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On the hottest day of summer -- a sweltering August Sunday -- with the entire Senior Staff and a few other people chatting in her living room, CJ Cregg found herself stuck in her own bathroom. Again.

This happened sometimes, in the humidity. The door wasn’t locked; it just wouldn’t open, though she fiddled with the unbudging knob for nearly two minutes before going back to perch on the edge of the bathtub in frustration.

Toby and Sam were still arguing. Toby’s irritable rumble was countered by Sam’s exasperated whine, and occasionally a high-pitched barrage that had to be Ainsley would punctuate the conversation and CJ could almost hear the communications men sigh in tandem. There might have been the clinking of ice cubes as someone -- probably Donna -- refilled a drink or two. CJ had been gone for quite a while.

Whenever bad things happened, or she found herself with unexpected time on her hands and nothing to read, CJ made lists. She made lists of everything: books she’d read recently; movies she wanted to watch; reporters she hated. On the backs of envelopes and receipts if she had them, in her head if she did not. With nothing to write on, she scooted down the length of the tub until she could lean her side against the wall and started listing, in her head, the things she would do when she got out of this bathroom.

1. OK Steve’s proposed interview with Ainsley.

2. Pick up my dry cleaning.

3. Call Lee and suggest that Brian and Shelley’s rehearsal dinner isn’t the best time to announce to the family that he’s leaving Microsoft and moving to Wyoming.

4. Beat the living shit out of everyone in that living room for not coming to see if I’m all right.

"CJ?"

4a (Emendation): Everyone but Leo.

"Hey, Leo."

"Are you all right in there?"

She paused, embarrassed, but if she said yes he would walk away, and then where would she be? Still in the bathroom, stuck. "Uh, actually, I’m..."

"Oh!" She could almost feel Leo’s face going red as he pictured all manner of womanly misfortunes she could be suffering. "Uh, I mean, I’m sorry, CJ, I didn’t mean to--"

"No, no!" She said hastily. "It’s not -- I’m stuck."

"Stuck?"

"In the bathroom. The door won’t open."

In the very long pause that followed, CJ began to hear a strange sound. She listened harder and realized, with a jolt, that Leo was laughing, making that kind of silent, wheezing sound that comes out when you don’t want someone to hear you laughing.

"Leo!"

"I -- I’m sorry, CJ, I just--"

"It happens, Leo," she said crossly, giving the toilet paper roll a vicious twirl. "When it gets this humid, sometimes the door won’t open."

"I’m sorry, CJ; I’m not laughing at you."

"Well, you’re sure not laughing with me, bucko, ‘cause I’m not laughing."

Leo grew somber instantly. "So I’m noticing. OK, hold on; I’m going to try to open it from this side." The knob wiggled a few times, then he gave a hard, fast jerk to the right, and the door popped open, and he grinned at her across the threshold. "There you go, milady. You’re free."

She rose from the edge of the couch and smoothed her shirt, then walked into the hallway with as much dignity as she could muster. "Thank you, Leo," she said stiffly.

"Oh, c’mon, CJ; don’t be mad at me! I didn’t mean -- you have to admit, it is a little funny when the most poised member of our staff finds herself trapped in her own bathroom." He grinned at her.

She blinked at him. "You think I’m poised?"

He blinked back. "Well, sure."

"Leo!" She rolled her eyes. "I’m six feet of pure klutz. Ask Toby. Ask Roberto Benigni."

Leo shrugged. "So your feet trip you up sometimes. Whose don’t? Look at Wonder Boy out there; how many different boats has he fallen off? Josh sits in chairs that aren’t actually there, and Ainsley met the President in her bathrobe. I’m talking about real grace; the kind that comes through when you speak, or in the way you hold yourself. And you’ve got more of that than all the boys put together -- myself included."

She smiled a wide, slow smile at him. "Thank you, Leo."

"You’re welcome," he said decisively.

CJ realized she was still standing in the doorway. "I’m sorry, Leo! I’m in your way."

He shook his head. "I didn’t need it, actually. I just noticed you’d been gone quite a while, and I wanted to make sure you were OK."

"And it turned out I wasn’t, so your effort wasn’t for nothing."

Leo grinned ruefully and leaned against the doorjamb. "Honestly? Another big part of it was getting away from the Innumerable Musketeers out there."

"’Innumerable Musketeers’?" She scratched her back against the edge of the door. "I like that."

"They’re going to drive me insane."

"Come on. You know you love ‘em. Even Ainsley."

"Yes. I love them. That doesn’t preclude them driving me crazy."

"True." CJ locked her fingers together and stretched. "As hostess of this rather unfortunate social gathering, I should go tend to my guests. You’re free to hide out here as long as you want, of course."

"Thanks. I just might do that."

CJ started to walk up the hallway, then stopped and looked back over her shoulder at Leo, who was still leaning against the jamb and staring vacantly into the bathroom. "Want me to come back in a few minutes and check on you? Make sure you’re not, you know, stuck in the bathroom?"

He laughed and pushed himself upright. "That’d be great, CJ. Thanks."

5. Make Leo laugh more often.

She waved a hand dismissively as she kept walking. "That’s what a gracious hostess does, Leo. And I am nothing if not gracious." As she rounded the corner into the living room, she yelled, "All your asses belong to me!"

The nice thing about CJ’s lists was that she didn’t feel she was under any obligation to complete them in order. But it was a well-known truth about her that she accomplished everything on those lists eventually.

6. Woo and win Leo McGarry.