Hollis Foundation, Santa Monica
Thursday, November 6th 5pm

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us on Saturday?" Carol asked as she shifted nervously from one foot to the other.

CJ raised her head from the folder she was reading just long enough to say, "I need a evening at home with Danny."

"Has it been crazy?"

CJ started marking things up as she said, "I've loved having his mom and sisters over, but we haven't had any time to ourselves in over ten days and we could use some."

"Okay. Offer's open if you change your mind."

"Thanks." She scribbled something on a post-it note and and handed it to Carol. "Could you ask Margaret to bring me this document?"

"Sure."

Carol sighed and leaned against the door as she closed it behind her.

"Do you think she heard us?" Margaret asked with trepidation from her desk.

"I don't think so. She wants this .." she added as she handed her the note.

"Okay."

She stepped into CJ's office a few moments later and found her packing up.

"Is this what you wanted?"

CJ gave her a nod as she looked it over, and then put it in her bag.

"I'm heading home. You should do the same. It will all be here tomorrow."

"Okay. See you in the morning."

"Have a good night."

She waited until she was sure Margaret was gone and then leaned against her desk and ran a hand through her hair - not quite sure who to feel worse for.

Margaret and Carol, who would be devastated if they found out that she'd overheard them, or Danny if he knew that he'd been outed inadvertently.

She came down on the side of Danny.

The tears caught her by surprise - although they shouldn't have, she supposed, because she still cried at the drop of a hat. It took her a moment to identify the feeling pooling in the pit of her stomach as fear, and she dropped back into her chair.

"I don't even know how to put this."

"You're an old-fashioned kind of guy when it comes to this kind of thing?" she teased.

"Okay, now I'm feeling ridiculous, but yes. It sounded so much more romantic in my head. So it's not if but when and-"

"Danny .." She cut him off with a kiss. "I can live with that."

It made perfect sense, knowing who he was, that he wanted to do the right thing by her and their daughter as soon as soon as possible - but between her father not doing particularly well and exacerbating the anxiety and fear systems already ramping up in her brain, and the mood fluctuations courtesy of the hormones flooding her body, she wasn't sure she could wrap her brain around a wedding.

The phone on her desk startled her, and she knew it was Danny even before she reached for it.

"Hey," he said gently. "We're about to get started on dinner here. Anything in particular you want or want us to stay away from tonight?"

"Do we have any horseradish?"

"I picked some up the other day. You okay?"

"I'm fine. Just wrapping up here. I'll be home by six."

"So I should .. uh .. boil a couple of eggs to go with the horseradish?"

"Please."

"And if it's going to be that kind of a night, I should grate carrots for you to eat with .. ketchup?"

She smiled broadly at the barely concealed distaste in his voice.

"You're getting off easy," she heard Erin say in the background. "Patrick had to serve me garlic mushrooms with custard, and Deirdre's husband got stuck with making the spaghetti from Elf a few times. Remember that? With maple syrup, candy, marshmallows .."

"I craved pulled pork on top of vanilla ice cream for weeks," Maureen piped up from somewhere in the kitchen. "And Tara .. what did Tara crave, mom?"

"Doritos dipped in clam chowder and .. cream doughnuts stuffed with cheddar popcorn, maybe?" Orlagh said.

"Okay, I'm hanging up now," Danny said. "Before you give her ideas or she decides she doesn't want to come home to all you lunatics."

CJ hung up, fully expecting to fall right back into her previous thoughts. She found herself chuckling and itching to get home to all the lunatics instead, and suddenly she couldn't remember why planning a wedding had seemed so daunting. She'd run a White House, Danny had a family who would do anything for him, she had Margaret, she had Carol, she had Hogan. She could probably just show up on the day if she wanted to, and it would be perfect.

The fear had shifted gears into something which felt more like excitement, she realized.

Knowing actually put her at an advantage.

She could be a participant. And there was one person she could absolutely rely on to be her partner in crime for what she had in mind.

Bartlet Family Farm, New Hampshire
7pm

"CJ called," Jed said to Abbey over dinner.

"Did she get our beads?"

"She didn't say."

"So what did she say?" She drained her wine glass as she listened. "So what you're saying is that everybody knows that Danny is proposing to CJ - including CJ."

"Yes, only Danny doesn't know CJ knows. "

"Why did she call you and not me?"

"She needed some advice," Jed said smugly.

"I would have thought you gave her all the advice she could handle when she told you she was pregnant. She wasn't asking for your blessing was she?"

"Nooooo."

"So what did she want?"

Abbey's eyes rose into her hairline as he told her.

"Really?"

Santa Monica, California | Lansing, Michigan
Saturday, November 8th 6pm | 9pm local time

" Let's not forget that you created this situation to begin with by having too many girls, mom," Tara said with a laugh.

"Look who wasn't paying attention in biology class," Deirdre said with a laugh from their end of the screen. "That part's all on dad."

"Let's not get sidetracked here?" Tara said as she elbowed her sister. "Hang on, is that what he's wearing?" she added as she noticed Maureen fussing over Danny behind her mother.

"I told you he should have gone with the sweater which brings out his eyes, " Erin hissed at her older sister.

"He wanted to wear a jacket and tie," Maureen said defensively. "I just made sure the colours didn't clash."

"How more obvious than that can you get?" Deirdre scoffed. "I thought this was being passed off as a casual dinner at home while the rest of you go out. Who wears a jacket and tie for that?"

"Sorry, I'm outnumbered and can't help you," Orlagh said as Danny cast her a long-suffering look.

"Can we forget Danny's debatable sartorial choices for a minute and get back to the matter at hand?" Deirdre said, drawing their attention back to the screen. "Because this show is not getting on the road until we are all in agreement about this."

"Danny .."

"Yes, Tara?"

"This is it, you're sure. Because we can't let you have it there's even a shred of doubt in your mind that CJ isn't in this for the long haul."

Erin sidled up to him and cackled "no pressure " gleefully into his ear.

"Danny?"

"I'm sure."

"Okay then. From oldest to youngest. Go."

"He can have it," Maureen said, ruffling her brother's curls affectionately. "Deirdre?"

The second sister pressed two fingers to her lips, kissed them and said, "he can have it. Tara?"

"He can have it," she said, placing her hand over her heart and sticking her tongue out at him. "Erin?"

Erin slipped her hand into her twin's.

"He can have it."

"Oh God, don't cry," Maureen said to Deirdre. "You're going to set me off. And then you're going to set him off, and then he'll go down there with red eyes and she'll think he's breaking up with her."

"Sorry, I just didn't think something we decided when he was thirteen was going to be this emotional," Deirdre replied.

Orlagh cleared her throat.

"If you want a sister-in-law, I suggest we let Danny get on with it?"

Maureen and Erin stepped away from their brother and wrapped their arms around one another while their mother placed something into his upturned palm and closed his fingers over it.

"It's time," she said after she brought the hand to her mouth and pressed a kiss to it.

"Thanks, mom."

"Danny!" Tara called as Maureen started fussing over him again.

"Yes?"

"For the love of God, ditch the jacket and tie!"