Title: A complicated canvas
Author: Loz
E-Mail: loz06@yahoo.com
Rating: PG
Category: CJ/Leo
Series: Stand-alone
Spoilers: None
Archive (if applicable): The National Library http://westwingstories.com/library
Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.
Summary: CJ blames Leo for her morning.
Author's Notes: -
Disclaimers: There's nothing complicated about who owns the West Wing…Aaron and Co.
*
It's 6:15 when the incessant blipping of the alarm disturbs them.
"Not yet." She groans pulling the pillow from under her head to over it.
"I gotta go." He snuggles in closer to her. "I'll re-set the alarm."
He manages to remove the pillow long enough for a good morning kiss…complete with morning breath.
Generously he allows another 15 minutes sleep.
~*~
"Shit." She curses as her toe is stubbed against a kitchen chair causing her coffee to slosh down the front of her.
She curses him for resetting the alarm for 6:30 like he did, meaning now she is late.
~*~
"Oh come on of all mornings." She thumps her hand on the wheel as she turns the key in the ignition for the sixth time.
When it finally gets going she shoots out of her spot and immediately hits a bird.
The thump against the front of her car causes her to wince and in her rear view she notices it was just a baby, unable to fly out of danger.
Now she feels terrible she can't stop.
Just committed a hit and run offence she guilt's herself.
~*~
Seething, she pulls up at the sixth of six red lights.
Today there is defiantly merit in the saying when it rains it pours.
Again she watches the cross lights go from green to amber to red and accelerates out hard when her own lights go green, shifting quickly through the gears.
Up ahead she knows the next set of lights will go red before she reaches them so she depresses her foot a little more on the gas and flies through what was probably a red light.
Moments later when the flashing red and blue lights behind her catch her eye she knows it was without a doubt red.
~*~
"CJ I thought you were going to be in at 6:45." Carol greets her.
"You and I both." CJ fumbles in her jacket pocket. "I need you to take care of this." She pulls out the two fines.
"On second thoughts, no give them to me." She snatches them back from Carol. "I have nothing till 7:15 right?"
"Yes." Her bewildered assistant confirms.
~*~
"When I say not yet, I mean another 5 minutes, not 15." She sighs falling into his visitors' chair.
"I don't think it made any difference." He surveys her stressed features.
"I'm not paying these." She places the two fines on his desk in front of him.
He picks them up looking at each in turn.
"How did you not loose your license?" He says wryly.
"Leo!" She says in astonishment.
"CJ you were booked for running a red light and doing twice the speed limit."
"What are you saying about my driving?"
"What I'm saying is about the D.C. police."
"I told him I worked at the White House and I was running late."
"CJ everyone in this building has used that excuse and then some, if that cop had a dollar for every time he'd heard that excuse he wouldn't need to be protecting the streets, not even you believe what you just told me."
"If you hadn't set the alarm for 6:30."
"And that's your biggest problem right now."
"I did tell him I worked for the White House Ok."
"How high CJ?"
"How high what?"
"How high did you hitch your skirt?"
"I'm quite sure I don't know what you mean."
"CJ."
"Not too high."
"Show me." She stands and pulls the waist of her skirt up until it sits from above the knee to mid thigh.
"Women." He can't help smiling.
"Leo I had a natural height advantage, I'm in PR, its all bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, it's about how you present yourself."
"Like some expensive hooker."
"Hey!" She protests. "Not even you believe that."
"Margaret, get my credit card would you?" He yells to his assistant on the other side of the door.
"Thank you."
"I suppose you want to have the driver points added to my license as well."
"No… besides it's Saturday tomorrow, no alarms, no being late to work."
He watches appreciatively as she makes her way out of his office, skirt still thigh high.
He looks down at her traffic infringements and wonders how he just came to pay $300 in fines for her.
Women, mysterious, mystical, complex and unexplainable, a complicated canvas he tells himself. It's exactly what he loves about her.
*