Title: After the Last Pitch is Thrown

Author:CretKid aka Cal

Category: CJ/Danny

Rating: Strong PG-13 for language

Spoilers: anything's fair game, but this is a companion-piece for "Ways and Means" in the After Universe. See (www.oocities.org/rdcottrell/fiction.html) for more stories.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

Authors Notes: Someone should teach Aaron Sorkin about relativity and the difference between time dilation and length contraction since he has absolutely no concept of space or time. Thanks to my co-conspirators.

"After the Last Pitch is Thrown"

======================

CJ opened her apartment door to be greeted by a mewling, hungry and persistent cat. Walking first into the kitchen, she dropped her keys on the table, the gym bag on a chair and grabbed the container of cat food from the cupboard. The cat jumped up on the counter and rubbed incessantly at her hands and arms as she opened the dry-food container.

"You know, you're going to make me spill this if you keep that up."

The cat didn't seem to care, only that the dish was full and he was hungry. He wrapped himself around the bowl and feasted.

"Yeah, yeah, don’t come crying to me when you've got an upset stomach."

She put away the cat food container and left the kitchen and the cat to his hoarding. As she passed through the living room, the phone on the end table started to ring. Grabbing the portable handset, she walked towards the bedroom.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Fishgirl!"

CJ smiled. She brushed open the bedroom door and proceeded to go through her closets in an effort to find work clothes for the day. "Danny! What are you still doing up? It's 3 o'clock in the morning where you are."

"I wanted to wish you a good morning," he replied. "Are you just getting back from the gym? I tried to call earlier."

"You didn't answer my question," CJ said playfully, pulling the tie out of her hair and toeing off her sneakers.

She heard him 'hmmm' over the line. "What if I said I couldn't sleep with you on the other side of the country."

"Seeing that we have been on opposite sides of the country off and on for the better part of 3 months, I'd say you'd have a bit of a problem with sleep deprivation."

"Not when I'm near you."

"Seriously, why are you still awake?"

"Just got back to the hotel about ninety minutes ago," Danny replied in her ear. She was routing through the clean laundry basket that had yet to be folded and put away for a camisole and blouse to go with the skirt and jacket set she had pulled from her closet. "After my meeting with Mrs. Reagan, I met up with an old college buddy of mine at a bar. We were watching the Blazers-Jazz game and got to talking about old times. Finally the bartender got fed up with us and kicked us out."

"Blazers-Jazz? What the hell are you talking about?" CJ asked as she walked into the bathroom and set the shower going.

"The Portland Trail Blazers and the Utah Jazz? The NBA? Really, CJ, I have to get you to watch more sports. How can I expect you to carry on any sort of conversation with me when we're hanging out at the sports bars?" he chided.

CJ paused in her search through the bedroom for run-less pantyhose and straightened, bristling. "One, there will be no hanging out at sports bars. Two, if you think I'm going to spend an entire evening talking to you about sports, you are a sadly misguided individual. And third, I thought basketball didn’t start for another few weeks."

Danny replied in kind, "One, you were more than happy to be at a sports bar when I was buying you margaritas. Two, my mother always said I was a misguided individual anyway. And three, this is preseason NBA."

There was a scratching at her bedroom door, then a loud mewling, then a thud.

"Regular season isn't enough, there has to be preseason games as well?" CJ asked, walking slowly to the door.

"I'd be watching the WNBA if the season was still going. Tall women turn me on."

"I had better be the only one in that category."

"Oh, but you are. All those Amazons in the WNBA pale next to you."

"Nice save."

She opened the door to find her cat pacing just in front of the threshold. The cat meowed quite loudly and stalked off towards the living room.

"You left a door closed, didn't you?" Danny asked, amused. "The cat sounds pissed."

CJ scowled at the animal. "You know, he wasn't like this 4 months ago. I knew I should have left him with Carol when I went to visit my parents. What did you do to my cat?"

"Absolutely nothing," Danny replied, sounding not at all apologetic for her cat's strange behavior. "It's not my fault your cat refuses to let a door stay closed in your apartment. He was perfectly happy in mine."

"Why is it my cat likes you and Carol more than he likes me?"

She heard him 'hmmm' over the line again and decided that the conversation needed to come to an end soon or she would never get to work on time. Today of all days, she needed to be clear-headed.

"Okay, Danny, I really have to get ready for work."

He was quiet for a moment. "They are going to announce the subpoenas today, aren't they?"

"Yeah. The Attorney General named Clement Rollins as special prosecutor months ago and House Republicans are chomping at the bit for him to serve us with subpoenas. I have a meeting with Oliver Babish and Ainsley Hayes before my first briefing to talk about spin."

"From what I understand," Danny said, his voice taking on an assuring quality that CJ found comforting, "this Rollins guy is on the up and up."

"Yeah."

"That worries you," Danny stated.

"Yeah."

"Don't let it." She could imagine him shrugging his shoulders as he said the words.

"It's my job to let it."

"And I've made it my job to make sure your head stays on straight. Don't sweat the subpoenas."

"Yeah, well, I've never been subpoenaed before. Excuse me if I'm a tad bit nervous."

"You've got nothing to be nervous about. Subpoenas only sound bad."

"So do lawyer's fees, Daniel. And I'm going to be paying quite a lot of those in the coming months."

She sighed. Steam from the bathroom was starting to billow into the bedroom. "I have to get ready," she said again, not nearly as energized as she had been 10 minutes before.

"I'll call you later today," Danny promised. "Okay?"

"Yeah."

"I will call," he reiterated. "Good luck."

"Yeah."

"CJ?"

"Yeah?"

"There's a Cleveland Cavs-Indiana Pacers game on tonight. You should watch it."

"Hang up, Danny."

"Hanging up." There was a click on the line.

The cat had returned from his arduous journey into the living room and sauntered into the bathroom to rest on the bath mat. She followed and stared him down. "If you think I'm going to leave this door open for you and let all the steam out, you too are a sadly misguided individual."

With that, she closed the door and started preparing for her day ahead.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Well that was a blazing success," she heard a sarcastic voice say as she walked into her office.

CJ had long since developed a suppression of her jump factor when startled in the West Wing. She looked over her shoulder and there was Oliver Babish tailing her. He had done the exact same thing earlier that morning before she had finished her Starbucks fix. He had been lying in wait a full 30 minutes before he was scheduled to be in her office for her daily dose of law review. She had hoped the glare she had given him would rid him of the annoying habit. Four ex-wives must have made him immune.

"Are you going to make a habit of ambushing me like this or should I invest in a rearview mirror?" CJ retorted as she dumped the briefing binder on her couch. She walked behind her desk and took a seat, leaning back in her chair as Oliver loomed over the front of her desk. Putting on an air of practiced ease, she watched as he stormed in front of her desk. She didn't want to deal with him anymore than she had to today.

Toby and Josh were stuck with the estate tax meeting. Sam was babbling about some forest fire in Wisconsin or Wyoming or Washington. They had all once talked about bringing the ball into their court, making everyone else play according to their rules, but thus far no one had taken point in the charge. Leo seemed eager to let her run with it when she approached him before her briefing. Maybe she would get through this day with her mind in tact.

"Clem Rollins is the guy you want as the special prosecutor," Oliver maintained. "He is going to be fair, he is going to be impartial and I think it would be a safe bet to say he's going to find in favor of the President."

"Yeah?"

"You are single-handedly going to sabotage all the work we’ve put into getting the right guy at the forefront of the investigation. He isn’t going to be standing on a soap box, he isn't going to demand to see every piece of paper that goes through these offices and he's going to make this a walk in the park for you guys."

"And he's going to take this investigation into the next century. That's time we can't afford to waste."

"Meanwhile you are making enemies where you can’t afford to make them. Does any one else here know of your little strategy to take over the world?"

CJ refused to rise to the bait. She had learned that letting the hoards see her sweat would only get her into trouble. She had thrown down, the cards were on the table and it was time for the House Republicans to ante up.

Oliver watched her with a stony expression. "By your lack of response, can I assume that no one else knew you were going to do this today?"

"No."

The color of his face turned just a shade darker crimson than it was when he entered her office in a huff. "So now you decide to follow my advice about single word answers? This is not a time to start playing games, CJ."

"No, it’s a time to bring the game to an end. And I've started to make that happen. I went to Leo with the idea just before the briefing."

"And he approves?"

"I'm not sitting on the bench again, am I?" she replied. She waved her hands in the direction of the chairs and couch in her office. "Do you see my deputies in here getting briefed on how to handle the Press about the issue of the day? Do you see a 'quarantine' sign on my office door anymore? It's time to pull the band-aid off. We've been toying with it for far too long."

"And sometimes it's best to leave the knife in place, ever think of that?"

CJ crossed her arms over her chest and looked Oliver in the eye. "Tell me something, Oliver. Honestly. Would Clement Rollins have been your choice for special prosecutor?"

"That wasn't my choice to make. He was the Attorney General's choice."

"That wasn't the question I asked," CJ continued. "A simple 'yes/no' answer will suffice."

She didn’t think it was possible for anyone to look so much like a bristling cat than Oliver Babish did at that moment. It took a bit of effort to keep the smile from her face as she competed with him at his own game.

"You're going to throw that in my face?" Oliver asked, throwing his hands in the air. "I was doing my job!"

"And I'm doing mine. Is Rollins your choice for special prosecutor?"

"No."

"Even though he would be fair, impartial and find in favor of the President?"

"Because he would be fair, impartial and find in favor of the President." Oliver took a seat in one of the guest chairs. "No one in their right mind is going to impeach the President. This is going to be a fishing expedition with the White House in a barrel and the committee with a bazooka."

CJ leaned forward in her chair. "Which is why we have to take their ammunition away from them as soon as possible. If this looks like a witch hunt, the accused will win in the long run. But this won't be to our advantage unless we force the play. We have to make them come after us and that won't happen with Clement Rollins on the playing field."

Oliver sat on the edge of his seat, preparing to stand. "You're going to piss off an awful lot of Democrats in the House, you realize that don't you? They want Rollins."

"And we want to win in November. If we don't show strong in the poll, do you think the 57 House Democrats in danger of losing their seats stand a chance?"

"The Attorney General, not to mention Rollins, will be spitting nails if you continue to play this 'White House is thrilled with the special prosecutor' game you started in the briefing room."

"It's called spin, Oliver. I know what I'm doing. And I can be very good at what I do, when I'm allowed to do it."

Begrudgingly Oliver stood and walked to her door. "If you're not careful, you may find yourself interfering with federal prosecution case that could bring you a whole heap of trouble down the road."

"And you'll be there to keep me out of jail, right?" CJ shot at his retreating back.

Oliver waved his hand in a dismissive manner and continued down the hall.

Carol appeared at her door with a number of pink pieces of paper. "Margaret called. Leo wants to see you the minute he steps back into the building."

"Do we have any idea when that will be?"

"Sometime between noon and 5 p.m. Margaret said."

"Marvelous," CJ griped. It couldn't be that bad or else he would have put off his meeting and demanded to see her the minute she stepped away from the podium. "What else?"

"Well, I have here 5 messages from various congressmen, two of which are on House Oversight, that would like to know what you were thinking during your briefing."

CJ reached over for the massive pile of pink slips in Carol's hands. "To be honest, I was thinking I shouldn't have skipped breakfast." She thumbed through the list of people that wanted to talk to her. "How well do you think that one will go over?"

Carol smiled politely and pointed towards her desk. "I'm just going to leave you alone now. Margaret said she would call when Leo's back in the building."

"Yeah." CJ picked up the phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Margaret was on the phone when CJ arrived at Leo's office later that afternoon. The red-headed secretary nodded her head towards the open door and rolled her eyes. Covering the mouth piece with her had, Margaret said, "He followed Leo in there."

CJ nodded as she perched on the corner of Margaret's desk. She half listened to the conversation that was going on in her boss' office. It was hard not to listen: Bruno's voice carried like a runaway freight train despite the quietness of delivery.

"I'm sure we can work this out, Bruno. We knew it would take some time for the two teams to mesh together."

"It's been 4 months, Leo. I did not sign on to be a counselor at Camp Hellmouth for Delinquent Children."

"It can't be that bad," Leo was saying.

From the number of times CJ had listened to Toby complain about The Evil Triumverate, it could and certainly was that bad at times.

"Oh yes it can."

Even Margaret was nodding her head as if agreeing with Bruno's statement. CJ had not taken part in many of the campaign-related meetings other than to be briefed by Sam or Connie and sometimes both about progress, to which there seemed to be little of.

Bruno continued his rant. "The estate tax. This needs to be a campaign issue. I want Doug in on that meeting."

"No," Leo said, adamant. "The estate tax was on the board long before we thought of a re-election campaign."

"Yes, it was. And now you are bleeding from a dozen different wounds and nothing seems to stop the blood from running in the street. You don't have the clout you once had. The House is going to repeal the estate tax completely and your compromise package will go up in smoke."

"It's not that bad yet." Leo seemed to be taking everything in stride; he had yet to raise his voice. "Toby, Josh and Sam--"

"Oh, yes, let's defend the actions of Numb-nuts, Fuck-nuts and No-nuts while we're at it, Leo."

Margaret's derisive snort at Bruno's latest string of nicknames for the Senior staff was almost CJ's undoing. At another time she might have been offended, but right now she didn’t really care. From the beginning, Bruno had wanted someone else to handle any campaign-related briefings. Bruno had wanted someone else to introduce the President at the announcement whereas CJ had said it had to be Abbey Bartlet. Bruno had wanted to distance the President from his wife and family. CJ had campaigned that family was going to be an essential platform in re-election. Ultimately, CJ had won but with no support from Leo, the President or his wife.

The loyalty was there, just not at the level it had been at before.

"The job isn't getting done," Bruno continued. "My people know what they are doing--"

"As do mine," Leo replied.

Margaret nodded at the door to Leo's office and CJ indicated now would be as good as any time to interrupt the aural performance. Margaret strode into Leo's office without bothering to knock in announcement. "CJ's here. You wanted to see her."

"Send her in," CJ heard Leo reply.

CJ brushed imaginary lint from her skirt and entered Leo's office. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. About this little scheme of yours--" Leo turned to Bruno and led him out the door. "I'll talk to Toby and Josh. The estate tax meeting was canceled this morning, there may be another go at it tomorrow."

Bruno gave both Leo and CJ a sidelong glance as he left the office. CJ had to keep herself from shivering in adolescent melodrama. Leo took his coat off and hung it up on the tree stand behind the door, then moved to sit behind his desk.

"This morning's little show in the briefing room," he began, adjusting the stacks of files and folders on his desk, "do you have anything more planned?"

CJ tried to stand calmly, hating herself for expecting to be dressed down yet again. "Judging from the number of phone calls I've already received, I'd say the plan is working and should continue."

"Good. You talk to the guys about this?"

"Toby and Josh have been haggling with the estate tax, Sam's been keeping tabs on some forest fire out West."

"So that would be a 'no'."

Leo was shaking his hand before she could protest. "Don't worry about it. Go with what you've got."

"Oliver Babish isn't too happy with me."

Shrugging his shoulders, Leo walked around his desk and walked CJ towards the door. "Oliver and Rollins go way back. I wouldn't be surprised."

CJ took the information in stride. The spin juices were starting to flow. "I'm thinking of putting Ainsley Hayes on Capital Beat."

"Good idea. Is Mark Gottfried willing to play ball with us on this one?"

"Mark owes me a few favors. Whenever Ainsley's on his show, his ratings go through the roof."

"Alright. Get it done." Leo stopped by Margaret's desk. "Margaret, I need to meet with Nancy McNally sometime today."

CJ continued to walk through the corridors. Toby and Josh were holed up in Toby's office, a pink rubber ball bouncing madly off the glass partition. Sam was in his own office watching CNN as he talked on the telephone. She passed a bedraggled Donna in the hallway and briefly wondered how Donna got stuck with carton duty. Surely a staffer more junior than her could be doing that job.

Carol had yet another pile of messages waiting for her when she arrived at her office. Crumpling the pink notes in her fist as she passed the couch, CJ bellowed, "Carol, can you get me Mark Gottfried on the phone? Tell him I'm cashing in a favor."

"You got it, CJ."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was after 10 pm when CJ stumbled in to the apartment. The cat met her at the door, tangling with her legs as she tried to get passed the door. In the darkened living room she could see the blinking light on the answering machine beckoning. She stepped over the cat and turned on the table side lamp. Collapsing on the couch, she toggled the 'play' button and rested her head on the back of the couch.

'Hey CJ, it's me.'

She laughed at the lilting tone in Danny's voice. Sighing deep, she leaned closer to the machine.

'I was watching C-SPAN today to catch a certain Press Secretary's briefing. What is going on in that wicked brain of yours? Call me.'

She smiled and reached for the phone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Something was ringing next to her head. CJ sat up, displacing the pillow that had been partially covering her head. The ringing was muted now. She searched the blankets and pillows for the phone and wondered why the hell it wasn't in the living room where it belonged.

Fetching the phone from the waves of comforter and sheets, she placed it next to her ear with one hand and brushed the hair out of her face with the other.

"Hello?" she croaked.

"Morning, Sunshine!"

She hoped her voice didn’t sound as painful out loud as it did in her head. "Is this going to be a regular thing for you, Danny? Don't you ever sleep?"

"Nah. Gave it up for Lent."

"Lent is not for another 4 months, Daniel."

"So I haven't stepped inside a church for a while. Sue me. Though, it sounds like to me that you slept through your alarm," Danny noted.

CJ groped the bed side table for her glasses then looked at the digital clock. She groaned when she realized the time and that she had forgotten to set the alarm in the first place.

"I didn't want to go to the gym today anyway," she replied with a yawn, throwing back the covers. It was 6:30 a.m., she had less than half an hour to get ready and get to the White House. She didn't quite have the energy to get up from the bed yet.

"You were falling asleep on the phone last night. You okay?"

Rubbing her face while trying not to displace her glasses proved to be too difficult. CJ pulled off the glasses and walked towards the adjacent bathroom to turn on the shower. "I had a long day yesterday, Danny."

"Plotting to undermine a politically driven investigation takes a lot of energy," he quipped. "Seriously. Are you okay? You sounded a little off last night."

"I'm fine. Really. Shouldn't you be writing something? That is why your editor sent you out to California, isn't it?"

Her bedroom door swung open slightly as her cat wound his body around the limited space. He bellowed loudly and left the room.

"You need to feed the cat," Danny surmised. "I'd recognize that yelp anywhere."

"His Royal Heinous can wait until I'm awake."

"Are you really okay?"

"Yes," she said emphatically. "I have more plotting to do and I'm going to be late for work as it is." She smiled for the first time that day and decided she could get used to hearing Danny's voice in her ear every morning. The thought made her pause for a moment, unsure if that was indeed what she wanted in her life.

"Okay. If I can't call later today, I'll email you."

"Yeah. Bye, Danny."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CJ looked at her watch again and wondered how much more time she should devote to tracking down Ainsley Hayes before giving up the ghost and heading to her briefing. Mark Gottfried had been more than willing to invite Ainsley on the show, but only after CJ had explained the reason for the sudden favor. He said he would cooperate and find a more that suitable candidate for Ainsley to go up against. CJ had suggested someone from one of the more radical right wing groups might be appropriate and Mark joked that he might be able to convince Mary Marsh to fill in a guest spot.

Mark had asked when he might be seeing CJ on his guest list, tried to bribe her with a chance to mock Ann Stark on television, but she refused to be enticed. She promised him a meal for later in the week if things were looking up. After hanging up with him, she asked Carol to clear some time on Friday for a late lunch.

Ainsley wasn't in her office when CJ traveled through the basement. The only place CJ could think to look for her was the Mess. When she hit the main hallway, she spotted Ainsley turning the corner.

"I was just coming to see you." CJ stopped for a second to let Ainsley catch up with her.

Ainsley was just a little too chipper that morning for CJ's tastes, but at least the young Republican had calmed her nervous tendencies around the Senior staff. "What do you need?"

They headed for the main stair case. "I want to put you on Capital Beat tonight."

Ainsley nodded. "The subpoenas."

CJ nodded as they climbed. "Clem Rollins--" CJ grabbed Ainsley's elbow as they rounded the first flight. "Listen to me - Clem Rollins is running a thorough, fair and impartial investigation. He's a man of great integrity."

"We're willing to cooperate with the Special Prosecutor."

CJ turned towards her new doppelganger. "We're EAGER to cooperate with the Special Prosecutor."

She half expected Ainsley to give her a 'thumbs up' but instead Ainsley veered towards the Communications area. CJ quickly glanced at the clock on the wall and grabbed the latest updates that Carol had left for her in the 'Wire News In Box' along the wall in the bull pen.

She spotted Bruno making a bee-line for her as she passed through the bull pen. "I need to bring Victor Campos out here," he said by means of introduction. "Whatdya got?"

CJ briefly wondered why he was talking to her about this. She remembered reading somewhere in the internal wires that Campos had turned down the President's invitation to be a part of the President's Community Empowerment Board. Until Bruno said something, she hadn't put two and two together: they were worried about losing Campos. Thirteen months until the election and the rats were leaving the sinking ship.

A half dozen scenarios ran through her mind. They needed a reason to bring Victor Campos to the White House that wouldn't make them look like they were drowning. "They’re going to introduce racial profiling. Fifteen minute op in the Rose Garden."

Bruno followed her out into the hallway. "Campos already has 48 pictures in the Rose Garden. What else?"

"Senate hearings on trade agreements between the US and Brazil," she said off the top of her head. "Campos can discuss his objections to the President's position."

"Yeah," Bruno sighed condescendingly, "I don’t want to remind people of Campos' objections to the President's position. What else?"

"I don't know--" She stopped for a moment: Bruno was really worried about Campos. Something must have happened in the last 24 hours that she wasn't aware of and there would be heads rolling if she got hit with it in the Press room. As far as she knew, Campos was still on board with them. What else could they use to lure him to D.C.?

"Hey. You know what? The unveiling of the HELP initiative."

Bruno seemed perplexed. CJ felt a twinge of superiority. He may have been able to see the forest for the trees but he couldn't identify all of them to save his life.

"HELP?" he asked.

"Hispanic Education Longevity Program. It lowers the dropout rate for Latino high school students." Campos would look foolish if he turned down that invitation.

Bruno was nodding his head with a predatory look in his eye that she recognized. "Man, you have got a killer body, you know that?"

If she wasn't already late for the briefing, she would have given him a piece of her mind. Instead, she replied, "In fact, I do."

She opened the door to the Press room and hoped that Carol's telepathy was working today. They had a catch phrase worked out between them. If she started her briefing with it, it was Carol's cue to go find out whatever she could find, as quickly as she could find it, on whatever phrase or name followed the cue. They hadn't needed to use it in a while, hopefully Carol still remembered. There was no way she was going to let a slip up like Victor Campos take away from her manipulation of the press.

"Good morning. Before I forget, Victor Campos has been invited to participate in the unveiling of the Hispanic Education Longevity Program. That's Thursday, day after tomorrow."

CJ spotted Carol making a quick getaway. She almost smiled. "Mark."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As she left the briefing room she headed straight for Leo's office. Luckily, no one mentioned Victor Campos during the briefing, but that might not be the case later in the day and she wanted to know what to expect should his name pop up. The post-it note that Carol had handed her was still clutched in her hand.

No one was in Leo's office when she approached the door. She could have barged right in but decided diplomacy might be the better of two roads. "Leo, what the hell is this about Victor Campos courting the governor of Indiana?"

Leo leaned back in his chair. "Please tell me you didn't get hit with that in the Press room already."

"No, Bruno's impromptu appearance before my briefing clued me in. Carol found art. There's a picture of Governor Buckland sitting next to Victor Campos at a basketball game last night. The caption didn’t name Campos at all. The story focused on the Governor enjoying the game and the double overtime victory. Is Buckland seriously thinking of running against us in the primaries?"

"I don't know. I'll sic Josh on it before the upcoming State Dinner. Buckland is supposed to make an appearance. Now I will make sure he does. Meanwhile, keep track of this, will you?"

"Leo, we can't lose Campos. If we lose California…"

"Yeah." Leo stood, walked from behind his desk. "You announced Campos coming for the HELP thing?"

"Yeah."

"Sam will take care of it once Campos gets here."

CJ nodded. She was pretty sure Sam wasn't going to be the only one at that meeting if Bruno had anything to say about it. "Good."

Bruno appeared at the door. "Leo--"

Leo walked CJ to the door. "If you have any more surprises," he said to her, "let me know about it before hand, okay?"

"Yeah."

As she passed Bruno, she briefly placed a hand on his forearm and clutched tightly at his suit jacket. "If you ever make another sexist, piggish remark like that in front of me again, you will be peeing through a catheter for the rest of your unnatural life." She let go and passed him in the doorway.

She didn't look back. When he didn’t have a smart remark to return, she smiled slightly and headed for her office.

Toby was sitting on her couch when she entered. He looked drained; in his hand he squeezed one of his nefarious pink rubber balls. She had forbidden him to throw them in her office for fear of upsetting Gail's gold fish bowl. No matter what athletic prowess he proclaimed, one bad bounce and her fish could be facing a firing squad and a flushing toilet.

"What are you doing in here?" she asked, pushing his feet off her coffee table as she moved to her desk.

"I'm hiding."

"From?"

"Whom do you think?"

"Well, there could be any number of people--"

"I'm hiding from Doom, Gloom and Broom Helga"

Eyebrow half-cocked, CJ stared him down. "Broom Helga?"

Toby shrugged it off. "Something Sam said."

CJ decided not to share Bruno's new nicknames for them. "Don't you have the estate tax thing?"

Toby's head did an uncharacteristic flop on the back of her couch. "The House is going to vote to repeal."

"You don't know that for a fact yet." She sat down behind her desk and opened her laptop. The little email icon in her system tray was spinning.

"Josh has been on the phone with them all morning long. The meeting's been postponed indefinitely; we're not going to get anyone to come to us. We went out on a limb to get as many votes as possible last year. We sold our soul for a measly 1.5 million dollars in order to make all the extremists happy and they are going to vote to repeal it," he said to the ceiling. "And now I have to talk strategy with Mahomet and Caiaphas and I really do think my head is going to spin off into oblivion if I have to spend one more hour in the same room with them. I am in the eighth circle of hell."

CJ looked up at the knock on her door. Josh had his right hand braced against the frame, his left arm dangling from the lip of the molding. "Wanna hear something that just may send you plummeting through the ninth circle and into a whole other dimension of pain? Jack Buckland is looking to make a go of it."

The notes Toby had been holding in his hand went flying into the air. "Well that just does it. I quit."

CJ looked over her desk at the sea of papers on the floor. "You are going to pick those up, aren’t you, Toby?"

"Yeah, I wouldn't mess with her today, Toby," Josh added. "She just told off Bruno."

CJ looked up from her laptop. "You heard that?"

Toby looked intrigued. "What did she say?"

Balling up a piece of paper and throwing it at the man on her couch, CJ growled, "You know, I'm right here. You can ask me."

Toby was still looking at Josh. "Well?"

Josh cocked his head and smiled as he walked into the office and plopped down in one of the guest chairs. "She mentioned something about him requiring medical intervention if he ever made another sexist remark in front of her again. It was brilliant. I don't think I've ever seen him at a loss for words."

"He's probably lusting after her."

This time she threw a pencil at Toby's head. "I'm in the room here!"

"And she's taken," Josh chimed, a silly smirk on his face.

Toby glowered, then leaned over to see where the pencil had landed when it bounced off the window above his head. "I'm not picking that up. That's your own mess."

Josh crossed his legs at the ankle and propped them on the corner of her desk. "Victor Campos was seen sitting next to Buckland at the Pacers game last night."

"We're doing something about this, right?" Toby asked.

CJ piped up, "Sam is meeting with Campos Thursday morning. We're bringing him here under the guise of the HELP initiative." She went back to sorting through her email, deciding to leave the one from Danny for later. Then she read the subject line and decided now would be as good a time as any to review it.

TO: cjcregg@whitehouse.org

FROM: concannon@wpost.com

SUBJECT: basketball, anyone?

Was watching replays of last night's game. Looks like someone may be

making a run at you from the middle.

dc

She hit the reply button.

TO: concannon@wpost.com

FROM: cjcregg@whitehouse.org

SUBJECT: RE: basketball, anyone?

No spit, Sherlock. Call later. Late later. I'll still be here.

>Was watching replays of last night's game. Looks like someone may be

>making a run at you from the middle.

>

>dc

Josh toyed with his pant leg. "If it comes up in a briefing, we're going to need to spin it."

"I'll think of something," CJ replied, rubbing worriedly at her lip. If Danny had noticed Victor Campos in the crowd, no doubt other political pundits would be coming to the same conclusion Bruno had earlier in the day.

"What about Buckland?" Toby asked.

Leaning back in the chair to better see Toby, he said, "Leo's making sure he comes to the upcoming State Dinner. We'll talk to him then."

Toby stared at the ceiling again. "We're getting attacked from all sides here. It's not enough for everyone to know we're down, but now they have to send even the lame-ass bullies to pick on us."

"Everybody wants something now," Josh reasoned. "They know we're in the creek without a paddle and they are willing to give us one for a price."

Toby stood up. "I need air."

Carol nearly bumped into Toby as he left the office. She looked to Josh instead. "They're waiting for you down in the Roosevelt Room."

Josh dropped his feet and stood as well. "Tell them we'll be down there in fifteen minutes."

Smiling, Carol returned to her desk to relay the information.

CJ closed her laptop and stared up at Josh. "Are you going to go after him?"

"Yeah, but I'll let him cool off for a few minutes." He rapped his knuckles on the top of her desk. "Leo tells me you're kicking some serious butt in the press room lately. I've gotten no less than 10 phone calls from incensed congressmen in the last 24 hours. Can I sit with you at the cool kids' table?"

He smiled, all dimples, and left the office with a bounce in his step. CJ laughed in spite of herself and went back to work.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The television was on, but CJ wasn't paying much attention to it anymore. Mark Gottfried was wrapping things up and thanking his guests. Though the show had been taped several hours earlier and Ainsley had reported back to her that she thought everything had gone well, CJ wanted to see for herself. Mark had found someone from the far right to go head to head with Ainsley. The young Republican smeared her opponent all over the floor with her knowledge of impeachment proceedings, censure and independent council investigations of the past. At every possible turn she made it clear that the White House was eager to cooperate with Clem Rollins and his investigation, that they were cooperating fully in every capacity that they were legally bound by law to do. It was brilliant.

CJ rubbed her tired eyes and tried to make sense of the goobledegook on her computer screen. Oliver Babish had gone to law school at Yale; had been there around the same time Clem Rollins was starting a professorship there. She had been searching the law journal databases for the better part of an hour to find anything that would send the sharks circling in their waters, anything - no matter how harmless - that blood thirsty House Republicans would deem as preferential. She hated on-line databases.

Carol had long been sent home, so CJ was not surprised when Josh sailed into her office and landed on her couch. "You got any beer in here? I'm too lazy to go down to the Mess."

CJ pointed to the small fridge hidden from view under a small, embroidered tablecloth. Josh lifted the lacy material and opened the fridge door. In the door were two bottles of Sam Adams Lager. "You want one?" he asked, pulling one for himself and searching the small fridge for the bottle opener he knew she had magnetically attached to it.

She shook her head and continued her Internet search.

"What the hell are you doing?" he asked, tossing the bottle top in the trashcan near her desk.

"Looking up law reviews," she said around the pencil in her mouth. "Tell me why some of you lawyer types insist on only using your initials for publications. There are three O.W. Babish's in this stupid database, and only one of them is actually named Oliver." She spit the pencil out and groaned. "This is why I didn’t become a lawyer."

"You were going to be a lawyer?"

"No. But if I had to deal with this when I had theoretically started law school, I would have quit while I was ahead."

"You use your initials. I imagine it can't be that different. By the way, why do you use your initials?"

"To piss off my mother," CJ answered curtly.

Josh took a drag on the long neck bottle. "Now there's a noble cause."

"You've never met my mother."

"Doesn’t matter. But that can't be the only reason. Remember, I've seen your yearbooks. You didn't go by 'CJ' in high school."

CJ leaned back in her chair, welcoming the distraction for a few minutes. "Don't you have work to do? Chasing congressmen with a stake or something?"

"My ear hurts from holding a phone to it for so long. I needed a break. So, the initials thing?"

"My brothers and I always called each other by our initials when we were younger, which did piss my mother off since we did it to mock her. Did your mother pull the full name thing on you when she was angry?"

"I was an angel. My mother never called me by my full name," Josh said, feigning insult.

CJ sneered at him, but continued. "It loses its effectiveness when your brothers use the same tone. Anyway, when I hit college, I had this professor that had a gender bias against women. He wouldn't give your paper a second glance if you were female, just slap a 'B-' on it and be done with it. My undergraduate advisor warned me about this guy, so I started using my initials in his class. He would be praising whatever I had written out loud to the class and not even realize it was a woman who wrote it. Everyone started calling me CJ. It stuck. End of story."

"So why do you get bent out of shape when one of us calls you Claudia Jean?"

"Because only my parents get to call me that, though it's Claudia for my father, Jean for my mother. Don't ask me why, it's a long story. And I still think I'm getting yelled at for something. My aunt had suggested naming me after my grandmothers so I'm more than happy with what I got."

"Why, what's so bad about your grandmothers' names?"

"Ernestine and Bernice."

Josh cackled, "Ernie Bernie!"

"Shut up."

"It's a wonder you didn’t develop multiple personalities," Josh commented, taking another long sip. And evil grin was plastered on his face. "And speaking of paranoid schizophrenics, how are things going with Danny-Boy?"

"He does not have a bi-polar condition," CJ said.

Josh pulled his arms closer to his chest. "I wasn't referring to Danny."

CJ threw her pencil at him. "No news for you."

"Oh come on! I don't have a life. I need to live vicariously through you."

"Find another symbiont." She searched through her desk drawers for another pencil to use.

"Seriously," Josh cajoled. "How are things? I heard you gave him a key."

CJ looked up from her search and glared at him. "So he could feed my cat and water the plants. Though, he ended up bringing the cat to his place, but that's neither here nor there."

"So, how is that mountain lion of yours? And don't think I'm changing the subject; I'm just warming you up so you'll confess things about Danny," Josh said, sliding forward on the couch. He leaned over his thighs, bracing his upper body with his arms on his knees.

"My cat is fine, thank you, and he's not a mountain lion." She went back to her search, but could only find unsharpened pencils. Grabbing one, she walked out to Carol's desk where the electric sharpener was kept.

"No, he's just got a pituitary problem. That cat is huge, CJ."

"He is not," she bellowed in reply.

"He tipped over a chair!"

CJ shrugged as she walked through the doorway. "It was wobbly."

"It was a recliner!" Josh took another swig. "How does Danny get along with the cat?"

"He adores Danny, but I think Danny lured him with treats."

"So, both the men in your life get along with each other," Josh joked. "That's a good sign."

CJ leveled a stern look on him.

Josh smirked in response. "Danny is in your life, right?" he asked.

"You're worse than my brothers." She dropped into her chair and hit the space bar on her laptop to get rid of the screen saver.

"Will we see him at the upcoming State Dinner?"

"You know, the President wasn't too keen on my little ultimatum about Danny last June, Josh," CJ calmly explained. "I prefer not to give Leo a coronary before the next election cycle."

The phone started ringing. CJ picked it up while still glaring at Josh. "CJ Cregg."

"Hey, Morning Glory."

CJ's face softened and Josh knew without asking who was on the phone with her. "Oh, yeah. You've got it bad."

CJ threw her new pencil at him.

Josh picked it up, placed it on her desk. "I'm going to go back to my office now, so you know where to find me in case you feel the need to throw more pencils."

CJ scowled at his back as he left the office.

Danny was laughing on the other end of the line. "Did I catch you at a bad time?"

"No. Just Josh being nosy."

"You know, your little press coup has reached the West Coast. I had lunch with one of Reagan's deputy press secretaries today. The local pundits are commenting on how the White House appears to be too friendly with the Special Prosecutor."

CJ picked up the pencil and started twirling it in her fingers. "Eating with the enemy, I see."

"Actually, this guy is a registered Independent, but that's neither here nor there," Danny replied.

CJ almost laughed at hearing her words repeated back to her and wondered idly if she picked up the phrase from him or if he picked up the phrase from her.

"He said he would have suggested a similar strategy," Danny continued. "Any idea when House Republicans are going to revolt?"

"House Republicans are revolting. I like the sound of that," CJ replied. "I'm looking for a few more nails to add to the coffin." She used the eraser of the pencil to hit the 'page down' key on her laptop to continue her search through the law libraries. "How's your thing going anyway?"

"Are you referring to my feature articles on Presidents and their Administrations of the last half century?"

CJ smiled. "Yeah, that thing."

"It's going well. I should be finished here in a few days. Can we catch dinner and a movie when I get back?"

"I'd like that." Something on the computer screen caught her eye. "Hold on a second, Danny."

She trapped the hand set between her shoulder and chin so that she could use both hands at the computer keyboard. Clicking on the article title, she quickly read through the summary and the list of authors. There in blazing red letters were the names Oliver W. Babish and Clement Rollins.

"Bingo. Thank you, LexisNexis."

"I take it from the tone of your voice that you found something good," Danny said.

"Oh yeah. Tomorrow I've got a trump card to play. I need to find a Conservative rag to stick this needle with."

"I'd give you a hand, but I hardly know anyone in that press room anymore."

CJ shook her head and practically cackled. "No no no. I've got the perfect person in mind for this job."

"I love it when you're scheming."

She checked her watch. It wasn't too late in the evening. "I need to see Leo."

"I assume you don't mean the cat. Don't let me keep you from hatching evil plans," Danny replied. "I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Bye, Danny." She absently hung up the phone and clicked on the 'print' button on the screen.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CJ shouldered her gym bag again as she rushed through the West Wing to her office. Josh was leaning against the door frame, coat open and scarf swinging in his hand. She didn’t know why he was holding a scarf; it wasn't that cold out and it was supposed to reach the high 50's by the end of the day.

He didn’t move when she approached, only nodded at the large bag on her shoulder.

"Planning a sleep over, Claudia Jean?"

She moved to run him over. "Get out of my way."

"I see you missed the school bus," he replied, edging out of the way as she barged past. He let out a muffled yelp when she clocked his stomach with the corner of her bag.

"Shut up." CJ dropped her gym bag in the corner, shrugged out of her jacket.

"Up late last night talking to Kissy-Face?" Josh teased.

She threw her coat at him. "Out!"

"But I'm going to be on the Hill all day and won't have a chance to tease you. I need to get my jabs in now." He hung up her coat for her.

"I'm not in the mood, Josh. Seriously."

Josh stepped fully into the office and closed the door. He checked the blinds to make sure no busy bodies were in the corridor and Carol's office. "CJ?"

CJ sensed a big brother moment coming and tried to deflect. "I overslept two days in a row, I haven’t been to the gym since Monday and I ran out of Apple Jacks this morning." She sat down at her desk and went over the messages Carol had left there.

"Bummer. What's wrong?" he asked, unflinching.

"Nothing."

Josh moved to in front of her desk. "Bull shit. What's up with you?"

"It's nothing, Josh. Really." She tried to smile but it never reached her eyes.

"I don't believe you. The last time you said nothing was wrong you were found drunk off your ass in an airport bar about ready to hitch a ride across country. Talk to me, please."

"It's been a long week, it's only Wednesday and I have a job to do."

"Which you are kicking ass at this week."

CJ clenched her arms to her side to keep from flailing them. "Why is this week any different? This is what I do. This is what WE do."

She shuffled the messages on her desk, trying to keep her anger in check. Failing, she whipped off her glasses and skidded them across the desk.

"Nearly everyone in the know is sprouting off like this is some last minute miracle we pulled out of our hats. That it's the bottom of the ninth and we're waiting on the last pitch. And the only chance we have at winning the game is to launch the damn ball over the outfield bleachers." She slapped the desk with the palm of her hand. "Josh, this isn't the last inning."

He propped himself on the corner of the desk and leaned in close. "No one said it was, CJ."

Sighing loudly, she leaned back in her chair and turned away from him. "Then why does it feel that way? We do this all the time. Why are we celebrating it now?"

She could see Josh smile in his reflection. "We're celebrating because you're having fun."

"What?" she yelped, part perplexed, part surprised. She turned in the chair.

"Admit it, you're having fun. No one has seen you this fired up about anything in a couple of months. It's like having the old CJ back."

She pointed at the door and fought a smile. "Get out. You're ruining my mood."

"What's up with you?" he asked, refusing to budge even as she pushed him off the desk.

Giving up, she leaned back in her chair, propping her feet on the window sill behind her desk. "I haven't had much sleep. And before you start thinking all sorts of lurid little details, no, Danny is not the reason why I have not been sleeping. He's on the other side of the country."

Nodding, Josh "That why you overslept? Because you haven't been sleeping?"

CJ smiled slightly. "Yesterday I forgot to set the alarm."

"What's keeping you up?"

"I honestly don't know. Maybe it's the subpoenas. Maybe I'm already gearing up for the fight. Or maybe I'm channeling someone else who can't sleep. I just don't know and it's driving me nuts."

There was a knock on the door. Josh hopped off the desk and Toby stuck his head through the now open door. "Josh, we gotta go."

Taking a deep breath, Josh replied, "Yep. CJ, don’t kill anybody while we’re gone."

"I'll try not to," CJ replied, drawling.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CJ took a deep breath, smiled at the crowd before her and called it for the night. "That's a full lid, everybody. Have a good night."

There was a chorus of 'thank you's' and 'goodnights' from the reporters but she barely heard them. The blood was still rushing through her ears, the sound of pens and pencils scratching down the tidbits of information she was willing to dole out. She hadn't carried her binder in with her. The scratch pad of paper with post-it notes and little reminders written in the margins crumpled with a satisfying crunch and she shot it at the garbage can across the way. She almost laughed out loud when it went in.

The thought was banished from her mind when she heard Carol walking to meet her. Someone had handed her assistant a note during the briefing and Carol never returned. CJ was willing to bet she didn't want to hear what Carol had to share with her.

"CJ, the Governor of Wyoming has been on TV."

Yup, she definitely did not want to hear this. "Is he mad at us?"

Carol had THAT look on her face, as if there was no pretty way to put it. "He's pretty irate."

"Good irate, or--"

Carol nodded once. "He's irate."

There was no point in putting off the inevitable. It was time to introduce something else into the news cycle now. "All right. Circulate a memo to anyone who's going to see a microphone."

They walked through a set of swinging doors to the hallway that eventually led to her office.

"The natural fire plan is based on the recommendations from 5 federal agencies that clearly states that 80 years of fire suppression techniques don’t work. For centuries wild fires have been a part of the natural part of the evolution of forest ecosystems."

Carol pulled up short to head off to the deputies' office. "When something catches fire it's no longer our policy to put it out?"

CJ recalled having a similar conversation with Sam earlier that day. "That's the kind of thing they shouldn't say. Put that in a memo with a circle and a line through it."

Knowing Carol, she would do exactly that. The deputies would get a laugh out of that.

Oliver Babish was waiting in her office again. She refused to hang her head.

"CJ."

"Oliver."

He had the same look in his eye as he had Monday morning. "Thank god for LexisNexis, eh?"

"I'll say." She refused to look at him, hoping he might take the hint and leave her alone. She had called the full lid. She wanted to go home, sit in a hot bath for an hour or two and try to sleep for more than 3 hours.

"How long do you think it will take them to find the paper I wrote with Rollins?"

"About an hour. They'll make their deadlines." She looked out her office door hoping that maybe Carol would be out there to save her.

Oliver sighed heavily behind her. "I was going to say, you took a beating the last few months."

CJ couldn’t agree more. "Yeah?"

"And I was wondering if you were trying to get back in the game with one swing?"

She wanted to say that she had been in the game all along, but instead replied, "Is that what you're wondering?"

"Yeah."

"Anything else?"

"No."

"I have work to do, Oliver. Can we table this discussion for now?"

"Sure."

He walked out of her office. She collapsed into her desk chair. The phone rang.

"CJ Cregg."

There was a pause. "Hey," Danny said softly. "You okay? You don’t sound so hot?"

She held her head in her hand, cradled the phone against her cheek. "When are you coming home?"

end