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.

"Are you coming to bed, Jed?"

"At some point."

"Smartass."

He came out of the bathroom and slumped down on the edge of the bed beside her.

"Uh-oh. What's wrong?"

"This thing has got out of hand." He stared at the floor. Abbey sat up and pressed herself against his back. He said nothing.

"So are you going to tell me which thing this is?"

"Hoynes. People around me are bleeding, and I can only imagine what the ones I don't talk to are going through. There doesn't seem to be an upside."

"Maybe not for you. It got me the only truly competent chief of staff I've ever had."

"Amy got your agenda enacted."

"Yeah, but she wasn't supposed to beat your staff to do it. She was supposed to persuade you."

His laugh was so low that she didn't hear it; she felt it bubbling deep within him.

"If you can't persuade me, Boo-Boo, no one can."

"Can I take a crack at something, then?" she asked.

"What?"

"In-house crisis counseling for everyone. Not just the ones that admit they were involved; everybody."

"The DNC is already screaming to hush this up. They suggested cash compensation and a confidentiality agreement."

"How big a compensation?"

"Doesn't matter. The minute they make that offer to Katie Witt, she'll tell them to go to hell and plaster it all over the front page of the Constitution. For two cents I'd let them do it just to watch her cut them up."

"She's a fighter. I wish some of the others had her attitude."

"They do. Well, they did. Abbey, Leo was crying in his office this afternoon. Josh said something--I don't know what exactly, but Josh is no paragon of sensitivity--and Leo just cracked."

"Did he go home?"

"To the hotel? He was still downstairs when I left."

"Go get him. Bring him up here for the night, like we did C.J., and show him you care."

"You do it."

"Excuse me?"

"You bring him up. If I do it, it looks like... you know."

"Since when have you cared? Think how many romantic dinners you two had the last time I was in Manchester!"

"How did you know?"

"Because the housekeeping staff felt a need to tell me."

"That I had dinner with Leo?"

"With candles, at an intimate little table, and he stayed the night afterwards. Yes, they told me."

"That was the night Toby figured out about the M.S.! Of course Leo stayed with me!"

"But now you're being brutally careful because you're afraid somebody's going to call you two some unpleasant names? Well, that bird has flown, so you might as well face it and take care of your friend."

"It's what he's afraid of. He's afraid somebody will think Hoynes hit on him because he thought he was gay. He thinks people will think that makes it all right."

"That's nonsense."

"You don't... I mean, those dinners... you're not upset?"

"Are you sleeping with him?"

"No...."

"Then what do I have to be upset about? Go get him. Go on, go."

"How did you get this number?"

"You gave it to me, C.J., when it came out about Helen. You were my first call, remember?"

She sat up, unable to bear the sound of his voice in the intimacy of her bed.

"You're not my problem any more."

"What would it take to make the problem go away, C.J.?"

"You could go home and bury your head in the sand and hope nobody ever decides to dig you out."

"That's not making it go away. What would it take to make you happy about this?"

"Happy?" She was on her feet, pacing her bedroom like a caged animal, unable to breathe.

"C.J....."

"I'm not the only one involved," she babbled, looking around her room as if some of her fellow victims might materialize to stand with her.

"You're the only one who could hurt me. You're the one with the face people know. Anybody else is just some bimbo looking for her fifteen minutes."

Suddenly C.J.'s mind was very clear.

"Keep believing that," she told him, her voice low and steady.

"Look, you've got to know I didn't mean to do any physical damage. Accidents happen, C.J., and... you know I didn't mean that to happen."

"I don't think you were deciding which bones to break while we rode up in the elevator."

"Of course not! So we're okay, then?"

"Define 'okay.'"

"When you're asked, you'll tell it how it happened, right? How it was an accident?"

"John? Do you truly believe that there's some possibility that that might happen?"

"Of course I do! As long as you and I know the truth...."

"Right. Don't call here again," she said, and thumbed the off switch on the phone, then unplugged the cord.