A Proportional Response

As it happened, the world didn't quite end in the two weeks between CJ's first ultrasound and when her second one was scheduled, but it was utterly chaotic. The first one only got canceled because Carol had it on the calender, and it was the last day of August before CJ had a chance to think about possibly having enough time to go get an ultrasound, at least when other people on the Eastern Seaboard were awake for things besides the night shift and saving the world.

CJ emerged from a briefing, grimacing and looking as if she'd like to lock everyone out of the building. The Congressional investigation hadn't gone anywhere, and then there had been more Democratic candidates holding press conferences about running, and India and Pakistan tried to blow each other up again... more terrorism in the Middle East, some of it targeted... more slams about the President's honesty... it went on and on and on... and the jokes about cots for the senior staffers in some basement rooms were no longer jokes.

"The President wants to see you," Carol advised her.

"When?"

"Now."

CJ considered this, then handed her briefing book over and answered "Okay, then," taking the next cross-corridor to the Oval. Charlie looked up as soon as she came into the outer office area. "How do you do that?" she asked.

"Well, I'm probably about to get in a lot of trouble here, but now I can tell when you've come in because you're a little larger than you used to be."

"Trouble isn't quite the word for it, but yeah, you just got in it."

"It's a graceful larger, CJ."

"Be quiet now."

"Okay. The President will be ready in a minute--something came up."

"All right..." CJ took a seat and crossed her legs. "Were you trying to say I'm fat?" she inquired after a couple of minutes. Charlie looked up with the expression of a trapped man.

"No..." he said slowly. "CJ, you're pregnant. And you look good, not that I've seen that many pregnant women, but you look good. It's not that different from how I tell that Josh has entered the room because someone with a swagger just came in, you know?"

"Keep digging there, Charlie."

Charlie was saved from further CJ wrath by the door to the Oval opening. He got up and returned a moment later. "Go ahead in," he instructed.

"Thank you," CJ said dryly, unfolding her legs and standing. "Good morning, Mr. President."

"Morning, CJ. How was the briefing?"

"About as fun as the last ten or twenty, sir."

"Good. I wouldn't want some of us to be having more fun than others. Have a seat."

"Yes, sir." CJ took a seat on one of the couches and rubbed at her lower back absentmindedly, while the President sat down in an armchair and regarded her.

"CJ, next Tuesday you're taking the morning off, and Charlie is taking you to your ultrasound."

Several things came to mind, but CJ finally settled on a "Sir, I don't have an ultrasound scheduled next Tuesday."

"You do now. I didn't realize you'd missed your last one, but my spy network advised me that it's been about four weeks since the last one you actually got to, and that you were supposed to have one two weeks ago and missed it because all this crap came up. So, CJ, you're going in next Tuesday morning, 9 am, with Charlie, unless the world actually ends."

"Sir, I appreciate it, but I can probably go by myself..."

"Charlie's my proof that you actually went, and besides, he could use a little change of pace too." The President was insistent, and CJ accepted the inevitable.

"Sir, can I at least come in for senior staff?"

"Yeah, but then you're going, and I don't want to see you in the building until after you've had enough time for the ultrasound, a real breakfast, and whatever they want you to add to your diet."

"Sir, you sounded very much like the First Lady just now," CJ observed dryly.

"Well, that's probably because I was just quoting what she told me the other day."

CJ hid her face in her hands. "She noticed I hadn't had an ultrasound?"

"Yeah. For one thing, you haven't been gone from the building long enough for one in about three weeks."

"Sir, does the whole free world know this, or...?"

"I don't think you need to worry about it making front page news, unless you don't go," the President replied, putting his hands on the arms of the chair and aiming one of his determined expressions at her.

"Yes, sir. Was there anything else?"

"No, just the small matter of your health. Thank you, CJ."

"Thank you, Mr. President." CJ exited the Oval and stopped at Charlie's desk; he looked up with a truly desperate expression. "Did you know about this?"

"Next Tuesday? Yeah. Am I going to be coming back alive from that?"

"We'll see how you are between now and then," CJ smirked at him.

Next Tuesday evening, CJ leaned back in her office chair and stared out the window.

'This is why it wasn't clear last time.'

'You have twins.'

'Congratulations, though; they're both girls. I can't tell you whether they're fraternal or identical, however.'

'There's also, uh, something else...'

There's something else.

CJ closed her eyes painfully.

Someone knocked on her door, although she couldn't have said whether it was a minute later or five thousand years later, and she turned around. "Hey, Leo," she greeted.

"Hey. It's been a fairly calm day--a lot of people have left. You heading out soon?"

"Yeah, pretty soon."

"How'd the ultrasound go?"

"All right, thanks."

"I'm the tenth person to ask you that, aren't I?"

"More like thirtieth, especially if you count all the times the guys have asked."

Leo chuckled, a wonderful, gravelly sound. "It's because they love you, you know."

CJ felt as though she'd been hit by a truck. "I know," she said anyway.

"Night, CJ."

"Night, Leo."

"And go home soon!"

"I will."

CJ swung around and stared out the window for a few more minutes, and then turned back to her desk, bringing up a blank document. There was, after all, only one possible response: for she was the White House Press Secretary, and she would protect the President at whose pleasure she served. And she would protect everyone else, too.

The only question was where to start, and how much she could write up tonight and still give the illusion tomorrow morning that she'd gone home and slept for something resembling an appropriate amount of time for a pregnant woman. There was so much strategizing to do, and as much as CJ sometimes got fed up with having to spin things, she was good at it, and she was good at predicting it and providing alternatives. And this had to be good.

After long consideration, she smiled faintly, and typed her biggest headache: "Josh and Donna". Below it, she put "The Two Craziest People In the World," which was really the only possible, proportional response from CJ upon seeing the combination "Josh and Donna" anywhere, even if she had written it. Actually, there were other responses, but most of them weren't fit for public consumption; the two were cute when they were arguing, but they were a huge, huge headache waiting to happen.

Gail swam placidly in rhythm to the sounds of the keys far into the night.

"... and tell them they can go put it up their ass," the President finished.

"I don't think I'll put it quite that way, sir, but I'll be sure to pass along your wishes," Josh said, possibly with the hint of a smirk: the smirk that declared war on Congress very frequently.

Leo rotated to each staffer. "CJ, you said you had something non-press related?"

"Um, yes." CJ suddenly felt uncomfortable. "It's about the ultrasound I had yesterday."

"Oh, how'd it go?" the President inquired.

"That's what I wanted to bring up, sir, and with all of you at once rather than telling you piecemeal." Josh's bad poker face immediately made an appearance, and Sam's lips made a downward curve. "It's nothing that horrible, guys. It's girls."

"Congratu--wait!"

"Girls?"

"Plural?"

"Yep." CJ held up two fingers.

"Whoa," was Josh's first comment.

"Very articulate, Josh, but at least you beat Toby and Sam for time," CJ returned.

"Now, CJ, aren't you glad I made you go in yesterday? If you'd kept going like you were, then you would have found out the day you went into labor, and also discovered you didn't have enough baby supplies," the President remarked.

"Yes, sir."

"Thanks for letting us know, CJ. Was there anything else?"

"Thank you, Mr. President," came the responses.

"Twins?" Sam repeated once they were outside the Oval.

"Yes."

"Twins?" Charlie asked.

"You shut up now."

"Twins?" from Toby.

"All of you can shut up now. See you later. Try to stop wigging out by then... and Samuel, can I see you for a minute later? It's about the thing tomorrow."

"See you later, CJ."

"CJ? You wanted to see me?" Sam tapped lightly on her door.

"Yeah. Close the door, please." CJ turned away from her computer and waved at the couch. "Listen..."

"Is this really about the thing tomorrow?"

"No. That was a cover."

"Okay... what is it about?"

"I need you to put me in touch with some lawyers you trust to be good and discreet at the same time."

"Any particular specialty?"

"Custody, wills... I haven't updated it in forever."

"CJ?"

"Sam, I want to cover all my bases." She looked at him.

The direct eye contact was a mistake. Sam, out of all the senior staffers, was presently best acquainted with CJ and her moods and feelings. There was a sudden disquiet in her eyes that hadn't been there before, and something... he hadn't seen it before, except in the President's eyes, when he sat down with him and told Sam he had multiple sclerosis.

"CJ, what happened at the ultrasound?"

"I found out I was carrying twins."

"That's not all you found out."

"It really is."

"CJ, please... tell me?" Sam's eyes begged with her for this little bit of knowledge.

CJ shrugged a bit, then moved over to the couch. "Don't tell anyone else. Don't. I mean it, Sam."

"Okay. And you want me to not wig out, too, right?"

"That would be helpful if you avoided wigging out entirely, especially in front of people, but it's a perfectly appropriate response." CJ took a breath and started.