Title: Treading Water
Author: keladryb: keladrywrites@aol.com
livejournal: , website:
Fandom: The West Wing
Summary: C.J. learns to swim
Disclaimer: Not mine, Don't sue.
Notes: For 15minuteficlets,
the word was "Deeper"
Treading Water
She remembers when she was four her five and her older brothers tried to teach her to
swim. She was hopeless at it, all arms and legs jutting out at awkward angles. Eventually,
Jeremy got sick of watching her feet touch the bottom of the pool. He called her over to
him, hugged her, told her that maybe she should wait until she was a little older to try
this, until she was a little less of a klutz. Then he pushed her into the deep end.
At first, she thought she was drowning, as the water filled her nose, her mouth, maybe
even a bit of her lungs. She beat her arms and kicked her legs frantically against the
water, and suddenly her head popped through the top and she could breathe again, but only
for a moment because the shock of the air hitting her lungs was enough to still her arms
and legs and she was sinking back down. Again, she flailed against the water and popped
up, but this time, she kept moving.
She wasn't swimming, but she was treading water, and her brothers were cheering. Slowly,
she managed to turn that treading water into an awkward doggy-paddle, and after what felt
like eons, she reached the edge of the pool.
She had never been so grateful to feel her hands scrape against concrete in her life. Her
brothers were laughing and giving each other high-fives, as though they had somehow
accomplished something. Breathless, she dragged herself out of the water, scraping her
thigh a little on the edge of the pool. She moved to give Jeremy a hug, but instead threw
him with all her might backwards into the pool. Michael laughed and laughed, while Jeremy
sputtered in surprise.
Michael dove in, his body arching elegantly in the air. C.J. thought it was the most
beautiful thing she'd ever seen, and wanted desperately to learn, but something told her
that Michael and Jeremy might not be the best teachers. Forty years later, she still can't
dive, but she can swim, and she can tread water, and somehow, she keeps ending up in the
deep end when she never wanted to be in the water to begin with.