Title: In The End Pt 2: In The Long Run
Rating: PG (with adult themes)
Disclaimer: DISCLAIMER: The West Wing and its characters are the property of Aaron Sorkin, Warner Brothers, and NBC. No Copyright Infringement is intended.
Notes: If anyone hasn't read In The End part one, which I posted in January, you can read it here: (
------
"The Long Run"
(Song)
I
used to hurry a lot, I used to worry a lot
I used to stay out
till the break of day
Oh, that didn't get it,
It was high
time I quit it
I just couldn't carry on that way
Oh, I did
some damage, I know it's true
Didn't know I was so lonely , till
I found you
You can go the distance
We'll find out in the
long run
(in the long run)
We can handle some resistance
If
our love is a strong one (is a strong one)
People talkin' about
is
they got nothin' else to do
When it all comes down we will
still come through
In the long run
Ooh, I want to tell
you, it's a long run
You know I don't understand why you don't
treat yourself better
do the crazy things that you do
'Cause
all the debutantes in Houston, baby,
couldn't hold a candle to
you
Did you do it for love?
Did you do it for money?
Did
you do it for spite?
Did you think you had to, honey?
Who is
gonna make it?
We'll find out in the long run
(in the long
run)
I know we can take it
if our love is a strong one
(is
a strong one)
Well, we're scared, but we ain't shakin'
Kinda
bent, but we ain't breakin'
in the long run
Ooh, I want to
tell you, it's a long run
in the long run
in the long run,
etc.
1A YEAR LATER:
"To be real! Got to be real!" Josh Lyman sang along with the music as he held his second beer. "it's a ohhhhh AHHH!" He sang not knowing the words. "Got to be reeall!" He sang with force to his pal Sam as he approached him.
"Why is it that there's always bad cheesy music at theses parties?"
"Cause bad cheesy music is fun to dance to."
Josh looked around the loft apartment covered with white Christmas lights -- not for any occasion, but just as decorations -- and surveyed the crowd. He watched over all their old friends dancing and having a good time. After checking everyone out, he caught site of Danny and CJ dancing away. Having a great time, and a little too much beer, CJ danced with her back to Danny. She kept her eyes on him as the two danced, fitting into each other's bodies. It was the closest thing to dirty dancing Josh had ever seen. He looked at them with a big smile, proud in someway of how happy they were.
Josh laughed. "Look at them" he gestured with his beer. "Together a year, married, and they still got it."
"Yeah, well they've technically been married for only a year. That makes them pretty much newlyweds." Sam took a drink.
"Yeah...But they're married."
"Are you saying you think marriage isn't sexy?"
"Well.... It's marriage. The old ball and chain... He couldn't find any other words. "It's marriage." He hid his ineloquence with another swig of his drink.
"Well, I think marriage can be sexy. Sam looked at the crowd and Josh looked at him.
"What could make marriage so sexy?"
"Well, a sexy wife for one." Sam took a drink of his beer. Josh nodded his head and the men both looked at how sexy CJ was, dancing with Danny. Sam tried to dance along in his white man way when Josh caught site of someone at the door.
"Speaking of 'the love that dare not speak its name'." Josh pointed toward the door as Mallory entered the apartment.
"What is she doing here?
"I invited her. Happy Birthday, my boy. No need to thank me." Josh looked at his friend who looked back at him with an open mouth. Sam didn't like this or know what to do. "I think the expression on your face says it all." He lightly tapped Sam on the side of his face.
Elsewhere on the dance floor, Danny and CJ had moved out of sight of the other parties. CJ took Danny's arms and held them above his head, kissing him against the wall of the small office in Sam's apartment. She smiled gleefully with a large joker-like face.
"You drunk?"
"I'm happy?"
"You're drunk."
"You've had as much to drink as me."
"I can hold my liquor."
"Unlike Josh." She smirked. "AHA! Squirrels could drink him under the table. See how I compare him to a small animal and..."
"I'm taking you home."
"Nooo. I want to have sex!"
"We can have sex at home." He smiled seeing how cute she was.
"Yes, but here is more fun! I am going to do so many things to you. Dirty things. Things they write in Penthouse... Things..." CJ fell into Danny's arms.
"Ok. We're going home."
Danny and Josh sat in his office having lunch. It was something they did occasionally. To Josh, Danny, along with Donna, were his only links to the past. It was amazing to Josh how a place he had worked in for nine years could feel so new and empty.
The two men sat in chairs up against the south wall, rounding off their conversation.
"So when you gonna knock up that wife of yours." Josh mocked.
"Hey!" Danny socked him in the arm. "That's my wife you're talking about..."
"I was kidding." Josh paused. "So, no, really when are ya?" Josh smirked.
"We've talked about it."
"Well get cracking. You guys ain't spring chickens."
"That sentence works with the ladies, does it, Josh?"
Donna entered the room.
"You guys do know you can use the entire office." Donna commented as she saw how the two men had sequestered themselves in the corner.
"I'm used to a small office." A Josh defended himself.
"Yeah, well I'm used to having a boyfriend, but we all have to deal with disappointment."
"Ah, you guys broke up. I'm sorry, Donna," Danny said as he stood
"Yeah." Josh concurred in his own way.
"Thank you, Danny." Donna spoke to Danny with a smile. "No, you don't!" She scoffed at Josh.
"What? I do. I feel bad. What?" Josh never got how his attitude affected people.
"Hey, I got the thing to go to." Danny knew it was time for a briefing.
"Yeah." Josh said his goodbyes and Danny left. Josh walked out of his office continuing his conversation.
"You never liked him." Donna walked over to her desk.
"I did!"
"You didn't. You said he had a small head."
"Yeah, well that's true. His head was extremely small for...any human of this earth."
"Josh!" Donna winded.
Josh stopped in Donna's outer office and felt odd.
"You know I really miss having a hallway?"
"A little love here?"
"What do you want me to say? He's a great guy. Too bad you lost him."
"No!"
"I'm at a loss here."
"Fine." Donna took a folder and walked out of the outer office.
"Can I walk with you?" Josh walked with her.
"Why?" Donna was very confused.
"I just want to stretch my legs."
"You're strange, Josh. You're a strange man."
"Not as strange as that small headed ex-boyfriend of yours."
"Hey!"
"Hey, Josh." Sally, the Press Secretary spoke as she walked past them to the Press Room. "Hey, Donna."
"Sally." Josh and Donna said, looking at her strangely as she disappeared.
"I don't like her." Donna said in a low voice.
"Yeah. She's----strange....again much like that ex-boyfriend of yours." Donna responded by hitting Josh on the arm. "Oww."
"She's like a fake CJ----with her long legs and smart remarks. They're not funny. No one thinks she's funny."
"Yeah, I can see how long legs around the office can be bad."
"You were thinking about her legs just now." Donna dropped off the folder and made her way back to the office.
"So, I can if I want to. They're nice legs."
"Fake CJ." Donna sorted walking back to her office.
"Yes, Strange is definitely the word of the day." Josh retorted as he watched her walk off.
"What happened! I left you like two minutes ago!" Josh yelled at Danny sitting back in Josh's chair.
"I got the ice." Donna ran in with a fevered pace dropping the ice on Danny's eye.
"Oww!" Danny let out, taking the cold bag off his eye and moving it onto the side of his face. "He provoked me!" Danny yelled at Josh. Donna didn't move. "This is not my fault."
"You hit him!" Josh yelled.
"Ok, that was my fault!"
"It's not like you, Danny. You hit another reporter." Josh was beyond words. "You've never done that before. Have you ever done that before?"
"No!? And this guy's not a reporter." Danny sat up in his chair. "Not even a journalist." He yelled this in Josh's direction.
"He's got a press pass. I can't do anything about it just because he works for a paper you don't like."
"Its not a paper it's a tabloid."
"He was defending CJ!" Donna defended Danny. "Weren't you, Danny?"
"Donna." Josh stopped her.
"Fine. I'm leaving." Donna knew she had to leave and she did. "What Danny did was very gallant. Women like that kind of stuff." Donna made her last remark before leaving.
"Thank you, Dear Abby!" Josh yelled to her before continuing his conversation with Danny.
"I don't know if I can help you with this one, Danny!"
"What the hell happened!" CJ barreled into Josh's office slamming the door behind her.
"You called her!" Danny was mad as hell at Josh. Not as mad as CJ was at Danny.
"You hit another reporter!" CJ yelled at Danny.
"CJ..." Josh tried to intercede.
"What were you thinking!" CJ hit Danny on the back of his head.
"Oww!" Danny let out a cry.
"I'm sorry, did that hurt?" She said with sarcasm
"Yes!!" Danny responded.
"Good." She looked at Josh. "What the hell happened?"
"You know, I'm right here!" Danny yelled from his seat.
"I'm trying to forget that at the moment!"
"Hey, George and Martha!" Josh yelled. "I don't think the Joint Chiefs heard you?!" They stopped yelling.
"I shouldn't have done it." Danny defended himself.
"Really, Nimrod. You got that! When did you figure that out!" CJ answered him with her own kind of love appropriate to the moment.
"Hey, he was defending you!" Josh answered. CJ hit Danny again on the back of the head.
"Why'd you do it?" CJ demanded.
"Stop doing THAT!?"
"OK, ok!" Josh yelled . Everyone stopped speaking. "Let's all calm down a little...take it down a couple a----HUNDRED notches!"
CJ crossed her arms and gave Danny a look. A look the two shared without words.
"Ok." Josh spoke. "Now that we're calm." Danny looked at the two for a moment. "Yeah. I've got to talk to Sally about this." He walked toward the door. "You guys figure this out among yourselves." Josh took the door and had one final remark before exiting. "Don't break any of the furniture." He exited yelling Donna's name as he closed the door.
CJ looked down at Danny who looked up at CJ removing his ice.
"Danny..."
"It was stupid."
"This has been established! Look at that." She noticed his face with concern.
"Hey, at least he missed the eye." Danny joked.
"Yeah." She surveyed the damage lightly with her fingers. "But he got pretty close. I don't care if he bad mouthed me to the room, makes fun of your grandparents, or our cat."
"We don't have a cat!?"
"It's a figurative cat alright!" She hated having to explain that one. But back to what was at hand. "You can't do something like this. If it were me I'd kick you out of my Press Room."
"You can't say nasty things about a man's wife in front of him."
"He egged you on!"
"Yeah, and I fell right for it." Danny felt stupid he was tricked into the trap. CJ sat on the edge of Josh's desk and looked over her sweet, battered husband.
"What did he say that was so bad?"
"I'm not telling you?!"
"Danny!"
"I'm not!"
"I think I can handle it!"
"It was bad. I mean come on. I hit the guy. It's not like me to do that! I can't believe I did that. Man. That's so unprofessional of me."
"Danny." She paused. "They're going to have to suspend you for this." She scolded him like child.
"I know."
There was a small pause.
"I'm sorry I yelled. I just know how much you love your job and I don't want to see you lose it over this."
"Yeah." Danny was embarrassed. There was another pause until Danny tried to cut the tension with a joke. "You should have seen the other guy." Danny was very sincere, but CJ started to smirk. "You're laughing?"
"No, no. I'm not." CJ turned around.
"You are. Come on. Admit it. It's a little funny. Right? Right?" He had to make some light out of it.
"Yeah. Ok, it is. " She let her smile out, but changed it. "No, no. It's not." She pulled her smile away. CJ was feeling very maternal toward Danny at this moment.
"I knocked him to the ground and then he ran away."
CJ looked at Danny and couldn't keep from laughing.
That night Danny was even more upset than that afternoon. Together in their bedroom, where they had most of their conversations, being a very busy couple, Danny and CJ debated their situation.
"Take one of those damn editors jobs they've been offering...You can get another job—"
"It doesn't matter, covering the White House is my job. That's what I love. I won't give that up for nothing. I wouldn't even give it up for you and you know how I felt about you even back then."
"Well, then you shouldn't have knocked out Darcy!"
"You think I don't know that!? You think I don't know that!"
"You think I can't hear!" She took a breath. "Take the damn editor position---Don't take it. I don't care. Just shut up about it!
"What?"
"Danny! There are important things!" CJ knew they couldn't live on her occasional lectures and magazine articles.
"Suspended, CJ. Indefinitely! Indefinitely!"
"You know that's just for now. Let it blow over, Danny."
The phone rang and CJ grabbed it while Danny went off in the background.
"Hey I can't hear!" She yelled to Danny. CJ took the phone and stepped up onto the bed with her finger in her ear to hear better.
"Sorry?" Danny began to pace, upset with himself and the situation.
Yes, this is CJ Cregg...What?----Yes------------you're sure?" CJ got off the phone looking confused and overwhelmed, yet happy. She needed her husband, but he was in another world.
"It's just unbelievable," Danny continued his conversation.
"Danny," She said trying to stop him, but he kept on talking. "Danny!!"
"I'll get my job back. I don't care how long. But I'll wait. I'm a white house reporter, CJ."
"Danny," CJ again tried to stop him and he wouldn't stop talking, "Danny," she tried again.
"What?!" He finally looked at her. "What!!?"
"I'm pregnant!" This stopped Danny cold.
"You're?" Danny was soft-spoken.
"Yes----." CJ smiled.
"With my..."
"Yes!" she stated as if who else could it be. Danny jumped on the bed with her.
"This is amazing. I mean, how? I mean I know how. I just...." Danny was overwhelmed and he kissed her. "You're....we're going to have a baby..."
"Yes." She smiled.
"Sit down."
"I am sitting."
"Lie, down. Lie down.." He tried to get her to lie down, but CJ wouldn't hear of it.
"Danny, I'm pregnant. I'm not dying."
"You're pregnant?" He still couldn't believe it
"Yeah" She felt so warm telling him.
"Oh, CJ." Danny took a moment before placing his hand on CJ's stomach. He had tears in his eyes. CJ watched him fondly and placed her own hand on his. Danny was without words. He was in awe of his amazing wife. Danny slowly placed his head on CJ's stomach hugging her body close. CJ rested her head on his head and they stayed there for moments.
