Concannon Counseling, Incorporated
CJ/Danny, Josh/Donna, mentions of Bonnie, Nancy,Carol, Margaret, Abbey, Ellie, Zoey, Helen Santos
PG-rated for suggestive language
Through end of series
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
Feedback, criticism, and reviews always welcomed
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Late April 2009; Santa Monica CA
"Honey, I'm home, "Danny yelled as he slammed the front door.
"We know, we know," Josh shouted. "You make more noise than the Christian Right does when we suggest teaching Sex-Ed in high school."
"Well, the last time I came home from the airport, I walked in to the sounds of CJ giggling and a male voice coming from my bedroom. So now, I give fair warning."
CJ threw a pillow at her husband. "If I come home and hear you and Hank, that'd be cause for worry, if only because Steve throws a mean right hook. So Erin and the girls are on their way home?"
Earlier in the day, Diana Munoz had hosted a baby shower for CJ and Danny. Erin, Fiona, and Aisling flew in from Shannon for the event and afterward, Danny had taken them to LAX and waited until their plane took off.
Josh and Donna were spending the night with them. Donna had to go up to Palo Alto tomorrow; Stanford was going to give Helen Santos an honorary degree in June and Donna needed to meet with the committee for prep work. She and Josh wrangled a few extra days and they brought with them all the shower presents from Carol, Margaret, and the other West Wingers in DC.
It really was a nice shower. Her two sisters-in-law came in and then drove off together to Palm Springs for a week. Hogan wasn't able to get away from her carrier, but she called during the party. Bonnie drove down from San Luis Obispo with Sarita Hollis and all the ladies squealed when they spotted the delicate round brilliant cut diamond in a classic six-prong tiffany mount that graced Bennie's left hand.
When they were up at Cal Poly in February, CJ and Danny had dinner with Bonnie and Jean-Luc, the drop dead gorgeous chair of the French department. After dinner, CJ was helping Bonnie load the dishwasher while Jean-Luc and Danny discussed Canadian politics. Bonnie confided to her boss that the man had asked her to marry him and that she was taking him back to Indiana next weekend to meet her folks. "I don't know, CJ, my folks want to throw us a hu-ug-ge Indiana-style wedding, open church, hot and cold running hors d'oeuvres and carving stations, chicken dinner served family style,open bar, full orchestra, big fat wedding dress,all the cousins and friends as bridesmaids, ushers and groomsmen out the yin-yang,hokey-pokeys and chicken dances every hour on the hour, the whole nine yards. My dad says he's been waiting for ten years to walk me down the aisle. I really don't want them to go to all that expense; they need the money for retirement. I know that you and Danny had big, but I know that you didn't hit up parents for the money. You got any advice?"
"Well, Bonnie, a couple of days before the wedding, my brother handed me a check for $20,000. He said that one of the last things my dad did while he still had some cognizance left but knew what was happening to him was to set up a fund in case I ever got married. He said the one regret, the one source of anger about the Alzheimer's, was that he wouldn't be able to escort me down a church aisle. That's why I lethim walk with me. He wanted to do it for Dad and he doesn't have a daughter." CJ wiped away a tear. God claimed her father's body in early March, right before he was to have been transferred to the nursing home near Loyola Marymount that she and Danny had found. "I'm biased, but if I were you, I would let them do it for you. Later, if you want, you could take the money you might have spent, maybe replace their roof, something like that."
Sarita let CJ know that the board had approved the initial pilot project for "Road to a Better World". They would be able to begin work on the roads into the interior of Namibia by June. CJ wanted to do one road first, to get practical experience, before making any other plans. She had convinced the board of the logic of this decision when she was there in February and the group based in Chicago had made the recommendation in mid-March.
In addition to their family members, Josh, Donna, Nancy, Bonnie, and Sarita, Diana had invited the neighbors, Hank, Steve, Jessica (who with her 12 year-old daughter had moved in between the Concannons and Diana and Frank), and the other families. There were also some people from church. They played baby shower games. Erin won "What's That Stuff", correctly putting the right label with the right jar of all twelve varieties of baby food. Hank, Diana, and Danny weren't allowed to participate in "Toilet Tissue Tape", where everyone had to tear off a length of toilet tissue that they thought would best approximate CJ's circumference. Danny probably knew, and as professional garment folk, the other two had an edge. Actually, Father Luke from church won that game. Josh, of all people, won the nursery rhyme test and Fee knew the meanings of more names than anyone else.
They got a lot of loot, which was still sitting in the Munoz living room. Tomorrow, Danny and Josh would bring it over here.
"Hey, Danny," Donna said. "I've been trying to convince CJ to fly up to Palo Alto with me tomorrow for the day. After I meet with the committee, I'm having lunch with Ellie Faison and Zoey is there with her. She says she's thinking about it. Don't you think she should go?"
Danny started asking Donna questions. What airport was she using? San Jose. Who was meeting her plane? Zoey would pick her up and drop her off. When was she leaving LAX? 9:30 AM. When was she coming back? She'd be back at LAX at 5:30 in the evening. Were there seats available on the flights for CJ? There were.
Then, sounding very casual, Danny said, "Honey, if you want to go, maybe you should. Might do you some good to see the girls. I mean, Dr. Winkler says you can still fly for another week, right?"
She looked at him, smiled. "Okay, Donna, you've got a traveling companion. I'll get the seats confirmed. Then I think I'm going to bed. I'm exhausted. But the rest of you stay up, don't mind me." She walked toward the phone, stopping to kiss Danny on the way.
The others talked for a bit longer, catching up on gossip. Danny took them into the den-slash-guestroom, apologized for the queen-sized sleeper sofa. "By fall, the rest of the rooms should be finished and we'll have a grown-up guest suite, but for now, this is it. CJ wanted to offer you guys our bed, but she really needs the space and the mattress. There is a feather bed mattress on the sleeper's mattress, so it's pretty comfortable."
They told him it would be no problem and he left them, closing the door behind him.
"Well, that was strange," Donna commented.
"Huh?" Josh asked, stretching, undoing his shirt buttons.
"San Jose and Palo Alto, tomorrow. The trip."
"Yeah, it's not like CJ to have trouble making up her mind. Must be those pregnancy hormones. When we have a kid, you gonna get like that?"
Donna shook her head as she changed into her nightshirt. Her fiancé could be very dense at times. "Josh, CJ wasn't having trouble making up her mind. She was waiting for Danny to get back from the airport. She was waiting to ask him for permission." She stressed the last word.
"No way. CJ Cregg asking for permission?"
"It sounds weird, I know, but that's definitely what was going on." She turned out the light, got into bed.
Josh pulled her over to him. "You gonna ask my permission to do things after September?"
"In your dreams, Joshua. You'll be asking for mine." She kissed him, rolled him over, and Josh Lyman's mind turned to other things.
Early the next morning.
CJ stretched in the bed, reached over to kiss her husband awake.
"That's nice," he murmured, tucking his lower body and legs around her belly. "What's that for?"
"For being so, so -- understated, I guess -- last night."
He opened his eyes. "What's between us is between us; nobody else's concern. Ouch!" He rolled away from her, a hand to his groin.
"Danny?"
"One of your kids just kicked me!"
She laughed. "Really?"
"Yes, really. I mean, I'll live, but I'm not going to be of any use to you this morning."
"Shall I kiss it and make it better?" she joked.
"Let me have five minutes with a cool washcloth. Maybe tonight," he did a Groucho Marx imitation.
Later that morning.
"Donna, if I navigate, would you mind driving to the airport? It's getting a bit uncomfortable for me." CJ held out the keys to her Mustang to the other woman.
Danny threw his keys to Donna. "Take my car. There's a funny sound coming from hers. Noticed it yesterday. This'll give me a chance to check it out."
Donna started the Camry as Danny helped CJ into the passenger seat. He kissed her, closed the open door. "Have fun." Looking into her eyes, he said, "Usual rules."
She touched his cheek. "I hear and obey, husband mine," she laughed.
As he reentered the house, Josh came out of the den, yawning and stretching. "The girls have left already?" he asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee and sitting down at the kitchen table. Danny refilled his cup and joined him.
"Hey, Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"What was all that stuff last night about this trip? I've asked fewer questions about the President's trip to the G-8 summit."
"I worry about her when she travels."
"She traveled all the time when she worked for President Bartlet."
"On government planes. With Secret Service agents. Now she goes commercial, unattended. You wouldn't think that wanting to build a road would be a controversial subject, but you never know. So we have certain ground rules about her traveling."
"She actually submits to your dictates?"
"Josh, I love her, I love the children she is carrying. I can't imagine life without her. She knows that and she loves me enough to do this one thing for me. Look at this house, what it's becoming. She saw these five rooms and saw what it could become. She told me 'Danny, this will work' and I signed where she told me to sign. I endorse royalty checks and advances and she handles all the money. It's not about power, it's not about macho ego, I mean, there's a certain gender differentiation that is primal, basic, but it's about caring, not about degrading or abusing or asserting. Most of all, it's about talking everything out. What works for CJ and me may not work for you and Donna. But without the talking, you guys won't have a chance."
"But, she waited to get your permission." Josh was still not believing what Danny told him.
"It's not like I'm keeping her barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen."
"Well, last night, she did take off her shoes when she was fixing dinner," the other man replied with a laugh.
"Point taken. Come on; help me figure out this noise in the Mustang."
As the plane cruised toward San Jose, Donna turned to CJ. "CJ, may I ask you a question?"
"Let's see. You are a smart, observant woman. You want to know why Danny acts like a nineteenth century Victorian husband about my traveling."
"Well, I was going to try to be more diplomatic, but, yeah, that's about it."
"He worries about it. He doesn't want me to be in any situation that I can't control or that authorities can't control. He worked it out with Frank Hollis, turns out Frank has the same fears about Sarita. Anyway, Danny has a lot of say in my traveling for the foundation and he has his own set of rules that read like a GAO budget addendum report."
"And it doesn't bother you to submit to all that?"
"I don't submit, I defer. I got that from Abbey. I asked her how to handle a man when he gets all protective all over you."
"What did she say?"
"Sometimes you kiss them, tell them that you love them, but that in this particular situation, you can take care of yourself. Once in a while, you tell them you can take care of yourself, but skip the kissing and telling them you love them part. And once in a while, you thank God that there is someone who wants to take care of things for you. The tricky part is knowing when to do what."
"Sounds like I should maybe talk with Abbey."
"We spent two whole days with Abbey and the President, talking about what marriage means. It helped us."
Zoey met them at the airport and took them to the Stanford campus. She visited with Zoey and Ellie, admired her little girl, and talked baby stuff until Donna was finished with the commencement committee. Then the four of them had lunch and talked some more.
As Zoey was driving them back to the San Jose airport, the rain and the fog came in. At the counter, they were told that the flight would be leaving at 6:30 rather than 4:30.
"Okay, Donna, you are about to witness the Daniel Michael Concannon Prime Directive in action."
She pulled out her cell, called home. "Hey, babe, rain and fog. The plane is here, just can't take off. We'll be landing about 7:30, American. At least that's what they're telling us now." Pause. "Okay. If anything changes, I'll let you know, but I don't think they have Air-Fone on these shuttle type flights. God willing, we'll be in American's baggage claim at 7:30." Pause. "Love you back."
"CJ, what are we doing in baggage claim? We don't have any luggage. You've got the presents from Ellie and Zoey in your hand."
CJ smiled, sighed, and explained Danny's thoughts on airport parking lots and darkness in relation to his wife. "It's not just me. Notice, he didn't let Erin and the girls rent a car. If you had come out here without Josh, he would have insisted on meeting you or arranging for a bonded limousine for you. Any woman entrusted to him, he would be this way. "
"In a way, it's sweet, but don't you feel hemmed in, managed?"
"I feel loved. Okay, what can we do to kill two hours? How about 'Guess Boxers or Briefs' for the next fifty guys that pass by?"
Danny hung up the phone and walked into the living room. Josh was engrossed in a Lakers-Celtics playoff game.
"Josh, the girls will be a couple hours late. It'll be dark when they come in. If you come with me to get them, we can do it without my having to park, it'll save some time."
"I thought you said Donna took your car?"
Danny explained his thoughts and fears about airport parking lots after dark.
"Boy, you've got it bad," Josh told him.
"Just wait until you guys aren't under the POTUS umbrella, you'll see."
His cell rang. "Sweetheart?" Pause. "Sure, just a sec." He walked toward the bedroom, closed the door. "Okay, I'm alone."
"Donna's in the restroom right now. Danny, she's a little freaked about all this. Listen, if you can get Josh to come with you, maybe we could split up, me ride back home with Josh, you ride with Donna, maybe explain everything from your side?"
"CJ, that sounds damned good. Josh is acting the same way. Maybe you can convince him that I don't have a stick the size of my thumb in the bedroom closet to keep you in line."
She laughed at the absurdity of the thought. God, he loved to hear her laugh. "She's coming back now. We should be boarding soon. By the way, how're things down in Gloccamora?"
It took him a second to figure out that she was referring to the little bit of disrespect shown him by one of his kids this morning.
"Better. But maybe tonight you can kiss it and make it better still." She could hear the impish gleam in his eyes. Then he continued, "Listen, how do you feel? I was thinking about taking Josh and Donna to Harry's," he mentioned the sports bar the neighbors frequented. "Show them how we simple folk live. Could you deal with something from there, stay for an hour or so?"
"Sounds like a plan. Love you."
"Love you back."
Danny was waiting in the American Airlines baggage claim when they reached it. He took Donna's briefcase, CJ's packages. "Come on, Josh is hovering outside." He opened his cell, called the other guy.
They walked outside the terminal and in a few minutes, Josh drove up. Danny adjusted the seat, moving it back, and helped CJ into Josh's rental. "Josh, you may have to help her with the seat belt". Then he kissed her and said, "We'll see you at the bar."
He took Donna's arm, helped her across the roadway. "And we are parked where?" She told him the lot quadrant and they headed that way. She handed him the keys and he opened the door, seated her, pressed the lock, and closed the door. Once he got in, he asked her for the parking ticket, refused the $30 she also handed him. "Danny, you have to take it. It's government business. I'll get into trouble if I don't pay for it, turn in a receipt." He reluctantly took the money, paid the fee, and gave her the receipt and change. Once he got them out of the airport, he turned to her and said, "So, what do you want to know from the resident male chauvinist pig?"
"Danny, I never said –"
"Take the middle lane here, and then get over to the left after the next light. In two blocks, take the left and then just follow Route 1 into Santa Monica. Once we get into town, I'll get you to the bar. So, I understand you think I'm turning into a Stepford wife?"
"CJ, I never said – "
They had supper at the bar. Hank and Steve joined them and then Father Luke. The men got involved in the Penguins-Canucks game. So did Wisconisin-bred, hockey fan Donna. CJ began to get sleepy and Danny told the others they were leaving. He gave Josh a key to the house. Hank and Steve offered to make sure they got there when the game was over.
Lying on the bed together, he asked her what she told Josh. "Counselor-patient privilege," she laughed. "What did you tell Donna?"
"I told her that she wasn't you and that Josh wasn't me and they needed to figure out how they were going to work out their lives together and not worry about you and me."
"Truly?"
"Truly. Now, what did you tell Josh?"
"Pretty much the same thing, except I added that I like being taken care of every once in a while. Oh, and that you cut down the beatings to once a month as soon as you found out I was pregnant." He threw a pillow at her.
"By the way," he said, "yesterday, Bonnie said to tell you 'thank you'. She said she had decided to take your advice about her father, whatever that means."
She told him about Bonnie's wedding dilemmas.
"What were you and Ash talking about yesterday, Danny? The two of you seemed to be really deep into it for a while."
"Well, my younger niece is thinking about Berkeley and she is also thinking about choosing US citizenship in three years when she turns eighteen. I was helping with pros and cons."
"Ash over here, huh? You know that Erin and Robin would expect us to be surrogate parents. You ready for a kid that old?"
"I'm training you, aren't I?" he smirked. She threw a pillow at him.
"Well, if we fail at our real jobs, we can always become family counselors." She said.
"Concannon Counseling, Incorporated. Sounds like a plan."
He pulled her down into his arms and the two amateur mental health professionals drifted off to sleep.