Not quite sure where this came from, but trying to avoid revision!

And the characters don't belong to me…..

Danny lent on the balcony, slowly sipping a glass of whiskey, looking over the celebrations of the rest of the wedding guests. He swirled the liquid and smiled wistfully. It seems no one and everyone could have predicted this day. Who would have thought Josh would get it together enough to actually marry Donna. It put him to shame that was for sure.

A hand on his shoulder stirred him from his thoughts.

"Hey, man. Congratulations." He grabbed Josh into a 'manly' one-armed hug being fairly careful not to spill his drink onto the head of some politically important invitee below.

"Thanks, I've gotta say it feels pretty good." They returned to Danny's previous position, observing the crowd.

Danny's gaze remained fixed on one particular person below, this did not go unnoticed by Josh. "When was the last time you saw her?" Josh asked quietly.

Danny sighed and looked back into his glass. "The last time I was in The White House, after the whole Shariff thing I suppose."

Josh's head shot up to look at his friend. "That was five years ago! You haven't seen her since then?"

"Well no, I am quite the avid CSPAN watcher."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, she made it pretty clear she didn't want to see me, so that was that."

"Wow, I can't believe you backed down that easily."

Danny stood up straight and turned to Josh. "You think it was easy for me? You think I haven't thought about her everyday? She made her decision and there wasn't anything I could do about that."

He moved back to rail and as he did caught her eyes in his. She smiled at him, but he was unable to move in return and the brief contact was lost as her attention returned to whatever it was former President Bartlet was animatedly describing. Probably a national park or something.

"Hey, I didn't mean to ….."

"Nah, it's okay."

"Yeah. Hey, you should talk to her. It's been a long time, maybe things are different. I mean she's not even in The White House anymore."

"I don't think that's the best idea."

"Okay. Well, look, I'll see you later. Donna's giving me a signal, I'm not sure which one it is though. Oh wait, I think it's 'save me from this idiot', gotta go."

Danny resumed his quiet contemplation, noting that there was no longer any sign of CJ.

"You know, you come to a party and stand on your own…people will start to wonder."

"Well you know how it is, half of 'em I don't know and the other half I don't wanna know." He joked.

"Which group do I fall into?"

"You would be one of the exceptions to the rule."

"Really, I wasn't sure. I mean I vaguely remember shunning you."

"Yes, well, I've been told I lack dignity."

"If you lacked dignity it wouldn't have been five years since I last saw you."

"Maybe not. So how you doing? I heard you were off saving the world."

"I like to think I'm doing my bit." CJ smiled and moved to stand next to Danny.

"CJ, what are you doing here?"

"I thought I'd come talk to an old friend."

"CJ?" He asked warningly.

CJ sighed. "I saw you and I don't know I guess I felt something and I wanted to talk to you. That and I wanted to apologize."

At that Danny's eyebrows shot up. "Apologize?"

"Yeah, for what I said before. Only not so much what I said. More that I didn't mean it, only I did."

"Well I'm confused."

"Me too. What I mean is I said what I did because you came back and I couldn't stop thinking about you and it was distracting me and I couldn't be distracted. I had important work to do. So I said what I did so you'd stop chasing me and I could focus on my work." She paused, thinking he was going to say something, but he didn't. "The only problem was it didn't stop me thinking about you." She quietly added on.

He turned his head to look her in the eyes but remained silent.

"Look, I'd understand if you don't want to talk to me. But I was hoping we could have dinner, talk, without the rest of DC in attendance." To make her point she glanced over at where Bartlet stood with Charlie pretending they weren't looking in their direction.

"How's tomorrow?"

"What?"

"Tomorrow – for dinner?"

"Tomorrow," she said surprised at his apparent eagerness. "Yes, tomorrow sounds good."

"Good then."