TITLE: Exact Change, Chapter Two

AUTHOR: The Little Cat

PAIRING: CJ/T (eventually)

SPOILERS: All of it.

DISCLAIMER: Insert witty comment about me not owning them here.

AUTHOR NOTES: Thank you so much to the peeps who reviewed. Still no Beta, so all errors are mine.

It was small, it was blonde, and it was moving quickly in his direction.

"Charlie!"

Charlie stopped, attempting to balance a cup of coffee, folders, a briefcase, and a gym bag. It was Charles Young vs. the Pile of Stuff, and the Pile of Stuff was rapidly winning. He turned towards the source of the holler.

"Annabeth. What do you need?"

"Where's the boss lady?" Annabeth observed Charlie's struggle with gravity, letting out an exasperated sigh. She reached for the gym bag. "Here, let me take that."

"It's bigger than you are."

"It's not even six am, so I'm gonna let that little comment slide." They continued to walk towards Charlie's office.

"I just got here Annabeth. But I'm assuming that she will be in shortly, if the wake-up call she got from Toby was anything like the one I received."

"OK. Oh, and one other thing." By this time, they had reached the closed door of Charlie's office. Annabeth put out an arm to stop Charlie from entering.

"Before you go in there, I gotta warn you about something. You do remember last week when CJ asked you to take that meeting with that guy….." Charlie stared at her blankly, but Annabeth regrouped rather quickly.

"Right, so let's try that sentence again. The guy from Florida, sports nut, wanted to re-evaluate title nine….."

"Stan Rossaro. The sports nut."

"The very same."

"He wanted to talk about foosball more than he wanted to talk about any potential bill. Where was he on big block of cheese day?"

"Funny thing about that…."

Charlie opened the door to his office, coming to an abrupt halt. Sitting in the middle of Charlie's office is a fully loaded, championship style foosball table. It took up over half of the space he had available to him.

Annabeth grinned. "Apparently, you made quite the impression."

Charlie finds himself at a loss for words, and begins sputtering. "How did….wh….how did it get past the secret service…..who delivers a foosball table to the WHITE HOUSE!"

Without missing a beat, Annabeth investigates the sides of the large obstacle. She finds a small silver plaque screwed to the side of the table. "Well, according to this, 'Bob's Game Room, 24 hour service, just call……"

"Ok. Fine. This is gonna need to be dealt with before…"

"CHARLIE!"

"Well, that happens, actually."

Toby enters the room, face buried in a file. He dosen't look up as he begins to speak. "You need to tell me the second CJ walks into the door. We need to be solving this before she has a chance to put her purse down."

Annabeth pipes up. "That, or swing it at drug lords."

Toby looks up, intent on telling the small blonde creature where to go and how to get there, instead finding himself distracted by the large object of leisure taking over Charlie's workspace. He looks at Charlie. Charlie shrugs.

"Don't you have enough to do?"

"Apparently I make an impression."

"And I have a watchable quality. What is this?"

Annabeth jumps in. "Boys, play nice. To answer your question Toby, Charlie was given the foosball table by an over-appreciative sports fan. We will let you know as soon as CJ gets here. As for the AMA fiasco, let's all take a deep breath and remember that for as bad as we are all taking the fact that the next news cycle will be all about the right to choose or not, there is one person who is going to take it worse."

The three turn their heads at the sound of Margaret cheerily wishing CJ a good morning. Toby bolts towards the chief of staff's office, runs by Margaret, and shuts the door. CJ has her back to him, shrugging off her coat. Toby begins to speak, gesturing wildly.

"I spoke to the President about a statement. This is going to look really bad as far as the separation of Church and State is concerned, which is strange, because I always seemed to think that was one thing this administration could always be clear on…."

CJ turns around. "Toby"

He's off and running, not looking up. "We have a meeting with Ms. Morrow at 10am, we're going to see how much damage we can undo…….."

"Toby."

"Maybe by making her realize that under a Republican president Waves of Change would be attacked by the Navy if they thought they could get away with it….."

"TOBY. STOP TALKING."

He looked up, and stared, dumbstruck. CJ was a wreck. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy, her clothes hastily assembled, skin pale and free of makeup.

"CJ. What on earth…." He stepped towards her. And that's when he saw the small black suitcase next to her desk. His heart sank, and he met the eyes of his best friend.

"Oh, Claudia Jean…."

That did it. CJ leaned forward, palms flat on her desk. Her eyes squeezed closed, and tears fell down her face. She was perfectly silent. Toby stepped towards her, grabbing a tissue from the dispenser on her desk. He pressed it into her palm, his free hand grabbing hers.

"When."

"I got the call when I got off the phone with you. The second time. I yelled at the nurse. I thought she was you."

She smiled ruefully, and her face crumpled. Toby pulled her into a hug. He could feel her tears seeping into his shirt collar, her breath coming in gasps against his neck. He held her tighter.

"I'm so sorry."

"S'ok…" She straightened up. "I just got off the phone with Leo. He's on his way in. Hopefully serving as Chief of Staff for a few days won't be too much for his heart."

"I'm sure I'll survive." CJ and Toby turned to see Leo in the doorway. He stepped towards CJ. "Honey, come here."

She accepted his hug gratefully, glad to have such an understanding network of friends and co-workers. He let her go, but kept his hands on her shoulders.

"Do you need us to do anything?"

"No. My flight is at 11, so I'll be in Dayton by this afternoon. I should only be gone four or five days. Just for the funeral and to get everything in order…."

"Take as much time as you need. I can hold down the fort."

"Leo, are you sure?"

"I did it before, didn't I? Granted, I had a heart attack, but this time I know that it's finite."

CJ had to laugh at that. "Thank you." She wiped her eyes.