Dark History Chapter One: A Change in the Air RATING: ADULT
As always, she was the first thing he spotted in a room. Looking across the haze of gaudy decorations and the sea of people, he could see her standing there, glaring quietly at Leo as yet again, Leo made a point to prove himself right. And yet, looking at her, all he could think was how in the twenty years he’d known her, and the millions of times she’d explained it to him, he never understood why she wore those four inch heels. But in this moment, he didn’t care. She was beautiful, with the light glinting off her hair and the way the black of her shirt made her seem even more slender. She hated how thin she was, he loved it, took it as another testament to her inner strength. And to see the grace with which she could cross a room, particularly when he’d also seen her fall into swimming pools and off of treadmills, it took his breath away.

Dark History Chapter Two: Heated Beginnings RATING: ADULT
Settling at the small desk and wondering how on earth she’d be able to get her long legs comfortable, CJ just shook her head, still thrown off by the meeting she’d just had. She wasn’t just some novice who didn’t give a shit about the campaign. Before coming down here, she’d reviewed the resumes of every staffer, memorized the position of the campaign, and taken the time to look at their polling numbers. Toby Ziegler had been handed the communications office after the previous two heads had walked away from the sinking ship. And now she had to work with him to keep this loosing battle from being, at the very least, an embarrassment. The top file was marked with about seven different post-its and she opened it, suppressing the gag reflex that came up when she saw the mishandling of press statements and polling models. Why the hell hadn’t the professionals been brought in earlier? But then again, before Toby, monkeys ran the communications staff. Without even finishing reading the first statement, she was on the phone, rearranging meetings – looking between the penciled in schedule of the candidate and what was available for press time, and finding a pollster who knew enough to explain the models appropriately to her, if not to everyone else. If this campaign failed, it wasn’t going to be because she let it.

Dark History Chapter Three: Heaven's Door RATING: ADULT
He didn’t know why he was holding his breath while watching the election coverage. They weren’t going to win, that had been made obvious about two hours ago. And still he sat here, waiting for them to officially call the night. Around him, staffers packed the office into boxes and pushed the more sensitive documents through the one shredder they’d been able to get their hands on. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see CJ working quietly in his office, but on what exactly he wasn’t sure.

Dark History Chapter Four: Palm ReadingRATING: ADULTHe wondered sometimes how it happened, how her picture had made it into his small office, a small snapshot he’d taken of her in Central Park. She was laughing at something behind him, and the light glinted off her hair and the shot had been completely accidental, but he’d needed to take it and now it sat there, in a simple gold frame. Simple and elegant – just like her. He took the teasing about his girlfriend quietly, and had waited until the interns grew tired of asking about the mysterious CJ before he started having her meet him at the office for dinner, and before he started making calls to her during the work day. It helped to get him through the pages of work he needed to do when he could hear her soft sigh over the phone.

Dark History Chapter Five: Countdown RATING: ADULT
Strong hands stopped him and he found himself looking into Tim’s accusing eyes. “God … Tim …” he choked now, seeing CJ’s entire family gathered in the small waiting room. Though the sea of faces he found Anisah and Abdul – lone allies in all of this. Tim let him go, still staring, accusing, and Toby tried, futilely, to catch his breath. Seven weeks since she’d taken the promotion, six weeks since he’d seen her last, since he’d helped her find her apartment here and then begged her to not take the job, four weeks since he’d told her, whispering into the phone in his bedroom that going to Qumar for this conference was a bad idea. Twelve hours since the phone call, Tim telling him that CJ had been flown back to the States early because she’d fallen ill at the conference. So now he looked to Anisah, begging her to tell him the whole truth. For some reason, he couldn’t face CJ’s father or brothers – his own guilt making him feel as if they blamed him for this … whatever this was.

Dark History Chapter Six: Ticking ClocksRATING: ADULT
Toby shifted on his feet, indicating for CJ’s special assistant to speak first. He didn’t want to be the one bringing the news he had and maybe if he let Charlie go first, the floor would open up and swallow him whole. But Charlie’s news wasn’t anything spectacular, just some things CJ would need to know about before Staff, and then she would just pass them right back to the assistants office. And before the floor could swallow him, Toby was standing there, alone, with his … what were they now? Two nights together over the past couple of weeks didn’t exactly reclassify them as anything, but there had been something different in the way she’d cried his name last night. He hadn’t heard that tone since those days in his apartment in Manhattan.

Dark History Chapter Seven: The Distance to Here RATING: ADULT
CJ conceded the point with a chuckle as she took a sip of her manhattan. Toby was still watching Andrea, and it unnerved her. He wasn’t hers to claim anymore, no matter the antics that had been taking place in his apartment since she came to town, but she was also standing less than a foot from him. He could at least take his eyes off of Andrea. Suddenly she felt plain again, and took a step back, smoothing her dress down over her flat stomach. Andrea was curvier, and her hair was a natural red, and she knew already that her temper was a perfect match for Toby’s. Toby would find no reasons for guilt with Andrea. She took another step back, and allowed herself to be caught by one of the senators from New York. It was easier than she thought to turn her back on Toby and the eyes he didn’t realize he was making at Andi Wyatt. Suddenly Tuesday couldn’t come fast enough. She knew that look on Toby’s face.

Dark History Chapter Eight: Snapshots RATING: ADULT
“Avert your eyes!” He did, turning, trying not to laugh, and knowing that while his trip here was purely professional, part of him had come here just for that reason, just to see her in as little as possible and to feel her moving under him. He heard her climb out and knew she was wrapping her clothes around herself as much as possible, when he also heard the resignation in her voice, “Oh, turn around.” He did and chuckled. CJ rolled her eyes at him and stormed toward the small pool house, trying to ignore the natural reaction her body had to his. He was married now, something she had done her best to learn to respect. Wasn’t staying in LA when she had bigger and better possibilities in DC and New York a good enough sign of faith? Did Andi know he was here? Four nights ago, when he’d left that cryptic message on her machine, she had known that Andi was there and that they couldn’t talk. That meant they were still trying to work things out. And she might be blind, but the sun reflected off his wedding ring.

Dark History Chapter Nine: The Months Prior RATING: ADULT
CJ jumped, realizing that somehow she had finished the meeting and moved onto the next item on her list, the mess regarding the new Qumari Attaché. It bothered her more than she wanted to admit, that Qumar was taking so long in bringing the guy over here, and that she had already spent weeks on this issue. What the hell did they really want? Today alone, she had spent the better part of the morning on the phone with the Qumar State Department, the Qumari Embassy, and even the King of Jordan, and no one would give her a straight answer as to what was really going on. They claimed it was oil prices, but the sixth sense she had developed over the past year told her that it was something big, something potentially embarrassing to the United States. Part of her thought about retaliation, delaying the process even more, calling up INS and telling them that there was a suspicion of Heroine on Naji’s plane. But, at least according to the latest news, Naji would be here in a couple of weeks, and she had until then to figure everything out. When she started working in this building almost eight years ago, she’d never expected that so many of her days would be spent acting more like Agatha Christie and Jack Ryan. So, she opened the letter from the Qumari Government, reading through the translated words, and sighing.

Dark History Chapter Ten: The End of History RATING: ADULT
She had to keep moving. She had to keep moving. She had to keep breathing. Somehow, she had to keep breathing. Her stomach hurt. She bent over, sick, forcing the bile down, staring at him, communicating with him, the conversation they couldn’t have verbally taking place just with their eyes. Somehow, through it all, though the tears in his eyes and the numbness in her body, somehow, she kept breathing.

Behind Closed Doors RATING: MATURE
Groaning, Josh rolled over and tried to get back to sleep. He was used to motels with thin walls, the lack of privacy on campaign busses, and even being in the next bed while his best friend in college had sex with the girl of his dreams. He'd never been this uncomfortable. He heard CJ scream softly, and could only envision what Toby was doing to her right now.

The Bitter Taste of Sadness RATING: ADULT
It took a minute for CJ to respond. Finally, she moved to sit with him on the couch. "You are, Toby. But it's what makes you, you." With a gentle touch, she turned his face to hers. "It takes a sad soul to understand that Macbeth can be a love story, and that Anne Rice and Virginia Woolf are beautiful." She'd never understood Andi's reasoning. Yes, Toby was sad and morose, but that was part of his charm. It was what made him Toby.

The Chair RATING: TEEN
After He found out I lost the baby, He called me every day at lunch. He wanted to make sure I was eating. I’d lie. He knew it and then he’d call Margaret and get her on my case. I’d call Annabeth and get her on His.

Remembrance RATING: MATURE
It was a dream awakening within her. The rain washed away the fog of the past, a past she both clung to and tried to forget. Their hands touched and she was jolted back twenty-three years, a trembling fifteen year old, dressed in ratty jeans and a tattered t-shirt. Her t-shirt hit the floor; his hands moved the zipper on her jeans. They’d both been entranced by her body’s reaction to the way he touched her, he’d spent an hour exploring the different folds he found, and pumping his fingers inside of her body. She’d heard most girls didn’t come their first time. She came, and came, and came. His breath hot on her skin as he slid, awkwardly at first, into her body. His eyes filled with guilt when she’d screamed out in pain as he broke through her hymen. He’d kissed her when he came, and when he pulled out, he held her close – hoping he hadn’t hurt her. It was his first time too.

The Unasked Question Rating: Teen
Andrea Wyatt had never been a woman to giggle. To laugh, yes. To guffaw like a drunken sailor, definitely. But she was not a giggler. Yet, she found it was giggles escaping her throat as she and CJ scurried into the crib store.

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