Kathleen A. Klatte

"Extraordinary Circumstances"

Feedback and commentary are most welcome.
Disclaimer: The West Wing is the property of NBC, et al; this is a recreational endeavor, no profit is being made and no copyright infringement is intended.
Tag to "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen"
C.J./Danny shipper

An irritatingly upbeat Danny Concannon strolled through the corridors of the West Wing. He’d just turned in an exclusive graciously provided by Leo McGarry and he was on his was to see his favorite Press Secretary. He’d thoughtfully scrounged some lunch and a cup of coffee, which he figured ought to at least get him through the door. He really wanted to see C.J., and not just for official business. He’d been scared to death the night before when all hell had broken loose and he lost sight of her. The Secret Service and later assorted police wouldn’t tell him anything.

Danny’s initial relief when he heard that C.J. was all right, then later when he saw her walk into the Press Room quickly evaporated when he got a good look at her. Something wasn’t right, something besides the chalky complexion and unfocussed expression in her eyes. She didn’t seem to hear or comprehend some of the questions being directed to her. She shuffled papers as though she couldn’t properly recall what she was trying to say. She’d seemed steadier by the fifth briefing, but Danny wondered uneasily just how well she’d been checked out last night. He suspected that someone who hadn’t actively been bleeding all over the pavement might easily have been overlooked.

Carol looked up and manufactured a smile for him as he approached.

"She in there?" Danny asked.

"Yes. I’m worried about her," Carol admitted.

"Well, if you let me in there, I’ll see if I can get her to eat something," Danny offered.

"Deal," Carol answered with a much more genuine smile.

Danny tapped lightly on the door then plastered a jaunty grin on his face and walked in. "Hey," he announced, holding up the bag of food like a peace offering.

C.J. was sitting at her desk, resting her head in her hands. She looked up slowly, as if waking from a dream. "Danny?" she whispered, as if the slightest sound would bring agony.

He swiftly set down the food and coffee and moved around to her side of the desk. "What’s wrong?" he asked gently.

She shook her head vaguely. "Nothing…I’ve…my head…"

"Carol!" Danny called.

She appeared instantly in the doorway.

"Carol, is there a doctor around here anywhere?"

"I’ll check," she replied briskly, disturbed by C.J.’s pallor.

"Don’t be re…reed…," C.J. slurred drunkenly. "It’s just a headache…" She lurched to her feet and would have fallen if not for Danny.

"It’s not just a headache," he said, cradling her securely in his arms. "Carol?"

Carol was already on the phone, calling for help.

Danny ran his fingers gently through C.J.’s hair, searching for a bump or wound of some sort. He knew he’d found it when she flinched, cringing away from his touch. "Shh…I’m sorry. Did you get x-rayed last night?"

C.J. just shook her head vaguely.

"Carol, did she get x-rayed last night?"

"I don’t know," Carol admitted. "I don’t think so."

"Damn," Danny swore. "Can we get some help in here?" he yelled through the open door.

Sam charged into the office, skidding to a halt as he took in the chaotic scene. "My God, what happened?"

"Sam, did she hit her head last night?" Danny demanded urgently.

"Yes," Sam replied in a horrified whisper. "I pushed her down…she said she’d hit her head on the road."

"Sam…" C.J. murmured.

Danny understood what she meant – he’d been thinking the same thing himself. "Sam, no one blames you, OK? If you hadn’t pushed her down, she’d be dead right now."

Sam shook himself out of his reverie. "No…it’s not that. It’s just…before, we were talking, and she said she couldn’t remember what happened last night. I should have known that was a bad sign. Damn it!"

"What the hell?" Leo exclaimed.

Abbey Bartlet turned quickly to see what was wrong. "C.J.!" The First Lady hurried over to the stretcher that had just been wheeled into the secure area of the hospital. "What happened?" she demanded.

"Nothing…really," C.J. murmured. She lay on the stretcher with an I.V. inserted into one arm and a nurse taking her blood pressure from the other.

"Danny?" Leo asked the reporter who hovered protectively close.

"I’m not sure. She got very vague and then when she tried to stand up, she sort of collapsed," Danny informed them.

"Did she black out?" Abbey wanted to know.

"No," Danny answered. "She’s been awake the whole time."

"And coherent?"

Danny waggled his hand in a ‘so-so’ gesture.

"Doctor?" Abbey asked.

The doctor straightened up from checking C.J.’s eyes. "From what I‘ve been told, Ms. Cregg had a front row seat for the shooting last night, and she struck her head on the pavement. Is that right?"

"That’s what Sam told us," Danny confirmed.

The doctor nodded. "And after all that, she went right back to work and hasn’t eaten or slept since sometime yesterday. I’m guessing it’s a simple case of overexertion, combined with stress and trauma. We’re going to do a skull series, and keep her overnight for observation just to be sure –"

"No!" C.J. exclaimed.

"Yes!" Danny contradicted.

"I have a job to do," C.J. protested.

"The job can wait," Leo stated firmly.

"No, it can’t. I –"

The First Lady chuckled softly "You’re staying, dear. Please try to be gracious about it. Oh, and Leo?"

"I’m on it, ma’am," the White House Chief of Staff replied crisply.

Abbey half-listened as he made a call from the nurses’ desk, paying attention just long enough to hear him giving orders for food to be brought up to the West Wing and to have a room set aside for people to crash if necessary. She turned to the paramedic who’d brought C.J. in. "Is she responding to the I.V.?"

"Yes, ma’am," the young woman answered. "She’s much more coherent than when we arrived in her office."

"Good," Abbey replied, smiling. The smile faded slightly, as she became aware that Danny and C.J.’s voices were rising, but returned a moment later as Danny Concannon chose a rather unique method of winning the argument.

Frustrated at C.J.’s stubborn refusal to stay put, he suddenly leaned down and kissed her firmly on the mouth.

"What the hell was that?" C.J. demanded breathlessly.

"Best way I could think of to get you to shut up so all these nice doctors could tell you that you’re staying here tonight."

C.J. opened her mouth as if to say something, but Danny laid a gentle finger over her lips.

"You’re staying," he repeated firmly.

"OK," she finally responded with a slightly foolish expression in her eyes.

Danny grinned and squeezed her hand tightly as they headed off to radiology. Abbey smiled and patted C.J.’s legs as they moved past.

"We’ll let you know as soon as she’s moved to her own room," the doctor promised.

Leo rejoined them a moment later. "OK, Abbey, I think I’ve got the West Wing covered so that we won’t be bringing this place any more customers."

She smiled radiantly. "Good. I’m going to go sit with Jed for a while."

Leo turned to Danny and offered his hand. "Thanks for looking out for her." To his surprise, the reporter flushed uncomfortably. "Danny?"

"I feel like it was too little, too late," Danny sighed. "She needed me to be her friend last night, you know? But I couldn’t stop being a reporter. I couldn’t stop pushing."

"You were doing your job, Danny, just like she was…just like all of us were. I think if any of us had actually taken the time to sit down and really think about what happened to us last night, we would have all run screaming into the night." Danny didn’t quite look convinced, so Leo continued. "We are coping with extraordinary circumstances, Danny. None of us has ever been through anything like this before. We can only do our best."

"And hope that history will be kind to you?"

"History, and guys like you," Leo quipped.

Charlie Young looked up as Danny and Leo entered the waiting room. He laid a finger over his lips and glanced at the opposite end of the room, where Donna lay dozing on a couch.

An uncharacteristically gentle expression softened Leo’s keen features as he shook out a blanket over the sleeping young woman. "Has she been here the whole time?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Charlie whispered back somberly. He picked up the pad he’d been writing on and reread his work.

"What’s that?" Danny asked affably, plopping down in a seat next to Charlie.

"Nothing," Charlie replied shortly.

"Hey, come on, you’re writing something. I’m a writer. Lemme see."

"Danny," the President’s personal aide said warningly.

Danny’s relief over C.J.’s condition had put him in such a euphoric mood that he missed the storm clouds in the younger man’s voice. "What is it? Something for Zoey?" Grinning, he snatched the pad from Charlie’s hand. "What the hell? Charlie, this is a letter of resignation."

Leo’s head shot up. "What?!"

Charlie glared at the reporter. "Look, I’m sure it’s just a formality. I know I’m gonna get fired, I just though I’d save everyone the trouble."

"Charlie, what the hell are you talking about?" Danny asked, genuinely bewildered.

"Look, the President of the United States got shot last night by somebody who was gunning for me. What if their aim had been just a little crappier, huh? We might be swearing in President Hoynes right now."

Leo crossed the room in two quick strides. He grabbed the pad from Danny, glanced cursorily at its contents, then tore off the sheet of paper, crumpled it up and threw it into a trashcan. "Your resignation is not accepted," he informed Charlie. "The United States does not negotiate with terrorists. Not at any level and not on any issue. Don’t you see?" he continued, "If you quit, then these creeps win, and that is not acceptable."

Charlie gave him a long, hard look, then got up and left the room.

Abruptly recalling who else was in the room, Leo turned to Danny, who raised his hands in a ‘not me’ gesture. "Hey, I’m just a guy in a hospital waiting room. In fact, I’m about to be a guy who’s going to another hospital room to see how a very good friend of mine is doing."

Leo closed his eyes for a long moment, then nodded once. "OK."

A young nurse entered the room. "Mister McGarry? The President is asking for you, sir."

"I’m on my way." He smiled at the awestruck expression in her eyes.

"Mister McGarry? Sir?" she asked shyly.

"Yes?"

"I was just wondering…is he always like that?" Her words tumbled out in a stammered rush. "I mean, the President…he was laying there bleeding and the first thing he did was to ask for you, you know, to make sure that all of us were taken care of, and then he wanted to be sure that his security man got his hand fixed up. He’s…it was incredible. I…gosh, I’m sorry, sir."

"You have nothing to apologize for," Leo chuckled, "He is always like that."

Danny poked his head around the door of C.J.’s room. "Hey," he said brightly.

"Hey," she replied softly.

Danny was pleased to see that her color had improved and she seemed more relaxed and aware. "So, how long they gonna keep you in the pokey?"

"Huh? Oh, overnight, I guess. Danny?" C.J. asked, holding out her hand.

He quickly closed the distance between them, cradling her hand gently in both his own. "What is it?" he murmured.

C.J. blinked up at him for the space of a few heartbeats. "I just…I wanted to say, thanks."

"For what?" Danny asked quizzically.

"For taking care of me."

He looked down, rubbing her hand absently. "Yeah…well…"

C.J. squeezed his hand. "Danny, you were there when it counted."

"No, I wasn’t. I was so damn busy –"

"You were hanging on the only way you knew how, just like the rest of us. You were doing your job," Jed Bartlet’s voice announced quietly. "Which reminds me…Charlie!" he called back through the door.

"Yes, Mister President?"

"You’re not resigning, Charlie."

"But, sir…"

"You’re not resigning. And neither are you, Ron," Jed yelled even louder. He grinned smugly as the head of his Secret Service detail stepped into the room, his injured hand still heavily bandaged. "Nine and a half seconds. That’s absolutely amazing, and I’m not about to part with you. You did your job and you did it damn well. Same goes for Gina. She saved my daughter’s life and whatever warning we had was because of her. These are extraordinary circumstances, but you are all extraordinary people, and we will get through this."