The others just think she's a popular staffer. It'll be okay."

"Eight stops in one day, Leo; Toby won't be able to keep the names straight."

"Two days. We're staying overnight with Sam."

"All of us? How big a place does he have?"

"In his district. I heard some of our guys are going up to a party at his mother's, though. We figured Toby would be safe there."

"Toby Ziegler and alcohol in the California forty-seventh?"

"Kill you now?"

"Yeah."

"Did you watch?" Danny asked C.J. when she stepped out of the First Lady's office.

"Watch what?"

"The Bailey kid."

"Danny, if I'd been going to watch the briefing, I could have done the briefing. This whole thing was because I had something else I needed to do."

"He did good."

"He did?"

"Yeah, but only because I wasn't there."

C.J. smiled at him and sat on the edge of his desk.

"You don't think there's a touch of megalomania in that?"

"Nah," he said, one finger tracing the waistband of her skirt. "I could have busted him up."

"I would pay to see you try."

"Secret plan to fight inflation, C.J.?" His fingers climbed the front of her blouse as if the buttons were rungs on a ladder.

"He has one."

"Who?" Danny's eyes were fogged in.

"Will," she laughed. "It'd never be enacted, but he sat down and drew up a plan just in case he was asked."

Danny sat back in his chair.

"If Will Bailey were tall and wore lipstick," he said, "I believe he'd be you."

"I don't have a secret plan to fight inflation, or a position paper on egg rights, either. Which reminds me: can you do some drafts for me?"

"Of what?"

"Position papers."

"Toby and Josh got fired?"

"Not for the president. For me."

He took a deep breath before he answered.

"Why do you need position papers?"

"I don't, right now, but just in case."

"You're really going to do this."

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"I've spent the last six years trying to push or pull or lure this administration down certain roads because the country really needs us to go there. I'm tired of fighting people, even such good people, who have priorities different from mine. Eventually you either give up or stop mapping and start steering. It's my turn to drive, Danny. I know you didn't sign up for this, that once the president was out of office you were going back in the press room, but...."

"This is really that important to you? I mean, you never talked about it before."

"I never thought about it before, not seriously. Danny, if you want out of the wedding, it's okay. I mean...."

"I love you. Besides, C.J., I can't go back in the press room if you're in the Oval Office whether we're married or not."

"I'm ruining your career."

"Nah. You're just taking me down a different road. What do you want to tackle first?"

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, foreign policy and human rights."

"That's my girl."