On The Road With Danny Concannon (2005): DC
"Fallaces sunt rerum species" (The appearances of things are deceptive)
EPISODE: In God We Trust
Notes: Who do you trust?
Now if I hurt you, forgive me
Try not to lose faith in me
You know I would never hurt you intentionally
What will I do tomorrow
Without your love I would surely lose my way
And rush headlong into nowhere
On a ghost highway
-Lay Down My Live Carole King
Danny opened the door to his apartment dropping his keys next to the door. They made a clanging sound as they hit a small bowl of change on the table. The room was dark and Danny walked around looking for a light.
He flicked on the light next to the doorway in his living room, but nothing happened. Still in shadows, Danny found a small light next to his couch and fell back onto the leather lining with a heavy sigh. The light hit the side of his face and he went through his mail, which had been waiting for him. Maisy usually picked up his bills and so forth when she could, but there were a few things of importance, along with the junk mail, waiting for Danny.
Danny found a small padded envelope that took his attention. He walked to his desk to get a letter opener. After he was done opening the letter, as he was walking between the couch and the desk, Danny stopped cold at what he found. Tears filled his eyes and he took deep breaths to keep in the emotions. He shook his head and looked down. He expelled another breath trying not to let it all get to him. Danny took in a final breath and this one brought in his old strength. He looked like he was off for a moment, as if he was making a long awaited decision.
Danny picked up the phone. As it rang, he rifled through the bottom drawer of his desk. The sounds of hitting wood and sliding papers were heard.
"Yes, I'd like to book a flight."
Danny pulled his hand out of the drawer and slammed his passport on top of his desk with a crack.
"Yes, I'll hold."
FOUR MONTHS LATER
JUNE
Maisy walked toward her office from the elevator, looking over a few folders in her hands, and trying to walk forward. It was finally summer and her usual long sleeves and pants were now replaced with a nice blouse and a tasteful, yet still small shirt. Maisy was getting more mature as the months and years passed, not fully, but she was coming a long way. She still wore her purple glasses for originality, and they seemed to fit her violet short-sleeved blouse. Her heels clicked on the floor and then they suddenly stopped at the sight of what she saw, and she wasn't too happy at it: Men carrying Danny's belongings out of his office.
"Hey, hey Stop this—" Her heels clicked on the linoleum, making her Washington Post pass swing around her neck. "What's going on—Stop that—STOP that. Give me that." She grabbed a box from one of the men.
"Hold it—hold it—keep going." Danny's editor instructed the group to keep going. "Maisy."
"What is this? How can you do this? How can you just fire him—after all the years-" She poked him in the chest. But due to her height and size it didn't do much good.
"Maisy he's not being fired-this was never Danny's office in the first place—he wants this office he should have taken that editor job I offered him six years ago—till then-no soup for him." He walked away from her.
"Seinfeld reference, huh? I'm sorry is it 1993 again?"
"Don't get on my bad side." He stopped for a moment and then kept on going.
"I'm not getting on your bad side—I'm getting on the side of your old school pop culture reference."
"Keep the packing up—" He hollered to the group packing up Danny's things. "You should help." He motioned to Maisy with a grunt.
"This isn't fair—this is Danny's office. Has been every since I've been here."
"Reporters don't get offices-offices are for editors—plus he's never here—his office is supposed to be at the White House."
"But where would I be?"
"Take a cubical!"
"As if?" She scoffed.
"Hey, I did this as a favor for Danny as one of our top reporters—I've got a new city editor—so Danny's out and Dori's in."
"Dori like the fish?"
"No! As in Dorothy"
"Oh, as in clicks her heels together?"
"Hey, that was a old pop culture reference?"
"Yes, but its a classic - like wine—they need more than ten years before they go from so last year – and extremely passé - to pure camp and astute comedy."
"Yeah, I'll take note of that. Does Danny get your humor?
"He revels in it."
"Yeah-so everything out—do with it what you like 'till we find a place for it." Danny's editor walked away leaving Maisy alone beyond him.
"So, no more cable?" Maisy almost pouted deflated.
"No more cable." He turned and walked away.
"Wait—" Maisy ran after him. He didn't look so happy to not be getting away from her. "So you're telling me an editor's office has been empty for four years now—and your just replacing the job now."
"Things get slow around here."
"Yeah, kinda like the government."
"Its called 'bureaucracy'—welcome to DC—Get used to it." He walked off and Maisy continued to yell at him.
"Yeah, well- I'll remember that the next time I have to fill out one of those suggestion flyers-this is so definitely getting a check so far to the left-so far to the left it's gonna be off the page—non satisfactory. And I'll remember—eyes like a cat—memory like a horse my friend." Maisy turned her head to find a woman carrying out Danny's basketball hoop. "Hey, hey. Put that down." She noticed another box. "Be careful with that." She grabbed a Pulitzer out of a box. "Be careful with this—do you know what you're doing here?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Danny ran up and stopped what was going on. "Hold the horses. What's going on, here?"
"You're back?" Maisy was taken aback.
"I'm back." He said plainly.
"They're kicking you out of your office."
"Maisy," he stressed.
"This is ridiculous—well I'm getting to the bottom of this." She looked over at Danny and his editor who had joined back with the two of them. As she walked off, she shouted, "You'll see."
They watched her walk off and Danny started to laugh. He held himself in and smiled.
"You gonna tell her I'm just getting a smaller office." Danny spoke with a half grin.
"Later. This is more fun. We got a find some way of amusing ourselves in the down time."
"Welcome back, Danny." He put out his hand.
"Good to be back." They shook hands and departed.
"Maisy!" Danny yelled causing her to turn around as the elevator in front of her opened. Danny motioned her forward with his index finger.
"What?" She said almost mouthing the words. Danny motioned her again. With a cross look on her face Maisy clip-clopped her backless frontless mules over to Danny. "What?"
"Look over there." He whispered to her and pointed behind her. "What do you see?" Danny pointed toward a group of people carrying boxes into an office.
"Ahh, I see people carrying boxes into an office." She paused.
"Closer." He leaned in.
"I see people caring boxes of your things into another office." She said deflated and burrying her face in her left palm.
"It's okay." He patted her on the shoulder. "I know it just means you care." Danny adjusted his side bag and walked ahead of Maisy.
"It's not funny!" Danny heard Maisy yell behind him. A small laughed was heard. "Hey. I heard that."
"Hey, Dwight, looks like you just lost a fan." Danny laughed.
Danny turned a corner by a desk, toward his new office, hearing the sounds of Maisy run after him.
"How was the trip?" She took his bag from him. "I didn't think you'd be back until the conventions started?"
"How many times do I have to tell you it wasn't a trip it was a vacation." Danny walked into his new office.
"Vacation, trip, fiesta, whatever. How was your time away from work? Oh, how I long to know what that is." She remarked sarcastically. Maisy set Danny's bag on a chair next to the door. The office was filled with boxes and objects just left in places of disarray.
"I wouldn't call it time away from work, Maz." Danny walked over toward his new desk and looked into one the boxes. "Hey, I was looking for this!" Danny pulled a large red book out of the box. "Thank god, I thought I lost it somewhere between Belgium and Milan."
"How was it?" She leaned against the doorframe as Danny set the book on the bookshelf to his right. He continued talking while setting up his office.
"It was amazing. I mean really, I never felt so relaxed in my life—going from town to town—no agenda, no deadline. I mean I've been through Europe a million times, but I can't explain it. This was different. It really gave me a chance to clear my head. I mean I expected to stay maybe a month, I never take a vacation for more than a few weeks, but I think I just needed it ya know? I needed some perspective on it." Danny smiled from ear to ear. He seemed joyful and playful as he continued unpacking the small contents of the boxes in his new office. Maisy looked at him intently. After a moment Danny looked over at her noticing not just her silence, but also her look. "What?"
"What's with you—you're—something is different-you're acting . . .."
"Normal."
"Normal."
"Normal?"
"As Normal as a forty somethin' bulldog reporter, 'cause-"
"Don't call me that." He gave her a stern stair and focused back on his unpacking.
"Forty something?" Maisy folded her arms. Danny took a few odds and ends from a box and stuffed them in a drawer. Maisy looked at him with a crooked face.
"You're not leaving me are you?" She was still looking for an answer.
"Wild horses my friend." He smirked. There was a small pause as a sly smile crept to Maisy's face.
"So she called?" Maisy's voice cranked up a happy notch.
"Go to work." Danny went for another box under his desk.
"I've decided you need to be an action figure—you know with pose-able arms and Ku Fu grip.
"What?" Danny lifted his head above the desk and set the box in his hand on top.
"Got your attention." She leaned against the other side of the desk toward Danny.
"Help unpack."
"Well, you wouldn't call her.
"Why? I mean…nevermind." Danny continued his unpacking. Maisy did not, making herself comfortable on the top of a small filling cabinet.
"You wouldn't, so she must have called you. I have to say I'm happy. All that doom and gloom was really getting on my nerves"
"I'm sorry?"
"And you were cranky."
"I wasn't cranky!"
"You were cranky."
"No, I wasn't."
"You were." Danny dropped the empty box now in his hand under the desk.
"Was not."
"This is just gonna get us going in circles."
"You can't believe the majestic…..ness….of Europe put me in a happy mood."
"No."
"Change the subject." Danny began to set up his laptop.
"That Cliff Calley is a dream boat."
"He's a Republican. By the way." Danny looked around and noticed he had no chair.
"You're a party spoiler. You spoil the party." Maisy frowned as Danny walked past Maisy into the hallway.
"I need a chair. Anyone have an extra chair?" No one responded. Danny turned back toward Maisy. "Yes, and same back at ya.." Danny started a bee-line for his old office while Maisy caught up to him.
"See I have a crush."
"I'm sorry?" He almost got whiplash looking back at her from behind him
"Not on you. I'm lonely, but not that lonely."
"Thank you." Danny grumbled.
"I have a crush."
"You said that."
"I have a crush on the Deputy Chief of Staff. guy"
"Josh?"
"No, on the current Deputy Chief of Staff. I mean sure. Josh's cute. Okay very cute, but he's not the Deputy Chief of Staff anymore."
"True." Danny found his old chair and took it by the hand toward his office. Maisy continued to follow.
"But come to think of it. That job has some pretty cute jobholders. Placement cards, really. Maybe Place meat cards. All the Deputies Chiefs of Staff. Can that be pluralized?"
"You just did."
"Well, call me Shakespeare."
Danny entered his office with his chair.
"I still think she called you."
"Think what ya want." Danny sat down in front of his laptop.
"How can you work in this mess?"
"I don't know how to work otherwise." He joked still looking at his screen as the laptop powered up.
"She's been calling for you."
"I was on vacation."
"She called your cell, you left it in the office."
"Very on purpose."
"I figured she must have been pretty desperate to call here for you."
"She called here for me?" Danny's head peaked up.
"Yeah and on the main line even. Personal of course, no pomp and circumstances and "please hold for the Chief of Staff to the President of the United States."
"No." Danny muttered to himself. "She wouldn't go that far. No need for proof lying around anywhere."
"Danny?" Danny didn't respond.
"Change the subject. I'm a new man." Danny pretended not to care.
"Ooooookay." Maisy thought for a moment. "Should I book your flight to Philly. I assume you already took care of the hotel plans—cause I'm pretty sure it's all booked up. Right, Danny? Come on. Please tell me-"
"I'm not going to Philly." Danny didn't look at her.
"You're not going to the Republican convention?" Danny stood up and walked toward her and the door frame.
"I'm not going to any of the conventions."
"What?"
"I got other plans."
"Which are what?"
"Maz, you wanna run across the street get me a bagel and a coffee." He walked back to his desk.
"But, I…"
"Get yourself something, okay." Danny handed her a ten from his wallet. Maisy walked over to Danny and took it begrudgingly.
"Okay?" She stilled seemed bewildered. Maisy walked out of the office and Danny watched her walk away. He then walked back toward his laptop and took a red disk from pocket and set it in the laptop.
"I got more important things to figure out, Maz." Danny said to himself and began typing.
PROBLEM A
Danny sat in front of Abby, his therapist, in shadow and a small shaft of light coming in through the blinds.
"What if you had something—something you found-something that concerns a friend? Would you print it? Or would you bury it."
"I'm not a reporter. Maybe you need to ask a reporter that question?"
"I'm asking you?"
"And I'm asking you right back?"
"What happens when you get too tied in with the subject you're writing about? Happens all the time."
"I thought I was the one who put out the hypotheticals."
"She warned me it would happen and I didn't listen. I dug this hole?"
"Who warned you, Danny?" She leaned in.
"So what happens- what happens when you play with fire and you finally get burned, you've been singed before, but this ain't nothing compared to a little heads up."
"I'm not a reporter, Danny. I don't know. This sounds like Journalism 101 to me. But I guess I depends if it's a story the public really needs to know. I'm sure you make those kind of decisions everyday."
"Meaning is it a real story?"
"Yeah."
"What if this story is a real story. It's the contents that prove the creditability of the story and printing it could bring out something—something on someone you care about, something big, something you might not even forgive yourself. But if you don't print it, you'd be withholding on a story—burying something—and you don't know if you could forgive yourself for that." He paused. "This is the hardest decision I've ever had to make."
"Share it with me, Danny?" But Danny didn't answer.
"See, it's my own fault. She warned me this would happen and I walked right into the monster's mouth. I kept going, I pulled us in. I did this. I didn't listen. And now I'm stuck here. So many questions and so many answers."
"Danny is this about CJ?" There was no answer. "You don't answer me I'm only gonna assume this is about CJ. Either way you're pretty much screwed so I'd answer the question."
Danny didn't say anything; he just sat there in silence. Abby noticed a small rounded plastic tube object in Danny's right hand. "Danny, what's that?"
"This?" Danny held up the object. "This thing. " He paused and looked it over as the smooth plastic road against his skin. "Pretty nifty, huh? I picked up this device at Radio Shack. Lets you download about three CDs worth of information. Not that I have that much on data on here. Sometimes a small amount of information can do a lot of damage."
"Damage is a deceptive word, there, Danny. Maybe if we talked about-"
"You'd never know what I had in here, by the look of it, by the weight of it. It's a way to keep it close, keep it here in the palm of my hand." He paused a short beat. "Until I decide what I'm gonna do with it."
"Do with it?"
"I owe her."
"Danny."
"I do."
"This is that big?"
"Yes." He paused and looked at her. "You ever do something you were ashamed of?"
"Sure, we all have regrets, Danny. It's normal."
"Would you want that splashed all over the front page of a newspaper?"
"Well, no-"
"You married?"
"I live with someone, but I don't like to—"
"What if he had the power—what if he had the power for the world to know about it and the world not to know about it."
"I'd imagine he'd be in a hard place."
"Imagine being him."
"Danny, what did you do? What did you find?"
"Let's just say…" Danny looked directly at her. "I dug too deep. And now I'm sorry."
PROBLEM B
Danny sat in his chair, in the darkness of an office in the middle of the day, pondering. He slid a coin back and forth between his hands and fingers, making the coin appear and disappear. Back and forth, sliding between his fingers, appear and disappearing, appearing and disappearing, as if it was keeping his mind going.
"Danny!" Maisy yelled as she approached his doorway.
"Yeah?" Danny didn't look up. He went back to his typing.
"There's a such a place called Foggy Bottom?"
"Yeah."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"And it's in DC?"
"Ah huh, why?"
"I saw it on a T-Shirt"
"Okay?"
"What's in a place like Foggy Bottom?"
"The State Department." Danny hit return and took a bite of his sandwich.
"How appropriate." She leaned against a filing cabinet. Danny stood and was now in clear view of Maisy. "Oh, my dear sweet lord, what have you done?" She rose in shock and looked at Danny's cleanly shaven face.
"I'm growing it back." He assured her with a sense in his voice that he knew it had been a bad idea. He walked into his office and Maisy followed.
"What were you thinking?" She looked at him, agog.
"I'm growing it back!"
"Were you drunk?"
"I'm growing it back!—Listen…." He ran his hand over his face and it felt weird. "I was trying something different, I was looking for a change."
"And what have we learned?"
"Change is bad." Danny picked up the phone and hit a line "Yeah, hey. Kevin, can you connect me to editorials, please-yeah, I'll hold." He finally got the last of his coat off.
"Hey, Maz," Richard walked in with a few folders and a tag around his neck. "When Danny gets in can you tell him Bradley's taken a walk thru and Marshall would like it if he'd take a stop in."
"Ahh, yeah, hey." Danny lifted his arm as he rested the phone on his other shoulder while at the same time looking for a pencil or pen.
"Ahh, yeah?" Richard looked at Danny and then back at Maisy. "So, will you tell him for me when he gets in."
"I'm over here."
"So, just make sure he gets it."
"I'm right here!" Danny said with an exasperated face and hand gestures.
"Oh, man." Richard looked harder. "Wow! I totally didn't recognize you there, Dan."
"He doesn't like to be called Dan." She whispered toward Richard.
"Wow, man!" The kid was pretty floored. "I don't think I've ever seen you without your—they didn't find Jimmy Hoffa under there?"
Maisy held her hand over her mouth to cover the laugher, which came out as a burst. She turned her head. Danny didn't look pleased. "Yeah. So I'll be going," she said.
"No, Kevin, I'm still here." Danny got back on the phone. "Yeah, thanks. Hey, you got a column on this guy Jeffries going in today, yeah I'll hold."
"So, is it true." Cythnia, dead-pan as usual, walked in without a facial expression. Danny had his back to the girls and, as he stayed on hold, he turned toward Maisy and Cynthia, giving them a full view of his face.
"Sweet, Jesus on the cross." Cythnia muttered.
"It was a rash decision, it was late, I took to much Dramamine, it just happened." Danny seemed sick of explaining himself.
"Sounds like my prom night." Again with little expression.
"Whoa….Way too much information." Danny was really shocked.
"It was a joke. I actually spent my prom night alone with a tub of pop-corn and watching an uninterrupted marathon of the Mary Tyler Moore Show."
"Now, I just feel worse."
"See, the joke was better." She turned to Maisy. "Sometimes the fantasy is better than reality."
"Not always." Danny grumbled back.
"Looks like someone hasn't had their breakfast this morning…." And Cynthia walked out of the office.
"Maisy, shut the door."
"Oh, and miss the fun of seeing the entire Washington Post Staff prance on in and out of this place…" Danny gave her a look and she laughed. "I'll close the door." She walked and closed the door.
"Hey, you got time to transcribe some notes for me?"
"Ohh, real work." She said dripping with sarcasm.
"They're in my bag." Danny motioned his head toward the left, never stopping his typing. The clicks filled the air like an old Teletype machine. "Front pocket." The sound of the fax was heard from the outer office, causing Danny's head to lift from the screen.
"The fax." Danny stood up.
"No, no. I'll get it." Maisy who had made it to Danny's bag already doubled back. Danny waved her off and took a short jog out the door.
"Front pocket." He exited the office.
"You never let me really do anything!" She yelled as Danny ripped the fax off the machine. "Why'd you hire me in the first place?" Danny appeared by the door reading over the fax.
"I use you when needed." Danny looked up. "I hired you to be my assistant. You assist me, with stories, with research—oh and copying over and transcribing my notes." He motioned his hand toward his bag. "I'm not a child, I don't like other people doing things I have time to do myself." He walked back toward Maisy's desk reading over the fax. The phone rang. "I got it!" Danny yelled. Maisy squatted down next to Danny's bag and started her hands through the back sections of Danny's bag. The phone kept ringing.
"The back pocket!" Maisy yelled.
"Yeah, front pocket!" Danny yelled as he picked up the phone.
"What?" Maisy yelled.
Danny put his hand on the receiver. "I said yeah!" Danny lifted his hand off and back to his conversation. "Yeah, no I'm here." Danny sat on the edge of the desk.
"Okay, back pocket, no—" She lifted to another pocket on the outside of the bag. "Back pocket." She continued to talk to herself. "Back pocket." She lifted her hand in and pulled out a stack of uneven handwritten and typewritten pages, some wrinkled, some coffee stained, they didn't look like what Maisy was looking for. It looked more like papers used to discover buried treasure. "Humm." Maisy looked at the pages in front of her and decided to get to work.
"What about that book you were writing?" Abby asked Danny who now had at least a few weeks of beard on his face.
"What book?'
"The novel, novella—the one you started at the cabin."
"That—that's nothing. Something I did to pass the time."
"But, you did go back to it at one point?" There was silence. Abby knew it was true. Much like a lawyer she never asked a question she didn't already know the answer to. "Maybe it's time you went back to it, Danny?" There was silence again. "Isn't that why you took your trip, Danny?" She paused again. "Isn't that why you're on this trip Danny? For closure?" Danny didn't look at her.
"Danny." Abby stood up and walked to Danny. She sat on the table in front of him.
Danny was taken aback. He moved as if he was going to get up, it was almost a flinch of sorts.
"Danny look at me?" She motioned for him not to leave, as if to say, if he did she would have just grabbed his arms and made him stay. "I don't know what you're talkin' about. Maybe that's okay. Maybe this is something you need to work out on your own. I have a good idea, but maybe this is just the crossroads you need to put this all behind you. You can lie to Maisy and you can lie to CJ, but you can't lie to me. I don't know what prompted you to just pick up and go off to Europe. I don't condone the idea of you just running away like that, it's just a pattern you'll never get out of-but honestly it has brought a positive change in you. I really believe you're committed to your health and your progress, but you have this last hurdle and I don't know how to help you unless you help yourself. You still have to find some way of not living in the past anymore. Progress can be a deceptive thing, Danny, but you have—you have come a long way. You've come to terms with a lot of things, but you need to do something—physically, or emotionally, to leave this—to leave things in the past and focus on the now—not the future or the past, just now. We always heal and at first it doesn't seem like it, but we will, over time it all heals away—but sometimes we need to take the first step ourselves. 'Cause until you recognize-"
"Are you sayin' I should finish the book?"
"Danny, I'm saying you should do something," she said firmly and stood up. "I don't mean to be harsh, but there comes a point when I can no longer help you, Danny. There comes a point when you need to help yourself." Danny sat there and said nothing, but his face looked like it was running a mile a minute. "Ahh, Danny." She looked at him. "You've been in such a good mood since you've been back. I've noticed it." She paused. "You said your co-workers even noticed it." She sat on the edge of her desk and looked down toward Danny across the room. "Something you discovered in Europe put you in this state Danny, I can see it. What did you figure out? It's okay to admit it. You're hesitating to take that next step." Danny looked up at her. "Finish the thought. Danny."
Later that night Danny walked into his office. His day was through and the only light in the office was a small one on the desk next to his laptop. His bag laid in the couch somewhat behind the desk. He walked in slowly, with his hands in his pockets. As he passed his laptop he slid his hands over the side as if he was going to close it shut, but stopped. He turned around his desk and laid his fingers slowly on the mouse pad as if he didn't care. He found his fingers moving toward a file called Story.
Danny stood in front of the screen and just stared. He sat down for a moment deep in thought and then closed the laptop shut. Danny leaned over toward his bag, and lifted his hand through it as if he was looking for something. He checked the front pocket and then the back pocket, not seeing what he was looking for. He stood and walked toward the middle of the room before shaking his head and walking back to the desk. He checked the pockets again and found not what he was looking for, but the notes Maisy was supposed to type up for him.
"Maisy!" He yelled for her as he raised himself off the ground. "Did you not copy over those notes and transcribe those tapes I needed or did you just put them back in my bag…" He moved toward the door and found a strange-looking Maisy standing in front of him. He wasn't sure if she looked tired, upset, or had the sniffles. "Hey, I'm not mad." He laughed it off. He noticed Maisy was hugging a stack of papers to her chest.
"No, it's not….it's this." She released her hands to show Danny's crumbled pieces of paper.
"Where did you get those?" Danny's voice changed to concern
"Your bag." She motioned with a rolled-up tissue. "At first I thought-"
He grabbed the papers and looked at them for a moment.
"-they were the notes you wanted me to…"
"You had no right to read this. This is private." Danny turned and recoiled back to his desk.
"I didn't know you were working on another novel."
"I'm not." He opened his bottom drawer and threw the papers in.
"I just assumed they were your notes…"
"This is a work of fiction, you really think these are my notes from the Hayes interview…"
"I wasn't sure at first-"
"Then you should have stopped reading, Maisy…"
"I couldn't. It was so good. You're gonna publish it right?"
"I don't know. No. No. It's a lark."
"You have to finish it. I'm dying to know what happens to the couple in the story… Can't you tell me, can't you just tell me what happens."
"I haven't finished it yet." He made excuses for her to stop. "Get back to work Maisy." He tried to make himself busy.
"Come on, Danny, you always know what's gonna happen in your stories…."
"This isn't one of my stories, this is fiction…"
"You always map out what you're gonna write—"
"No," he snapped. "I'm not-I haven't finished it yet-just leave me alone about it, okay!"
"But, Danny—"
"Maisy! Stop!"
"Okay, okay. I'm sorry." She didn't understand why Danny was so upset. He wouldn't take her gaze as he sat himself back down at his desk. There was an awkward moment of silence. Danny turned his chair out the window.
Maisy began to fidget, unsure what she should do next.
"Okay, I guess if there's isn't anything else I can do for you, I'll go home."
"Night."
Maisy walked toward the door, but Danny's voice stopped her.
"There is something you can do for me." Danny looked out the window. All Maisy could see in the dark was his shadow. He was just a voice.
"Yeah, Danny?"
"I need you to call the White House for me. Ask for Margaret. I need an appointment with the Chief of Staff."
"Danny!"
"Don't judge it. Don't ask about it, just do it."
"They're gonna wanna know what it's about." No answer from Danny. "It'll be hard to get a time with the Chief of Staff with out a reason."
"I'll take care of that."
"With out a reason I don't know if I can—it takes a while for me to get you an appointment with the Chief of Staff, Danny."
"I know." He stressed.
"Why don't you just call her-"
"This is something I need to say in person."
"I still-"
"This is the only way."
"Okay." She nodded her head. She was very perplexed. Maisy started for the door, her head lowered, feeling un-easy and she didn't know why. She heard the faint sound of typing as she walked out. "Danny?" She turned and looked at him with her head cocked. "What are you going to do?" She asked with more behind the question than the words would imply.
"I'm gonna finish what I started." He didn't take her eye as he continued typing. Maisy walked out of Danny's office and closed the door behind her, something she almost never did. She picked up her phone. Inside the room, Danny paused from his typing for a moment. He lifted his right hand off the keys and reached into his left jacket pocket. Danny lifted his hand up and placed the small plastic tube from his pocket on the table next to him. He let his hand linger on it for a moment, then went back to his typing.
"I'm gonna finish what I started, CJ," he said to himself.
"Devils & Dust"
I got my finger on the trigger
But I don't know who to trust
When I look into your eyes
There's just devils and dust
We're a long, long way from home, Bobbie
Home's a long, long way from us
I feel a dirty wind blowing
Devils and dust
I got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
And fill it with devils and dust
Well I dreamed of you last night
In a field of blood and stone
The blood began to dry
The smell began to rise
Well I dreamed of you last night, Bobbie
In a field of mud and bone
Your blood began to dry
And the smell began to rise
We've got God on our side
We're just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a powerful thing, baby
It'll turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Now every woman and every man
They wanna take a righteous stand
Find the love that God wills
And the faith that He commands
I've got my finger on the trigger
And tonight faith just ain't enough
When I look inside my heart
There's just devils and dust
Well I've got God on my side
And I'm just trying to survive
What if what you do to survive
Kills the things you love
Fear's a dangerous thing
It can turn your heart black you can trust
It'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Yeah it'll take your God filled soul
Fill it with devils and dust
Bruce Springsteen-