Title: After Memory Has Been Taken Away

Author: CretKid aka Cal

Category: CJ/Danny

Spoilers: "2 Bartlets" post ep

Summary: A continuation of the episode in the After Universe, which can be found at www.oocities.org/rdcottrell/after.html

Author's Notes: Thanks to my co-conspirators, you know who you are.

"After Memory Has Been Taken Away"

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The campaign season had begun with the Iowa caucus. Danny sat on the couch in CJ's living room, laptop balanced on one knee, pencil caught between his teeth, and his ever present spiral notebook open to a much scribbled on page next to his thigh. CNN was covering the caucus with all their pundits at the front, which Danny thought was rather ridiculous considering Bartlet was running unopposed for the Democratic nomination thus far.

Danny remembered the days of the first campaign with bitter fondness. He had been assigned to cover Bartlet for America from the onset, and the then Governor was notorious for an "early to rise" mentality. The Press Bus had not been a fun place to be at 5 a.m. in the morning, though a certain Press Relations worker had made the early morning commutes bearable.

This go-around, he wasn't covering the campaign or the White House. He was still a reporter; he still chased a story with the fervor of a dog with a bone. Only now it was as a features reporter. He did not envy anyone travelling with the President today.

CJ had been home only a few scant hours before the car had come to pick her up for Andrews Air Force Base at 3 o'clock that morning. He had been spending more and more of the nights and evenings at her apartment. As she left the bed that morning, she kissed him goodbye with a promise to be home about 9 o'clock that evening. The cat, seeing an opportunity to claim a recently vacated pillow had done exactly that. CJ was stuck on a plane with the President and Danny was left in bed with an oversized cat that was more of a pillow hog than his owner.

Danny looked at the clock in the corner of his laptop screen, then double-checked the time with his watch. It was nearing 10 o'clock and CJ had yet to step through the door to the apartment. From the news coverage of the caucus, it didn't look like anything had gone wrong that day. Danny thought the President's answer regarding an affirmative action question was wishy-washy, but it was too early in the election season to seriously debate those types of questions. There had been more coverage of the carrier group protest than the caucus. Boring political machinations tended to take second chair to non-violent protests of military action.

The cat, who had been perched on the back of the couch and utterly fascinated with the movement of the cursor on Danny's laptop screen, jumped down and went over to the door. Surmising that the cat had heard something that he had not, most probably the ding of the elevator, Danny spit the pencil out of his mouth and started to pack up his laptop in order to move it over to the coffee table without losing power or his files.

Sure enough, the apartment door opened and the cat bellowed loudly to welcome CJ home. Danny met her in the hallway and watched as she dropped her briefcase to the floor. The cat had stood on his hind legs and was balanced so that one forepaw rested on her thigh and the other batted at her hand to be picked up. She obliged, letting him hang over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Danny immediately noticed the somber expression and wondered what could possibly have gone wrong in Iowa to make her seem so despondent.

"Hey," he said, leaning in to steal a quick kiss. He held her elbow as they walked into the living room.

She dumped the cat on the recliner and turned into Danny's awaiting arms. Holding on as if for life, Danny couldn't help but feel the tenseness in her shoulders.

Danny tried to make a joke of it. "Hey, he was running unopposed. There's no way he could have lost the Iowa Democratic primary."

CJ laughed into his shoulder and turned her head so that she could rest her cheek on it. "Yeah, we would have really needed to foul things up for that to happen."

"Then why so tense?"

CJ pulled away and shrugged out of her coat. "Has … has my father called here today?"

Danny caught the hesitation in her voice as he took her coat to hand in the hall closet. He locked the front door. "Not while I've been here, but there's a message on the answering machine. The Caller ID has your mother's name listed."

He never picked up the phone at her place unless she was there, preferring to let the answering machine take the call. CJ stared at the answering machine on the end table with disease. Danny had to wonder if whatever demons were running around in her head and something to do with her family.

"Do you want me to..." Danny pointed down the hall towards one of the other rooms in the apartment in case she wanted some privacy.

CJ shook her head, walked over to the answering machine and hit 'Play'.

"Jeanie, it's Mom. I'm so sorry about this morning. I didn't even realize your father was still up when he called you. The medication he's on to control the shaking -- it makes him a little restless at times and he can't sleep. He's so embarrassed about calling you out of the blue like that. He told me about the little confusion about the election thing when I woke up this morning. I don't want you to concern yourself with this, Jeanie. His memory's not like it used to be. These episodes are few and far between. His doctors say everything is fine. I don't want you to worry."

There was teasing laughter in her mother's voice. Danny smiled at the emphasis on 'you' and 'worry', but CJ didn't find the humor in it. Her hand was clenched tightly so that her knuckles were white.

"Well, call me sometime this weekend. Let me know how the campaign is going."

The answering machine kicked in with its mechanical voice to announce that was the end of messages.

Danny watched as CJ slowly unclenched her hand. She continued to worry the knuckle of her right forefinger with her thumb.

"Is your father all right?" Danny asked quietly, taking her right hand in his.

She tried to smile but it never reached her eyes. Tossing her hair glibly over her shoulder with the half-grin that bespoke of anything but fine, she replied, "Yeah. Just a little confusion this morning."

"Want to talk about it?" Danny asked, gently rubbing her hand as she backed away.

"He called me on my cell just before I boarded the plane," she explained, walking into the kitchen. Her hands were shaking as she filled the tea kettle with water from the tap.

Danny took the kettle from her hands and filled it the rest of the way for her. He turned on one of the burners and set it to high to send the water on its way to boil.

"That must have been about 2 a.m. in Napa?"

"Yeah."

CJ continued to worry the knuckles on her right hand as she stood over the sink. Danny didn't move from his spot near the stove, afraid to disturb the equilibrium already established. For all the talking and sharing they did over the past several months, CJ still kept many of her thoughts and fears like cards close to her chest.

The kettle started to rattle with the too high heat. Danny turned down the gas. "From what I understand, anti-cholinergics can sometimes cause confusion and mild dementia."

His words seemed to spark her into action. Her hands were still shaking as she reached for a mug from the cupboard. "He's taking Sinemet now. The Kemadrin was causing all sorts of other problems that just made him grouchy." She laughed under her breath. "My mother started calling him Oscar."

Danny walked up behind her and leaned against her shoulder as he reached for his own mug. He wrapped his other arm about her waist. "Your father is going to be fine. Your parents have obviously talked to his doctors about this. It may just well be an isolated incident."

"What about the other 'isolated' incidents that I don't know about?" she asked quietly. She leaned back into Danny's frame and wrapped her own arms over his. "This is the man that taught me how to ride a bike. This is the man that stayed up for hours on end explaining geometry proofs to me in the 10^th grade. This is the man that knows the words to every song on the radio."

"And this is the man that called you at 5 o'clock this morning to wish you luck in Iowa."

"He thought it was it was the general election."

"I was so groggy when you left this morning *I* would have thought it was the general election." He kissed her shoulder and held her tight. "It's going to be okay."

"It's been seven years since he's been diagnosed," CJ sighed. "I can't get over the fact that for the first time in my life, I'm taller than my father. I never noticed the stoop before last April."

"CJ, you're taller than most of humankind."

"Danny, my dad is 6'5"."

"Remind me to never pick a fight with your brothers."

CJ laughed, then disengaged from his arms as the kettle started to whistle. He caught her hand before she could reach for the kettle.

"You're exhausted," he said, holding her hands together. "You've been up for the last 20 hours and you can barely stand right now. Why don't you go change. I'll bring your tea in. Have you had anything to eat in the past few hours?"

"We had dinner on the plane."

"Okay." He walked her to the living room and watched as she retreated towards the bedroom.

He found the chamomile tea in the cupboard for her and a bag of blackberry tea for himself. Letting the bags steep in hot water for several minutes, he cleaned up the kitchen of dinner detritus. The cat roamed into the kitchen, looked forlornly at the empty food dish and bellowed for Danny to attend to the travesty.

Danny knelt down and took the cat's head in his hands. "Listen to me, buster. Your mom -- human, whatever, -- your mom is felling pretty sad and tired right now. There will be no 5 a.m. wake up calls, no toy chasing at 4 a.m., or any pillow wrestling at 3 a.m. Am I making myself clear?"

The cat stood on his back legs and placed one paw against Danny's mouth.

"No, I will not keep quiet. This is not up for negotiation."

Circling around Danny's legs, the cat periodically leaned into Danny's body. Danny took that as a good sign.

"Because you're being agreeable, you get wet food."

The cat was happily chowing down on his begged for meal when Danny left the kitchen with 2 mugs of tea. CJ hadn't returned to the living room, so he headed to the bedroom. He found her lying down on her side under the bed covers, blankly watching the television in the corner. She had probably changed into what he had dubbed her 'sick attire'; draw-string flannel pajama pants and one of his thermal shirts. He was willing to bet the home-sewn quilt that was usually draped over the arm chair in the corner was wrapped around her shoulders.

He set the mugs on the nightstand and crouched near the side of the bed. Brushing the hair from her forehead, he noted his suspicions were correct about the thermal and the quilt. He fingered the exposed corner of the patchwork material.

"I'm thinking I should start calling you by the name of the other Van Pelt sibling."

"Rerun?"

Danny recognized he had walked into that one and smiled gently. "Granted, that would make me Sally."

The blankets shifted and he noticed she was clutching the quilt in both hands. "You make a better Charlie Brown."

"Charlie Brown never got the little red-headed girl." Danny placed his hand against her forehead and gently massaged her temple with his thumb.

"So you're Charlie Brown after his voice changed and he grew into a caring, selfless individual that the little red-headed girl fell madly in love with."

He continued his ministrations and held her hands with his free one. "Is there anything you need?"

"You?"

"That can be arranged." He straightened and climbed under the covers behind her.

She turned in his arms and nestled into his chest. The tight fisted grip she had held on the comforter was transferred to his t-shirt. Her legs tangled with his and he heard her sigh into his chest.

"You wear the same aftershave as my dad," she murmured, her head finding a comfortable place near his heart.

He wove his hand under the quilt so he could rub slow circles along her back. "I take it that's a good thing."

She sighed contently. He felt the tension start to leave her shoulders. Kissing the top of her head, he settled back against the pillows, ignoring the bed side lamp and the television in the corner.

"Love you," she whispered sleepily, letting go of her death grip on his shirt.

Danny rested his cheek against the top of her head. "Love you too."

End