Danny got up from the bed. He was tired beyond comprehension, but he couldn't sleep. He walked to the kitchen and grabbed a whiskey bottle and poured himself a healthy measure. He sat at his kitchen table and opened his computer. He played the last press briefing, trying to see this mysterious secret service agent. He forwarded the briefing, and when he didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he began looking at every briefing in the last couple of weeks.

He woke up a few hours later, with his face plastered on the keyboard. The still on the screen was off C.J. leaving the press room. Danny sat up and rubbed his eyes and focused on the image. The video had paused after he'd fallen asleep on the computer. C.J. was holding her folder and looking at a tall man with a look that he was very familiar with; it was a mixture of exasperation and amusement. He felt a tight knot in his stomach. Was this man the reason why she was happy again?

Strong arms encircled her, pinning her to the bed. His breath tickled her as he whispered promises of protection into her soul. She gave a giggle that turned into a moan as he kissed her neck and stroked her breast. She longed to touch him… She moved her arm and grabbed his muscular chest. She ran her hand down his lean body and inched her fingers slowly towards his red-hot centre. As she touched his belt her hand felt something hard. She moved further and reached the icy cold steel of the handle, and her fingers recoiled away, burning.

C.J. gasped as she half fell from her bed. She was disorientated, and the dream left her chastising herself for the sheer inappropriateness of it and more than a little frustrated. She untangled from the sheets and stood up. Lately, she kept waking up before her alarm clock. At first, it had been just before it rang, but now she seemed to cut off another minute off her sleep every night. If this kept going, she'd have to forgo sleep altogether. But then she would officially become Toby, and that was more than enough to sink this entire administration.

Chuckling to herself she walked into her bathroom and turned on her shower. She stepped into the scalding hot water and closed her eyes. She couldn't stop the images from her dream from popping up as she washed her hair. His strong arms holdi…

Stop it!

She shook her head angrily. She put in her conditioner, and his half-smile appeared in her mind's eye, and she felt her insides tingle as he chuckled and approached her…

Stop this Claudia Jean!

What was wrong with her? She furiously tried to think about anything else. Taxes, Qumar, the president… secret service— him pushing her against the shower wall thrus…

Ok, that's enough she thought. She turned off the water and stepped out of the shower. What was going on? She was behaving like a hormonal teenager. She walked into her room and began dressing. She needed to wash away the memory of his his penetrating stare as she stood in front of him in a form-fitting ball gown. The black garment bag hung on the outside of her wardrobe, teasing her. She took out a grey pantsuit. She needed to feel professional, and androgynous. A sharp-edged suit and a blue top — that's it.

Everything had been so much easier when he annoyed her; she contemplated as her agent drove her towards the White House. He was always near her, always there. She couldn't shake him off. The summit in Helsinki had been hectic, and he'd been annoyingly there, always there… But after a while, she found that she would look for him, and he was always there, always present. It was annoying and exhilarating at the same time.

Suddenly she remembered when she first noticed agent sunshine's penetrating glare. It was at one of the banquets in Finland. It was late, and the President sat with the Chigorin delegation, discussing in detail the history of geopolitical borders in Europe. The senior staff had managed to slip away, and were enjoying a rare event; drinking together with nowhere to go. It was like the campaign again.

C.J. snatched an excellent bottle of vodka from one of the tables, and they sat together in an abandoned side-hall. Toby was smoking a cigar, Sam stood and babbled drunkenly about how amazing this trip was, and Josh and C.J. were giggling, whispering dares to each other to kiss the top of Toby's head. It was all silly and relaxing, and she just loved being with these men — her guys. Just as Toby rolled his eyes and blew smoke in her face, and Josh grabbed her arm, so she fell in his lap as she made to stand up, did he walk in. He looked stern, admonishing even. His presence there broke what-ever spell had been cast around them. Josh let go of her, distancing himself from her and Toby looked vary, suspicious.

"I've got Flamingo," agent Donovan said grimly into his sleeve.

"Well, since my chaperon is here, I guess it's my curfew," C.J. said with an edge to her voice.

She got up and left the room, furiously. Her shadow followed, of course, he did.

Her long legs couldn't carry her away fast enough, but he was right by her side.

"There was no need to do that… There was no…" she began angrily. For a moment everything had been like before. And then he showed up, reminding everybody that she was fragile… She hated that someone, some man most likely, had put her in this position. Some twisted individual had taken away her freedom, made her a target, and she could do nothing about it. He had, tried, to chip away from her independence, but she wouldn't go down without a fight.

"It's my job ma'a…"

"Oh shut up," she cut him off. They walked past the last remaining guests, C.J. bickering the whole way and trying to make it as difficult as possible for him to follow her, sneaking behind scattered chairs and closing doors in his face. But he was always there, right by her side, seemingly unfazed. Finally, she was in front of her room, and as she turned to say one last thing to him, he interrupted her.

"I'm here to protect you… ma'am. It's my job," he said in a quiet voice.

She was startled by the look on his face. He was staring at her, and while his face gave nothing away, his eyes were full of emotion. Piercing into her core. She said nothing as she opened the door to her room. Before she closed the door, she looked at him once more, to see if she'd imagined it. It was still there. She held her breath as she closed the door, and heard him mutter a low announcement into his radio. She shifted, uncomfortably in the town-car as she thought about this.

C.J. walked towards her office. Her head was still immersed in the meeting she'd just finished, but all thoughts of Richie, the War of the Roses and her brand-new Vera Wang, vanished as she noticed her guardian standing by her office. Her cheeks felt warm at the sight of him, and images from her dream popped up, as hard as she tried to banish them.

"Agent 99."

"Morning."

"I want you to tell me right now, this second, what are you people doing to

catch this guy?"

"We're doing all the things that we do."

"You know, I haven't been happy with any of your answers to any of my

questions."

"Well, you've done a pretty good job concealing your dissatisfaction so far."

"Simon…"

C.J. sat at her desk and took in what had just happened. This creep had read her email. The longer she thought about it, the worse she felt. Her personal email was on her computer. How much had he read? She felt nauseous. Her mind wandered back, to an email she'd sent more than a year ago, after too many nights at the office and way too many beers. Had this intruder seen the most vulnerable, pathetic side of her? And oh God… She was going to Simon's gym tonight. This was going to be interesting.

Simon left her office, trying hard to hide his grin.

"I thought you said you want to have "gin" tonight." reverberated over and over in his head. She'd looked hopeful… or maybe he just wished she did.

He never could've imagined someone could enthral him, and annoy him in equal measures, like C.J. Cregg. He was assigned to her, and she acted like it was his fault! He admitted that he'd been thrilled when Ron told him of his newest assignment. He'd observed her from afar, how could he not? Being the mouthpiece of the administration, she was an obvious target for outside harassment. It didn't really hurt, or help for that matter, that she had an old fashioned beauty and grace about her, and when she shed the unappealing professional attire she adorned daily, she looked nothing less than a movie star. He wondered whether it was a conscious choice to dress in sharp suits that hid all markings of femininity. Perhaps she needed to, being a woman in this position. Her height worked in her favour, as she could tower over lesser men. She was almost his height, he mused. That was unusual. But her looks were only part of her allure, frankly a small part of it. She had a special… something. He couldn't put his finger on it. She was clever, and she used her wits like a cougar circles its prey. Her smile was deadly, and she wound people around her little finger with ease. He wondered how she'd become the woman she was. Because he could sense that she wore a shield that was macerated as her natural self, he caught glimpses of it, as he stood close by, guarding her. How he wanted to help her peele of the protective layers and observe her, the real her. The true Claudia Jean.

Her name had surprised him, but when he thought about it, it really shouldn't have. Her name was a part of her protective aura. Short, curt and professional. No curves, abstraction of womanhood.

He had slowly begun adoring her, and she despised him. But that didn't matter. He was glad for the opportunity to be close to her, to try to really see her.

Danny sat by the window and finished the last of his coffee. It was cold, and he grimaced as he swallowed the bitter liquid. He sat alone in the darkness, in an apartment for sale across from C.J.'s. He'd by some grace of God managed to sweet-talk the real-estate agent to lend him the keys for the day, giving a vague reason and money he didn't really afford to lose. He'd been there for hours, sat on a hard stool, half-hidden in the shadows. This spot gave him an excellent view of the street.

He'd spent the entire day ignoring his editors, calling in favours, trying to get information from sources. He kept telling himself, or more like convincing himself, that this was just like any other story, that he would do almost anything to get the truth. He needed answers. He needed to find out what was going on, and he needed to see her.

He was just about to stand up and stretch his legs when the front door of her apartment building opened up, and an agent stepped out. She must be on her way. But no car pulled up to the house, and for a few minutes, Danny wondered if the guard had only gone outside to get some fresh air. But then he saw her. Walking next to a tall, black-clad man. They looked more like a couple taking a stroll than an agent accompanying a high ranking member of the administration. Suddenly C.J. stopped, and the tall annoyance approached her. Danny sat upright and stared at them. They were standing close together, and then C.J. closed the gap between them. Danny couldn't watch. He got up and paced around. His heart was beating loudly, and his mind was desperately trying to stop his body from running out and getting killed by the secret service for attempting to take down one of their one.

He returned to the window and saw the back of C.J. disappearing into her home.

This had been a colossally bad idea. He tidied up after himself and left.

At home, he noticed someone had left a brown envelope inside the evening's issue of the Washington Post. He picked it up and entered his apartment. In the envelope were copies of the pictures the stalker had taken off C.J. His source at the Treasury had sent him these, probably more out of pity than anything else. He looked at her face in the first one. She was walking to work, with a serious face and a preoccupied mind. He spread the pictures around his already packed kitchen table. He studied each one, and hot fury ran through his body. How could someone do this?

Danny woke next morning after a short and restless sleep. He groggily took a shower and then walked into his kitchen, drying his hair. He looked at his messy table, and at the pictures of C.J. He walked towards the coffee maker and was pouring water into the container when he glanced a look at the picture nearest him. He was so preoccupied with what he was seeing that he didn't notice that he was pouring the water on top of the machine, not the container.

"Fuck," he said as he began drying up the water. He hastily cleaned the soaking table and dried his hands as he walked towards the table and picked up the picture he'd been looking at. It was off C.J. in front of her house, and something was odd. He'd spent hours watching that street, and the angle was peculiar. For someone to take this picture, they would have to stand very close to her. It was not taken with a telegraphic lens; he was almost certain of it. She would have noticed someone standing in front of her house taking a picture of her. Right? He needed to find out when this picture had been taken. He scrolled through the tapings of C.J.'s briefings, finally finding the same outfit as in the picture. He noted the date and hurriedly got dressed and left. He needed answers.

He tried to be as surreptitious as he could as he walked in front of C.J.'s house. He was trying to remember the exact angle of the picture, without holding it out. It was way too dangerous for him to be there, but he looked around and figured that the only way for someone to take this picture was from inside the building across from C.J.'s. He walked to the entrance and rang the doorbell of the apartment adjacent. An elderly woman answered.

"Yes?" She said looking at Danny.

"Hello there. My name is Daniel Concannon, and I'm from the Washington Post," he paused, waiting for her reaction. When she gave a small 'oh,' and a smile he continued, "I'm writing a story about break-ins in the nearby area, and I was wondering if I could talk to you for a little while about the sense of security in this neighbourhood?"

"Why, yes of course. Come on in, young man," She opened the door to let him in and shuffled into the kitchen.

"Thank you," Danny said with a smile and followed her into the house.

"Would you like some coffee, Daniel?" The old woman smiled at him.

"Yes thank you, but please don't go to any bother for me," Danny followed her into the kitchen.

"Oh it's no bother dear, come sit down." She ushered him to sit and began filling the table in front of him with biscuits and cakes. Danny asked her generic questions about the neighbourhood and let her take her time answering. She would wander off with her answers, talking about her children and her late husband. Danny smiled and listened. He had a way of making people talk, and his main tool was to listen with a kind face.

"Are you married, Daniel?" She asked him, looking at his hand for a ring.

"No, I am not," Danny smiled at the woman, knowing where this was going.

"You know, you should meet my granddaughter, Emily. She is such a lovely girl. Works in finance," she said smiling.

"Would you say this was a safe neighbourhood? Do the people look out for one another?" He asked, trying to steer the conversation in another direction.

"Yes, I would say so. Some so many important people live here, you know Daniel. And I must say since the new security addition for the building I must say I feel very safe," she smiled and filled his cup for the third time.

"What security additions?" Danny asked, trying to keep his calm.

"The one from the building society. You know they came and tested all my windows and locks and even connected my new television set, my darling Emily gave me. He was such a gentleman, but he was a bit too stern looking for my Emily. I think she would like someone more like you," she said, giving him a small wink and putting another slice of lemon cake on his plate.

"Can you tell me more about this?" Danny asked, forcing himself to eat more and smiling kindly at her.

"Not much to tell really. He came here and told me they needed to go over the security precautions for the building, and he came and looked at all my locks and windows. He even fixed the broken latch on the window in the sitting room," she said.

This sounded very odd to Danny. His mind was going a mile a minute and as he thought of a question to ask without making her suspicious.

"Oh, the latch was broken?" He asked.

"Yes, I suppose so. He showed me the broken piece and then he offered to fix it for me. Such a dear, but he didn't want anything to eat or drink," she sighed and looked happily at Danny's, yet again, empty plate.

"Could you show me the rest of the house?" Danny asked and smiled at her yet again, "You have such a lovely home," he added.

She stood up and began showing him around. She led him towards the picture frames, pulling the pictures of her grand-daughter out and showing him. He smiled politely, and finally, she showed him the sitting room. And there it was. The exact angle of the picture of C.J. His heart beat faster as he looked out the window.

"Is that the window he fixed?" Danny walked towards it and looked outside, seeing C.J.'s door clearly.

"Why, yes it is," she sounded a little confused.

He didn't want to alarm this kind woman, so he turned towards her and smiled again.

"Are you alright, ma'am?" He asked her. She was looking at the window and at Danny in turn.

"Yes, it's just a bit odd," she gave a small chuckle, "maybe it's my mind playing tricks, but he looked outside my window the exactly the same way you just did, dear."

"Well, perhaps he has the same horticulturist tendencies as I do," Danny said, covering his mistake.

"I'm sorry?" She looked at him confused.

"Your hydrangeas are looking lovely," he added quickly.

"Oh, my hyd…," she laughed, "yes, they are aren't they?" She continued laughing and walked towards the window.

She pointed out all her different flowers, and Danny smiled and nodded, stealing glances at C.J.'s building.

"Well, will you look at the time. I'm sorry, but I need to get going. Thank you so much for all your help," Danny said and held her hand as he talked to her.

"Oh, not at all. Let me give you a few cookies for the road. You look hungry." She said and walked back into the kitchen.

Danny made sure to stay in the same place, not daring to peek out the window again. He took the cookies and left the house. He smiled at her as she waved him from the window and he walked purposefully towards his car.

tbc.