Original
Sin Elton John.
Oh,
it's carnival night
And they're stringing the lights around
you
Danny
walked out of the White House past all the lights and cameras on the
lawn. The media frenzy was a haze of lights and banter to him,
spinning their half-truths, speculations, and using fear and
falsities to entertain the masses.
Hanging paper
angels
Painting little devils on the roof
Once
past the news vans Danny could only see traffic and hear static as he
remembered what game he was in. Danny took to the road in his cobalt
1975 Buick Le Sabre Convertible. Faster than he knew, Danny was out
of the traffic of the District and on the open road.
Oh
the furnace wind
Is a flickering of wings about your face
In
a cloud of incense
Yea,
it smells like Heaven in this place
He
tried not to think about CJ as he raced down the pavement roads
kicking up dust in is path. He saw her face in the light, her smile,
the sly grin she gave him, her harsh looks, and her determined
attitude, laid out in font of him like his north star. It hurt to
think of her, but it was his only direction. There was no north, no
south, no west, and no east, only CJ.
I
can't eat, can't sleep
Still I hunger for you when you look at
me
That face, those eyes
All the sinful pleasures deep
inside
The
wind blew through the open car, flapping two days of newspapers
sitting along side Danny. The papers where held down only by the
weight of his police scanner plugged into his never-used cigarette
lighter. The sound worked with the wind like baseball cards in the
spokes of a child's bike. The air felt good and the sun hit him
hard, his eyes deep under cover of blinders both figurative and
literal. His lenses only hid the deep ache in his eyes and body from
lack of sleep and from worry.
Tell
me how, you know now, the ways and means of getting in
Underneath
my skin,
Oh you were always my original sin
And tell me
why, I shudder inside, every time we begin
This dangerous
game
Oh you were always my original sin
Danny
tried to remember the last time he saw her, the last thing he said to
CJ. His mind, however, was coming up blank. All he could resurface
were flashes of her, her voice, her movement, like he was held
captive in the shutter of an old time camera or a giant collage of
pictures.
A dream will fly
The moment
that you open up your eyes
A dream is just a riddle
Ghosts
from every corner of your life
Soon
he knew he would have to pull over and sleep, maybe eat something
even though he hadn't been hungry for food. For now Danny would
ride as fast and as far as he could before he collapsed in his
driver's seat. The road seemed to stretch to eternity in front of
him. He felt so tiny as he slipped farther and farther away from
Washington.
Up in the balcony
All the
Romeo's are bleeding for your hand
Blowing theater
kisses
Reciting lines they don't understand
Danny
took a map from his glove compartment and threw it on the dash,
looking over a folded section for a moment before throwing the map to
the floor in front of the passenger seat. He drove faster this time,
gaining speed since he was alone on the dusty trail.
I
can't eat, can't sleep
Still I hunger for you when you look at
me
That face, those eyes
All the sinful pleasures deep
inside
Tell me how, you know now, the ways and means of
getting in
Underneath my skin,
Oh you were always my
original sin
And tell me why, I shudder inside, every time we
begin
This dangerous game
Oh you were always my
original sin
---
After
what seemed like hours, Danny stopped. He let his car go from a hum
to a purr and finally to a stop. He flipped open the flap over his
driver's side seat, revealing a ripped out picture of CJ from his
last article. He caught sight of it for a moment. It took his focus.
He hadn't wanted that. After a moment Danny took his notebook from
the bag, and hit the flap closed. He placed the notebook in his back
pocket, knowing this was the most important case he would ever
investigate, the most important story he would file.
Tell
me how, you know now, the ways and means of getting in
Underneath
my skin,
Oh you were always my original sin
And tell me
why, I shudder inside, every time we begin
This dangerous
game
Oh you were always my original sin
-------
Jed
stood alone not knowing what to do. He had no idea whether to go left
or go right as he went over all the information he was given in his
briefing about CJ. It was strange to be briefed about CJ when she
used to be the one briefing.
"Jed." Abby entered the Oval
Office and shut the door.
"Abbey. Glad we got that out of
the way. Should we get name tags?"
"What the hell are you
doing?"
"Running the country? How about you?"
"Do
you have any idea what's going on out there—."
"Is
there a parade?"
"Don't be cute with me!"
"I'm
sorry?"
"What the hell are you doing about CJ?"
"Oh,
not you too! I'm doing everything I can do. We're all doing
everything we can do. But, as we both know, we can't stop the
country because someone we love is missing. Plus this time we don't
have a smoking a gun---no gun, no nothing. We don't have anything.
No note, no evidence—."
"Until Danny Concannon came
along—."
"That we have. See, we have something. Still
it's not anything. Women disappear from their homes all the
time---some objects--- some jewelry go missing---."
"But,
none of them are the Press Secretary and none of them our friends,
Jed!"
"You think I don't know that. You don't think
this is hard? They sit around here telling me the statistics. I say
that's not CJ. They say those are the numbers. I say CJ wouldn't
just disappear. She wouldn't just walk away. They say, "Show me
the evidence". They say, "show me the note", they say, "Show
me the country or the person that wants something in return". I
say. "I don't have any." And they say it's a normal missing
person's investigation. That's all I can do, Abbey."
"That's
not all you can do Jed! You can leave this office! I know you. You
think if you just stay in here and try to get things done it will go
away. But have you even seen what's going on around here---Danny
Concannon is beside himself---"
"What does Danny have to
with this—?"
"---- Your staff is walking around like
zombies. Wake up Jed. CJ is missing!"
"I know!"
"You
have to get out here and stop leading the country for a nanosecond
and lead your friends---."
"So, this has nothing to do
with the crappy job the FBI is doing with this thing—."
"Yeah,
but there are other things—."
"Yeah."
"So you
do agree the FBI is doing a crappy job—."
"Yeah, but I
couldn't do anything about that before so I sure as hell can't do
anything now—."
"Really? Because last I heard, or read
somewhere, I think it was The Post, yeah, that was it---You're the
leader of the free world."
"Oh yeah."
"They
need someone to tell them it's ok, they're running around like
chickens with their heads cut off. They need you. They need you to
make them a cohesive group again. They're confused, lost. Danny
Concannon is out there right now looking for her, for god's
sake."
"Why is he doing that? He's insane. He could
get himself killed. "
"That's the kind of things you do
when you're in love."
"Who, CJ?
"No the
Daili lama"
"Love.
Really?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yeah?"
"Danny?"
"Yeah?"
"Wow.
Does CJ?"
"Well that's debatable."
"Wow."
"---I'd
say no."
"Wow."
"And so now
he's---"
"Yeah."
"Wow"
"Stop
with the wow's, will ya? I think it's kind of romantic."
"Why
do I feel like I'm in a French film all of a sudden?" Jed took a
breath. "So he's loved her for five years and just---
"Bugged
the hell out of her. Reminds me of someone I know. They looked at
each other remembering their love and silly tactics in their early
years.
"You're right---I need to talk to them.—"
"You
need to talk to the country—"
"But the FBI
says---"
"Screw the FBI, Jed. This is
CJ."
"Yeah."
"Danny can't do this. Someone
has to get him back."
"There's no way. I saw him Jed.
There's no reasoning with him." There was a moment as they leaned
up against the Oval desk. Jed let out a breath.
"She's
like a daughter to me. You know that right?"
"I know."
She squeezed his hand.
"Both of us."
"Well."
She paused unsure how to put it in the situation. "More like a
sister to me." She smiled at Jed and took his face in her hand.
"We'll get her back. Just like we got our other girl back." Jed
nodded and embraced his wife, now geared up with the strength to
fight.
----
"Donna
Moss is here to see you." Margaret spoke from the door. Leo nodded,
"Yeah. Send her in." He looked up as Donna walked in.
"Hey,
Donna what does he want?" Leo took his glasses off.
"It's
not for Josh. Josh doesn't know I'm here." Donna looked timid
and her eyes looked as if she had been crying.
"Donna, are
you all right?" Leo stood.
"I'm fine. Well, I'm not
fine, and I'm not good. So fine is probably the best answer. But
I'm worried about Josh."
"Yes."
"I was hoping
you could give him something to do. Anything. Send him to the hill,
have him stuff –envelopes- something. He needs something to
do—"
"I know—"
"He's going crazy. Josh
always has to feel like he's helping, even if he's running around
in circles with his head cut off-- at least he's not standing
still."
"Yeah." Leo paused. "I'll find something for
him to do."
"Thank you." Donna began to
leave.
"Donna?"
"Yeah."
"You ok?"
"I
have to be ok for Josh."
"You don't have to be."
"I
do."
"Ok."
Donna walked out and Leo took a moment
before walking into the Oval Office. Jed sat at his desk intently
writing on a piece of paper.
"Hey." Leo spoke as he
approached.
"Hey." Jed looked up as Leo walked to the
chair at the side of his desk. "I see we have the carnival out on
the south lawn."
"They have the right to be there."
"I
also have the right to go punch out all their monitors and TV
cameras, but I have decency, you know that?"
"This I
know."
"What is this dynamic we have going here, lately?"
Jed stood.
"I'm keeping your spirits up. Making sure you
still have your sense of humor through all this?"
"My
witty sidekick?"
"I suppose." Leo grinned at his
friend.
"What are we, Burns and Allen?"
Charlie
walked into the Oval Office, "Mr. President."
"Yeah,
thanks Charlie." Jed looked at Leo. "I got to do this trade
thing."
"You're going to make a statement"
"Yeah.
This is when you tell me I'm making a
mistake?
"No."
"Good."
"You writing
some remarks."
"I'm writing something---Toby's working
on it." Jed took a breath.
"No news, huh?"
"No."
----