CJ and Danny's House
Santa Monica, California
Sunday, February 24th 2008 11am

CJ pulled the list off the fridge door and looked it over as she waited for the coffee to percolate.

It was a toss up as to whose night it was to pick a memory, since they'd both had wish fulfillment a few nights earlier, but she wanted first dibs.

Danny had started to cross out the memories they'd covered, and she smiled as she ran a line through Wednesday Night. As she was doing so, one item jumped out at her.

She squinted slightly as she raised the paper up to the light in the hope of figuring out why Danny had felt the need to black something out so thoroughly.

He was still asleep when she crawled back into bed a few minutes later, and she propped herself up on an elbow and watched him.

She'd been watching for a while when a hand snuck onto her thigh under the covers.

"If I kiss you, will you taste of coffee?" he asked with a sleepy smile as she scooted closer to him.

"Probably."

"I'll take my chances .."

His mouth met hers in a dance that spoke of lazy Sunday mornings.

"No chance you brought me coffee of my own, right?"

"Not a chance," she said as she indicated his side of the bed.

Danny placed a hard kiss on her mouth and sat back against the headboard

"Coffee in bed, huh?"

"And the papers, too. Imagine that .."

He took a long draw from his mug and put it aside.

"Are you looking for a reward for all of this benevolence?"

"Always. But I first I have a question."

"Shoot .." he said as he ran lazy spirals up and down her arm.

"I was looking at the list. You know, for tonight?"

"Yeah?"

"You blacked something out, and I'd like to know what it is?"

"Why would you want to ruin a perfectly good moment?" Danny joked as he placed a kiss on her collar bone.

"Why would it ruin the moment? I'm just asking which memory it is."

"One that is, perhaps, best left untouched."

He was brushing his thumb across a nipple when he felt her body tense up.

"Okay, I guess we're not leaving it untouched," he sighed before pulling himself back up against the headboard. "I do, however, need more coffee if we're going down this path," he added as he reached for his mug.

"We agreed that we'd use the list to work on any residual issues. There's stuff on there that I'm not excited about but I know is important."

"You're right. I should have told you I wanted to remove that one from the list."

"I guess I don't understand why it needs to be removed at all. Especially when I still don't know which memory this is."

"You really wanna do this .."

"I do."

"The night the revised estimates for Kundu came in," he said as he drained what was left of his coffee.

"I see."

"Forget this one, CJ."

"That was a bad day."

"One of many."

"You're right, but I shouldn't have done that to you."

"Which part? The part where you reeled me in with all the talk or the - "

"I didn't reel you in .."

"Oh really. All of that talk about the might have beens and conflict and getting under your skin was your attempt to sneak in some truth before .. you know .. you put me in my place?"

She really didn't have an answer for him, and she could tell he knew it.

"You know something really fascinating about that night? I remember the perfume, I remember you looked like Diane Keaton there in the shadows, but I don't remember what you were wearing. It's a complete blank, and I don't think that's ever happened before. So yeah," he said as he swung his legs over the side of the bed, "I removed it from the list. Because you don't have the answer to my question. You don't even know yourself whether you were being deliberately ambiguous or whether it was all part of your need to humiliate me."

CJ struggled to figure out whether he was angry or just being forthright about the way he felt , but he settled that almost immediately.

"I'm not walking away," he said as he picked up his coffee mug. "I'm just going to get more coffee."

"Okay."

She was curled up in bed when he got back.

"Thought you might want some, too," he said as he placed a fresh mug on her bedside table and got back into bed.

"Thanks."

"Com'ere," he said as he pulled her into his arms. "I don't think about it any more, CJ, and I didn't want you to think about it at all. That's the reason I removed it from the list."

"But I hurt you."

It was a statement rather than a question.

"Yes, but it's water under the bridge and we should leave it that way."

For a moment he wasn't sure she was going to let it go, but then her shoulder sagged against his chest.

"Okay."

"Okay. What's the place on the water that has the tenderloin with miso something or other that you like?"

"Miso ponzu?"

"Yeah."

"Nobu in Malibu."

"Want to go to lunch there? A drive and some fresh air will do us some good."

"I'll get dressed."

"Me too. Wouldn't want to scare the fish. Do I need to wear a jacket?" he called from his closet a few minutes later. "It's been a while, I can't remember."

"Can't hurt. Plus you clean up nice."

"Okay. Do you think we need a reservation?"

"Maybe?" she called back from hers.

"I'll call."

"Hey Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you come help me with this?"

"Help you with what?"

He recognized the perfume as soon as he walked into her closet.

"Remember when you asked me exactly what I'd do to have you?" she asked as she ran her hands up the lapels of his jacket and into his hair.

He smiled and played along.

"Yeah?"

"I'd do this," she said as her mouth met his.

"I should cancel that reservation, huh?" he asked when they came up for air.

"I'd say so."

Author's Notes:

There are a few scenes between CJ and Danny that I am not a fan of. The copier room scene (Inauguration: Part One) is at the top of the list.

I can appreciate that her head was not in a good place because there was so much going on. Truly. I can definitely appreciate that she needed to 'faff' him around on the Shareef piece because that is what her job required of her. But weaponizing his attraction to her feels below her dignity - and from a purely personal standpoint I really don't like it when women do that.

But that's just me.

I also debated making this a longer drawn out conversation, but decided against it - because I feel Danny possesses the emotional intelligence necessary to be forthright without making this acrimonious.