On The Road With Danny Concannon: 'O5-'06: The Final Year
"First"
Episode: The Mommy Problem
"You know you got to go through hell
Before you get to heaven."
-Steve Miller Band
ABOUT NINE YEARS AGO
The editor at the national desk of the Washington Post was a very interesting guy. He hated his job and wasn't afraid to say so. He also wasn't afraid to sleep, sleep all the time, sleep in the office, and sleep when it wasn't convenient. These times usually happened when the lure of alcohol was involved. This included bars, social events and unsocial events, and of course the office. This was one of those office times. Therefore he wasn't very happy to be awakened from his semi-drunken, half-asleep stupor, by the yelling of two reporters in his hallway.
First it was one eye, and then the other as he heard the faint sounds of an argument. He stood up, and found himself walking out of his office toward the sound. He walked through a doorway, and down a hall, as the sound grew louder and louder, and finally the voices had a face. He found two of his reporters at each other in the middle of the bullpen. One of them was Danny Concannon. He was younger, thinner, and minus his Pulitzer.
"What the hell is going on here?" he yelled at the men. "Joanie, get me an aspirin!" he yelled to a blonde near him.
"I'm Jeannie."
"I don't care." He waved her off. "What the hell?" he said to the two.
They both talked at once.
"One at a time ladies, one at a time." The editor took the aspirin and water from the blonde who had returned. "Go, now." He said to the blonde and downed the drink and aspirin. "Marcus, you first." He pointed to the man who was not Danny.
"Danny here…" Marcus whined on.
"He's interfering with my assign-" Danny defended himself.
"I said Marcus, Danny." The editor was not happy.
Marcus spoke, "Danny here thinks he can just take the Bartlet assignment just 'cause he's buddy, buddy with Josh Lyman."
Danny didn't like the sound of that, "Hey, that's not…"
"Danny!" His editor silenced him. Danny didn't like the sound of that either.
"He's got the last ten plum assignments—" Marcus continued.
"Bartlet isn't even the front-runner—" Danny was agog.
"He's the Democrat!" Marcus yelled as if Danny should know why.
"We're not supposed to have party affiliations here." Danny had his bag and he was ready to go.
"Just go back to the White House, okay—" Marcus got into Danny's face.
"Hey, hey, I always go out on the road during an election season—" Danny got in Marcus's face.
The editor had had enough, "Can someone actually make sense here or at least make a full sentence with…. I don't know, a structure to it! You know, one that is used here in America and not in, I don't know-Brazil. Or needs to be translated from the Sandscript it so obviously originated from!"
"I want the assignment." Marcus whined.
"Ahhh." Danny dropped his overnight bag. "It's my assignment! I'm gonna miss the plane."
"You can't just take it." Marcus demanded.
"I asked for it. I got it. " Danny said with all confidence.
"So, did I." Marcus gave it right back.
"This is ridiculous." Danny had it up to his neck. "A story's a story. You got the other guy. Someone has to go with the other guy-" Danny was the only sane one in the entire conversation.
"I want Bartlet." Marcus was firm.
"For crying out loud!" Danny winced.
"Okay." The editor looked at the two. "We need to do this like real men." He took a coin from his pocket.
"Oh, come on." Danny bobbed his head to the side.
"Use it or lose it Marcus de Sade here." The editor pointed to Marcus.
"Hey!" Marcus defended himself.
"It's a joke," the editor said flippantly. He looked at Marcus for an answer.
"Fine." Marcus grumbled. The editor looked at Danny who gave a reluctant yes without words.
"Okay, gentlemen." He flipped the coin up. "Pick your fate."
January 21st 2006 – Nine years Later
LAX
The sound of an airplane was heard overhead cutting the air in half.
Danny shut the door of C.J.'s blue mustang, just as the terminal doors opened, and out walked C.J. Entering the open air, she put her hand up to stop the glare. Danny's face was the first thing she saw.
Danny opened his arms for her, a huge smile on his face.
"Hey." Danny said with his huge grin.
C.J. grinned from ear to ear, glad to be on solid ground, to see his face. It was officially all over.
Danny took off his sunglasses to get a better look.
C.J. kissed him and took a look at his face.
"You're all red," she commented. Danny shook his head in little bit of embarrassment.
"Apparently, I'm a white boy, what can ya do."
C.J. laughed.
"Come on." Danny took her bag and wrapped his arm around her, ushering her toward the car. He asked about her flight and she joked about the Merlot and Ambien.
C.J. stopped at the curb while Danny put her bag in the back of her baby blue mustang. She only had one bag, all the rest of her things were on a U-Haul that would arrive Monday.
"Ohhh." C.J. paused. She ran her hand lovingly along the door panels.
"I'm gonna pretend you're not happier to see the car than you are me." He joked getting in on the driver's side of the car. "I had someone drive it in - it got here early."
She got in the car and ran her fingers over the dashboard. She hadn't really seen the car for four years, never having the time to drive it as her life got more and more busy, and time ran together like a blurry freight train.
C.J. leaned over and kissed Danny, this time for a long passionate stay. "Thank you."
Danny raised his eyebrow and started the car. The bright sunshine hit their faces and the wind blew C.J.'s hair. Everything was bright.
PRESENT: 100 days to election (Late July)
It was dark, the end of the day for some and the beginning of the day for others. Danny's office door was open, but he was half asleep, just about waking up. Last thing he remembered it was light. Now the only light in his office was coming from his open office door. Danny lifted his head, feeling disoriented, drunk with sleep. He took a breath and dropped his legs onto the floor. He took another breath and ran his hands over his face.
"Did I wake you?" Maisy asked with a rasp to her voice. She was leaning against the arch of the office doorframe. She looked just about as tired as Danny did.
"No… no… I was just . . ." Danny took a breath in an attempt to try and wake himself into some kind of lucidity.
"Greg Brock went to jail to today." She played with her fingernails.
"Yeah."
"You saw?"
"No, I just…"
"Figured?"
"Yeah." Danny still wasn't awake.
"18 months." She paused and nothing was said for a moment. "I don't understand, Danny?" she said like a little girl.
"I can explain it in the morning if you—"
"What happened to the first amendment in this country?" It wasn't the answer one would have thought from Maisy. She was growing up.
"That one I can't answer," he said softly. Danny ran his hand through the back of his hair.
"I mean I thought this was a White House that glorified the first amendment, the one among all others-"
"The White House didn't send-"
"I mean it's the first one. The first amendment. It's the one that started the rest."
Danny laughed.
"That wasn't meant to be funny," Maisy said pointedly.
"I'm sorry." There was a long pause. "Some call it a statement."
"Premeditated or accidental?"
"Good point." Danny yawned.
"I just can't get it out of my mind."
"I know what you mean."
"What can't you get out of your mind?" she said listlessly. Maisy folded her arms.
"Fate." He paused and looked at her for the first time. "I can't stop thinking about fate." He paused and looked out. "It's stupid." He laughed it off.
"It isn't," She said, walking toward him.
"It's funny." He took a breath and semi laughed. "You look back on your life and at the time you had the best intentions and you never thought it was part of something bigger. I guess it all looks premeditated in retrospect." He laughed. "But at the time I was just a guy doin… doin'"
"What comes naturally?"
"It seemed a simpler time."
"I guess our past always comes back to haunt us, no matter what. Good or bad. Like a bad order of take out."
"I should have known better." Danny was feeling guilty about C.J. He felt perhaps his actions would come back to haunt her. It had been weighting on his mind.
"How are you supposed to know, Danny?"
"It's just not fair."
"The fickle finger of fate?"
"I'm sorry? " Danny looked at Maisy.
"The three f's. The Fickle. Finger. Of Fate."
"If she gets nailed to the wall, it's gonna be my fault."
"It's all rumor, Danny." Maisy paused. "Nothing official has come out yet."
"I know." He stood up and took another breath. "They've subpoenaed every scrap of paper from her office – she's the focus. I've been around here long enough to know that."
"She hasn't even been subpoenaed yet."
"Last one subpoenaed is the focus of the investigation." He said under his breath.
"What?"
Danny walked toward the window and looked out. "But, it could all come out. Her and me."
"You didn't do anything. And it's not even relevant."
"It's not what it is, it's what it looks like." He paused. "They'd bring it out to embarrass her. That's what they do at those things. They make it seem like it's relevant, they'll make it look like it is, but it's not. That's what they do in this town. It's all about agendas. Everyone's got one."
There was a pause. Maisy looked for the words, "I don't know what to say, Danny."
"You don't have to."
"I want to know what to say."
Danny turned and looked at Maisy. He smiled. "Thanks."
She walked toward the door, but stopped.
"Maybe fate just brought you to this moment. Who's to say this isn't the first moment. The one that leads to all the rest."
"How is it you can go from utter hopelessness to complete belief in ten seconds flat?"
"Doin' what comes naturally." She half smiled. She looked down at her shoes.
"You look beat, go home."
"So, do you." Maisy looked up at him.
"I'll go home soon," he said to comfort her. Danny lowered his head.
"Okay." She turned to the door, but stopped again in the doorway. "Danny?"
"Yeah?" Danny looked up at her.
"If you were called would you reveal your source?"
"No."
"Could they call me?"
"Sure." He paused. "If I come into it, yeah—they could call you."
"What would I-"
"You'd tell the truth, Maisy." Danny could be so sincere it rocked you to your core.
"Okay," she said from the base of her throat. She was feeling scared and she didn't know why. "Fate is a final result, Danny. This can't be the final moment, there are too many questions."
"Good night, Maisy."
"Good night." Maisy turned around and started to walk away.
"It's also inevitable." Danny called after her.
"I'm sorry?" She turned around.
"The definition of fate. It's a series of inevitable events you can't do anything about."
"Yeah…well..." She paused. "She didn't do it, Danny. We know that, right? I mean I don't know her, but I know you and…she couldn't have done it."
"At this point it doesn't matter what it is, it matters what it looks like." He repeated.
"Yeah." She said, not knowing what to say. She opened her mouth again, but Danny stopped her.
"Night, Maisy."
Maisy walked out of Danny's office and down the long hallway, her shoes echoing through the almost empty bullpen.
"Go home, Danny!" Was the last thing she yelled.
"I don't have a home." Danny muttered to himself. "I don't have one."
Six Months Later: Jan 21st
Santa Monica, California.
Danny drove C.J. to the front of a beautiful house, on a suburban Santa Monica street. Danny opened his car door and walked around the other side.
"No, wait." Danny yelled as he saw C.J. try to open her car door.
She half rolled her eyes and looked out at the ranch style house reflected in her car window.
Danny smiled as he reached her side of the car.
C.J. smiled back and Danny opened the car door for her.
C.J. walked out in awe of the house. It wasn't an apartment, or a big lonely house she would occupy alone, it was a sunny, shining, home. It had more meaning.
Danny put his arm around C.J.'s waist and smiled.
C.J. smiled back into Danny's eyes, in her sweet awkward way - something only Danny seemed to elicit. This was really it. Their house. It was exciting and strange at the same time. C.J. took deep breaths and checked her mood. She wasn't freaking out.
Danny took C.J. up the walkway, past the green grass; he fumbled with the keys while C.J. looked around.
C.J. was somehow back where she had started, but still nowhere near it.
"I saw a couple of places–-" He fumbled with the keys. "If you don't like this one we can-"
"No." She took his free hand. "This is fine."
Danny opened the door, his keys clanging in his hand as the door swung open. The emptiness of the space engulfed her. "Danny," she said with amazement.
"I done good, right?" He smiled
C.J. nodded.
They entered the foyer with its large wood floor. There was a sunken living room, a fireplace and large glass windows on the other side. From the doorway she could see a large porch, and a patio, and a pool in the back yard.
C.J. walked around with her mouth open.
Danny followed her as she walked through the living room and into the open kitchen area.
"Danny." C.J. stood in front of the state-of-the-art kitchen, one in which she would not be spending too much time. "This is too much." She ran her fingers over the counter tops and peered into the dining room. "This is too much."
It really wasn't, but it was a nice house.
"It just seems big 'cause it's ranch style," he said with his hands in his pockets. "Hey, you should have seen some of the places the Hollis people showed me –it was..." He saw how off somewhere C.J. was. "Come here?" He put out his hand out for her. She looked spectacular. "Come on."
She took his hand and he took her through the living room, the foyer, past the basement stairs to the other side of the house, "Guest room, "He opened a door and went onto another, "A study," he opened another door, "An extra bedroom," he opened another door, "An office for you."
"Dann-" C.J. was stopped by his taking her hand, again.
Danny opened another door at the back.
C.J. walked in.
"And our bedroom."
"Danny," she said in awe. C.J. turned to see Danny with his back to a closed door.
It wasn't the size of the room, but its large view of the backyard.
"I know, you're starting to freak out. Just breathe."
"No, no." She put her hand on his chest. She looked out the window. "But, the house."
"We don't have to sign the papers, if you don't want. We won't close for another—"
"No..." She seemed conflicted.
"This is a very small house for California standards."
"I told you to get us a house not the plaza."
"It's not the plaza, if you wanted the plaza – I can get the plaza."
"Eventually we can afford this – when the money starts coming in – but right now-"
"Right now it's handled." She opened her mouth and he silenced her.
"Right now?"
"You should have seen the places they showed me. You said you didn't want Frank Hollis to buy us a house. I found a place I like. A place we both would want. Three bedrooms, four if you count the study, that's not a lot. If you don't like it-I'll deal with it, but if it's the money issue - Okay, I never had my own house before, maybe I went a little over board"
"I don't want you to think—"
"I have to keep up with you?
She paused and hesitated. "Yes."
"I'm not. I told you weeks ago, I know you're gonna be the top banana in every place we go. That's never gonna be a problem with me. Never. Sure, I wanted to get this for you – I wanted to provide, and fifteen years living in a tiny studio apartment I wanted a real house, a home I can share with you. I want this to be our home...which is why in this instance, I think you're gonna have to say yes." She didn't say anything. Danny backed away, "It's a real nice house…?"
"It's beautiful."
"See, there ya go."
"But, how?"
"I got it covered, I knew a guy he did a thing." Danny made C.J smiled. "Let's just say I always get what I want." Danny made C.J. smile again. "I know you wanted to spend our first night here, but we don't have to."
"No, I want to." She took a piece of lint off his shirt. "I don't want to stay in a hotel right now. Not now." She took a breath. "I want us to spend our first night here. It's just something I want to do," she said as if she was asking him to trust her.
"Okay," Danny said softly. He walked toward her and put his hands around her waist. "I had a mattress delivered yesterday, I can move it into the bedroom, take a few odds and ends maybe a little makeshift room." C.J. nodded her head. "The movers come on Monday." He took his hands from her waist. "You relax." He kissed her and she kissed him back hard. "I'll be right with you." Danny disappeared and C.J. watched him walk away. A smile crept to her face.
Later That Night
Danny walked into the bedroom to find C.J. tucking in the last edge of the bed sheet into the corners of the mattress.
They had worked to make it a pretty nice makeshift room. One mattress on top of a box spring, no headboard, a box next to the bed, with an alarm clock next to which was C.J.'s cell phone, and a small lamp on the floor. It looked very much like a room the two might have occupied in their early 20's.
"What are you doing?" Danny said with a sly grin.
"I'm making the bed," she said with a question mark laugh.
Danny took his cell phone out of his pocket and threw it on the box next to C.J. He then put his arms around her waist. She giggled and Danny laughed without even saying a word.
Danny kissed her and she sighed.
"You know what I'm thinking?" he said slyly
"I have a good idea." She smirked.
"This is our first night together without the secret service five feet away."
C.J. smiled and gave a nonverbal, "Ahh."
"Not what you thought, huh?" He laughed. "I'm tricky that way." He chuckled and bobbed his head, as he did when he found himself funny. "We made it." Danny spoke with sweetness.
"Yeah," she smiled. "We did."
He kissed her and she kissed him back. It soon became a string of passionate kisses, as their hands explored other areas.
"Ohh…I missed you," he said, slowly pushing her onto the bed.
"Me too," she said as he kissed her neck. C.J. started to unbutton her shirt, as they inched closer to the center of the bed. She opened her shirt, after the last button, and Danny helped her take it off; it got caught on her watch and they both laughed.
Finally, her shirt was off, to reveal a small camisole underneath. C.J. reached her now free hand toward Danny's face as they kissed. Her hand inched closer down his neck and ran through his hair. They felt freer and more alone together than they had ever been.
Suddenly a cell phone was heard.
The both grunted a nonhappy sigh.
Danny buried his head in her stomach.
C.J. hit her head on the bed.
"Is that you or me?" C.J. said with a lazy disgust.
Danny lifted his head, "I think you."
They both looked at the box, which housed their phones. They both could see the display from the bed. But really C.J. knew that ring tone anywhere.
C.J. made a noise and sighed. Danny rolled off C.J. and onto the other side of the bed.
C.J. leaned forward and opened the phone. She pushed the speaker button. "Hello, Josh." She groaned.
"Am I on speaker phone?" Josh asked.
Danny leaned over toward C.J. and ran his hand over her thigh.
C.J. smiled and stepped off the bed.
"How's sunny California?" Josh asked.
"Sunny." Danny groaned leaning up against the wall, since there was no headboard, and only a pillow.
"Danny, is that you?"
"Hey Josh," he said, not too happy. Danny fixed the pillow behind him.
"What you doin' out there with yourself?'
"Oh, you know, following C.J. around, holding her purse." He leaned back onto the bed and grinned at C.J.
C.J. was now at the foot of the bed, leaning against a far wall where the dresser would soon go.
She smiled back at Danny's grin. Their unspoken language.
"Ahhh, am I interrupting something?" Josh felt strange.
"Ohhh, nooooo, why would you think that?" Danny said sarcastically.
C.J. shot Danny a look and he shot C.J. a look back. He was going to have to wait.
There was an awkward pause.
"I interrupted somethin' didn't I?" Josh sounded very awkward. He was doing that thing when his voice goes into the back of his throat and his eyes widen. It could even be seen through fiberoptic and cell phone lines.
"I can fax you visual aids if you really want..." Danny joked.
C.J. threw a sock at Danny.
Danny caught it with a smile.
"Ahhh yeah... is C.J. still there?" Josh was never good at not showing how awkward he was. Danny knew that from his stint in the press room.
"Josh, what do you want?" C.J. finally came into it the conversation. She was standing at the foot of the bed now with her arms folded. She looked down.
"Is there a way I can get off speaker phone?" Josh asked.
"I'm done, Josh. I handed in my credentials. I moved my car. I'm done." C.J. motioned with her hands.
"Okay… I don't see how your car has anything to do with this…. hey, come on you told us you'd be available by phone. Come on. Take me off speaker."
"NO." Danny and C.J. said at the same time. They were both surprised at how simultaneously they got that out. They both smiled, pretty satisfied with the moment.
"What?" Josh was confused.
"She doesn't want to talk to you about affairs of state, Josh!" Danny yelled to clarify C.J.s point. And to be heard through the speaker. He smiled.
"Oh come on, sure she does," Josh said with his cocky attitude.
"Josh, I don't want to talk to you about affairs of state," C.J. said dryly.
Danny chuckled.
"Come on, take me off speaker phone," Josh still pleaded. "I can't talk to you about what I need to talk to you about if I'm on speaker phone...come on!"
"Josh. Do you know how long you've been in office?" C.J. asked a question she knew the answer to. She waited for Josh to answer.
"A day?"
"Not even, and that makes me out of office for about the same time. I'm off. I'm done. I don't wanna talk about Kazakhstan, or Issatov, or oil, or poll numbers, or even what china pattern the Santos's have picked out. I need some time to breathe, Joshua."
"Okay, I guess you should have been a little more . . . specific… on that with me."
"I didn't think you'd call me after less than twenty-four hours, Josh!"
Danny laughed.
"So, how long are we sayin? A week, two weeks?"
C.J. took a breath and lifted herself even higher off the ground. "Four months."
"Ahhh." Danny smiled. He was very proud. And touched, in a way.
C.J. smiled back with her huge confident smile.
"Four months? Come on, C.J.?" Josh yelled.
C.J. crawled onto the bed toward Danny.
"I need some alone time," she said.
Danny grinned from ear to ear and ran her his hands over her shoulders.
"Alone time?" Josh asked - never such a thing.
"And then, and then... when and if you want to call me with any little piece of something, question or query, hell to ask me what the weather's like in Santa Monica…. go ahead." She danced her lips in front of Danny, but never let them touch his.
"It's 65." Danny chimed in.
C.J. smiled at him.
"I'm gonna learn to ski," she said softly inching her way to Danny's lips.
Suddenly there was a large sound and silence.
C.J. and Danny both looked at the phone.
"Josh?" C.J. asked. There wasn't an answer.
"Did you glue my drawer shut?" Josh came over the airwaves. "You glued my drawer shut!"
Danny burst into giggling laugher. He tried to hold it in and it just made it worse.
C.J. just grinned her confident grin.
"Oh, yeah, Danny, laugh it up." Josh was not amused. "C.J., your boyfriend's got a terrible sense of humor, there."
C.J. stopped for a moment in the silence, stopping on the word "boyfriend." It sounded strange. It was the first time she had heard Danny referred to as such, in her presence at least.
"Good-bye, Josh." Danny reached his hand and turned off C.J.'s phone. He then gently guided C.J. down onto the bed.
C.J. smiled, "I have a bottle of Merlot in my purse. Why don't you go find us some glasses."
"Okay." Danny leaned in and kissed her lightly and did as she commanded.
C.J laid on the bed feeling more relaxed than she had a in a long time. She smiled and bit her lower lip.
Leo had once told her that nothing was perfect, there was no such thing as perfect, so being imperfect was pretty grand. She felt very imperfect at that moment.
Her direct, if not circuitous, route to this moment ran in her head. Words like fate came up and she tried to laugh it off, but somehow she couldn't.
It would be here, in this house, where Danny and she would share many first days, first days of new things. It was a place without ghosts. It was a new start. And she knew she had to trust Danny when he said. "All would be well."
She had once remarked to Leo that she just wanted someone to share it all with. C.J. finally had her wish. She seemed to have it all, imperfectly: power, respect, prestige, and now love. She was off to do what she wanted, on her own terms.
She was a woman of many layers. She could be vulnerable yet she was not a vulnerable woman. And although she at times felt weak and powerless, she was not a weak or powerless woman. Still all the men in her life, Danny included, had a huge urge to take care of her, protect her. If only C.J. knew just how much Danny wanted that and how far he had gone to do so.
The Present: 101 Days To Election: July 31st
"Danny?" Maisy peeked into the Danny's office. "Danny?" she asked. He didn't look up from his pages. "Yo, Danny!" she yelled.
"Yeah… what?" He looked up as if she had awoken him from a sleep, but this time he wasn't sleeping. Danny was fully awake.
"That thing must be pretty riveting – you've been reading it since it was delivered, that was like three hours ago."
"White House phone logs," he muttered.
Maisy looked around and closed the door behind her, "What are you doing with White House phone logs?"
"What?" He looked up. "Nothing -I got a friend." Danny stood up. "I gotta go for a walk." He took his jacket from the coat stand.
"Danny?" She didn't even know what question to ask she was just bumfuzzeled by his actions.
Danny took his Notre Dame windbreaker off the coat stand, he put it on without saying a word. He turned to Maisy.
"I'm gonna need to see Greg Brock."
"Greg Brock is in jail, Danny." She was getting a little upset, since she and Danny had just had that discussion the other day.
"I need to see Greg Brock" Danny adjusted the collar on his jacket. He turned to Maisy. "You call his lawyer and you have him tell Brock that Danny Concannon wants to see him. On the record, off the record, I don't care – professional courtesy, we've both been in this industry together for too long a time. He has to say yes." He paused and looked at Maisy. "Just get me in a room with Greg Brock, that's all I need." Danny opened his office door and he was gone.
END OF CHAPTER TWO
