The Other Woman

by: Loz

Email: loz06@yahoo.com

Disclaimer: : I'm saving hard, but Aaron still owns them and he's just put up the price.

Category: Angst, CJ/Leo

Spoilers: very early season one

Rating: R

Author's Note: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated. If you're… I dare say judging by this fic solely, a little more moral than I, you may not appreciate the extra-marital affair theme.

~*~

"Could you ever see yourself as the other woman?" Donna asks innocently as she flips through the magazine while she and CJ wait to for their items to be scanned at the register.

CJ freezes and then stumbles with the dozen items in her hands and three apples drop to the ground, one after another. "CJ?"

"Why do you ask?" CJ asks cautiously, bracing herself for Donnas answer. "Do I look like the type?"

Her answer comes as Donna flips over the magazine she has been reading to reveal the monthly quiz.

"My family's Catholic Donna, it would be the fastest way out of it."

"I'll keep that in mind." Donna replies nonchalantly flipping the page..."How good is your sex life really." she reads out loud and sighs tossing it back on the stand.

The woman needs to get some CJ thinks to herself.

~*~

A blissful moan bounces off the dark walls of the room. The wallpaper is peeling and there's water marks in the corner, but CJ's not here to interior decorate.

The only lamp, circa 1950, which provided light to the room has long been driven to the floor by a fervent arm whose only aim was to rip clothes from the skin they protect.

The two bodies move together towards the ultimate desire of climax pushing harder and faster like there is only a low percentage chance they would reach euphoric release unless they proved they really deserved it.

Hall light from under the door sprinkles far enough for each other to make out the pleasure etched across their faces before they collapse collectively onto the bed, waiting for their breathing to return to normal.

"I went shopping with Donna today..." CJ says referring to her temporary roommate, her roommate till Donna finds a place, preferably *before* they move into the White House and start work. "She asked me if I could see myself as the *other woman*." CJ pads naked back across the room with two full glasses in her hand.

"What'd you say?" Leo asks sitting up from under the motels thin cotton sheet.

"I asked her if I looked like the type as if it were written all over my face." CJ laughs at her actions. "But I hadn't really thought about it." she reflects.

"And now."

"Well I never was very good at sharing my toys when I was a little girl." her voice growls playfully.

"You'll probably get tired of playing second fiddle to another woman." he concludes abandoning the drink on the volatile table next to the bed, waiting for her answer.

"Probably." she shrugs as if didn't concern her in the least.

"So we're just using each other, chew me up and spit me out again."

She looks at him and their surroundings and tries to comprehend how he could imagine them getting anything that resembles a real relationship out of the scenario. She speculates for a moment his head might be full of ideals of leaving his wife and devoting himself to her, believing it was the admirable thing to do, and at this point CJ really hopes it isn't because it's not what she wants and she understood at the beginning that using each other is really the only scenario that could be played out in this instance.

~*~

"You remember a couple of weeks ago you asked me if I could see myself as the other woman?" CJ packs Donna's folded clothes into the box.

"When...?" Donna prompts for more information, scanning her memory bank.

"We were waiting, and you had that magazine..."

"Yeah that's right." the penny drops as she continues to pack books and other ornaments into one of the many boxes that litter the floor, she doesn't notice CJ's silence at first but when the silence becomes too long the meaning isn't lost on her.

"You aren't..." she disbelieves at first, implicating CJ's telling a lie. "You are!" her eyes widen at the verbally unconfirmed information sinks in. "That's why my fruit is bruised." she exclaims throwing bubble wrap in the air.

CJ throws her a bone with the slightest nod of her head.

"Who is he, do I know him, how long has it been going on, where did you meet, does his wife know?"

"Oh no!" CJ puts her hands up in a stop motion indicating the information isn't going to flow out any pore no matter what Donna does.

"Is it exciting, is it a turn on?" Donna practically bobs up and down.

"Sneaking around and meeting in cheap hotel rooms...I don't think so." CJ mutters.

"But the sex is good right?"

"Nn-yeah."

"Oh come on." Donna says not convinced.

"Yeah it's good." CJ caves in.

"Is he going to leave her?" Donna continues earnestly.

"I'm not going to be naive and say he loves me and he's going to leave her for me or anything because that's not how it is."

"So you don't care."

"Not at this point in time."

~*~

Different room but same scenario as CJ guides herself over his rigid erection bouncing similar groans off the four walls in unison with him as he fills her in one long stroke. Her hands rest on his chest as she rises and falls onto him again, driving him back inside her more forcefully with each repetition. His hips meet her thrust for thrust, faster till she shudders and clenches around him in climax and he goes against gravity shooting the hot liquid inside of her.

"We're doing the whole cliché thing aren't we." he looks around the room, having caught his breath.

"Pardon?" it brings her attention back to him, letting her mind wander, imagining what it might be like if this was different.

"Cheap motel room, arrive separately, sordid affair."

"Are you saying you want it different?" her head flicks to look over at him wondering where all this talk has come from after months of contentedness at fucking each others brains out in a variety of the cheapest motels in town.

"Do you?" there has never been talk of anything beyond this. "...You like being the other woman." a smile spreads across his face as he comes to the realization.

"The question is do you like having another woman." It's shamefully easy for CJ because she had almost successfully blocked Jenny from her mind, she'd often wondered however if Leo wrestled with his conscience anytime he was with her or if his wife simply ceased to exist to him for the couple of hours they met a few times a week.

~*~

"I'm not taking your quiz." CJ brings the magazine from her bedroom, tossing it on the couch next to Donna. "You went and bought that after I told you didn't you."

Donna doesn't look up from the pasta CJ cooked when Donna showed up on her doorstep an hour earlier having had her first fight with her new room-mate. CJ liked living alone and if it came to it, she'd change the locks.

"Come to think of it, you've been staring at me all week."

"You just don't seem the type." her fork twirls in the spaghetti.

"Well that's because I'm presently wearing my disguise." CJ says sarcastically over her own meal.

"Have you done it here?" Donna's voice filled with the innocence of a child.

"Oh for the love of God." CJ drops her fork on the plate before dropping it on the coffee table.

"I'll take that as a yes." Donna says quietly avoiding CJ's death stare.

~*~

The shower water had long run cold yet neither of then noticed as CJ swings a long limb around Leo's hip, pointing her toes and caressing them across his ass, her hips crush into his sending him messages he already realizes.

"I want you to have to carry me out of this shower." she growls, nibbling at his earlobe, he swiftly obliges pressing himself at her opening before sliding deep inside her as if they were two halves of a whole.

Her eyes roll back in her head as he fucks her into her shower wall, the leg that's supporting her, fast melting to jelly. He groans slamming back inside her once more before they come within moments of each other, propped against the wall the only sounds are heavy satisfied breathing.

After Donna in avertedly suggested it, CJ had offered her place instead of the charges showing up on his credit card.

"So you'd end this even after how good that was?" he asks grabbing a towel.

"It wasn't *that* good." she teases whipping the towel off him and leading him back to her bed.

~*~

They'd never 'stayed over' before, the hotel room would always be abandoned in the early hours of the morning so the excuse of having to work late was fitting. Now as he slept silently in her bed, CJ wandered the rest of her apartment in conflict.

An irritating feeling of invasion at him being here swept over her as she watched his slumbering form. This was different to how it had always been, the goal posts were slowly moving, from sordid to something undefined. Though it seemed to her to be a ridiculous description, his presence in her bed made it much more personal than if it were a random hotel mattress somewhere.

It seemed dangerous to enjoy his arms wrapped around her and a warm body pressed against her as she drifted into a unsettled sleep. Dangerous because if sometime soon she came to want more than he could or was willing to give, things would become inherinantly more complicated.

To allow herself to feel or want, something, anything more could lead to there being nothing.

~*~

"You broke it off?" CJ's head snaps up to meet Donna's surprised tone.

In one head shake CJ could return her affair to a secret again but her conflicted brain shakes her head in the negative.

"So what is it then?" Donna puts the stack of paper she came to give CJ on her desk. "Oh my god you're pregnant!" she says loud enough for anyone in the empty outer office to hear.

CJ says thanks that Carol is away from her desk and de-presses her panic button, she's not pregnant...because right now she needs to go to the ladies. CJ finds it unnerving as Donna stares at her for a moment, finding her way into one of CJ's visitors chairs.

"You want more." it's barely a whisper from her friend as she deciphers CJ's expressive face. "Have you told him what you feel?"

It's rude, but CJ gets up and leaves, she can't deal with her own head at the moment let alone Donna.

~*~

"Are you out of your mind?" Leo swings the door to Sam's office open hard causing it to bounce off the wall. The rest of the communications bullpen don't fail to notice but quickly return to what they were doing.

"Leo."

"A call girl Sam." he says in disbelief.

"I didn't know..."

"You might as well strip for next months issue of Playgirl." Leo's voice gets louder and dozens of ears suddenly tune in to the conversation being had in the doorway to the Deputy Communications directors office.

"Leo" Sam hisses willing him to lower his voice.

"What were you thinking...you weren't thinking what am I saying?" Leo mutters to himself. "Did you think this administration didn't have enough challenges?"

"Leo there was no money exchanged." Sam defends in a reasonable tone. Still on her rounds Donna steps in within earshot and is bought up to speed by Ginger.

"I don't care how it was, I care how it looks." Leo bellows again.

"It doesn't look anything Leo." Sam yells as a couple of the junior staffers throw discretion out the window.

"It looks like everything Sam, on radio, in print and on TV. You're the communications deputy for crying out loud and you're here telling me if someone finds out about this we're going to come out smelling like roses." Leo has reached his lion roar, oblivious to the people behind him who have stopped what they were doing.

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." Sam yells stepping a little closer to accentuate his height advantage, CJ and Toby immerge from his office.

"Sam when brains were being handed out did you confuse it for your *dick*." the room collectively holds their breath as Leo accentuates the last word. "And ask for a thick one?"

Some of the staffers try and make themselves look busy concluding Leo will have the final word.

"Fine." Sam's voice returns to normal level without a hint of animosity his shoulders shrugging in defeat. "But at least I'm not having an extra-marital affair." he snides before turning to sit behind his desk again.

~*~

A gasp or two comes from the bullpen and CJ freezes in a panic on full display to the entire room. Only Donna interprets her reaction to the statement as Leo stalks out of the area without looking any of them in the eye.

"That's funny I could have sworn you'd moved out Donna." CJ just wants to be alone, but later that night she finds her ex-roommate perched outside her door.

"I know CJ." Donna confesses closing the door behind her.

"Know what Donna?" CJ sighs rubbing her face, she's anxious to speak to Leo after the display in the communications bullpen this afternoon but he's been incommunicado for four hours.

"About you and Leo." Donna sighs settling into the couch anticipating a long conversation.

"Great, just great." CJ exasperated, it's not what she needs right now.

"I won't say anything." Donna almost whispers.

"You can't say anything, because I can't be seen to be my sleeping my way into jobs, regardless of the fact that, that's not what it is, that's what it looks like and it can't be Leo tearing shreds off Sam in front of everyone over moral issues and not me...not any of us full stop."

"Have you spoken to him?" Her voice is timid as if the question may be crossing the line.

"I can't reach him, he's not answering."

"You need to tell him where you stand now this has happened." Donna says firmly as the ringing phone is snatched up by CJ.

The phone conversation from the kitchen is muffled and Donna's straining ears can't make out what CJ's saying. Her mood is ominous when she comes back into the room, placing the phone back in it's cradle.

"You have to go now Donna." CJ says firmly.

"CJ"

"He's coming over, go now and I won't change the door lock."

~*~

"Hi." CJ says apprehensively as she opens her door to him ten minutes later.

"I've booked a room at the Best Western." he mumbles one hand holding up her doorway.

"Leo we need to talk." she insists.

"It's been booked for a fortnight CJ, we can talk there." his voice without an ounce of emotion. CJ watches him disappear before getting her coat and car keys, calculating just how bigger mistake this is and has been.

~*~

"Don't... Leo." CJ pulls away from him as soon as he cups her face in his hands and started kissing her.

He sighs dejectedly throwing his arms down.

"I was there this afternoon." she says regretfully, perched on the edge of the sagging bed.

"Yeah and those in the building who weren't probably knew ten minutes after it happened, so what CJ." for the first time outside the confines of the White House he yells at her though she's sure that his anger isn't directed at her.

"How does Sam know?" CJ's voice escapes barely.

"I don't know Ok." Leo's voice fraught with frustration.

"Well this has to end now." CJ states getting up and putting her jacket on. He stands across from her, silent, watching her struggle with the chocolate brown coat.

"You can't be serious." incredulity obvious in her voice.

"Why not?" he shrugs and CJ stares because she's having trouble believing his implications.

"Leo, you stood...in the Communications Office and practically shot Sam down about an issue that will be placed in the exact same category as this one. You dressed him down with a comment that he took *very* well and now you're telling me that you want to 'do as I say not as I do'?"

There's no reaction.

"You stumbled over the fact that Sam didn't think the call girl incident would look bad for us and now you're acting exactly the same way." CJ's yelling and her arms are flying in front of her, punctuating her point.

"We're not in wide circulation CJ."

"Neither is Sam." CJ becomes increasingly exasperated.

"I don't want to loose you CJ." his head nods to the side, pleading eyes meeting hers.

"I'm sure Sam feels the same way about his friend but right here right now none of us have a choice, there are other things to consider and they have to take precedence." an errant hand grabs for her bag.

"What do you want?" he asks as her hand covers the door handle, moments from putting herself on the other side of the door. She doesn't turn, taking her time to let the question sink in. 'You have to tell him where you stand now this has happened'." Donna's words echo through her head.

"I want more." she turns, saddened eyes cutting right through him.

On the other side of the door stands Jenny McGarry.

~*~

"Mrs. McGarry." CJ stumbles, her bag slipping in sweaty palms.

"Enjoy my husband did you CJ?" Jenny McGarry sneers as Leo comes to the doorway.

"Jen, it's not what it looks like." Leo protests as the expression of disdain crumbles to the weep of a woman who has had her life shattered and everything she trusted and believed in for the past thirty odd years demolished in the opening of one hotel room door.

"Like hell it isn't." CJ walks away after Jenny.

"Can I come in?" a week later he looks even more drained than usual, arm once again holding up her doorway.

CJ steps aside as he comes in. She offers coffee as the door clicks quietly behind them and at his polite decline she settles back on the couch with her drink.

"Jenny saw the credit card bill, Mallory found out and confided in Sam." he sighs the sound of a man suffering regret.

CJ nods over her coffee. "And so the great game of Chinese whispers continues."

"Only everyone got the message right." He finally sits...opposite her. "Jenny's filed for divorce."

CJ nods because she expected it would only be a matter of time...and lawyers.

"Where are we CJ?" he ventures.

The empty coffee cup rests in her lap as she pulls together what she wants to say. "We're here, CJ and Leo sitting across the couch from one another."

"That's it."

"That's all it can ever be."

"CJ we were good together, I don't want to loose..."

"Neither do I, but it won't work any other way." she presses.

"So we're over." he looks around the walls.

"It'd never work, you know that Leo, you just can't admit it."

"I could have loved you eventually CJ." his words cut deep because as she sat alone one night not to similar to the way she is now, she realized that she could have loved him too.

"Same." her smile eerily sad.

He gets up opening the door, seeing himself off without goodbye. "I'm not going to give up on us." he promises before she's alone again.

And with the darkness as her witness she promises the same.

~*~