Title: Leo Cooking –Middle of the Night Daylight series 5/?
By: chipmunk
Pairing: Leo/Margaret
Rating: TEEN (See Rating Chart below)
Spoilers: None
This is not strictly cannon by the show.
Doesn't matter the year or the situation.
Beta and
Disclaimer:
The characters are from the NBC, WB, A John Wells Prod., TV show, ‘The West Wing’.
They own them; therefore, they do not belong to me.
They are the creation and property of Aaron Sorkin. I only borrowed them.
No copyright infringement is intended. No monetary benefit is received or anticipated.
A ‘grateful’ and ‘enormous’ thanks, to the actors and actresses,
who portray the characters brilliantly and bring them to life in my head.
Feedback: I would love it hear your opinion! PLEASE! It helps to improve my writing!
Archived at: http://www.geocities.com/chipmunkswhimseys/
Summary: Leo shows up exhausted at Margaret’s at
~ For his wonderful
gift to us of Leo, I humbly dedicate this fic to John Spencer. ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It’s Saturday night and Margaret
is totally exhausted.
The reason is that they’d
worked for nineteen straight hours on Friday.
Then Margaret returned to work Saturday morning, after only four hours
of sleep, to find that the situation was no better and it would not be an early
evening for them, as she had hoped.
At
When Margaret drags into her
apartment a short time later, she’s almost too tired to undress, but after
years of practice, she can change for bed, while asleep on her feet. ~I’d go
to the kitchen for something to eat, but I’m too tired to chew. Now that’s tired.~
*********
In the middle of the night, Margaret
digs to the surface of sleep, when she hears her apartment door close. ~That
better be Leo. If it’s not, I’m too
tired to even defend myself. Luckily he’s
the only one with a key. There’s no way
he wants to cook now, in the middle of the night.~ Margaret is just awake enough that she can now
hear Leo softly calling her name, as he walks toward her bedroom.
Leo looks into her room and
by the dim light from the hallway he can just tell in the shadows that Margaret
is resting in her bed. He still softly
inquires, “Margaret, are you asleep?”
Margaret mumbles her answer,
as she doesn’t want to get fully wake, “Is there a problem, Leo, do you need me
at work?”
“No, No, It’s OK now,” Leo
assures her in the same soft voice. He can
tell she’s still practically asleep and he doesn’t want to wake her.
Margaret makes a little more
effort to find conciseness and states, “Leo, this better be a dream or I just
might beat you with a baseball bat and tell the police that I didn’t recognize
you in the dark. Yes, I think I’m awake.”
She raises her head, from the
king size pillow that she’s lying face down on and hugging under her. Squinting an eye at the clock on the
nightstand, she remarks to Leo, like he’s nuts, “Leo, it’s
Margaret then gets a better
look at him, as he shifts in the doorway to lean on the doorframe and the faint
light falls on his face. ~He looks so exhausted.~ “Leo, I hate to tell you this, but you look
like 88 miles of bad road. You didn’t go
home last night did you?” She knows that
what she just said was true. “Oh, Leo,”
she moans, as she drops her head back down onto her pillow.
Leo then moves farther into
the room, softly sitting on the corner of the bed, and drops his clothes bag,
at his feet. “I confess, Margaret. I just went to the hotel to shower and change
last night.”
He gives a weak soft chuckle,
“Oh, and thanks for the compliment, you didn’t need to sugarcoat it. I know.
I feel like crap.”
They’re both a bit verbally
punchy in the middle of the night. Both are
too sleepy to really notice. “I was gonna
be nice to you, Margaret!”
Her sleepy mind goes where it
shouldn’t, ~I can think of several ways
he can be nice to me, in the middle of the night and just my luck we’re both
too tired to even fool around.~ Margaret tells herself being a little
truthful.
She softly asks back, “OK,
Leo, it’s late enough for me to bite at that line. What do you mean, ‘be nice to me’!” She’s trying
not to fall asleep, before she hears the answer.
Leo gives a soft chuckle, “Well,
Margaret, don’t get your hopes up. Your
virtue is safe tonight. I’m too tired to
ravish you.” ~Damn the bad luck,~ He swears to himself. ~Hopefully,
there’ll be other opportunities.~ He leans forward and rests his arms on his knees. His hands are just limply hanging. Looking downward, his eyes don’t even make the
effort to focus on his shoes or the floor.
Snuggling into her pillow Margaret
mumbles, “Ok, I agree. No ravishing
tonight.” Pausing, she then sighs
sleepily, “Save it for another night,” not really paying attention that she
just said that out loud.
Leo smothers a yawn, “Oh well,”
as he listens to the silence a moment. He
then continues with the real reason he’s there.
“I a… I thought I could finish sleeping the
night on your couch and then a…fix breakfast for us in the morning. Mmmm… I’m sure you
have eggs in the fridge.” He chuckles
softly, “And I make a mean Mexican omelet.”
He’s trying to sound persuasive, but it is almost too much effort to
sound it.
Margaret is ready to go back
to dreaming, “Sounds good to me, if you don’t start cooking at the crack of
dawn. I plan on sleeping in,” she
agrees.
Margaret’s natural awareness
of Leo still keeps her from drifting back to sleep. She notices that Leo’s kicking off his shoes,
now that she’s consented for him to stay on the couch, by the sound of his
shoes dropping to the carpet. “Leo, hang
your suit coat over the back of my vanity chair, you don’t want it to get
wrinkled.”
His eyes keep blinking with
sleep, as Leo slips the coat off. Without
getting up, he stretches over to hang it on the chair. Every movement is in slow motion. Leo is wearing down fast, now that he knows
he’s staying. He just sits for a moment,
head down and his eyes now closed, then in the quiet Leo agrees, “Sleeping in
would be wonderful and tomorrow is Sunday.”
Wiggling a bit for comfort, Margaret
just has to point out, “See, Leo, you remember what day of the week tomorrow is
or make that today is, without me handing you a schedule with it printed on the
top,” she’s being sarcastic in her sleep.
She tucks the comforter down better from her face, with her chin, “Good,
no alarm in the morning.”
Leo’s brain is barely working at this
point. ~I better move or I’m gonna be asleep sitting up. I haven’t been this tired, in forever.~ Leo still
doesn’t get up. He removes the cuff
links from his shirt cuffs and reaches over to slip them into his coat
pocket. Next, he starts to slowly,
unbutton the front of his shirt.
Margaret’s aware of his
movements, but is not really caring.
She’s just trying to stay comfortable.
“Margaret, are your eyes
closed,” she can tell by Leo’s voice that he’s bent over digging in his clothes
bag.
“Yeah, they are,” she mumbles
into her pillow.
“Good, keep them that way for
a minute,” Leo advises.
The bed rises, as he stands
and Margaret can hear him unzip his pants, then she hears them hit the floor,
by the sound of the change jingling in the pocket. ~Damn, why can’t I be awake, while he’s
undressing in my room? Wait a minute! That sounds like it should be more fun than
this. I know I’m not gonna see this in
the same light, in the morning. I’m glad
the light is off. If I could see what
he’s doing, my face would be fire engine red.~
Margaret then feels when Leo
sits back down, as bed moves again. From
the slight sound of cloth moving and the bed wiggling, she knows he’s putting
on his sweats. ~Dreams do come true. I won’t
have any trouble dreaming tonight, or any night soon.~
The bed really bounces then,
as he pops quickly up and down, to pull up his sweats. Leo is now quiet again, just sitting on the
end of the bed.
Margaret thinks it’s OK to
ask and does in a sleepy voice, “Is it safe to open my eyes now?”
He chuckles and replies, “It
was always safe, but I didn’t want you to be uncomfortable, while I changed.” He’s reaching out to lay his pants and shirt,
over his coat. He looks around at
Margaret, as the bed begins to wiggle at her end. “Where’re you going?”
“Well, it’s this way,
Leo. You have me awake in the middle of
the night. You’ve been wiggling and
bouncing the bed so much, so now… I have
to go to the ‘little girls’ room.
Wait! Hold it! The first part of that last sentence will
‘not’ be repeated at work on Monday,” she warns, as she crawls out past him, at
the top of the bed to get out.
Leo laughs softly with
delight and falls weakly back onto the now empty bed,
with his bare feet still on the floor. ~Her bed feels so soft. I hate to move to the couch yet. I’m just gonna lay here, till she returns.~
Margaret sleepily stumbles
back to bed, to find Leo half lying on the bed and very quiet. She also sees, by the hall light that his
shoes are neatly just under the bed and smiles at the sight. ~This
is not a dream. This is not a dream. Oh, this is not a dream.~
She climbs into bed and is
thinking that Leo is just resting for a minute and has his eyes closed. “Leo, you need to go to the couch now.” No response.
~Oh, no, he’s out like a light.~ “Leo!”
“Mmmmmm,” he almost responds.
“Leo,” she tries again a
little louder.
“Mmmm,” he responds less and
softer still.
~Well, he’s not going to go to the couch anytime soon,
but he can’t sleep with his legs over the end of the bed. Now what?
Oh, I ‘have’ to get back to sleep.~
She’s trying to think of what
to do with him, as she rests her head on her drawn up knees. ~OK, if
I can’t move him, he’ll have to stay here.
I can’t believe I’m doing this.~
She shakes him on the
shoulder, “Leooo.”
“Mmmmm,”
is his only response again.
“Leeeooooo,”
she calls him again with more urgency and shaking his shoulder more this time. ~If I
keep this up, I’m going to wake the neighbors!~
Leo moves his head, even slightly
raising it, but his eyes remain closed.
“Leo! Leo, move up here to the pillow!” She tugs on the shoulder of his t-shirt,
hoping to get him in motion. As he
starts to move, she pulls the comforter back out of his way.
Leo crawls up the sheet and
at the same time turns onto his side, toward her, tucking the other king pillow
under the side of his face. He doesn’t
even open an eye.
Margaret covers him over with
the comforter. ~We’ll deal with this situation in the morning.~ Putting it out of her mind, Margaret rolls onto
her side, away from him, toward the wall.
Just like Leo, in mere seconds, she is fast asleep.
**********
At
Lying quietly, Margaret
smiles when she becomes aware that Leo has his face buried in the nape of her
neck, she can feel his even breathing on her skin. His arm is loosely around her waist. His warm hand has snuggled
under her baggy, pajama top and is spread out on her bare abdomen. ~It
feels nice to wake up being held. We
were both so tired that we didn’t even rolled over all night.~
Margaret cuddles back into
Leo, and in his sleep he tightens his hold, pulling her snugly against
him. She can feel him place a
feather-light, soft kiss on her bare shoulder, where her sagging collar has
slipped away. ~His breathing hasn’t changed, so I know he kissed my shoulder in his
sleep. I could sleep like this forever.~ Margaret
closes her eyes again, with a gentle smile, goes back to sleep blissfully in
Leo’s arms.
Margaret wakes later to
realize that it’s now
Margaret feels Leo shifts a
little and he draws her in close again.
His hand has moved, while they were sleeping and is now resting higher,
just under her breasts. ~If his hand moves any higher, I may not be
able to tell him no, if he makes advances, but yet I don’t want to risk our new
relationship. Oh, help, what’ll I do?~
“This is nice, Margaret,” Leo
assures her in a husky voice, letting her know that he’s awake. His voice continues in a wonderful sleep
filled rumble, “Cuddling is one of my favorite things to do in the whole
world.” He places kisses on her exposed
bare shoulder, the same as he did in his sleep.
~ I can’t resist bare skin in
front of my face. So shoot me, I’m human.~
His soft-rough stubble is
just as enticing to Margaret’s sensitive skin, as his soft lips. She all most forgets to breath. ~ Oh, I
know he can feel me tremble at his touch, with his hand holding me close.~
His morning voice soothes, “Don’t
worry, Margaret. I remember promising
you last night, that I wouldn’t ravish you.”
He slides his hand slowly down her ribs and it’s now resting at the side
curve of her waist. “Do you trust me?”
“Mmmmm, always, Leo,” is Margaret
soft reply, as she’s having trouble thinking coherently with his hand moving on
her.
Leo now moves his hand to
between them, still on her bare skin and starts rubbing soft slow circles on
her back. Leo knows Margaret just loves
that. Both are ‘so’ content to just
enjoy lie together and cuddling for a while.
“Leo, as nice as this is, I
need to get up now,” she urgently states in a sad voice.
“The little girls’ room
again,” he guesses with a soft laugh.
‘Yeah, it’s been too many
hours,” she confesses, being a little embarrassed and regretting getting up.
“How much water ‘do’ you
drink in a day? Margaret, you don’t have
health problems, do you,” he asks both questions with concern.
“No problems, I just make
sure I drink my eight glasses everyday, it’s good for my skin,” she’s trying to
sound logical. She’s carefully climbing
out from under the comforter, trying to keep Leo covered and warm, because she
has her furnace set to automatically turn down at night. Margaret then proceeds to climb over top of
him, to get out, since Leo has ended up in the middle of the bed, cuddling up
to her.
He grunts, groans and moans,
like she’s killing him.
When Margaret is finally
standing at the side of the bed and to be sarcastic to him,
since he was to her, she pats him on the back, sounding sad and comforts
him by saying, “Poor Leo, so abused.”
He chuckles and rolls face
down onto her abandoned pillow, which is still warm from her.
Margaret sighs to herself, ~ I may not
be washing those pillowcases for a while.
He’s been on both of them now.
Sweet dreams ahead.~ “Leo, you go ahead and take your time getting
up. I’m also going to go and make the
coffee.”
************
Half an hour later,
Margaret’s sitting on a stool at the counter of the kitchen, sipping her coffee
and reading a section of the New York Times.
When Leo enters, after he has freshened up in the bathroom and is fully
awake, he drops a kiss on the top of her head, as he passes behind her to get
himself a mug of coffee.
Margaret’s face softly
brightens with a small smile, with his relaxed manner with her this morning. ~He’s getting a nice
habit of dropping casual kisses on me. Real
nice.~
Stepping back to stand behind
her, so he scans the headlines of the newspaper over her shoulder, Leo promptly
informs her, “I’ll start the omelets now. I wouldn’t want you to starve or anything,
after being ‘nice’ to me last night and letting me stay.” He’s grinning widely, as he goes over to open
the fridge.
“Thanks for the kiss, but I
wasn’t that ‘nice’, Leo. Let me warn
you, I’m still on my first cup of coffee,” she’s just letting him know up
front. ~He might as well find out now, that it takes a cup or two of coffee,
just to jump start my mind in the morning and then it’s full speed after that.~
Looking over at Leo with his
head in the fridge, she smiles at his backside.
~ Nice view first thing in the
morning! ~
Leo confirms, as he
straightens and sets a few items on the counter next to the stove, “Margaret, it
‘was’ nice!” He pauses to smile softly
while remembering. “It was nice to
sleep, in a warm soft bed and cuddle. To
wake up with someone in my arms and to talk softly with, before the day
invades,” Leo honestly gives his feelings to her.
“Yes, Leo, those things are
special to me too,” Margaret answers softly and smiles to him. Adding to herself, ~ It was more than ‘I’ ever hoped for and I
hope we do to again sometime. It really
was special to me.~ She continues
out loud to him, with another thought, “Leo, keep in mind here that I’m not
fully awake and I may think better about this offer later.”
He cheerfully interrupts her,
“You’re gonna make me an offer?
Remember, Margaret, you also promised not to ravish me last night. So, are the promises null and void, now that
it’s daylight,” he teases with a hopeful sound in his voice. He knows she’s gonna blush at that. ~It
‘is’ so much fun to make her blush and I don’t want to rush our friendship, but
someday, the time might be right. I
might get lucky. I can only hope.~
Margaret tries unsuccessfully
to sound serious, after that remark from him.
“Leo, the offer ‘is’ for you to keep some casual clothes here.” She’s trying not to grin and not to blush at
the same time.
“Are you gonna clean me out a
drawer and leave some room in your closet for my clothes,” Leo continues to
tease her. “Are we gonna be part-time
roomies?”
Trying to sound annoyed she
states, “Leo, you’re just trying to get ’to me’ again. I’m awake enough to tell that. Keep it up and I’ll withdraw my offer and you
can keep toting your clothes in with you every time.” She smiles sweetly, “I’ll be nice and you can
keep them in the bathroom closet.
There’s plenty of room in it.”
Leo smiles back at her kind
offer, “Yeah that would be nice. Last
time I came over, I had to first go by the hotel and get my bag. I’d forgotten to repack it and put it in the
car.”
By this time, Leo has the
ingredients ready to put in the skillet.
“OK, Margaret, how ‘hot’ do you want your Mexican omelet? With hot sauce in it, on
it, or both?”
Shocked, Margaret’s eyes get big as, she
exclaims, “You’ve got to be kidding, Leo, none of the above. Not this early in the day. How can you eat that now,” she asks with real
concern.
“No, Problem,” he smiles to
her. “You’re just a sissy. Really, Margaret, it’s the ‘only’ benefit I
ended up with, from my years of drinking.
A cast-iron stomach and I like to enjoy it.”
The omelets are done in just
minutes and they carry their plates to the small dining area and dig into the
steaming omelets. Leo brings the hot
sauce with him to the table.
Margaret keeps her opinion to
herself for the moment, ~He’s got to be
nuts to eat ‘that’ this early. I don’t
think I could eat like that even late at night.~ “Leo, did you bring plenty of milk, you know, to
cool your stomach down after you eat that or should I go find you the Tums
now,” she could not resist questioning him sarcastically, about his hot sauce.
“I have plenty of milk in my
glass. I like my Mexican omelet warm,”
he boasts.
Margaret points out to him, “Leo,
there’s warm and then there’s hot, that looks definitely HOT.” She knows she’s right.
“I know what kind of warm you
like, Margaret. Leo lowers his eyes and
gives her a dreamy look, “that warm bed of yours. It was warm when I got into it. That’s how I managed to fall sleep
immediately. I remember it was warm and
soft. You being in there also, was
really too hard to resist,” he was trying to get her blush to return.
“Leo, admit it, you were too
exhausted to resist anything last night.”
She pauses and keeps her eyes on her plate. “I fully confess, Leo, I cheat!” Margaret
looks him in the eye and gives a sneaky smile.
“How? You, Margaret? ‘Cheat’? Do I need to have Agent Butterfield come here
and check out what you’re doing,” he tries to look serious, but fails with the
laughter in his voice.
She boldly states, “Well,
unless you want him to personally be checking out my private bed, you better
not sic him on me,” she bats her eyes at him, teasing him right back.
“What?” He exclaims with a surprised and shocked look
on his face. He then points out, “I had
to practically pass-out on your bed, to get into it,” he finishes with an
indignant look.
Smiling at the look on his
face, Margaret relents. “Ok, Leo, I’ll
tell you the truth. I have a Restwarmer
on the bed, so I can set the temperature on my automatic thermostat for the furnace
down at night.” She adds logically, “No
sense heating the whole apartment all night,” is her frugal reply.
“What’s a Restwarmer? Sounds like a good thing, Martha Stewart,”
he’s easily back to teasing her again.
“It’s a mattress cover that
has tiny wires in it, to gently warm the bed from under the sheet. It helps when a person sleeps alone. You know my work motto, Leo, I leave when you
leave. I get precious little hours in
the bed anyway, so I make them count,” she quickly explains, as she can feel
her face getting red. She gets busy with
her omelet again.
Leo notices her face and to
really get it red, after her remark about Agent Butterfield, he can’t resist
his next comment of, “I guess, I really shouldn’t mention at work the fact that
you had your legs wrapped around my waist this morning.” He gives her a satisfied grin.
“Leo!” Now she ‘is’ shocked and appalled. Margaret looks at him and all she sees is Leo
smiling at her stricken look. “No, I
didn’t… I mean… You wouldn’t,” she stammers to a halt. She indignantly snaps out the fact, “I didn’t
have my legs wrapped around you.”
“You did,” he confirms with a
nod and another bite of his hot omelet.
“I did not,” she states, her
face is the reddest that Leo has ever seen it.
He loves it! She quickly busies
her face with her napkin.
He states calmly to assure
her, “Yes, you did,” he hesitates momentarily, then
finishes, his voice dropping to a sexy level, “When you climbed over me to get
out of bed!
Her face whips up, “It was
not like… the way you make it sound,” she defends herself. ~Oh, none of the guys at work are going to see it ‘my’ way. I can be guaranteed that. They’ll all just congratulate Leo.~ ”You were
still covered up, Leo,” she points out with her fork.
Leo calmly notes, with an eye
on her fork, “This morning, did I not have my hand on your bare skin that is
usually covered to the general public, and did I not kiss your bare shoulder? Thoroughly I might add.” He’s hugely grinning. He really has her cornered now.
Margaret lowers her face and
covers her eyes with her hand, ~Note to
self, I may have to keep a list of what we’re not going to let slip at
work. Oh, help! Leo will rally get some mileage out of this,
in blackmail. On second thought, better
not make a list, someone might find ‘it’ and there’s no way, I could explain.~
She pops her head up, “Leo,
if you let this slip,” she warns. Her
eyes are wide as she contemplates the ramifications. “That’s a really good way to give ‘me’ a
heart attack. Don’t even joke about that
statement getting out at work,” she threatens.
Leo smiles to himself. ~Someday,
she can try to give ‘me’ a heart attack, in that warm bed of hers, but maybe I
better not mention that right now. I
could find myself on the other side of her front door, with my bag in my
hand. I can hope for someday, but until
then, cuddling is good!~
Being serious and to reassure
her, Leo touches her hand, “Margaret, you know I would never do anything to
harm you,” he vows with a gentle smile. “Waking
up and cuddling with you, was a wonderful way to start the day,”
Her face softens, “I know,
Leo,” she admits softly, as peace settles in her world again. “It was.”
They resume the meal,
enjoying the nice omelets that Leo had made and are just quiet for a short
while. Just thinking and enjoying this
time together.
Margaret looks over at Leo
and announces, “I just figured out something about Josh,” she has an astonished
look on her face.
“What about Josh? What did he do,” he quickly questions, as he
turns his head toward her.
“Nothing really,” she pauses
constructing her words. “I hope I ask
this right, Leo. You know how he likes
to exchange playful and sexual, verbal banter with Donna,” acting like she’s
just casually asking him.
“Yeah, I picked up on that,”
he answers her question, not knowing where Margaret’s leading.
“Leo, did Josh by any chance,
learn that from being around you and his father, Noah?” She knows his answer, before he confirms
it. By the playful way he is, here at
the apartment.
“Yeah… he did… but we only do
it to women that we really care about,” he confirms and defines his answer.
“But... Donna and Josh have been doing it since the
very beginning. Even when we were first
campaigning,” she’s thinking out loud now.
Nodding his head and
remembering, “Yeah, they clicked right away.”
“OK, I just wanted to clarify
that,” she drops the conversation short.
~Does that mean he really cares
about me and that’s why he’s so playful around me, here at the apartment?”~
Leo has a worried thought, ~She may be
on to me now! Oh, well, too late.~
To change the subject he
suggests. “Now, how about we start
making a grocery store list for dinner and I can work on my puzzle.”
“Oh, Leo, you and your
morning puzzle,” she smiles at him and about his plans for the whole day!
The end
p.s. till next Sunday or maybe Saturday
~ In memory of John Spencer ~
~ Thanks for the hugs, John! ~
Betty Lou Riley
Rating System!
CHILD - suitable for all ages
YTEEN (younger teens) - some content may not be
suitable for children
TEEN - suitable for teens and above
MATURE - suitable for mature readers
ADULT - adults only
P — Profanity
SC — Sexual Content
V — Violence
GV — Graphic Violence
GS - Graphic Sexual Content