Title: Strawberry Margaritas, Fried Zucchini, and New Beginnings

Author: Rhonda Dossett

Category: CJ/Danny

Rating: PG13

Spoilers: Manchester II

After Universe: Haven't read it? You should! You can

find it at:

www.oocities.org/rdcottrell/fiction.html

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

Note: Follows "After All Is Said and Done" and is a prequel to

"Pink Mints, Slow Dancing, and Train Wrecks"

Special thanks to Cretkid for some much needed help.

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

She should have known it would be a sports bar. Twenty screens of nothing but basketball, 10 different kinds of beer, and all the pretzels and barbecued cocktail wieners you can eat. In other words, Danny's idea of heaven. She only hoped the margaritas were as good as he claimed.

Sliding into a padded booth, CJ felt a little guilty at not being back at work. She had arranged with the President to take two weeks off, but she knew someone else was having to double up to cover for her. Leo was probably even more pissed at her if that was possible. But, damn it, she needed this time and Leo could just deal with it.

Watching the emotions flitting across her face, Danny surmised that far from relaxing, CJ was reconsidering her decision to take any time off. He smiled at a waitress and waved her over. "We need two large strawberry margaritas with the gold tequila and a plate of fried zucchini to start."

After the waitress left, CJ smiled and said, "I haven't let anyone order for me since I was ten years old. Just what kind of women have you been dating?"

Blushing, Danny replied, "Sorry, I didn't think. Do you want something else? I can call her back over here."

"It's okay this time. Just don't let it happen again, Fishboy." Grabbing a pretzel from the bowl on the table, CJ said, "So you didn't answer my question. Have you been seeing anyone?"

Smirking, Danny asked, "You mean since we broke up?"

CJ refrained from answering while the waitress placed their drinks in front of them and set the zucchini in the center of the table.

Taking a sip of her margarita, CJ stated, "We didn't break up. There was no `we" to break up. As a matter of fact, I want it on the record that after that trip to Portland, you just faded off my radar screen. Well, I guess except for that story you did on the Surgeon General and Ellie."

At that unpleasant thought, CJ look a large swallow of her drink and winced as she experienced a mild case of `brain and throat freeze.' Coughing a little, she remarked, "Nobody said where you went."

His mouth full of zucchini, Danny motioned for her to wait a minute. Swallowing he said, "You made it very clear to me that as long as we had these jobs, you weren't interested. I decided I needed a change of scenery. My editor sent me to Dallas. I was there when Eleanor Bartlet called."

Pointing a limp zucchini slice at her, he added, "Important point for you to remember there CJ - Ellie called me."

"Uh, huh," CJ rolled her eyes and poked at the tray in front of her.

"What is this again?" CJ asked, holding up a greasy, fried vegetable slice.

"Zucchini, taste it." At her skeptical expression, he added, "It's a green vegetable. Kind of like eating a salad. I know how much you like salads."

"This is nothing like a salad. Any nutritional value has been fried out of it." Putting a small piece in her mouth, CJ said, "Why Dallas?"

Shrugging, Danny sipped his drink and answered, "The Johnson tapes were being released. It seemed like a good time to write a piece on him and his administration."

"I didn't read any story with your by-line on that topic," she countered. "What happened?"

"The story kind of fizzled. No one wanted to read parallels between Johnson taking a 3 week world tour to avoid hatred at home and - - -," Danny rolled his hand rather than continue with the analogy.

"That explains one day," CJ said, a sly smile on her lips. "What about the rest of the time?"

Danny scowled and scarfed down another piece of zucchini. "I spent a lot of time with my parents."

"They're in Dallas?"

"Yeah."

There was a quietness to his voice that CJ had never heard before. She carefully took his hand. "Your editor didn't send you to Dallas, did he?"

Danny shook his head. "I took a leave of absence for a couple of months. My mother had a stroke just before Thanksgiving. I went home to help take care of her."

"Oh, Danny."

"She's fine now," he said, face brightening but his eyes telling the real story. "My dad needed a little help. I stayed until she kicked me out."

He stabbed his fork at another piece of zucchini, sliced it and speared one half. Waving his prize like a baton he asked, "What about your parents? You said you wanted to go spend some time with them."

CJ leaned back in her chair, took another sip of her drink. There was a hell of a lot more tequila in it than was strictly necessary.

"I was supposed to go out to Napa weekend after next for their 50th wedding anniversary."

"You almost went out there considerably earlier," Danny said, referring to just a few days before when she had spent 9 hours in a Logan Airport bar working up the courage to throw away her career and board a flight west.

"Yeah," CJ replied, slightly embarrassed. "I had to put my foot down with Leo when I made the original arrangements for next weekend."

Taking a swallow of the margarita, she slapped her hand on the table. "Damn it, Danny, I had nearly missed my father's 70th birthday entirely. I wasn't going to miss their wedding anniversary!"

At his look of commiseration, CJ sighed, "Guess Leo's going to be pissed that I'm going to be missing for nearly 2 weeks instead of 2 days."

Danny took her hand this time and squeezed tight. "Hey, no guilt trips! You've given everything to this administration. You deserve a break. And you can think of it this way - you could have been gone a lot longer than 2 weeks."

"Yeah."

They sat silently for a time. The waitress came by to see if they needed anything: Danny ordered another plate of fried vegetables, CJ asked for a menu. Danny pointed at their drinks and ordered another round.

"No regrets?" he asked, finding the clouds in her eyes once again.

"Not yet. But, that first day back at work is going to be hell," she wearily reflected.

"Well, that's two weeks away. Right now you should try to enjoy this down time. When are you leaving for home?" Danny asked trying to lighten the gloomy mood their conversation had created.

"As soon as I make arrangements for someone to watch my cat and water my plants. Both details I overlooked when I made my escape from Manchester," CJ said in a matter of fact tone.

At Danny's look of horror when he realized the number of days the cat had been on it's own, CJ laughed and said, "Did you see a starving cat when you and Josh packed some clothes for me?"

As he relaxed, CJ added, "Don't worry I called my landlord from Logan. She had the cat while I was on the original trip to Manchester. Iris agreed to continue taking care of him until I could make other arrangements. But she made it clear she didn't want the privilege for long."

Finding a strawberry in the bottom of her glass, CJ used a spoon to scoop it up. Looking at the sodden berry, CJ reflected, "I don't think Iris likes my cat very much."

When her head suddenly raised up, Danny sensed her next words just by the change in her posture. Hiding a smile, he waited.

Pasting on a big grin, CJ scooted closer to him, "So, do you want to take care of my kitty for me while I'm gone?"

Nobody's fool, Danny asked held out for details before agreeing. "Exactly why doesn't your landlord, uh Iris, like your cat?"

"I don't know 'exactly.' I think it's because he doesn't take any crap from `anybody' or `anything.' He speaks his mind when he feels slighted. You know the term `caterwauling'? Well, if he's unhappy you'll know it.

"Iris feels that my cat doesn't respect her position as human ruler and food goddess. But Iris is a dog person; she likes to be appreciated."

"Okay, this cat sounds like someone I know. I can handle being unappreciated and ignored," Danny joked.

Suddenly serious again, CJ leaned over and quickly kissed him, saying "You shouldn't have to. I'm sorry if I took your feelings for granted over the past few years."

Eyes twinkling, Danny whispered, "Give me a real kiss and I'll not only forgive you, I'll take care of your cat."

Accepting his dare, CJ smiled and pushed back their drinks.

As she raised her hands to his face, Danny nervously said, "What's his name anyway?"

Ignoring his question, CJ placed her open mouth on his. She coaxed his mouth open with her tongue and showed him that he was a complete novice when it came to kissing. By the time she'd finished, he'd developed another problem and forgotten his question.

Slowly breaking the kiss, CJ trailed her lips over his cheek towards his right ear. In a soft voice she said, "His name is Leopold, but you can just call him Leo."

end