A/N: Hey people! Here's the last chapter. Thanks to the two people who reviewed! And the reviews for the entire story, for that matter! As always, I apologize for the long delays between chapters, I'm a senior in high-school this year and I've been busy with the whole college application thing…then when I do go online, I keep reading everyone else's fics rather than update my own, bad habit of mine, entirely my fault. Well anyways, hope ya all enjoyed the story! I'm working on a few other West Wing fics, so hopefully I'll get 'em up soon. Can't get rid of me that easily!

Oh and review! Reviews are what keep me writing!

Thanks!

-AEM

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CJ had been living in Washington DC for around 5 or so years, but she had never yet been to this diner. This and other entirely random thoughts filled her head on the drive to the Dupont Circle Diner. Fear could do that to you. She kept trying to tell herself to relax, but it didn't work "Oh please, God, please don't turn my fears into reality." She prayed "I know I haven't prayed to you in a long time and this is a really shallow thing to pray for, but please let Josh and Toby be wrong. Let me be wrong." She stopped praying to find herself in the parking lot of the diner. She parked her car in the front of the diner and looked out the windshield to find Ben a few feet away, leaning on the wall, watching the traffic. He didn't see her. Watching him, CJ remembered why she loved him. No…no…he wouldn't do something like that…he wouldn't cheat on her…no…it was impossible…

CJ stepped out of her car "Ben" she called. Ben looked up and studied her through two black eyes. CJ gasped and ran over to her boyfriend "Oh my god, Ben!" she put out her hands towards his face and had barely grazed it when he pulled away. "Josh and Toby did that right?" she said while putting her arms back down by her sides.

"Yeah" he couldn't meet her eyes, but she didn't notice "I'd rather not talk about it…"

"God, I am so pissed off at the both of them…"

"CJ..." tried Ben, but CJ wouldn't listen. Her anger had returned again and with it, brought this insane urge to keep talking

"I mean where the hell do they get off hitting you…"

"CJ, please let me talk…"

"…they had no right…"

"They had every right…"

"And…"CJ laughed suddenly, but it wasn't her usual laugh, it was a hollow laugh "You're never gonna believe this. This is what made me the maddest. They seemed to think, in the twisted way that those two idiots think, that if they said this, I would suddenly understand and everything would be all right. They lied and that's what pissed me off the most. They made up some stupid lie that you're…"

"CJ, I'm cheating on you"

"…cheating on…you're…what?" CJ whispered and she felt numb. As suddenly as the numbness came, it went away again, replaced by anger "You're WHAT?!"

Ben paled and took an unconscious step back towards the wall "Please CJ!" he pleaded "Please, let me explain!"

CJ glared and stepped towards him. He stepped back as far as he could go before ending up against the wall "Oh you'd better explain!"

"Okay," Ben took a deep breath "It all started after I left my wife…well, I guess it was before then because I was cheating on her with Lisa…o-kay wrong word…" he said as CJ took an angry breath through her nose. "Anyway, I'd left my wife and Lisa and I were together back in California when I got a promotion at work, but on one condition; that I would be transferred to DC. Now there was no way I could pass this up, but there was one problem. Lisa couldn't leave her job and she didn't want to be separated from me, so she told me if I took the promotion, we were over. But, again, I couldn't pass up this promotion, so I came out here. I'd actually forgotten you were out here too, until I caught one of your press briefings and I had to get in touch with you…"

"Nice to see you were so broken-hearted about Lisa" mumbled CJ

"…so I did and you know what happened…things just sort-of sprung off from there. But then a few weeks later, we're going good. I'm leaving your apartment and I get a call from Lisa. She's living in DC now, she feels horrible for what she did, she misses me and she wants us to get together. So, I meet her and I remember the feelings for her that I had forgotten after I had started to date you. But then, there was a problem. I still loved her and I still loved you. I loved you both and I knew I needed to pick, but I couldn't decide which one of you I loved more, so I decided to keep both of you until I decided which one I liked more. So this was a couple of months ago and things are going good with both you and Lisa and I still couldn't decide which one of you I liked better. I didn't want to lose either of you. Then Lisa starts talking marriage, so last week, I proposed, but I still was testing myself on which of you I liked better, so I suggested to you we move in together. You see I was hoping that if I do sort-of similar things with the both of you, then I could decide that way which of you I liked more. It didn't work. And then, I guess Josh and Toby made that decision finally for me" he sighed dramatically

"Lisa."

"Oh no. You see she was with me when your friends beat me up and the story came out, so she's not speaking to me at the moment" Ben said mildly

CJ stared at him "It's amazing…"

"What is?"

"You're still as self-involved as you were the when we dated back in college. I was hoping you had grown up a little since then, but I see I was wrong. You're still as childish as a schoolboy. You had the love of two women and all you can think of is how it affects you. You didn't give any consideration on what it may do to them. You didn't give any consideration to them period…to us…You acted like a complete jackass."

"And now you're gonna beat me up?" Ben prompted

CJ was quiet for a moment, "No. I'm not." She answered finally, quietly "That's too good for you. I let you explain yourself and what I got was a shallow response…"

"So, you forgive me?" interrupted Ben "That's great! Let's go out to dinner!"

CJ stared at him, disbelievingly "No! I don't love you anymore, I don't even like you anymore. I'm not not beating you up because I forgive you, I'm not not beating you up because that's the easy way out. Instead of hurting you, which I'd really like to do by the way, I'm gonna make you live with this. I'm gonna make you live with the fact you hurt Lisa and you hurt me and I hope one day you develop enough of a conscious that you begin to feel bad for what you've done. You're going to feel like the piece of shit you are and you're going to know there's nothing you can do about that because I don't want you to ever talk to me again. And that is a feeling that's going to last much longer that any physical pain I can put you in and that's exactly what you deserve. You deserve as much pain as humanly possible to make up for all of the pain you've cost me." CJ had been taking unconscious steps towards Ben during all this, and he had been backing fearfully and cowardly up so now he was against the wall, yet again, the same part of wall where Josh and Toby had delivered their ultimatum a few short hours ago. Now, she began to walk away, but then she turned back, taking something off her neck as she walked. She wordlessly handed him the love beads.

"What?" he took them a bit bemusedly "These were a gift, you're giving them back?"

"Yes. They were gift of love and you never should have given them to me. You didn't love me…"

"Yes I did…" Ben tried to insist

"No you didn't. If you did, you would have had no problem picking me over Lisa, or even Lisa over me, and you wouldn't have hurt me the way you did. You didn't love Lisa and you didn't love me, but I loved you. I loved you and I trusted you! I denied my friends for you because I didn't ever think you could do something like this to me…" CJ snorted "Apparently, I was wrong." She started to walk away, but she turned back yet again. Ben stared at her expectantly, as if waiting for her to speak, but she didn't say anything, she simply punched him in the jaw and walked away.

"Hey Tobe," Josh turned to his friend from his position on the couch. The two of were sitting in Toby's office, where they had gone after being severely chewed out by CJ and they had been there ever since. Josh lay on Toby's couch, his head on the side closest to the door. His legs were propped up on the arm of the couch, his own arm leaning on his head, which was now turned to Toby, who was sitting behind his desk, leaned back in his chair, his legs crossed, propped up on the desk. He was tossing his rubber stress ball lightly from hand to hand and throwing it against the window that separated his office from the now empty Deputy Communications Director's office once in a while, but not with the usual velocity, as his heart wasn't really into it for some reason today. Neither men had spoken a word to each other, or anyone else for that matter, since they had arrived in the office.

"Yeah…" Toby said quietly as he rolled the ball around on his desk

"Ya think we did the right thing? With CJ, I mean." Josh looked at him expectantly.

Toby looked up from the ball to meet Josh's eyes briefly, then went back to looking at the ball. "Yeah. I think we did the right thing. But we went about it the wrong way. The whole spy thing, that's where we messed up, and the ultimatum. That's what I think pissed off CJ more than anything."

Josh smiled faintly "Seemed like a good idea at the time"

Toby glanced over at him again and then went back to rolling the ball around.

The two men were quiet once more. Josh stared up at the ceiling as Toby alternated between rolling the ball around his desk and throwing it at the window whenever the mood struck him.

"Josh… Toby…" said a quiet voice from the doorway. Josh lowered his arm to peer around it at the figure in doorway as Toby, who had just aimed and thrown the ball at the window, completely missed it as it came back to him. It hit one of the pictures hanging on the wall behind Toby's desk and knocked the normally straight picture askew.

"CJ…" said Toby as he, in one fluid motion scooped the ball up off the floor to put it back on the corner of his desk and simultaneously stood up in surprise as Josh rolled up off the couch, not bothering to straighten his somewhat rumpled suit.

"Hey…" Josh greeted her, somewhat uneasily.

CJ moved into the office. She wasn't standing up quite as straight as she usually did and her eyes were a little bit red, but she had a determined, almost self-satisfied look on her face. "He was cheating on me…" she said in a confused tone

"God…CJ…" Josh said sympathetically and moved to give her a hug.

Toby stood next to his desk surveying the scene with a glare meant for the man that had made CJ sad "Bastard…" he mumbled under his breath, making CJ laugh.

She pulled away from Josh and ran a hand over her eyes. "Listen, guys, I've gotta apologize…"

"No, it wasn't your fault…" started Josh, shaking his head, but CJ interrupted him

"No, I yelled at you guys…I yelled a lot…you were just trying to help me and I didn't believe you. I don't even know why I didn't believe you…I mean, God, you're my best friends and I chose to believe him, a guy who I knew a lifetime ago in college, over you guys…I'm not sure what the whole spy thing was about, but you guys were just trying to protect me and I just overreacted majorly. So, I'm sorry."

"We went about it badly with that whole spy thing" Josh explained "We thought it would be better if he told you…not let him take the easy way out and have us tell you. Except it didn't quite work out that way…"

"Not quite…"

"We also wanted you to have the chance to beat him up" Toby added brashly "Did you?"

CJ laughed an evil laugh "I punched him in the jaw right at the end…right after I told him he wasn't worth it…"she smirked "Couldn't resist"

"But the spy thing was just stupid…" continued Josh

"And your macho male egos got in the way when you gave him that ultimatum, I understand…" CJ joked and both Josh and Toby snorted. "Seriously, though, I appreciate it…This newfound protectiveness is sweet, just don't do it too often…" she warned

Josh smiled "Sure, CJ…you're like a sist…er…we care about you, we didn't want to see you get hurt"

CJ smiled too. She knew what he had wanted to say…" You know what, it's been such a crappy day…"

"Speak for yourself…" Toby mumbled as he glanced over at a picture of his twins, lying on his desk.

CJ grinned "Yes, Daddy. Anyway you guys doing anything right now?"

"Nah, we finished our thing and it's been kinda quiet otherwise" answered Josh

"Also 'cause everyone figured you'd kill us this afternoon" Toby deadpanned

CJ winced "Yeah, you guys forgive me for yelling at you in front of everyone?"

"'Course" shrugged Josh

"Like I care" added Toby

"Whaddya wanna do?" asked Josh

"You wanna go out for drinks?" CJ invited

"The place down the road?" asked Josh

"Where else?"

Josh and Toby picked up the suit jackets they had thrown off before and put them on. Toby put a few things into his briefcase and the three started to leave his office.

"I've just gotta pick up a few things in my office" said Josh

"Okay…hey, is Donna still around?"

"I think so, why?"

"I gotta apologize to her too…I yelled at her, I put her in the same category as I did you two and I didn't even give her a chance to explain…Let's bring her too"

"Okay"

"Hey, did you ever call Sam?" Toby asked

"Yeah" answered CJ

"How's he doing?" Josh perked up. He missed his old friend a lot, so he was always itching for news on him.

"He's good. He's having some trouble settling in, but he's happy"

"Good" grinned Josh.

Toby, CJ, and Josh walked past CJ's office and started walking down the hall towards Josh's.

"Man, I'm starving" Josh complained "We never had lunch"

"Yeah," Toby agreed "You know, I could really go for pie right now…"