"Did they let you through security like that?" Carol asked her boss
as she walked through the bullpen on her way to Senior Staff. CJ,
uncharacteristically, had her scarf wrapped around her hair and lower face.
"They probably recognized her by her freakish height," Josh chipped in. CJ rewarded him with a delicate smack from her free arm (the other was occupied by a half-dozen file folders she brought from home) as Carol laughed.
"I think it's cute!" Donna protested. "Very Grace Kelly in northern Africa," she added, trading Josh's files for the ones he actually needed.
"Thanks, Donna." CJ's voice was muffled under the scarf. "Josh, do we have an answer on the spelling of 'Gadhafi?'"
"Is it a problem?"
"Yeah. The Library of Congress says 'Q-A-D-H-D-H-A-F-I,' but newspaper readers freak out a little over the D-H-D-H. The AP calls him 'G- A-D-H-A-F-I.' He himself spells it 'E-L-hyphen-G-A-D-H-A-F-I.'"
"Isn't this a question for Leo?"
"He gets a little nutty when you ask him, and insists that it's 'K-A- D-D-A-F-I,' which isn't on the table because it's entirely different from the way everyone else in the world spells it."
"Let's just spell it the same way the State Department does."
"Okay. Do we have a comment on HR -"
"Ask that guy in the Speaker's office, and keep me up to date. Do you have the morning gaggle today?"
"No, most of the guys are covering the Attorney General's announcement today, so we've just got briefings at three and seven."
"Dodge the question until seven, so we can bury it with the Attorney General."
"'Kay. Carol, can you make sure someone gets me index cards on the Sierra Club thing?"
"Sure."
"Thanks." Carol and Donna peeled off as the group reached Leo's office. "Morning, Margaret."
"Hello, CJ, Josh. You guys can go on in."
"Thanks."
Graciously, Josh opened the door for CJ, who, when the door clicked shut behind Josh, unwound the scarf from around her head. Leo, Toby, Will and Josh all looked at her quizzically, until she accidentally dropped the ice pack that the scarf had secured to her cheek.
"Jesus, CJ!" Leo's reaction was involuntary, halfway between words and a yelp.
"I know, it looks awful, doesn't it?" CJ replaced the ice on her black and purple jaw. An enormous orchid of a bruise discolored her cheek. The swelling distorted her jawline with an awful, painful lump, and the purple didn't quite conceal a cut midway through it. "It's not as bad as it looks. I ran into my freezer door trying to get the phone," she laughed, her tone a little too rich. Toby called that tone of voice "CJ's Martha Stuart Caught With A Hooker Voice," though never where she could hear him. Toby knew she must be in a lot more pain than she was willing to admit for her to use that voice. "The swelling should be down enough by three that I can put cover-up on it for the briefing, and no one'll even notice."
"You ran into your freezer door?" Leo asked, incredulous.
"I know. Stupid, huh? I didn't realize I'd left it open, and I had just come in with a bag of groceries."
"And she wonders why they call her 'Flamingo,'" Josh muttered to Will.
"You're sure it'll be fine in time for the briefing?"
CJ nodded confidently. "I asked a doctor. It won't be normal-colored, but I'll be able to hide it."
"You're sure you're okay?"
"Fine, fine."
"Alright. Where are we on HR-335?"
"I'm going to see if we can dodge it until this afternoon, and Josh thinks by then we'll be able to bury it with the Attorney General."
"If the press is really insistent, you should just give it to them and we'll hope it gets buried anyway. We're much better off with this on page 23 with an evasive quote than on page two with a no comment."
CJ nodded. "Any news on Chester?" Leo continued.
"Chester from Iowa or Chester from Kentucky?"
"Kentucky."
"We're out of luck; he's resigning. The governor's going to appoint -"
Toby cut Will off. "The governor's not going to appoint Rodgers, it's Cordova -"
"It's suicide for him to appoint Cordova! It's Rodgers -"
"And I'm telling you the governor doesn't give a damn about reelection if he can pull off a coup like Cordova!" Toby bellowed.
"You guys want to shut up and make a decision? I don't care if one of you has to date the governor's daughter, I want an answer this afternoon!"
Toby and Will nodded, still glaring at each other. "What've you got, Josh?"
"I'm with Allen, Carson and Bonhomme this afternoon."
"What are they asking?"
"I'm going to try to sell them on the merits, but Allen and Bonhomme won't go for it unless Carson does."
"And he wants $5 million for the pork farmers' thing."
"Yeah. I don't know if he'll go for anything less."
"Do what you can, but we're not going to lose sleep over it. Unless -"
"What?"
"Carson hasn't been a friend to this White House. See if you can't get Orville instead."
"We're still a vote down..."
"I think Orville can turn Allen and Bonhomme."
"What can I give him?"
"See what an East Wing dinner with a White House photographer will buy us?"
"Got it."
"Anything else?"
Josh, CJ, Toby and Will all indicated no. "Thanks, then."
"Thank you, Leo," they chorused.
As Toby and Will rounded the corner, they resumed their argument. "And I'm telling you I wrote the man's inaugural address! It's Rodgers, and nobody in their right mind would believe..." the voices faded out as they headed down the hallway, frightening interns and assistants.
"Will and Donna and I are going to the Donkey's Feathers tonight. You want to come?" Josh asked CJ. "Some kids from the California Legislature are going to be there tonight, and they're so impressed to see anyone they recognize from Time magazine that we'll be drinking free all night."
"Yeah, that sounds good," smiled CJ. She kept the ice clapped to her cheek so no one could see the bruise. Earlier she had admonished Carol that it was really important that no press have access to the no press areas, so she wasn't particularly worried about anyone from the corps noticing her injury and asking embarrassing questions.
"Really?"
Josh's expression was one of surprise. "Yeah, we'll have fun. What?"
"Nothing, you just haven't wanted to hang out with us for a while."
CJ shrugged elaborately. "I've been busy."
"So what happened with Marco?" CJ had spent most of her free time of late with Marco, who was visiting from Dayton. Whenever anyone asked her, she swore that they weren't serious, but that didn't stop most of her friends from smiling and sniggering.
"We aren't doing anything tonight."
"Oh, really? How come?"
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe this is a conversation I don't want to have?" CJ kept her tone light, but Josh didn't miss the edge that she tried to hide.
"Oh, Ceej..." Josh stopped in front of CJ's office door, grasping her wrist. She turned to face him, but allowed her hair to fall in front of her face so she wouldn't have to look at him.
"It's fine. I'm in the mood to be bought all the liquor I can hold by twenty-two year old Californians who think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some of whom will almost certainly have that certain je ne sais quoi that makes me want to..."
"Rob the cradle?"
"Exactly. Though not, I'm sure, how I would have put it."
"Hey, if you need to..."
"I need to call the guy in the Speaker's office."
"Okay. Let me know how it goes."
"Of course."
Someone knocked hesitantly at CJ's door. "Come in."
Will put his head around the door. "Hi. Are you busy?"
"No, no, come on in," she answered around a mouthful of salad, waving him inside. The bruise had deflated somewhat, and CJ no longer bothered keeping the ice against it.
"You're sure you aren't busy?"
"I've got half an hour; what do you need?"
Will walked inside and closed the door behind him. "This is maybe none of my business," he said at last.
"What, Will?"
He struggled with what he wanted to say for a moment. "Did I ever tell you about the summer I spent at Quantico?"
"No," CJ answered, smiling quizzically and blandly at her coworker.
"Elsie - every summer, Elsie would come home with a new career that she desperately wanted to do. One summer it was ranching, one summer it was writing, one summer it was forensic pathology. My father saw it as his job to dissuade Elsie from wanting to continue with any of these jobs."
CJ smiled politely at Will's story. "The forensic pathology summer was when I was...oh, twenty-three or twenty-four. Elsie must have been fourteen. Dad called somebody he knew at the FBI Academy, trying to force Elsie to give up the idea by exposing her to what it's really like. And he didn't want her living at Quantico by herself, so he told me to go live with her.
"Elsie couldn't handle it. She went to one class by herself, and came home white and shaking. The teacher had scared the class as best he could; showed them pictures of dead people the whole time. I went with her to all the rest of them."
"What happened?"
"Well, Elsie, predictably, gave up any thought of studying pathology. The FBI offered her a job as soon as she got her undergraduate degree, but she said no."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Ah. Well, this is the part that's maybe none of my business."
"Will..."
"These classes mainly dealt with how to identify where and what someone's wounds came from. And your cheek has three distinct impact points on it, which is indicative of your being struck with something with evenly spaced bumps on it; say, something like a fist."
"What are you -"
"And the other thing I noticed is that you have an abrasion at the center of the injury. That isn't consistent with walking into a freezer door; you'd get the bruise skewing left or right of the abrasion. The thing is, though, what you have would be consistent with - and, of course, I'm speaking hypothetically here - the class ring that I've seen Marco wearing every time we've met."
CJ stood up, planting the balls of her hands on the desk and leaning forward slightly. "I'm not sure I like what you're implying," she growled.
"I know I don't like it. CJ, if he hit you -"
"I walked into the freezer door. No one is saying otherwise but you, and I hardly think you're qualified -"
"I know I'm not qualified, CJ, but we both know I'm right!"
"No, Will, you aren't -"
"Look, CJ. It doesn't matter if I'm right or not, I just wanted to let you know that the next time you show up with a bruise like that I'm going to get Danny Concannon, and I'm going to get Josh, and every other person here that'd walk through fire for you, CJ, but most of all I'm going to get Toby, and we're going to make sure that it doesn't happen. Ever."
"I can't believe you'd come in here and threaten me!"
"It's absolutely not a threat."
"And furthermore, what gave you the idea that it's your job to watch out for me? What gave you the idea that I would even want you watching out for me?"
"Hey, come on -"
"No, dammit! I'm not your little sister; I don't want and I didn't ask for this!"
"I'm just doing what any decent person would do -"
"Any decent person? Prying, calling me a liar? Fuck you, Will!"
Will stared at her, unprepared for the depth of her anger. As he stared, shock slowly dissolved into determination. CJ stared back for a long moment before dropping her eyes and sitting down.
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for," CJ whispered.
"I'm not calling you weak, CJ. I wouldn't even think it."
"Why not?"
"What?"
"This is pretty textbook weak, isn't it?" Will opened his mouth to protest, but CJ silenced him with a wave. "Don't answer."
"I'm sorry if I insulted you, CJ."
"There's no need to apologize."
"No, I really am. And if I did, it's just because I came at it the wrong way. It's...I think you'd do the same for me. I don't think your weak, because you're my friend. And if I showed up with a black eye one day, God knows I'd want you at the front of the pack."
"Okay. Thank you, Will."
"I'm sorry, CJ."
"Thank you."
Will stood up with a vaguely regretful look on his face. "You're coming out drinking with me tonight, right?"
"I'm sorry?"
"And Josh and Donna?"
"Of course."
Will started to leave. "CJ?"
"Yeah?"
"If I were looking to get in a fight with someone who had hurt you, I wouldn't take Toby or Danny."
"Why not?"
"If I'm going to be a party to homicide, I want to be the responsible party." Will closed the door gently behind him as he headed back to the bullpen.
"They probably recognized her by her freakish height," Josh chipped in. CJ rewarded him with a delicate smack from her free arm (the other was occupied by a half-dozen file folders she brought from home) as Carol laughed.
"I think it's cute!" Donna protested. "Very Grace Kelly in northern Africa," she added, trading Josh's files for the ones he actually needed.
"Thanks, Donna." CJ's voice was muffled under the scarf. "Josh, do we have an answer on the spelling of 'Gadhafi?'"
"Is it a problem?"
"Yeah. The Library of Congress says 'Q-A-D-H-D-H-A-F-I,' but newspaper readers freak out a little over the D-H-D-H. The AP calls him 'G- A-D-H-A-F-I.' He himself spells it 'E-L-hyphen-G-A-D-H-A-F-I.'"
"Isn't this a question for Leo?"
"He gets a little nutty when you ask him, and insists that it's 'K-A- D-D-A-F-I,' which isn't on the table because it's entirely different from the way everyone else in the world spells it."
"Let's just spell it the same way the State Department does."
"Okay. Do we have a comment on HR -"
"Ask that guy in the Speaker's office, and keep me up to date. Do you have the morning gaggle today?"
"No, most of the guys are covering the Attorney General's announcement today, so we've just got briefings at three and seven."
"Dodge the question until seven, so we can bury it with the Attorney General."
"'Kay. Carol, can you make sure someone gets me index cards on the Sierra Club thing?"
"Sure."
"Thanks." Carol and Donna peeled off as the group reached Leo's office. "Morning, Margaret."
"Hello, CJ, Josh. You guys can go on in."
"Thanks."
Graciously, Josh opened the door for CJ, who, when the door clicked shut behind Josh, unwound the scarf from around her head. Leo, Toby, Will and Josh all looked at her quizzically, until she accidentally dropped the ice pack that the scarf had secured to her cheek.
"Jesus, CJ!" Leo's reaction was involuntary, halfway between words and a yelp.
"I know, it looks awful, doesn't it?" CJ replaced the ice on her black and purple jaw. An enormous orchid of a bruise discolored her cheek. The swelling distorted her jawline with an awful, painful lump, and the purple didn't quite conceal a cut midway through it. "It's not as bad as it looks. I ran into my freezer door trying to get the phone," she laughed, her tone a little too rich. Toby called that tone of voice "CJ's Martha Stuart Caught With A Hooker Voice," though never where she could hear him. Toby knew she must be in a lot more pain than she was willing to admit for her to use that voice. "The swelling should be down enough by three that I can put cover-up on it for the briefing, and no one'll even notice."
"You ran into your freezer door?" Leo asked, incredulous.
"I know. Stupid, huh? I didn't realize I'd left it open, and I had just come in with a bag of groceries."
"And she wonders why they call her 'Flamingo,'" Josh muttered to Will.
"You're sure it'll be fine in time for the briefing?"
CJ nodded confidently. "I asked a doctor. It won't be normal-colored, but I'll be able to hide it."
"You're sure you're okay?"
"Fine, fine."
"Alright. Where are we on HR-335?"
"I'm going to see if we can dodge it until this afternoon, and Josh thinks by then we'll be able to bury it with the Attorney General."
"If the press is really insistent, you should just give it to them and we'll hope it gets buried anyway. We're much better off with this on page 23 with an evasive quote than on page two with a no comment."
CJ nodded. "Any news on Chester?" Leo continued.
"Chester from Iowa or Chester from Kentucky?"
"Kentucky."
"We're out of luck; he's resigning. The governor's going to appoint -"
Toby cut Will off. "The governor's not going to appoint Rodgers, it's Cordova -"
"It's suicide for him to appoint Cordova! It's Rodgers -"
"And I'm telling you the governor doesn't give a damn about reelection if he can pull off a coup like Cordova!" Toby bellowed.
"You guys want to shut up and make a decision? I don't care if one of you has to date the governor's daughter, I want an answer this afternoon!"
Toby and Will nodded, still glaring at each other. "What've you got, Josh?"
"I'm with Allen, Carson and Bonhomme this afternoon."
"What are they asking?"
"I'm going to try to sell them on the merits, but Allen and Bonhomme won't go for it unless Carson does."
"And he wants $5 million for the pork farmers' thing."
"Yeah. I don't know if he'll go for anything less."
"Do what you can, but we're not going to lose sleep over it. Unless -"
"What?"
"Carson hasn't been a friend to this White House. See if you can't get Orville instead."
"We're still a vote down..."
"I think Orville can turn Allen and Bonhomme."
"What can I give him?"
"See what an East Wing dinner with a White House photographer will buy us?"
"Got it."
"Anything else?"
Josh, CJ, Toby and Will all indicated no. "Thanks, then."
"Thank you, Leo," they chorused.
As Toby and Will rounded the corner, they resumed their argument. "And I'm telling you I wrote the man's inaugural address! It's Rodgers, and nobody in their right mind would believe..." the voices faded out as they headed down the hallway, frightening interns and assistants.
"Will and Donna and I are going to the Donkey's Feathers tonight. You want to come?" Josh asked CJ. "Some kids from the California Legislature are going to be there tonight, and they're so impressed to see anyone they recognize from Time magazine that we'll be drinking free all night."
"Yeah, that sounds good," smiled CJ. She kept the ice clapped to her cheek so no one could see the bruise. Earlier she had admonished Carol that it was really important that no press have access to the no press areas, so she wasn't particularly worried about anyone from the corps noticing her injury and asking embarrassing questions.
"Really?"
Josh's expression was one of surprise. "Yeah, we'll have fun. What?"
"Nothing, you just haven't wanted to hang out with us for a while."
CJ shrugged elaborately. "I've been busy."
"So what happened with Marco?" CJ had spent most of her free time of late with Marco, who was visiting from Dayton. Whenever anyone asked her, she swore that they weren't serious, but that didn't stop most of her friends from smiling and sniggering.
"We aren't doing anything tonight."
"Oh, really? How come?"
"Did it ever occur to you that maybe this is a conversation I don't want to have?" CJ kept her tone light, but Josh didn't miss the edge that she tried to hide.
"Oh, Ceej..." Josh stopped in front of CJ's office door, grasping her wrist. She turned to face him, but allowed her hair to fall in front of her face so she wouldn't have to look at him.
"It's fine. I'm in the mood to be bought all the liquor I can hold by twenty-two year old Californians who think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread. Some of whom will almost certainly have that certain je ne sais quoi that makes me want to..."
"Rob the cradle?"
"Exactly. Though not, I'm sure, how I would have put it."
"Hey, if you need to..."
"I need to call the guy in the Speaker's office."
"Okay. Let me know how it goes."
"Of course."
Someone knocked hesitantly at CJ's door. "Come in."
Will put his head around the door. "Hi. Are you busy?"
"No, no, come on in," she answered around a mouthful of salad, waving him inside. The bruise had deflated somewhat, and CJ no longer bothered keeping the ice against it.
"You're sure you aren't busy?"
"I've got half an hour; what do you need?"
Will walked inside and closed the door behind him. "This is maybe none of my business," he said at last.
"What, Will?"
He struggled with what he wanted to say for a moment. "Did I ever tell you about the summer I spent at Quantico?"
"No," CJ answered, smiling quizzically and blandly at her coworker.
"Elsie - every summer, Elsie would come home with a new career that she desperately wanted to do. One summer it was ranching, one summer it was writing, one summer it was forensic pathology. My father saw it as his job to dissuade Elsie from wanting to continue with any of these jobs."
CJ smiled politely at Will's story. "The forensic pathology summer was when I was...oh, twenty-three or twenty-four. Elsie must have been fourteen. Dad called somebody he knew at the FBI Academy, trying to force Elsie to give up the idea by exposing her to what it's really like. And he didn't want her living at Quantico by herself, so he told me to go live with her.
"Elsie couldn't handle it. She went to one class by herself, and came home white and shaking. The teacher had scared the class as best he could; showed them pictures of dead people the whole time. I went with her to all the rest of them."
"What happened?"
"Well, Elsie, predictably, gave up any thought of studying pathology. The FBI offered her a job as soon as she got her undergraduate degree, but she said no."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Ah. Well, this is the part that's maybe none of my business."
"Will..."
"These classes mainly dealt with how to identify where and what someone's wounds came from. And your cheek has three distinct impact points on it, which is indicative of your being struck with something with evenly spaced bumps on it; say, something like a fist."
"What are you -"
"And the other thing I noticed is that you have an abrasion at the center of the injury. That isn't consistent with walking into a freezer door; you'd get the bruise skewing left or right of the abrasion. The thing is, though, what you have would be consistent with - and, of course, I'm speaking hypothetically here - the class ring that I've seen Marco wearing every time we've met."
CJ stood up, planting the balls of her hands on the desk and leaning forward slightly. "I'm not sure I like what you're implying," she growled.
"I know I don't like it. CJ, if he hit you -"
"I walked into the freezer door. No one is saying otherwise but you, and I hardly think you're qualified -"
"I know I'm not qualified, CJ, but we both know I'm right!"
"No, Will, you aren't -"
"Look, CJ. It doesn't matter if I'm right or not, I just wanted to let you know that the next time you show up with a bruise like that I'm going to get Danny Concannon, and I'm going to get Josh, and every other person here that'd walk through fire for you, CJ, but most of all I'm going to get Toby, and we're going to make sure that it doesn't happen. Ever."
"I can't believe you'd come in here and threaten me!"
"It's absolutely not a threat."
"And furthermore, what gave you the idea that it's your job to watch out for me? What gave you the idea that I would even want you watching out for me?"
"Hey, come on -"
"No, dammit! I'm not your little sister; I don't want and I didn't ask for this!"
"I'm just doing what any decent person would do -"
"Any decent person? Prying, calling me a liar? Fuck you, Will!"
Will stared at her, unprepared for the depth of her anger. As he stared, shock slowly dissolved into determination. CJ stared back for a long moment before dropping her eyes and sitting down.
"I'm sorry. That was uncalled for," CJ whispered.
"I'm not calling you weak, CJ. I wouldn't even think it."
"Why not?"
"What?"
"This is pretty textbook weak, isn't it?" Will opened his mouth to protest, but CJ silenced him with a wave. "Don't answer."
"I'm sorry if I insulted you, CJ."
"There's no need to apologize."
"No, I really am. And if I did, it's just because I came at it the wrong way. It's...I think you'd do the same for me. I don't think your weak, because you're my friend. And if I showed up with a black eye one day, God knows I'd want you at the front of the pack."
"Okay. Thank you, Will."
"I'm sorry, CJ."
"Thank you."
Will stood up with a vaguely regretful look on his face. "You're coming out drinking with me tonight, right?"
"I'm sorry?"
"And Josh and Donna?"
"Of course."
Will started to leave. "CJ?"
"Yeah?"
"If I were looking to get in a fight with someone who had hurt you, I wouldn't take Toby or Danny."
"Why not?"
"If I'm going to be a party to homicide, I want to be the responsible party." Will closed the door gently behind him as he headed back to the bullpen.