Title: "Pink Mints, Slow Dancing and Train Wrecks"

Author: Rhonda Dossett, Kat and CretKid

Category: CJ/Danny

Rating: PG-13 to R for language

Spoilers: "On the Day Before" specific. This fits into our After Universe. Haven?t read it? You should! You can find it at www.oocities.org/rdcottrell/fiction.html

Disclaimer: Not ours. Never will be.

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She liked the pink mints best, but the white ones were better than the yellow ones. Leaning back in her chair, CJ pulled the bowl closer, checking to see if she'd missed any pink ones. Nope, just yellow and white ones left. Although hungry, she wasn't sure that she was ready to settle for second best.

Second best, not exactly a ringing endorsement. Sighing, she put the bowl down and took a sip of warm beer. Lately, her entire life was full of compromises and second best alternatives. The man sitting on the chair beside her was a prime example.

"Dance with me, Josh." She grabbed his belt and led him to the small dance floor.

"Why me?" Josh protested, dragging his feet as they reached the dance floor. "It's not like we can hear the music from the jukebox."

CJ wrapped her arms around his neck and started dancing to her own tune. "Because the person I would rather be dancing with isn?t here and you are."

They - Josh, Toby, Sam, Donna, Carol, Charlie and Ginger - had gone to Hannigan's on Constitution to celebrate a non-event for the hell of celebrating. Toby and Charlie had started running the pool table the moment they entered. Donna, Carol, Sam and Ginger were engaged in a drinking game of some sort.

"So, when does Danny get back?"

CJ lent her head against Josh's shoulder. The only other person in the West Wing that whole-heartedly approved of her relationship with Danny was the man dancing in her arms. The President employed a "don't ask, don't tell" tactic; Leo gave her grief whenever he was unhappy with how she was dealing with the Press. Toby was begrudgingly happy for her but didn't like to talk about it. Sam didn?t seem to have an opinion one way or the other.

"Actually, I don't know." She laughed into his shoulder. "His schedule got all changed around at the last minute. I have no idea where he is right now. He could be in Iceland, for all I know."

"He hasn?t called?" Josh asked, stopping momentarily to get a good look at her expression.

"I talked to him two days ago." CJ laughed again and started to hum a tune to dance to. "He dropped his cell phone in a waste can or a sink or toilet or something the other day. We've been playing phone tag ever since."

Josh chuckled out loud. "He lost his phone? Bet his editor's happy about that."

"If only I could lose my pager that easily," CJ lamented.

Josh wrapped his arms around her waist and tried to decipher whatever song she had started humming again. He strained to hear the jukebox, which was playing something much faster in tempo than the tune in her head. Wryly, he grinned and whispered in her ear, "I don't think that's the song that's being played, Claudia Jean."

"Don't care. Shut up and dance."

She rested her chin on her hand, which in turn rested on his shoulder as she watched Charlie and Toby hustle yet another person at the pool table. "Why can't you be taller?" she asked quietly.

"Why can?t you be shorter?" Josh followed. "And since Danny's shorter than me, I would think this is stepping up in the world."

CJ sucker punched him in the ribs.

Josh couldn't bend over if her tried. "So, how are things with lover boy?"

"Fish boy," CJ corrected him. "Get it right." She sighed deeply, nestled her forehead into his neck. "Either he's out of town on a research assignment, or I'm stuck here working late because of the investigation or someone said something stupid or someone taking pot shots at teenagers in foreign countries."

"You're stuck here at Hannigan's? I should be so lucky," Josh joshed.

"You know what I mean. We hardly see each other and more often than not we say good night over the phone. I finally get a night off and whom am I spending it with?"

"Hey. I might take offense at that."

"So says the man who alleged Mary Marsh's god should be convicted of tax evasion."

They were slowly swaying to the music when a cacophony of shrill beeps erupted from the waists and pockets of nearly every member of the White House staff in the joint.

CJ growled, not wanting reality to interfere just yet. She continued to dance as Josh reached for his pager to see what was so important. In the back of her mind she recognized that Sam was on his cell phone, calling in. Toby and Charlie were putting away their pool cues. She absolutely did not want to hear Sam utter the words that their presence was required back at the House.

"For once," CJ snarled, "I would love to use my 'Get Out of Jail Free' card and not have it revoked two hours into my leave."

"Wouldn't we all," Josh agreed.

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

They were complaining about having their evenings disrupted and that no one seemed to know what the emergency was about when Leo entered his office. No one seemed to notice his entrance and Leo soon found that the only way to silence them would be to order everyone to be quiet. Yelling loudly, he made his wishes clear. Only Josh and CJ seemed to misinterpret his request.

"Is it too much to ask for? I mean really. Two hours with no disruption so I can take a bath without hearing a cell phone, beeper or bellow to come back in to work?" CJ asked, voice suddenly loud in the near silent room.

Suddenly looking up she realized that everyone was staring at her. Leo was glaring at her.

Rolling her eyes, she sat down, saying, "Okay, I'm done now."

"I'm so glad," Leo replied. "Can we get our heads out of the clouds for just a moment please?"

After general consensus had been given, Leo continued. "Thirty minutes ago a train derailed near the US/Canadian border just after it left the station at Rouses Point, NY."

"What kind of train?" Sam asked.

"Amtrak passenger train. One hundred-thirty-two ticketed passengers out of Albany, 30 are Canadian citizens. We don't know how many people total were on the train when it jumped track" Leo looked at all of them, one by one. "A car was stuck on the track and the train couldn't stop before hitting it."

CJ's head popped up. "The people in the car?"

"One. Driver was killed on impact. According to eyewitnesses, she didn't even try to get out of the car as the train barreled down the track."

"Casualties on the train?" Toby asked. "CJ will need to brief."

"The numbers are still coming in." Turning his attention to CJ, he added, "You give them what we have so far. No ad-libbing."

Clearly hiding her anger, she nodded curtly and responded, "Yes, sir."

Leo moved behind his desk and sat down. Pulling his glasses out of his suit pocket, he opened a folder. Belatedly noticing that his office was still full of people, he gruffly said, "That's all. Get out of here and get to work on it."

They all filed out with the exception of a furious CJ.

Margaret, waiting by the door, saw the expression on CJ face. She hurriedly ushered the others out, leaving CJ and Leo alone in the office.

Standing in front of his desk, CJ cleared her throat to get his attention. When he looked up, she stiffly asked, "Ad-libbing, Leo? What the hell does that mean? Is this you slamming me again about the Haiti thing?"

"No, the Haiti thing was not ad-libbing, it was a bush-league fuck up. This is 'We're coming to get your children tax'. This is you taking a personal vendetta out on the glamour girl of the week. I read the papers, CJ. Your smack down of that Wexler woman pulled the attention off the veto."

CJ slowly counted to ten, physically calming her breathing. "I think the bombing in Jerusalem took care of that all on its own."

"Three dozen newspapers, CJ. Front page above the fold, thirty percent cover the bombing. Front page below the fold, 60 percent cover the veto. All of them mention your death tax response. Over half mention that Wexler woman. Over half of the op-ed pieces following the veto comment on your remarks during the press briefing rather than the veto itself. What would you call it?"

"Controlling the media."

"Your personal opinion isn't controlling the media, CJ."

Responding with anger, she shook her head, throwing her hair out of her face. Jabbing her finger on the desk, she spoke loudly. "I don't give my opinion when I'm out there! I don't get to have an opinion even on subjects outside the White House because people will think it's the *Press Secretary* speaking rather than *me*. I can't even open my mouth anymore without you breathing down my neck."

"You don't think you've brought some of that on yourself?"

"No."

Shrugging, Leo replied, "I do and that's what counts."

"Other then Haiti, what have I done wrong?"

"You want me to start at the beginning?"

CJ stood fuming for several seconds. Leo was fairly sure that she wanted to yell at him but was reigning it in so that the anger wouldn?t show in her briefing. He had meant the ad-libbing comment as a jibe, considering the international implications of the accident. But she had not taken it that way. Her angered tone got his irish up and he had responded in kind.

Shaking his head, he went back to his folder. "I've got work to do, CJ. And so do you."

The slamming of his office door made Leo jump. Throwing down his glasses on the desk, he leaned back in his chair and rubbed his tired eyes. He had been hard on her case since he had learned Danny Concannon was a permanent part of her life. It seemed everyone in the West Wing had known except him and he didn't appreciate being out of the loop. For a moment, Leo felt guilty about the stance he'd taken on her seeing Danny. It was one thing screwing up your own relationships. It was another screwing up someone else's.

Opening his right hand desk drawer, he pulled out a remote control. Punching the power button he turned on the television set near his desk and waited for CJ to appear on the screen.

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

CJ quickly glanced through the notes Sam, Toby, Josh and Carol had handed her as she passed through the hallways to the press room. The basics were there, enough to feed the ravenous wolves. Josh stayed by her side as she read through the partial passenger list; she stopped when one struck warning bells. The color drained from her face.

"Oh, shit. You're kidding me, right?"

Josh shook his head. "We confirmed with the Post."

"Do we know if he was on the train at the time of the accident? He could have gotten off at any number of stops."

Josh shook his head again. "We don't even know if he was on the train at all, just that he picked up his ticket in Albany. You still want to do this?"

"I don?t have a choice. It?s my job."

CJ stuffed the list in with the hordes of other papers and stormed through the door. Josh followed her into the press room, touching her shoulder as he passed to the side near the bank of televisions. The press were out in hordes; nothing like a tragedy to bring the rats to the deck. CJ closed her eyes and ascended the short staircase to the podium by rote memory.

Her eyes moved over to his empty seat as she settled all her papers. She felt the stinging of tears and fought hard to control them. "Ladies and gentlemen, here's all the information we have on the Amtrak derailment near the US/Canadian border. Little less than an hour ago, a female driver, name withheld pending notification of her family, was in her vehicle when the train hit her broadside just north of Rouses Point, that's R-O-U-S-E-S, New York. She was killed immediately."

She had trouble focusing for a second and sought out Josh among the faces. Finding him, she saw him wink at her and was able to continue.

"A representative from the National Transportation Safety Board will be at this podium in approximately 30 minutes to give you an update on the investigation. All we can confirm now is that there may have been as many or as few as 132 people on board, including 30 Canadian citizens en route to Montreal."

"CJ! CJ!"

She didn't want to take any questions as she had no concrete answers, but the Press never seemed to remember that when she said it out loud.

"CJ, do you know the number of casualties?" an anonymous voice asked. Normally she would be able to identify the speaker but not today.

"I can't comment on the number of casualties. We don't have that data."

"CJ, the Canadian news wire reports at least 40 casualties."

"Again, I don't have any information on that."

"Do you have any names of passengers--"

She didn?t let him finish the question. "Even if I did, their names would be withheld until families have been notified."

"CJ, was the driver stalled on the tracks when the train hit?"

"I don't any information to give you regarding the driver or the car at this time."

"CJ! CJ! There's an eyewitness account that says the driver had plenty of time to leave her vehicle but didn't. Is there a possibility that this was an intended suicide?"

"Again, I don't have any information about that."

The various news agencies pressed for more information, but CJ held up her hand and announced rather loudly, "The NTSB will have more information for you in 30 minutes. We will keep you apprised as we get the information ourselves. In the meantime, the President's prayers go out to the victims and their families."

Josh and Carol met her at the door.

"CJ, what can I do to help?" Josh asked as she stiffly walked down the hallway to her office.

Calling back to him, she answered, "Find him Josh. Just find him."

Waving off Carol, CJ went into her office and slammed the door.

Placing her briefing notes on her desk, she wiped the tears from her eyes and looked at Gail. The fish was peacefully swimming in her bowl unaware that anything was wrong.

CJ sat down at her desk and stared at the little goldfish swimming around a miniature podium. Around and around she went. Usually watching the fish calmed her. But not tonight.

"Damn it, Danny, my first evening off in weeks and you spoil if for me! First by not being here, and then you go and get in a damn train wreck," she shouted the words as though he was in her office to hear them.

A knock on her door interrupted her one-sided conversation.

"Go away!" she called at the door.

"Not likely," came the reply. The door opened and she barely turned her head, enough to see Sam at her door.

"What do you want?"

"There's a meeting in the Oval Office in ten minutes. Thought you could use a fair warning." He tentatively stepped inside the room and closed the door. "There are unconfirmed rumors that Danny was on the train."

"Tell me something I don't know," CJ said miserably, refusing to lift her head from the desk. Any alcohol buzz she had been experiencing at the bar was long gone now. "Sam, I've got a headache. If you don't have anything else to tell me, I'd like to be alone."

"Okay then." Sam backed himself into the door.

He didn't sound upset, so she squashed the urge to apologize. After he left, she blindly searched for the bottle of Tylenol in her desk drawer.

Finding it, she popped two 500mg tablets into her mouth, swallowed them down with bottled water and picked up her one-sided conversation with Gail once again, putting one hand on Gail's bowl. "I should have forced you to replace the damn phone. Then I could call to yell at you for not calling me. But right now, I just want you to be alive. Be alive and come back to me."

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Charlie waved each of them into the Oval Office as soon as they arrived. As usual Josh was about 10 minutes late so far. This time no one seemed to particularly notice or care. They all sat silently and waited. Everyone appeared to be intently examining the carpet at their feet. The President and Leo occupied the arm chairs located near the Presidential Seal. Toby and Sam occupied one of the striped couches, with a morose CJ sitting on the other. The antique office clock's ticking seemed inordinately loud.

Finally, the President broke the silence. "Should we send someone for Josh?"

"No," Leo answered. "He's on the phone with the Transportation Secretary. Maybe he'll find out something new."

Looking at the worried faces around him, Leo suggested, " Let's start without him. Sam, what are the Canadians saying about the accident?"

Raising his hand, the President announced, "Hold on Leo, I have something I want to say to CJ."

"Yes, sir?" CJ asked wearily.

The President watched the deflated woman in front of him. He was well aware that a certain reporter's name was on the passenger manifest and it was a trying time for all of them. It was hard not to miss her interchange with Leo earlier that evening. When it rained, it poured.

"You haven't been run over by a herd of buffalo, have you?"

"No, sir."

"So, you're going to be able to handle the briefing on this one."

"Yes, sir."

As she responded to his questions, she seemed to rise in her seat and he was sure her head was in the game once again. There was a knock at the door and all eyes turned towards it, expecting Josh to join them.

Charlie stepped through the threshold. He looked first to CJ, then the President.

"Sir, a call is being transferred here. For CJ."

"Who is it?" the President asked.

"Danny Concannon."

CJ was off the couch in no time flat. Forgetting where she was for a moment, she picked up the Oval Office extension at the desk, clicked the blinking light.

"Where the hell have you been?"

The President picked up the other extension and listened to the conversation.

Danny replied, "I missed my train. I heard about the wreck and decided I should call in. Then Carol put me on hold and I was in call transfer hell. Where are you?"

"She's in the Oval Office, Danny," the President replied for both of them.

'Damn!' was the first thought, then "Hello, Mr. President. I didn't realize you were on the extension."

"Obviously not," the President intoned.

"I was just explaining to CJ that I wasn't on the train. I thought she'd like to know I was okay."

"I heard. Good to see you missed the train."

"Yeah. Right." Silence. "Is it possible for me to speak to CJ for a second without you on the line?"

The President thought about the request. He had not been crazy about a relationship between the two but he could also understand Danny's need to ease her mind. "Talk fast."

"Yes, Sir."

A click was audible as the President hung up.

"CJ, I'm sorry I couldn't talk to you sooner."

"I understand. I'm just glad you're all right. Thank you for calling."

"Is the entire Senior Staff plus the President listening to your side of this conversation?" Danny asked, sensing hesitancy in her responses.

"You got it," CJ replied, looking around the room at all the faces staring at her.

"Listen, I'm coming home tonight. There's a flight out of here in about an hour, with a layover in Newark. I want to see you."

"I don't know about that. We don't have much information on the wreck yet." CJ hoped he understood she would have to work most, if not all of the night.

"Doesn't matter. I'm going to park outside your apartment. I'll just sleep in the car until you get home."

"Okay, I'll see you at my next briefing tomorrow. I should have the rest of the passenger information then." CJ trusted that he understood she was agreeing to see him.

"Right. I'll see you at your apartment."

"Goodbye, Danny I have to get off the phone now," CJ replied, smiling for her audience.

"CJ, wait a minute," Danny quickly said, hoping to catch her before she disconnected.

"Yes," she said.

"I love you," Danny announced.

When she didn't respond, he warned, "We are going to talk about that when I see you."

Before CJ could say anything, he severed the connection.

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

The rest of the night passed as a blur on the horizon for CJ. Those brief moments on the phone were enough to sustain her through the rest of the night. She was able to report on the train situation with a detached ease.

The derailment had occurred close to a sand and gravel pit. Although many of the cars had overturned, there were relatively few injuries and no fatalities outside the woman driving the car. The Canadians had offered to help with the clean up efforts, best estimates projected several weeks.

At one point during the long night, CJ found herself with some down time. Collapsing against the door to her office, she gave herself permission to feel, to let out some of her pent up emotions. Wracking sobs shook her body for several minutes until she was able to take a couple of deep breaths. She crossed the room and sank into the chair behind her desk, letting her head fall on the blotter. By instinct she reached for the fish bowl sitting on the corner of her desk and pulled the swimming companion towards her.

"He's coming home. Didn't want to leave you out of the loop."

There was a knock at her door, one that she recognized. Even if she told him to go away, he wouldn't. So, she didn't answer the door at all.

Sure enough, the door opened. She heard it clink shut but refused to look away from the swimming fish. "What can I do for you, Joshua?"

"Go home."

"Can't." She traced the fish's swimming patterns along the glass with her index finger.

Josh took a step closer. "Can."

"No."

He was standing at the edge of her desk. "Yes."

"Go away. I don't have the energy to argue with you." She dragged the fish bowl closer and wrapped her arm around it.

Josh walked over and squatted next to her desk. He moved her arm from around the fish bowl so that she could see him. "I had Donna check on flight times. He should be in the air, headed for Dulles right now. Go meet him at the airport."

She sighed, "His car is in long term parking."

"Then just go home."

"Leo's pissed."

"Leo's always pissed." Josh stood and pulled her out of the chair. "The NTSB will be briefing from the crash site. From now on, this incident is just a blip on the radar." He steered her towards the door, grabbed her coat and shoved her out the door. "Go home."

As she walked through the halls towards the West Wing entrance, she was watching her shoes. Tired, she didn't realize she had bumped into Leo until he grabbed her arm to help right them both. Neither spoke as they faced each other. She stepped to her right, he stepped to his left. They danced in that manner twice more until Leo stood still and let her pass.

Just as she passed the security guard, she heard Leo say, "You did good up there, Kid."

CJ paused, turned. Leo had already passed out of sight. Smiling, she left the building.

Arriving home, she noticed the parked car with the sleeping driver. Tapping on the window, she startled him awake. "Hey, there. You don't want to get arrested for loitering, do you?" she teased.

"No, I want to get invited in." Danny left his car.

"You have a key. You could have used it." She walked up the stairs.

Danny held the door open for her from behind. "I didn't want to be in your apartment without you."

Once inside her apartment, she collapsed against the door and pulled him to her. She wrapped her arms around him tightly. "I'm glad you're all right." she whispered into his neck.

"I like that you were worried." Moving back to look at her, "I told you I love you."

"Yeah, you did."

Placing his hand on her cheek, he moved in to kiss her. Without hesitation, she responded with all the emotion the train wreck had brought back to the surface. When they parted, he asked, "I'm sorry I didn't call earlier."

"You're replacing that cell phone tomorrow," she said, punctuating her words with jabs to his chest.

"Yes, dear," he teased.

"I'm serious, Danny. We need to be able to reach each other, to talk to each other."

"I agree," he answered contritely. "But right now you're supposed to kiss me and kill the fatted calf."

"Kill the fatted calf?" she laughed.

"Well if my miraculous return doesn't warrant dead livestock, I'll just take the kiss," Danny joked before placing his mouth on hers.

After several moments, Danny let her come up for breath.

"Uh, Danny, maybe I could find a steak or two," she said as he kissed his way down her neck.

"Are you trying to distract me with food?" he asked, playing with the buttons on her blouse.

Putting her hand on his, she asked, "Is it working?"

Sighing, he put his arms around her and held her close. "No, but I can take a hint. Are we going to talk about what I said on the telephone?"

Whispering in his ear, CJ replied, "Danny, I'm not ready yet. It's only been a little while since we decided to make this a real relationship. Can you give me a little more time?"

Squeezing her tight, Danny was silent for a couple of seconds. So long that she was afraid that she'd hurt his feelings.

"Danny, you have to know how much I . . ."

"Shush, I'm disappointed, but I understand," he interrupted her. "There's just one thing."

"What?" she asked, still concerned.

"I want that steak."

END