Title: After All That Had Been Before

Author: Rhonda Dossett

Character: CJ/Danny

Rating: PG Spoilers: Manchester II and everything before

Disclaimers: They're not mine and never will be.

Feedback: Greatly Appreciated

Note: 3rd in the "After" series, sequel to "After the Rain" by Cretkid

Special Note: The series can be found at: www.oocities.org/rdcottrell/fiction.html

It hadn't been easy but Danny had managed to get both of them out of Logan and over to the nearest Holiday Inn. Maneuvering a limping, 6 foot tall, slightly drunk, and very upset CJ through the throngs of humanity crisscrossing the busy airport, was not a task for the faint hearted. After a few hundred feet, he had nabbed an abandoned airport wheelchair and installed her and her briefcase in it.

Locating her suitcases was another matter. During their odyssey through the terminal, Danny managed to find out from an increasingly incoherent CJ that her bags had gone "home." Home, he had her repeat her answer several times, but that's all she would say on the matter, except to add that she wanted to go too.

Telling himself that he needed the information for a legitimate reason, Danny palmed her ticket from the briefcase pocket. Hurriedly, while pushing the wheelchair, he scanned the information printed on the ticket face. So, that's where home was. CJ wanted to go back to Napa. The flight time had long past, so CJ was probably right. Her bags had gone home. But she was still here and in no condition to go anywhere, much less fly cross country.

They were both soaked by the time he got them to his car and on the road. The storm was picking up in intensity, the sideways rain trying to push his rental car off the highway. The thought crossed Danny's mind that although he had rescued the fair maiden from the dragon, he must have enraged some god whose wrath took the form of the pounding rain.

The defroster still didn't work and now chilled from the wet clothes, he discovered that the heater didn't work either. Boy that rental agency must have seen Katie coming when they saddled her with this lemon. Even with the side window open, he ended up driving more by feel than sight to the nearby hotel. CJ had slept through most of the trip, only waking when he forced her to walk from the car to the room.

She was asleep again now, curled up in a ball on top of the cheap floral bedspread. Her wet clothes were soaking the bedding, but Danny just stood there, holding an armful of towels, watching her for a few minutes. Asleep, she seemed smaller, even fragile.

Danny smiled, knowing she'd like that thought, the smaller part anyway. He wondered what had happened to push her over the edge, she'd survived so much already. Why after all that had been before, was she falling now?

Bending over her, he pulled off her cotton slacks being careful not to jar her injured knee. That knee worried him. It was swollen to almost twice its normal size and the bruising extended halfway down her leg. She was going to need to see a doctor before walking on it too much more.

Her outer shirt was easy to slip off, but he had no idea how to get her white camisole off without waking her. Maybe he'd just leave it for now, noting that it was very thin. Thin and almost transparent in the wet spots, Danny noted wryly.

CJ shivered and Danny reigned in his errant thoughts. Talking to himself, Danny mumbled that the important point was the camisole would dry quickly not what he could see through it. He hurriedly used the towels to dry her hair and rub most of the moisture from her clammy skin.

Turning down the covers on the other double bed in the room, he transferred her to it. After pulling the comforter up to her chin, he took his first deep breath since getting her phone call.

CJ was safe and she was here with him. He had been so afraid that he wouldn't make it to the airport in time. That she would just get on a plane and permanently disappear from his life.

During that wet, miserable drive from Manchester to Logan, he had replayed the bits and pieces of their relationship in his mind. They had spent so little time together that each moment was like a treasured gem that he stored away for safekeeping; one that he rarely let himself examine.

Danny hadn't been in the White House much during the past few months and when he was there, he had avoided seeing her. He wondered if she still had Gail on her desk.

Smiling, Danny acknowledged that he had shamefully used that fish to stay connected to her. Feeding the fish, visiting the fish, bringing gifts to the fish, Danny had stolen time for them. But even a fish as cute as Gail could only do so much, especially when the opposing force was the President of the United States and his minions.

Of course, Danny knew very well that Leo and Toby had only taken their cues from Jed Bartlet. Jed Bartlet was used to getting what he wanted and he wanted CJ to keep her distance from Danny. Up until now CJ had complied with Bartlet's mandate. But now Danny knew something drastic had changed; she had called him.

Danny sat down on the damp bedspread, vaguely aware that he needed to get his own wet clothes off, maybe take a hot shower. But at the moment, he just didn't have the energy, physically or emotionally. He was still stunned that she had called him. He had told himself a hundred times that she didn't feel about him the same way he felt about her. But with one little phone call she had undone all his hard work. With one little phone call, she had done the worst thing possible to him. She had given him hope.

End part 3