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.

"Mr. Vice President."

"Josh, thanks. Thanks for coming. Look, what on earth is going on over there? I'm hearing some pretty disturbing things."

"So did we, sir. That's why we're pulling in everyone who works in the White House and asking if they've been subjected to sexual harassment."

"What brought that on?"

"You did."

"Josh? What makes you say that?"

"Three members of senior staff claim to have been subjected to unwanted sexual advances from you."

"You're asking people if I...."

"We aren't mentioning names."

"How did the press get hold of it?"

"We're asking everyone who works in the White House."

"You told them?"

"We asked them."

"Well, whose dipshit idea was that?"

"The First Lady has a new Chief of Staff with some expertise in media relations. Two takers in the press corps, both on your nickel. They came up with your name on their own, John."

"Who?"

"You don't remember?"

"Josh!"

"'Cause nobody told me, not knowing I was coming over here."

"They know...."

"Of course. You think I do this behind people's backs?

"What are you doing here, Josh? Why did you come?"

"To hear your side of it, because it's hard for me to believe what people are saying."

"This is a setup. It has to be. Josh, this is a political move against me."

"Tell that to the supervisor in Finance and the kitchen manager that lost their jobs."

"Look, this is a misunderstanding. Probably most of these so-called victims are just low-level employees out for attention."

"Don't do this, John. You're going to go down, and you're going to land hard."

"You don't have any hard evidence that anything happened at all. Yeah, I fool around. You know that, but nobody gets hurt, and you've got no right to put these people up to something they'd never do on their own."

"Nobody got hurt? Never?"

"What do you think I am?"

"You tell me." Josh placed a document on the desk. Hoynes picked it up, looked at it, set it down again.

"C.J.," he said. "Silly twit."

"I got to tell you, calling her names doesn't strengthen your position."

"She doesn't have a whole lot of room to talk. Is there anybody in the West Wing she hasn't slept with?"

"Even if that were true, it doesn't give you any right...."

"Josh, she's doing a reporter! Yeah, your baseball buddy from the Post. You know what happens to him if this gets out?"

"Excuse me?"

"You're gonna cost a man with nearly fifteen years covering the White House, with a frigging Pulitzer Prize, for God's sake, you're going to put his job on the block because C.J. played the tease and got in over her head? I thought he was your friend. I thought I was your friend."

"Really?"

"Josh, look, you're a man, I'm a man, we both know that you get to a point where even if you want to, you can't stop. She... I don't know exactly what happened. One minute we were doing great, and the next, well, I was still doing great, and when we were done she acted like I was some sort of ogre."

"At what point did you break her arm?"

"I never... does she say I...?"

Josh held out the police report. "We have the xrays," he said. "They didn't let me see the whole package, not until I'd talked to you, but...."

"Josh, I don't know what to say. I mean, what do you think I am?"

"What I think you *did* is, I think you took her up to your room. I think you romanced her a little. I think for some reason she became uncomfortable, and decided to call things off. I think you thought you were past the point of no return."

"So far I haven't heard anything I disagree with."

"I think you tried to persuade her of your point of view. I think you were insistent. I think things got out of hand."

"That's a reasonable assessment."

"You hit her."

"No. No, I... I certainly didn't intend to. We were moving kind of...hard and fast, and maybe I bumped... accidentally knocked...."

"You hit her, John, with your fist, and when that didn't quiet her down, you grabbed her arm and twisted it and bent it as hard as you could, until something snapped."

"You are a sick man, Josh."

"Did she scream? Or was she already screaming?"

"I don't know what you want me to say."

"I don't either. I don't know that there's anything you can say."

"You've made up your mind about this, haven't you?"

"You raped her."

"I did no such thing!"

"Yeah, you did."

"Josh, I was there! I would know if I forced her to have sex with me!"

"As opposed to forcing her not to back out?"

"Yes... no... I don't know! But I know I never raped anybody! I didn't!"

"You really believe that, don't you?"

"You really don't?"

"Not believing is one of the things that I'll be ashamed of for the rest of my life."

"Josh, it's all right...."

"No, it's not. I am deeply, horribly ashamed that I didn't want to believe C.J. had been hurt."

"So what happens now?"

"I don't think that's really up to me. Good night, John. Goodbye."