TITLE: Exact Change
AUTHOR: The Little Cat
PAIRING: Eventual CJ/T
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these fine folks. I'm just a gal taking them for a spin. Please don't sue, as you will be horribly disappointed.
AUTHOR NOTES: THIS IS A REPOST OF AN EARLIER DRAFT. As I began to move on in the narrative, I realized that I would rather write 3rd person than try and continue writing first person from CJ's POV. My apologies, but hey, it's fixed, right?
This is my first fanfic, although I freely admit to lurking on the web for quite some time. I have no Beta, so all errors are mine. Reviews are like candy!
There is a phone ringing. Somewhere. It gets closer as she drifts into conciousness, and she can eventually recognize the source, the shrill piece of plastic and metal on her nightstand. She toys with the idea of launching it across the room. Reaches for it. Misses. Tries again.
"Hello?"
"Good morning."
"Toby, do you have any idea what time……" She turns the alarm clock to face her, squinting at the garish red numbers. "Five thirty. It is five thirty in the morning. I have been asleep for exactly thirty-five minutes."
"You gotta get back here."
"What happened?"
"Just do it."
"I'm hanging up now." She closes the phone. Sits up in her bed and blinks slowly. The phone rings. She snaps the phone open again.
"CJ."
"Did I just dream our last conversation? Because Toby, I was under the impression that we just did this THIRTY SECONDS AGO."
"There's been a problem."
"I'm chief of staff Tobus, what has happened that you seem to know but I don't?"
"I haven't left the white house yet. Just get here."
"What in God's name is going on?"
"There's been a leak. The president was meeting with the AMA executive….."
"Last night, yes."
"It ended four hours ago. AP has it that he mentioned to Annabelle Morrow that he "couldn't speak for God on the issue of abortion.'"
CJ closes her eyes. The headache she had been avoiding before going to bed was making itself apparent again.
"Please tell me this is not the same Annabelle Morrow that worked with Waves of Change for two years."
"And had a clinic for twenty three years before that? Indeed, the very same."
She sighed, the sleep that she hoped to have gotten that night a distant memory. "I'll be there in half an hour."
"Twenty minutes."
"Don't push it, pokey."
She hangs up the phone, and do a quick inventory. Brain? Check. Clothes? Check. Shower….involves moving. Here we go. She stands up. Stretches. Makes her way towards the bedroom door. The phone rings. She lunges for it like a python.
"HOW MANY TIMES ARE WE GOING TO HAVE TO DO THIS BEFORE YOU BELIEVE THAT I'M COMING IN, TOBY?"
Silence on the other end. Then, a small voice on the phone. "Is this Claudia Cregg?"
She stops. "Yes"
"Ms. Cregg, my name is Victoria Garland. I'm the head nurse at Dayton Heights Nursing Home. I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this….."
Cold. Really cold. She can feel her vision blur around the edges, her dark bedroom going a blinding white.
"Your father, Tal Cregg, passéd away in his sleep earlier this evening."
Swallowing. That's hard right now. The bile rises in her throat, and she's headed for the bathroom. CJ can hear Victoria Garland on the other end of the phone. Asking if she's okay. CJ wonders how many times Victoria has had to deal with something like this, and then think that's an awfully dumb thing to be wondering under the circumstances. But by this point last nights' Chinese is making a second appearance. She finishes heaving, wipes her mouth with some hastily gathered toilet paper, and gets back on the phone.
"I'm so sorry, Ms.Cregg."
