TUESDAY NIGHT.

CJ was exhausted. She had sifted through many cartons of briefing memos on Iran's Nuclear Program at the president's behest. She was in fact drafting a statement to give to Annabeth and Toby, the new press secretaries. In such a physical state, she had hardly had a spare thought for Danny.

Nonetheless, she was dreading yet somewhat anticipating the phone call she must make. CJ was resolved to call Danny and finally let him know what her true feelings were.

The young businesswoman stared at the phone, feeling the minutes tick by. Her heart had begun thumping so loudly she was almost sure it would fly out of her chest at any given moment. She reached a trembling hand towards the receiver; unable to ignore the swarming butterflies in her stomach as she dialed the phone. She had memorized his number by heart.

Three rings and an answering machine saying: "You have reached Danny Cancannon, if it's an emergency, try me on my pager at 655 3210. Thanks."

Well this was an emergency! At least to her….

She dialed the pager number and he answered right away.

"Cancannon."

This would clearly be off the record she decided.

"I wanna run something by you…privately," she added.

"Of course…It's 7 o'clock on a Tuesday night and I'm not even writing a story. I'm at a bar."

"With a girl?" she asked, unable to hide the surprise in her voice.

He chuckled. "No, just sitting and enjoying a beer all by lonesome."

She decided to cut to the chase. "What would you do if somebody told you they loved you?"

There was a pause on the other line. "Depends on who it is…" came his hesitant reply.

CJ chose her words carefully, "How about a friend from the old days?"

"Are you asking me out?" Came Danny's teasing reply "Because I couldn't quite hear you…there was a bit of static on the other line."

"Oh no, not that trick again." CJ groaned "I'm not repeating myself so you better have heard me through the static the first time."

"Well then, I'm assuming you either asked me out – or perhaps professed your undying love for me."

"The latter," she replied coolly, maintaining her business like air.

"You? With the danger's to your job and all?" The humor in his voice was now gone, replaced completely by shock and disbelief.

"Screw the danger's! I love you Danny Cancannon"

There was a pause on the other line as Danny fumbled the phone. It was a minute or two before he responded –

"Took ya long enough…"