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.

The nanny met Donna at the door and took the stack of library books from her.

"Thank you," Donna said. "How's Leonie?"

"Just fine. Mrs. Hoynes has been with her all afternoon."

Toby found Ellie in his office, poring over a dog-eared novel.

"Were you banished?" he asked.

"I'm slumming," she said, standing up and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Sometimes you meet the nicest people below stairs."

"Not that I'm complaining, but didn't you pick a strange day for a visit?"

"My dad called me in. If he could teleport the others from New Hampshire, he would."

"The nice thing about dating you is that your family makes me feel normal by comparison."

"It'll be your family one day, too, you know."

"Yeah?"

"I mean... I thought... I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You won't be upset, though, if I put a little more emphasis on you than on them?"

"Not in a million years," she said, and kissed him.

"Angie?" There was no answer. Donna stepped into the room and saw Evangeline in the rocking chair, swaying back and forth, Leonie very still in her arms.

"Ma chandelle est morte," she sang, almost in a whisper, "Je n'ai plus de feu...."

"Angie!" Donna sank to the floor beside her and wrapped her arms around her knees. "Oh, I'm so sorry!"

"He loved her," she said. "He loved this little scrap...."

"She's his daughter."

"No. He knew better. He said so, anyway, said he never touched her mother. But he still loved her. All these years, he never...."

"He loved you," Donna told her. "You know he did."

"He was supposed to be president!"

Leonie woke with a start and howled in protest. Angie held the child close to her and wept.

"That was never going to happen," said a man in the doorway.

"Bernard? You're here?"

"Where do you think I'd be, cherie? You think I'm going to leave you now?" He gave Donna his hand and pulled her to her feet. "We have to go, though," he told Angie. "They're going to come after us now, and we have to go."

"Where would I go?"

"Someplace safe," he said. "Someplace where nobody's ever going to hurt you again."

"There's no such place," Angie whimpered.

"There is," he said. "There is, if you trust me. I'm not going to let them hurt you." He plucked Leonie from Angie's lap and handed her to Donna. "Take your baby," he said, "and go on out of here. There's a nice young man locked in your hall closet you might take with you."

"Where are you going?" she asked him. Somewhere far away she heard a police siren. "What are you going to do?"

"Take the child," he said, "and go." Something in his tone chilled Donna. She carried Leonie outside and was halfway down the hall wondering why a Secret Service detail was boiling out of her elevator when she heard first one gunshot, and then another.