CJ closed her briefing book for the last time and glanced around at the sea of faces. She could name each and every member of her press corps, and in the preceding few days had taken the time to spend a few private moments with each.

Katie was taking a leave of absence to marry the love of her life and have a baby. Arthur was retiring and moving to a cabin to spend his days fishing. Bill was taking over as Senior White House correspondent. Then there was Danny.

He grinned back at her, his notepad still open, his red hair more wild than normal and his beard still unkept.

CJ pursed her lips and cocked her head to one side. She still wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He was vague when she asked, and the others seemed to be as much in the dark as she was.

“CJ?” someone called and her head snapped back to the gathering.

“Yes, Mark.”

“You still haven’t told us what your plans are for the future,” the reporter asked, gesturing around the group with his hands. “Our readers like to know these things.”

A genuine laugh filtered around the room, in the knowledge that the readers wouldn’t give a damn, but the reporters would miss her.

CJ grinned and tapped the podium. “Now, you all know that the private lives of the senior staff are just that, private,” CJ stated, her eyes twinkling in mischief.

“So if we ask you at midnight, you’ll tell us?” Danny countered, his mouth set in a self satisfied smirk.

“Ah, but by midnight, you’ll all be gone,” CJ offered smugly. “And with that, I’d like to thank you all for making the last eight years, ah, entertaining. Give the new guy hell. That‘s a full lid.” She made to step off the podium when a sudden movement caught her eye.

Turning back to the group, she was surprised to see every reporter in the room rise to their feet and give her a round of applause.

Her cheeks tinged pink at the gesture and she nodded affectionately in their direction before she headed through the door.

“Very nice,” Toby mumbled as she reached the corridor.

“Do I really have to have an appraisal on my last briefing?” she mock grumbled, falling into step with him.

“Be nice, I’m the one writing your reference,” he smirked.

Her hand lightly smacked his arm.

They bantered as they walked towards her office. It would be their last chance for at least a year to see each other. Toby was planning to travel the world before he penned his autobiography. By the same time tomorrow, Toby would be in the Maldives or the Seychelles or somewhere equally idyllic, scuba diving and fishing. She would miss him more than he would ever know.

Her arm linked through his as she dragged him towards her office and a gift wrapped box of pink rubber balls.

CJ failed to see the red headed reporter propping up the doorframe to the press bullpen, a thoughtful expression on his face.

*******
If you see me walking down the street, staring at the sky and dragging my two feet, you just pass me by, it still makes me cry but you can make me whole again.

*******

Danny had arrived in New Hampshire in the middle of winter, which, as Leo told him on numerous times, wasn’t all that different to New Hampshire at any time of the year. His first task had been to introduce himself to Bartlet’s Press Secretary. Rumor had it that she was a Hollywood PR type on her first political campaign. In which case, the consensus was right, if a miracle happened and Bartlet managed to win, she’d never end up the White House Press Secretary.

Failing to make head or tails of the directions he‘d been given, Danny wandered the converted storefront until he found a handwritten sign marked ”Press” taped on an open door. Her office was barely a cubicle, her long legs stretching out beneath her desk and poking into the hallway.

His eyes had caught sight of a pair of black designer flats and the hems of a pair of cream pants, and drifted upwards. The legs seemed to go on forever and he’d actually ducked his head to check they really had continued under the desk.

“Can I help you?” an irritated voice had asked.

Danny had stood up straight and smiled.

The owner of the legs and the new Press Secretary was staring at him, one eyebrow raised. The mass of curly strawberry hair, he had immediately decided, really didn’t suit her. Neither did the large tortoiseshell frames. He wanted to see the eyes hidden behind the glasses and the hair.

“Okay, I’ll ask again. Can I help you?” She was getting agitated by the scruffy looking man in her doorway, suitcase in one hand, laptop in the other.

“I’m looking for the Press Secretary,” he’d grinned, as he’d dropped his case. “Danny Concannon, Washington Post.”

“CAROL.”

A woman had appeared behind him and given him a sympathetic smile.

“Yeah, boss.”

“The Post,” she had offered, gesturing at him with one hand and returning to her messages with the other. “He needs a press pass and the hotel details.”

“Come with me,” Carol had muttered wearily, already hurrying down the corridor.

He picked up his case, and watching her carefully, said, “You never did tell me your name.” Not that he didn't already know it, and plenty of other information besides, he just wanted her to pay a little attention to him, not just his press credentials.

“No, I didn’t, but as a reporter I’m sure you can find out.” Her eyes had never left the papers before her.

Danny had grinned as he followed Carol.

That had been the first meeting and as the campaign trudged on, he had indeed gotten her to notice him. Unfortunately, the special attention he craved ended up more often than not, with him being on the receiving end of her wrath. As the campaign gathered momentum, she had opened up to the small press pack that followed them everywhere, and Danny had been given a wider berth in respect to access to the Governor.

That was eight years ago.

He watched her disappear into the office with Toby and a pang of sadness shot through his heart. CJ was his friend, as much as a White House Press Secretary and a reporter could be, but whereas Toby could be alone with her, door closed, Danny was left out in the cold.

Which is where he’d been for the last eight years, and from appearances she didn’t seem to be making any moves to change it, even now.

*******
And if you see with another man, laughing and joking, making the best of this I can, I won’t try to put you down, baby I still want you around, 'cos you can make me whole again.

******

The party was in full swing. Tomorrow was the Inauguration Ball, but that night it was the farewell party for the White House staff.

CJ slipped away from Donna and Margaret and crossed the room.

Leo was leaning against a pillar watching everyone relax. For days there had been tears. No one wanted to leave, many didn’t know what to do next, but tonight they all looked happy. Of course the drink had been flowing since lunchtime, and for the first time in years, they could really let their hair down.

“Dance with me,” CJ said, appearing at Leo’s arm.

“Only if I can lead,” Leo joked, taking her proffered arm and escorting her to the middle of the room.

They danced in silence for the first few bars, then her voice drifted through the silence as she gossiped about the others and their plans for the immediate future. She mentioned her desire to see Toby once in his new wetsuit and Leo grinned at the image she'd planted in his mind Her laughter vibrated against his ear and proved infectious.

Leo pressed his face to her shoulder as tears of laughter fell onto his cheeks.

CJ looked into the distance and for a second she froze. She couldn’t be sure, but for a second she thought she’d seen Danny peeking in the ballroom door. Just as quickly the figure disappeared and she was staring at the walnut stain on the closed door.

“There’s nothing to stop you now,” Leo whispered, his eyes gazing up at her face. “You should invite him to the party.”

“Leo,” she began, glancing at him and back to the empty doorway. “Would it really be alright?”

Leo grinned back at her. “Go.”

The kiss she pressed to his cheek was gentle, as she broke away from him and headed to the one place she knew she’d find him.

*******
Looking back on when we first met, I can not escape and I can not forget, baby, you’re the one, you still turn me on, you can make me whole again.

******

Danny slid back into his seat and lifted the laptop lid. The half-finished editorial stared back at him, taunting him. His fingers flew across the keyboard, only to suddenly stop and press the delete button. He couldn’t sum up the eight years of the administration, not when his thoughts were solely centered around her.

“Hey Nimrod,” she called.

He turned sharply to find her lanky frame against the door, her legs crossed.

“CJ.”

“Whatya doing at 11:57?” she asked, her eyes darting to her watch face and back to him.

“Finishing up,” he muttered, his eyes staring at her face and her straight taffy-colored hair, that he longed to run his fingers through.

“There’s a party next door,” she started, her cheeks blushing under his intense scrutiny.

Danny ran his short fingers across his beard. “Yeah, I wondered what the noise was.”

“So?”

“So what?” he asked, casually.

“Fishboy!”

He shrugged non-committally. “What? Are you asking me on a date?”

“No, you’ve asked me fifty times and I’m saying yes to one of them,” she quipped, her eyes asking unspoken questions.

“In that case, yes.” He pressed save and closed the laptop. “So what are you going to do next?” he asked casually.

“Um.” CJ pretended to think about her answer as he approached. “A vacation, then the talk show circuit.”

“But you are going to get a job sometime, right?” he asked, his fingers entwining with hers, as he distracted her with banter. “I mean you aren’t planning to be a kept woman for the rest of your life.”

“A kept woman would imply I have a man to keep me,” CJ corrected, her fingers lacing with his unconsciously. While she opened the door with her free hand, her words opened the conversation he‘d been trying to initiate for days.

“And what am I? Chopped liver?” he asked, only partly in dismay.

CJ rolled her eyes. “I admit you keep Gail in fish food, but it seems to me that I’m the one who’s been keeping you in Chow Mein,” she teased.

“I invited you to dinner enough times. It was you that was concerned about objectivity,” he grumbled.

“Danny,” she groaned. “We can’t. Not here.”

Her protest was lost as his lips covered hers and she surrendered to the kiss. He had always had that dizzing effect on her and now there was no longer any need to fight it. As his tongue found its way into her mouth, she realized just how much she had missed him.

******
Time is layin heavy on my heart, seems I've got too much of it since we've been apart, my friends make me smile, if only for a while, you can make me whole again.

******

Seconds passed as he deepened the kiss, his fingers tightening around her own. The intensity which they had shared during that first year had not diminished.

CJ didn’t want the kiss to end. Her body responded to his touch as he pressed her up against a wall and his hand began to roam her body.

Danny enjoyed the moment, wishing that it could always be like that between them.

******
For now I'll have to wait, but baby, if you change your mind, don't be too late, 'cos I just can't
go on, its already been too long, but you can make me whole again.

********

Danny released her and stepped back, tucking his shirt back into his pants and smoothing his hair down with one hand.

CJ looked back at him, wide eyed, the blood pumping through her veins and hammering in her ears.

“So, let’s party,” Danny chuckled, “before all the crab puffs disappear.”

Her eyelids fluttered shut as she tried to control the sensations coursing through her body.

“Are you okay?” he asked, the amusement all too evident in his voice.

“Go away,” she groaned as she tried to even out her breathing. Her fingers slipped inside the unbuttoned blouse to rearrange her clothing to cover her bare breast. “Damn you.”

“Something the matter?”

“DANNY!”

“You seem a little flushed there,” he teased, grinning inanely. “Anything I can do?”

“NO.” Her voice caught in her throat as she straightened her attire and reapplied her professional facade.

“Well in that case, maybe I should just go home.“

CJ grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door. “Damn you, Concannon,” she muttered. “You just wait until later.”

They stepped through the door and into the party as images of what she would do later flooded his mind.

********
Ooh, baby you’re the one, you still turn me on, but you can make me whole again.

*******

The End