Author's Note: This is nothing more than pure, unadulterated fluff. I'd have liked to see Danny waiting for CJ at the airport, so I wrote this. I don't own the characters or the West Wing. Reviews are encouraged!
Ambien and SPF 30
CJ was awakened from her peaceful slumber by the flight attendant. She gently tapped her shoulder and smiled.
"Sorry ma'am," the flight attendant said. "We're getting ready to descend now."
"Right," CJ mumbled attempting to get her bearings. It had been a while since she'd flown commercial that she was almost stunned to see an unfamiliar flight attendant looking back at her. She expected Margie or Alex to tell her that the press was getting restless or that she needed to buckle her seatbelt.
"Thanks," CJ said sitting up straight.
Maybe the Ambien wasn't the best thing to take pre-flight. What had the package said? Something about being able to devote a good eight hours to sleep? CJ had scoffed when she read that stipulation. In reality she couldn't recall the last time she had been able to devote eight hours to sleep and on the rare occasion in the last eight years when she'd been able to devote eight hours to sleep, it eluded her.
CJ tried to regain her bearings, but everything seemed muted and fuzzy in her medicated state. She heard the unfamiliar ding of the overhead PA system.
"We're now making our descent into LAX," the captain said. "It's a sunny sixty-eight degrees with a breeze blowing from the northwest at five miles per hour."
"Sixty-eight degrees," the man next to CJ said. "That's quite a change from the frigid Washington air."
"Yeah," CJ smiled once she realized he was speaking to her.
"You were pretty out of it," he commented further. "You didn't make a peep the whole flight."
"Well, I did have that eight dollar sip of cheap chardonnay," CJ reminded him.
"You know you look familiar," he said. "Are you famous or something?"
"No," CJ grinned shaking her head. "Definitely not famous."
"Ah, you wouldn't tell me if you were anyway," the man said. "But you do look awfully familiar somehow. You ever been on TV?"
"Many times," CJ said.
"Well there you go," the man said seemingly excited over the prospect of speaking to someone famous. "Were you on Days of Our Lives or something?"
"No," CJ chuckled. "I wasn't on Days of Our Lives."
"You're not gonna tell me why I know you?" the man persisted.
"Trust me when I tell you, I'm no one famous and you're not missing out on an autograph opportunity."
"Okay," the man said skeptically. "I know I'm going to figure out who you are as soon as we get off the plane though."
CJ just turned and smiled. Since he seemed so sure that he knew her she thought that just maybe, eventually, he might be able to place her, but she wasn't all that confident in it. It had been years since she'd been behind the podium on C-Span or CNN. Becoming Chief of Staff had afforded her a certain degree of anonymity and changing the color of her hair didn't hurt either.
He seemed satisfied with the fact that the conversation was over and CJ took to concentrating on staying awake, which wasn't too difficult as they were in the midst of her least favorite part of flying.
CJ gripped the armrest of her chair as they descended. She was never a fan of flying in truth. Of course, flying in Air Force One helped allay that fear. There never was a safer plane in the history of the world, but the descents and take offs were always what got her. By the time they were at a cruising altitude she'd have to focus on a problem, or the press, or Josh stealing her bag of peanuts with the Presidential seal.
CJ breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she felt the wheels touch down. The Ambien may have made her drowsy, but she was happy to have slept through most of the flight. As the plane came to a complete stop CJ noted how everyone around her scurried around to disembark the plane. She had almost forgotten this little detail of flying. She wouldn't have a clear path to the door like she used to have on Air Force One. Another perk of flying with the President of the United States was that you got off the plane when he was ready and he was never the last one on board.
She stood up as quickly as she could through the drugs and pulled her small bag from the overhead compartment. Danny had taken a few of her bags with him when he got to California and the rest was coming in the moving vans next week. It was a nice feeling not to have to wait at baggage claim with the rest of the world. She figured it would a very long time until she got to have that feeling again.
She made her way down the gangplank and steadied herself as she walked. Maybe the Ambien wasn't such a great idea after all. It suited her needs on the plane, but now she wanted to wake up. There was something about this moment that she wanted to savor. She couldn't decide if it was because this was her first official moment of freedom after eight long years or if it was because Danny would be at the airport waiting for her.
CJ had seen dozens of movies in which the main character was greeted by their lover at the airport. She always watched the movies and thought about wonderful it would be to have someone like that greet her at the airport, but she never honestly thought it would happen. It was a most unlikely scenario that now seemed fated to play out. She wouldn't have to feel that pang of jealously when she watched those movies anymore because it was about to happen to her.
She walked out into the airport and scanned the crowd of people waiting. She suddenly felt extremely silly in her thick overcoat and scarf. She knew she should have taken it off, but she was running late for the plane and so she left it on. CJ scanned the crowd looking for Danny's red hair and scruffy face in the throng of people, but she couldn't find him. She turned to the left and then to the right as she walked, but still she couldn't see him in the crowd. She wondered for a brief moment if he's changed his mind. Maybe he'd decided she was too much work after all.
Danny left for California a week before the inauguration. He was going to find them a place to live while CJ finished out the term. They'd talked every night and CJ had even seen some pictures of the condo Danny had found them. Everything seemed normal when they'd last spoken, but now she wasn't so sure. She was second-guessing everything all over again.
She turned to the right one more time and that was when she saw him. She didn't recognize him and his red hair because he was wearing a large-brimmed hat akin to something Crocodile Dundee wore. That, coupled with his Hawaiian-printed shirt, jeans and sandals, was a sight in and of itself. He stood there smiling holding a hand-written sign with his last name on it.
She suppressed a grin and made her way over to him. "You know," she said as she approached. "I think your sign is supposed to list the last name of the person you're picking up."
"Really? Maybe I'm conditioning you to the name," he said taking a glance at his sign and raising his eyebrow.
"You're a regular Pavlov," CJ said with a smile.
"I guess the sign explains why you had so much trouble picking me out of the crowd."
"It could have been the sign, but I'm thinking it was the hat," she said.
Danny crumpled up his homemade sign and shoved it into his back pocket before reaching out and pulling CJ into a tight hug, which she returned eagerly.
"It's good to see you," Danny said into her ear as they embraced.
"It's good to see you," she replied pulling back and giving him a kiss on the lips.
"You kind of missed me," Danny said knowingly.
"I didn't say that," CJ teased him.
"Didn't have to," he replied with a grin.
"So, the pilot said it was sunny and sixty-eight," CJ said. "It feels like ninety compared to D.C. today."
"Yeah," Danny said taking CJ's carry-on bag from her. "I think Helen Santos' legs were completely white on TV. I thought she was wearing tights for a minute."
"You were checking out Helen Santos' legs?" CJ asked him with a raised eyebrow.
"Jealous?" Danny teased her.
"I just didn't think she was your type," CJ shrugged.
"She's not," he said throwing his arm around her shoulder. "You're my type, but you weren't on the platform this morning."
"So any port in a storm huh?" CJ asked pretending to be hurt.
"Something like that," he smiled. "Oh, hey before we leave, I promised you sunscreen."
"For my sensitive skin," she said.
"Of course," Danny nodded pulling out a bottle of SPF 15.
"I usually use 30," CJ told him.
"Yeah but that study just came out," Danny said.
"What study?"
"I assumed it was White House sanctioned."
"What study?" CJ smiled as she took the bottle out of his hand and squirted some lotion into her hand.
"It just came out," Danny replied. "You're supposed to have at least 15 minutes of unfiltered sunlight a day or else."
"Or else what?"
"Or else you turn into some psychotic killer or need therapy or something," Danny said. "I honestly wasn't paying that close attention."
"So I'm going to turn into a killer or need therapy?" CJ asked as she slathered some sun block on her face. "Well, the therapy thing I can probably deal with. It's the psychotic killer thing that's worrisome."
CJ capped the sun block bottle and shoved it into her bag with a smile as they walked. She looked at Danny and he immediately started laughing. There was a fairly large dollop of white sunscreen that remained on her upper cheek and Danny dropped her bag.
"Hang on," he said calling CJ back as she continued to walk ahead of him.
CJ turned, puzzled and wandered back to where Danny stood.
"What?" she asked.
Danny said nothing, he just chuckled as he reached over and rubbed the white cream into her cheek gently.
"Much better," he said.
"Thank you," she replied. She thought about what a sweet gesture it was. Sure, he'd laughed at her initially, but she'd have laughed at herself too if she'd known there was a huge gob of sunscreen on her face. She reached over and adjusted his floppy hat and shook her head as they resumed their walk.
"You tired?" Danny asked.
"Exhausted," she admitted. "I didn't read the fine print on the Ambien and I guess I was supposed to have eight hours to devote uninterrupted sleep."
"You haven't had eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in eight years," Danny pointed out.
"Tell that to the drug company," CJ said.
They made their way out of the airport and into the bright, sunny day. CJ took off her heavy winter coat and slung it over her arm. At this moment, her body fully adapted to the climate of Washington D.C., didn't think she'd ever need her winter coat again. But, she knew, given time, that fifty degrees would eventually feel like thirty and though the sunny, sixty-eight degrees she was experiencing now felt like bathing suit weather, it would eventually feel moderate.
"So, would you classify yourself as too tired to drive?" Danny asked.
"You want me to drive? I'm not even that clear on where we live yet."
"No, I don't want you to drive," Danny said. "I'm just thinking that you might want to drive."
"Why?"
Danny said nothing, simply smiled as they made their way through the parking lot, CJ trailing a few steps behind him as they walked since she was unsure of their destination. Danny continued walking and CJ followed obediently until they came upon a classic baby blue convertible. Danny stopped and pulled the keys out of his pocket.
"What is this?" CJ asked when he stopped.
"Oh, it's the car," he said.
"You don't drive a baby blue convertible," CJ said.
"No, but you do," Danny said opening the trunk and putting her bag down.
"No I don't," CJ said with a small grin appearing on her lips. "My car is coming with the movers next week."
"I know," Danny said reaching over and taking her winter coat from her. "That's why you needed a car for at least a week."
"You rented me a baby blue convertible?"
"You like the wind in your hair," Danny pointed out.
"Are you serious?"
"As a heart attack."
CJ surveyed the car as Danny slammed the trunk shut. She walked around the car slowly and marveled at how well he knew her. It was scary and yet somehow comforting.
"Well?" Danny asked. "Did I make the right choice?"
"No," CJ said looking at him and tilting her head sideways as she looked at him. "I did."
Danny was touched by her response and he just gave her that 'aw shucks' look that he had perfected over many years.
"So, you want the keys?" he asked.
"I'm not supposed to operate heavy machinery," CJ said with a hint of remorse in her voice.
"Okay, you want me to drive home then?" he asked.
There was something about the way he said the word home that made CJ realize that this was it. She was home. For the last eight years she thought of home as her bed. It was the only thing she missed while she was at work for long hours. But now the word home somehow took on a new meaning. It was the place she belonged, body, heart and soul and she was going there with Danny.
"If you wouldn't mind," CJ said as she slipped into the passenger's seat.
"Not at all," he replied as he got in the car and started the engine.
"Tomorrow this baby is all mine though," CJ pointed out.
"Anything for you," he said as he pulled out of the parking space.
As the wind blew through CJ's hair on the interstate she felt her eyelids droop once again. She laid her head gently on Danny's shoulder drifting in and out of consciousness while dreaming of a time that seemed ages ago. It was a fulfilling adventure, but it was also stressful and lonely. She woke up every so often and gazed up at Danny in his weird floppy hat and loud Hawaiian shirt, and for the first time in her life CJ felt like she was home.
The End.