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.

"Hi," said Charlie. The temp looked up from shuffling papers.

"Hi, yourself," she said. "What are you doing over here?"

"I don't know. It seems like you turn up in the West Wing fairly often. I guess I wanted to see where you work."

"You've never been in the East Wing?"

"I avoid it. Your boss plays with live ammo."

"Yeah."

"How did you get this job?"

"I don't know."

"Yeah, you do. It's not easy to get a job in the White House. You had to put some effort into it."

"How did you get yours?"

"I was dragged in kicking and screaming by Josh Lyman and a madwoman in Human Resources, but we were talking about you."

"I needed a job. I applied. They sent me here. That's all I know."

"Is this your first job for the government?"

"Yes."

"That doesn't usually happen, you know. You don't go to the White House first thing."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to get you to say how you came to be here and who's really responsible. I'm trying to get you to tell me, before you have to tell somebody else."

"Don't say it, Leo!" said the president. "I am not going upstairs right now."

"She needs you."

"She needs a kick in the bum."

"You could do that," Leo said.

"She'd kick me back!"

"And if that's what she needs to do, you stand there and take it."

"You...."

"You stand there and take it. She's hurting. You do what she needs you to do."

"When did you become Abbey's advocate?"

"The other night when she sent you down here to bring me home."

"Danny? Do you think we should have a priest to marry us?"

"As opposed to a rabbi?"

"As opposed to a judge, or something."

"My mother would roll over in her grave."

"A priest would want us to be married in a church," she said.

"What church?"

"Wherever. I mean, we could still have the reception at the White House."

"Yeah, sure, if that's what you want."

He just wasn't getting the idea.

"So do you ever go...?" she pressed.

"Uh...."

"Me, neither."

Danny frowned, obviously thinking, then nodded.

"We should have a judge," he told her.

"Only if you want. I mean, if your mother would have wanted...."

"It would be a lie." he said. "That part, the church, it isn't what's important to us. Is it?"

For some reason it was difficult for her to reply to that one, but eventually she said it: "No."

"For us it's politics and the country. We should get married at the White House, and we should have a judge, because that's who we are."

"You're not just saying that?"

"Uh-uh. I'm not sure I like what that says about us, but this is who we are."

"You're not going to tell the president I said the church wasn't important, are you?"

"Are you kidding? I'm going to hold that over your head for the rest of our married life."

"Why did I ever suspect that that would not be so?"

"Abbey?" He padded across the bedroom carpet and sat beside her on the bed.

"Not now, Jed."

"Okay. I'm just going to lie down beside you for a while, okay?"

"Leave me alone."

"I will." He kicked his shoes off and stretched out on the bed. "There, see? Not bothering you at all."

He heard her sniffle, and pull her pillow tight against her chest. Ten, nine, eight.... on three, she rolled over and wrapped her arms around him, and he kissed her hair and held her while she cried.

"It's not your fault," he whispered. "There was nothing you could have done."

"I should have known. I should have said something."

"Even if you had, she was probably gone before you ever saw the note. There was absolutely nothing you could have done."

"How am I supposed to look Amy in the face and tell her that?"

For that, he didn't have the answer.