Toby smashed through the door to Leo's office. "What the hell happened?"

"Toby--" CJ began, but he waved her off.

"No, I'm asking: what the hell happened? We sewed this thing up six days ago."

"Apparently, it came unsewn." Today was a good day; no way was Toby Ziegler going to ruin it for her.

"Who jumped?" he demanded.

"Well, if I had to put money on it," Josh mused from where he sat with Sam on Leo's couch, "I'd say Alice Johnson--"

"Winterfield," Sam suggested.

"And Matt Skinner," Toby finished, thudding his fist against the top of the chair he was leaning on. "OK. The next move--"

"Whoa, guys," CJ interrupted, "don't we want to, maybe, put this on pause until, oh, I don't know, the person this office belongs to comes back?"

Toby growled. "Not particularly."

"We lost three on the AIDS bill?" Leo stalked into the office and regarded the Senior Staff with the look that told them someone -- probably several someones -- was in big trouble. "What the hell happened, people?"

"I was just discussing that, Leo," Toby said, looking pointedly at CJ. She shook her head and kept her eyes fixed on Leo. He looked terrific today, wearing the charcoal gray suit she'd told him was perfect for his ass-kicking mode. He'd spent the morning kicking asses on the Hill; she never imagined he would end up back in the West Wing turning the anti-charm on them.

"I'm serious, guys. We had this six days ago. Where did the wheels come off?"

Toby looked like he could kick a few asses himself. "We were speculating Skinner on drug patents--"

"Johnson on the needle exchange--"

"Windterfield on condoms," Josh finished.

"Christ." Leo sank into his chair. "Could these people be bigger morons? They're really going to kill it because of this...this crap?"

"Does this seem strange to anyone else?" CJ asked.

"No," Sam said. "We pretty much knew Congress was full of idiots."

"Sam," Leo warned, "the President was a member of Congress."

"And I'm sure he was an idiot then," Sam replied. "Good thing he's learned so much since."

Leo snorted. "Yeah. What're you thinking, CJ?" She looked stunning in a yellow suit he wasn't sure he'd seen before, but chances were good he just hadn't been paying attention. He tried not to notice her appearance in the office, to avoid repeating the nearly damning incident of the previous month when he couldn't keep his hands off of her and Carol had almost caught them.

"This bill is Winterfield's baby," said CJ. "He told Josh last week he wouldn't kill it for anything. And Skinner would never -- even Alice Johnson--" She sighed. "I don't know what's going on, but something doesn't sit right."

Toby's brow creased. "You think someone at the top is strong-arming them?"

She smiled. "Toby, that's beautiful. I hadn't come up with anything so concrete, but that's a good place to start."

Leo pointed at her. "Do it." She nodded. He turned to the others. "In the meantime, you guys are taking meetings. Josh, talk to Matt Skinner. Sam, you've got Johnson. Toby's on Winterfield." He looked around. "Anything else?" When no one had anything, they stood to leave. "I want to hear the instant you know anything." They nodded assent, but Sam was already at work.

"Josh. Trade with me."

"What?"

"I will give you a million dollars if you trade meetings with me."

"You don't have a million dollars."

"A thousand, then."

"Sam."

"Coffee every morning 'til the end of the second term."

"Seriously, Sam, why would you want a meeting with Skinner?"

"Because Alice Johnson hates me."

"That is true."

"Then you'll switch?"

"Not even if you had the million dollars."

"I'd do it for you."

"Guys," Leo snapped, "nobody's switching with anyone."

"I wouldn't have taken it anyway," Josh said as they walked out of Leo's office. "The only person in the Beltway Alice Johnson hates more than you is me."

"CJ," Leo said, "could you hold on a minute?" She paused. Toby looked stricken.

"Leo, are you and CJ going to be--"

"This is a different thing, Toby," Leo assured him.

"Because if there is going to be further strategy discussion, we should all be--"

"It's not about this, Toby!" Leo growled.

Toby considered his colleagues, and CJ held her breath. He claimed he had no investigative mind, but hadn't he been the one to figure out Hoynes was up to no good when he went to Nashua? She put the paranoia away and tried to act casual. Toby was only worried about being left out. He nodded tersely and left the room. CJ exhaled the breath she'd been holding and looked at Leo, shaking her head. "You almost told him."

"You were that close, too." A grin lit his face. "You look spectacular."

"You too. It was all I could do not to rip that suit off you during the meeting."

"Claude--" His voice was thick with a million things she could only define the edges of. Desire. Regret. Definitely a warning. She took a step toward him, and his face shut down. Instantly he was Chief of Staff Leo McGarry again, and whatever he was when other doors closed behind him was shut out as completely as if it hadn't existed. "You wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. What are you up to tonight?"

He waved a hand around his office. "I'll be here, doing, you know…"

"Chief of Staffly things?"

"I'm fairly sure that's not a word, but, yeah. Why?" An impish grin snuck across his face. "Did you have something better in mind?"

"As it happens, I have two tickets to Copenhagen, and Renee can't make it, so I was wondering if you'd be interested in joining me."

He stared hard at her. "CJ."

"What?"

"You're not serious?"

"I know, I know; it's a play about physics. But it's astonishing. Just reading the script gave me all sorts of goosebumps."

"It's not the play I'm worried about, CJ." Leo suspected the first major fight of the week was on its way.

"What, then?" CJ knew exactly what he was going to say, but she was going to make him say it.

"We can't be seen in public together."

"We work for the President, Leo. We're seen in public together all the time."

"You know what I mean."

"I do, and I dislike your implications."

"CJ, you're the Press Secretary. You know better than anyone that implications are all there is."

"That's not true," she countered. "There's our lives."

"We don't get lives, CJ. Not 'til the second term's over."

"Leo--"

"Are we going to do this?" Leo snapped. "Is this still the way things are going to be between us? I've got a White House to run here, and I don't have time for the clingy girlfriend routine." CJ recoiled, and Leo's eyes widened in shock and shame. What the hell possessed me to say that? "CJ, I--"

"Leo, let's get one thing clear," CJ said, her voice so calm and flat it nearly killed him, "I ask people to do things all the time. Charlie and I go to tennis matches together; no one thinks we're sleeping together. Donna and I have lunch at least once a week; people don't think I'm involved with her. Josh and Sam have fallen off the map a bit, but they were right up there. We do things together because we're a team, not because we're all screwing each other. I bought these tickets ages ago, my friend can't come, and I thought you might enjoy an evening out. It's a beautiful play, Leo. But if you think asking you is too much, is too blatant, is a 'clingy girlfriend routine,' I will turn around and walk out of this office."

Realizing she would do so with little compunction brought Leo up short. He'd avoided thinking about how he would feel if CJ walked out on him again. Now, staring at her across his desk, half a heartbeat away from her exit, he realized it was the one thing he absolutely did not want to happen. Losing CJ a second time would be harder than losing Jenny had been. "I am more sorry than I can possibly express," he said quietly.

CJ looked at Leo across his desk. What do I want out of this? I knew from the beginning this is how it would be. Hell, I broke it off with him once already because of it. Still, it would be nice -- think, CJ. Decide here and now what you want: Leo, or a normal relationship. She blinked twice, looked up at him and smiled. "I know you are."

Leo sighed in relief. CJ looked like she would forgive him. "I'll make it up to you."

"I know you will," she said mischievously.

Leo laughed. "All right. Go work. Bring me the AIDS bill."

She pouted. "Don't I even get a little kiss?"

He pointed at the connecting door. "Oval Office, Claude."

She shrugged, defeated. "Big chicken, Gerald."

"A big chicken who intends to keep his job. See you later."

* * *

At seven o'clock that night Leo stood at the door to CJ's apartment. How she had managed to get out of the office by this hour he couldn't imagine, but he had laboriously rearranged his schedule (OK, he'd had Margaret laboriously rearrange his schedule) to sneak away. Clearing his throat and adjusting his tie, he knocked on the door.

She pulled it open in a flurry of activity, winding a wrap around her arms, sticking an earring in her right earlobe, her long, slender feet casting around the floor for the shoes that went with her dress. She almost didn't notice who was on her threshold. Then she stopped. "Leo! What are you doing here?"

"You're getting dressed," he said, a bit stupidly.

"Yeah." She cocked her head to the side and studied him. "The play starts in an hour."

"Oh." Then it hit him. "Oh! You're going to the play."

"Uh -- yeah." CJ stepped back from the door. "You OK, Gerald?"

"Yeah, of course. I -- I brought apology flowers."

It was a gorgeous bouquet of iris and daffodils. CJ took them and inhaled their heady fragrance. "Thank you." He tried to hide the cardboard boxes in his other hand behind his back, but she was too fast. "Are those -- Leo, did you get takeout for us?"

He shrugged noncommittally. "I got takeout. Whether it's for us..."

CJ didn't know whether she felt like a total heel or a righteously indignant woman. "Leo, did you think--"

"I felt bad about the scene in my office earlier, and that I couldn't go to the play, so I thought maybe--"

"You'd bring me food and flowers and we'd snuggle up on the couch with some bad movies."

He blushed. "Actually, I was thinking we could go to your bedroom and try a repeat performance from Saturday."

"Saturday?" Now she was blushing, too. "I don't know. I'm fresh out of maple syrup, and I'm not sure my wrists have fully recovered yet."

"I want to make today up to you," he said quietly, his despair knocking the wind out of something deep inside her.

"Leo," she said as calmly as she could, her hand on his arm sending waves of heat through his body, "that was sweet of you, really. But I'm not going to stop living my life just because you refuse to be part of it. I've waited two years for this play to go up in DC. I bought the tickets six weeks ago. I'm not going to miss it because you won't come with me."

"OK," he said, and for a moment he stood awkwardly in the doorway, neither knowing quite how to proceed.

CJ sighed. "I'm not leaving for fifteen minutes or so. Stick around."

He shook his head. "Nah. I'm gonna -- I'm gonna go, I think."

"OK." They stood looking at each other for a moment. CJ put her hands back on his arms and kissed him. "It was sweet of you to come over."

He looked at the floor. "If the play's not over too late, I'll be--"

"You'll be back in the office."

"Yeah."

"Good night, Leo."

"Good night, CJ."

* * *

Sam and Josh sauntered into Leo's office like they'd just climbed K2. "We got it!"

"The AIDS bill?" Leo asked hopefully.

"We figured it out." They were almost one entity today, finishing each other's sentences and shooting each other lots of Meaningful Looks. "Sam found out where the wheel came off--"

"Then Josh found the wheel laying in the ditch."

Leo couldn't believe it when CJ told him this last week; now he wondered how he'd missed it. He watched the way their hips touched lightly as they stood on the other side of his desk, the way their hands kept "accidentally" brushing. He smiled indulgently at them. "I like this new spirit of collaboration you've got going here. You're like Nick and Nora Charles."

"Hear that, Nora? A compliment from Leo!"

"No way I'm Nora."

"Well, I'm sure not Nora."

"You absolutely are."

"How the hell do you get that?"

"Well, obviously, 'cause you're—"

"Guys!" The conversation was headed down a road Leo didn't want to travel.

"Sorry, Leo."

The door opened again and Toby entered Leo's office, almost smiling. "I think I found it," he said.

Josh and Sam looked at each other, then gleefully greeted Toby, "Asta!"

The communications director swiveled his head between the two men, then shook it rapidly. "I do not want to know. Leo, the AIDS bill?"

"Tell me what you've got."

"It's Jefferson."

"Robbie Jefferson?" Leo frowned. "Where the hell did he come into this?" He glanced around. "And where's CJ?"

"I don't know," Toby admitted.

"You don't know which part?"

"Either. I can't figure out how Jefferson fits into the AIDS bill, and I have no idea where CJ might be."

"I'm here," she called, rushing in balancing a coffee cup and a muffin on her clipboard. "I had a -- I had to get a--"

"Muffin?" Sam offered.

"Thanks, Sam. I was going to say a briefing, but who would want the press secretary to look intelligent, right?"

"CJ," Leo said, "tell me you know more about this bill than 'It's Jefferson.' Three people in this room claim to have unlocked the secrets of Congress, and so far I've seen no evidence they could so much as unlock their car doors."

CJ sat down in the chair across from the desk. Josh and Sam resumed their traditional posts on the couch, and Toby hovered annoyingly, as he did so well, behind CJ.

Opening the folder on top of her clipboard and taking a sip of coffee, CJ outlined what she knew about the demise of the AIDS bill. Unfortunately, at some point, this required her saying, "Apparently no one would take marijuana." CJ regretted that the instant she said it.

"I would!"

"No joke. He should've given it to us."

"Can you still make a bong from a potato?"

"I might if I ever, you know, had potatoes around."

"Hey, Cheech and Chong!" Leo called. "Are you done?"

"Cheech and Chong?" Josh protested. "What happened to Nick and Nora?"

"Yeah, Leo," Sam said. "I thought you liked our new spirit of collaboration."

"I did. Now it's really annoying." He looked around the room. "Any suggestions?"

They stared at each other for a minute. Then Josh snapped his fingers. "Stick an amendment on Stacy's bill."

Leo brightened. "That's the one with the..."

"The kids with the eye defects," Josh finished. CJ envied the wavelength Josh shared with his boss. Some days Josh was closer to Leo than she would ever be. A quick glance at Sam confirmed that it bugged him a little, too.

The AIDS bill disposed of, Leo kicked them out of his office. Josh and Sam were still bickering about Alice Johnson, and Toby seemed distracted by a speech coming up that didn't seem to be "writing itself." No one paid attention to Leo as he pulled CJ aside and whispered, "How was the play?"

She smiled. "Thought-provoking. Awe-inspiring. Heart-breaking. I've got a bunch of other compound words, if you want any of them."

He smiled. "Nah, I'm OK with the set I got. You never came by."

She shrugged. "You never came back."

He looked around to make sure no one could see them, then took her hand. "I really am sorry, CJ. I'm just not ready--"

"Will you ever be?"

They stared at each other. Leo didn't know what to say to that, but he had to be honest with her. "I don't know."

CJ nodded. "OK. As long as you're thinking about it--"

"When I'm not thinking about this administration, I think about little else."

When I'm not thinking about this administration, CJ's mind echoed. She and Leo would probably never get it right. But they would have a damned good time trying. "I'm going back to work."

"Yeah. Hey, the muffins are really good today."

She grinned seductively at him. "They are indeed."

He blushed and dropped her hand, laughing. "Go away, Jezebel."