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.

"Did I not specifically," growled Leo, newspaper in hand, from her office door, "*specifically* say the two of you were not to be photographed?"

"Actually," said C.J., "you just told Danny, who doesn't work for you anyway, and you said not to be photographed doing anything you wouldn't do. Why? What've you got?"

"What have you been doing for the last hour?"

"Reading proposed amendments to the dental insurance...."

"What has your staff been doing since the afternoon papers came out?" Leo snapped the paper open. There on the front page, above the fold, was Danny kissing C.J. in front of the Washington Monument, the tiny jewelry box plainly visible in her fingers against the back of his neck.

"Oh. Uh... exactly what part of that would you not...."

"Never mind," he said, and turned to stalk away. "And congratulations!"

"They've got a bomb," Will told the Vice President.

"Actually they have several."

"Yeah, but this one has been sitting within sight of the lights of Savannah, Georgia for nearly half a century. It's a hydrogen bomb, more powerful than the ones that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki."

"Those didn't fall, Will. We dropped them. We intentionally used them to kill people."

"Yes, sir. Anyway, they thought it might be of some use to you, if you needed a card against the defense establishment."

"The far right doesn't care about a bomb in Georgia. The far right doesn't care if we blow up Georgia, as long as we tell them we were aiming for someone they don't like. And who is 'they?'"

"Toby Ziegler was the one who called me. They said it came up in the Oval Office."

"I'm running against a sexual predator, and they want me to talk about a bomb that's been lost for fifty years? Yes, I know about it, Will. Colorado produces uranium, remember? Anti-nuclear activists drag the Tybee bomb out at every opportunity. How do we know it hasn't been sitting in Archangelsk for forty-nine of the fifty years? Might be why we can't find the stupid thing."

"Actually they're more worried it might wind up in Damascus or Tripoli or Pyongyang. That's not really likely, though. It's pretty close inshore, and the Navy thinks they'd... notice."

"They'd notice the disappearance of a bomb the location of which is unknown to them?"

"Sir, I... this is the Pentagon. Are we supposed to expect them to think straight?"

"We don't expect it," Russell sighed, "but it would sure be nice to be surprised every once in a while."

"Danny Concannon, you son of a bitch!"

"I didn't write it, I swear!"

He dodged the newspaper the First Lady swung at him and ducked behind a divan, his arms protecting his head.

"Didn't write what?"

"Whatever it is you're mad about!"

"I'm mad because you didn't tell me!" She swung the paper again, and he cowered.

"Tell you what?"

"That you were getting engaged!" She snapped the paper open and held it up, exhibiting the picture.

"Oh, no!" He took it from her and read the caption. "C.J. is going to be so pissed!" He turned the pages, looking for further damage, then looked up. "What are you laughing at?" he asked.

"Your priorities," she said. "Don't tell anyone I said so, but you are ten times smarter than your president."

"Is he going to be pissed?"

"Not if he ever plans on getting...."

"Please don't finish that sentence. How did we wind up on the front page? I mean, this is society news, not...."

"When it happens in this building, Danny, it's every kind of news you can imagine."

"Yeah," he said, dropping the paper into his lap, "except when you leave it."

"You still haven't found Amy?"

"I haven't found Amy, and I've been going about it, you know, professionally. I called some contacts... never mind where, but her bank accounts haven't been touched and her credit cards haven't been used. They can't find anywhere that she's stayed in a hotel or rented an apartment. It's like she just dropped off the face of the earth."

"She was upset. She said smart women didn't get themselves into that kind of position, and she didn't want to be the kind of woman who did."

"This didn't worry you?"

"I tried to get her to talk to her obstetrician. Hormones do weird things to pregnant women. I accused my husband of sleeping with Leo McGarry, and cried my eyes out because they wouldn't let me watch."

"Okay, I think you're just trying to embarass me, here. So did Amy talk to her doctor?"

"I hope so. She left soon after that."

"Can I ask... I mean, there are legal requirements. Where were you going to send her W-2's, and stuff?"

"I didn't know she was going until she was gone, Danny. I certainly didn't know she hadn't told anyone where to find her."

"Well, I'm going to keep looking, but if I pull many more strings some of my former colleagues are going to ask themselves why, and then...."

"You could keep kissing C.J. in public, and keep everything else run off the front page."

"I don't think we can dominate the news cycle for that long," he laughed.

"Wanna bet? You're doing this in the Rose Garden, right?"

"God, I hope not. I'm allergic to roses. But I see what you mean, yeah. If we're really public about it, nobody's going to print anything else about her, or... yeah, oh, yeah."

"Danny? You know what I said about you being smarter than my husband? You're blowing it."