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.

"Talk fast, Will," said Toby. "I've got senior staff in two minutes."

"Yeah, thanks for taking the call and what the hell is going on up there?"

"While I've got you, when you worked here did anyone ever offer any unwanted sexual advances?"

"Yes."

"You want to tell me about it?"

"No."

"Will...."

"It was Ginger, okay? She was drunk, and I took her home and she asked me in."

"That's all?"

"She passed out, and I went home. We never even talked about it again. Is this it, Toby? Is this the thing?"

"You don't want to know."

"If it's going to affect my boss, I need to know!"

"Yeah, the President's going to be calling him with the same questions."

"Toby, who on the face of the earth could sexually harass the Vice President of the United States?"

"He wasn't always Vice President."

"Do you know what this is going to do to the midtern elections? Do you know what it's going to do to the next Presidential campaign?"

"What? We found out we had a problem. We didn't try to hide it; we dealt with it. How is that a bad thing?"

"Anybody who doesn't believe the administration was actually complicit is going to believe we're blind, deaf and intellectually challenged! Was this going on under our noses?"

"Looks like. I gotta go, Will. It's time. Really, I've got to go. I'll call you."

"Donna, has anybody ever...?"

"No, Josh, other than sitting on your lap in the cab on the way to the Inaugural Ball, I have never been close enough to anyone in the administration to cause anyone any concern, which is of itself a matter of some concern to me, but...."

"You didn't want to sit on my lap?"

"I told Leo...."

"You told Leo?"

"I told him nobody ever bothered me."

"And nobody did, right?"

"You think I'd lie about something like that?"

"C.J. did."

"Josh, do you think it's all right to be talking about her like this? I mean, aren't victims supposed to be anonymous?"

"The press has this, Donna. C.J. was unavailable on the day this broke, even though her car was in the parking lot, and her boyfriend, who happened to be a member of the press corps, quit his job with no notice. The only reason they all didn't have the police report by noon is that the rash of requests crashed the Bakersfield server. The boat of privacy has sailed, here. The boat is a tiny speck vanishing over the horizon."

"Fifty requests crashed a server?"

"I don't work for the City of Bakersfield, Donnatella."

"I'm sure the citizens of Bakersfield are pleased about that."

"So did it bug you?"

"What?"

"That I had you sit on my lap? I mean you could have sat on someone else's lap, or we could have had Will or Charley sit on someone's lap...."

"It's not a thing, Josh."

"You're sure? 'Cause I didn't think C.J. was a thing, and I was wrong. I don't... I mean, you work for me, so you're sort of my responsibility, and I wouldn't like to think...."

"You're going to be doing this for the rest of the administration, aren't you?"

"I'm going to be doing this for the rest of... for the rest of our time together, yeah."

She stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek, then stepped back and smiled at him.

"You don't consider that sexual harassment, do you?"

"No," he said.

"Then I think you and I are going to be okay."