Author's Note:

Those of you who have read Return to Africa will recognize certain characters mentioned in here.

The Off The Record bar inside the Hay-Adams hotel has lots of really fun caricatures. It felt like a great place to start this off. If you follow the link below you'll find photos of the Federal Suite, which is where the rest of this chapter takes place.

washington-dc/hotels/the-hay-adams/photos/balcony-federal-suite-hay-adams-hotel-v638581/

Off The Record The Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, D.C.

Sunday, April 6th, 2008

"Told you they'd have your caricature on the wall the next time we visited," Danny said as he dropped a kiss to the top of her head and sat at the round table. "Has anyone asked for your autograph?"

"Happily nobody has recognized me," CJ said with a laugh.

"Yet."

"How'd it go?"

"You no longer have clearance for this kind of national security stuff."

"Oh God .. do I even want to know?"

He leaned forward and whispered, "let's just say that things went off the rails for the half hour Matt Santos was on the bus."

"Bet the Secret Service were delighted."

"The President sure knows how to party, I'll tell you that. I thought Josh was going to have an aneurysm when he saw him."

Danny laughed so hard he started to cough.

"Please tell me someone was running the country for that half hour?"

"I learned the hard way not to ask questions like that. But now you know why Josh almost had an aneurysm."

"I'm still trying to picture all of you on a party bus."

"It was the only way to ensure total privacy. Blackout windows, the works."

"One of your better ideas. You're really not going to tell me?"

"It was somethin' .. especially when Charlie thought he'd give a demonstration on the pole."

"The bus had a pole?"

"Yup."

"Was Josh sober by the end?"

"Nope." He held out his hand and checked for a tremor. "Not completely sure I'm sober either. How was yours? Are you sober?"

Now it was CJ's turn to laugh.

"Barely."

"Was Margaret still annoyed that her hookah bar idea got nixed?"

"Not really. It was a great idea to let her do all the planning. She really went to town .."

"I can only imagine. Bet you were the girl of the hour, though, securing the Hollis superyacht for the bachelorette," Danny said as he turned a coaster over in his hand.

"I was certainly popular with the First Lady's detail. The helicopter landed right on the front. You should see the inside of the yacht, Danny. The pictures don't do it justice. Frank said we can have it when we .."

"Mmmm?" Danny looked up as she trailed off.

"Frank said we can use it whenever we like."

"That's nice of him." He was almost sure that wasn't what she'd been about to say, but didn't press. "Did Donna have a good time?"

"She's glowing. So excited about the wedding. Bringing in massage therapists was a stroke of genius. I don't think she realized how much she needed it. Margaret even gave you credit!"

"Imagine that .."

"Thank you for thinking about it."

Danny reached across the table and took her hand.

"Thank you for taking Erin and my mom with you."

"Of course. I'm enjoying getting to know them better. Your mother is hysterical. Everybody loved her. Especially Debbie."

"Were either of them sober?"

"Not really, no. Erin went off somewhere with Margaret, Carol, and Ginger."

"And my mom?"

"Was singing rather loudly outside her hotel with Debbie when I dropped them off."

Danny grinned as he stood.

"You about ready to go up? We still have an hour of Sunday night. Although I guess we could pretend that we're still on California time .."

"What are you doing?"

"The coasters have both your caricature and President Bartlet's on 'em," he replied as he placed a few in the inside pocket of his jacket. "I want to gift him a couple at the wedding. He'll get a kick out of it."

She shook her head in mortification.

"You should sign a couple of them and leave them lying about."

"Okay, let's go."

As soon as the elevator doors closed shut she pulled him towards her and kissed him.

"Just as well nobody round here recognizes me anymore," she said with a laugh as they stumbled into their suite a few minutes later, still mostly liplocked.

"I need to get out of these clothes. They smell of alcohol and stripper perfume."

"You had a stripper?"

"You didn't?"

"Are you serious?"

"No. Actually I just want to call and check on Josh."

"How much did he drink?"

"When you work eighteen hour days and don't really take time to unwind, alcohol goes to your head real fast."

"Okay." She let go of him reluctantly. "Maybe call your mother, too? Just to cover all bases?"

"I'm not sure I want to know what my mother and Debbie are potentially up to."

"Just Josh then. I'll go slip into something a little more comfortable," she called after him.

Danny stopped and turned around.

"Yes," she said in response to the question his eyes posed.

"God, I don't think I've seen you in it since that night."

"I've been holding it in reserve - on the offchance that we'd come back here."

"Now I'm definitely not calling my mother. I'll make it quick."

He found her leaning over the railing in the alcoved balcony off the bedroom; her gaze directed at the White House.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

"I'm trying to put myself in the mindset of that night."

"You were so wired and exhausted, I'm surprised you remember anything at all about that night," Danny said as he wrapped his left arm around her waist and placed the elbow of his other arm on the railing.

"I remember putting this on and waiting for you to come back from the press corps shindig downstairs."

Danny slipped into the Federal Suite.

"CJ?"

"Hey .."

She was seated at the conference room-style table with her back to him.

"I thought we agreed you were going to take it easy while I was down there," he said as he pulled off his overcoat and tossed it over one of the chairs. He rubbed her tense shoulders as he glanced over the papers. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Worrying about what will happen if one of the three hundred and eighty-nine horses in the inauguration parade should keel over."

"I thought they had contingencies for that kind of thing."

"A team of veterinarians and a forklift!"

"So why are you worrying?"

"Force of habit, I guess. How did your farewell party go?"

"Lots of ribbing, as expected. Katie and Chris made out like bandits in the pool - holy crap!" he added as she stood to face him. "I thought you were wearing a coat dress."

"I guess it is .. kinda."

Danny's eyes took in the floor length longsleeved Persian blue creation with a plunging v-shaped lace front which showcased her breasts and was held together by just a few buttons above her waist.

"Do you like it?"

"Do I like it .." he echoed as he ran the back of his fingers under the lace and grazed a breast.

He knew the moment she moved he'd have the answer to his second question, but he had to ask.

"Are you wearing anything at all under there?"

"It came with matching panties."

"That doesn't answer my question."

The material slipped away from her leg as she curved her foot around his ankle - and she moaned as Danny's hand ran up and around her thigh and encountered a bare buttock.

"Jesus Christ, CJ," he added as she dropped her head to his shoulder. "You've gotta give a man some warning."

He was surprised when she wound her arms around his neck.

"What's going on?" he asked carefully as he felt a deep breath reverberate against his frame.

"I can't see you off at the airport tomorrow."

"I know that, it's okay."

"I hated that I couldn't. After that night at your apartment, things shifted so radically. Everything fell into place. We became a team in ways we hadn't been before, and it felt .. it felt weird thinking of you not being here for my last three days in office. I just didn't know how to express it at the time."

"I seem to recall you expressed it just fine. With a whole lot of tenderness, a few tears, and the confession that you picked this suite with its view of the White House to continue building perspective on why you were putting yourself front and centre and distancing yourself from all of this."

"Josh was still trying to get me to stay on one hour before the inauguration."

"I know .."

"I never told you that."

"You didn't, he did."

"Okay."

It was a quiet whisper, full of emotion, and he didn't have to look at her to know that her eyes were filled with tears. Nor did he have to ask, really, what she was feeling or what she was thinking. He'd been expecting all of it, and was expecting still more by the time Donna and Josh tied the knot on Tuesday evening.

He rubbed her back gently until he felt her settle.

"Can you imagine what a circus security is going to be on Tuesday?"

CJ shuddered.

"Yes, I can. And I'm so grateful that we won't need any of that whe-"

"When we what?"

"Nothing .."

"That's twice tonight you've not finished a sentence. Is there something else you want to talk about?"

CJ hesitated for a moment and then shook her head.

"It's getting cold out here .." she said with a little shiver.

"Yeah," Danny said as he followed her inside.

She seemed a little less vulnerable as she turned to face him in the bedroom and, much as it had that night just under fifteen months ago, the sight of her in Persian blue satin drove everything from his brain.

"Do you still like it?" she asked as she watched him.

"Do I still like it .. " Danny enunciated very slowly as he stepped up to her. "Yes."

"Close your eyes."

At this juncture in their narrative she knew his body as well as he knew hers, so being divested of his clothing this way was something of a novelty which he fell headlong into without question; content to comply with her instructions.

"The playing field is almost level. You can open them now."

She was still clad in satin, but he could read the invitation in her eyes.

"Are you going to make me beg?"

"Not tonight," he said as he placed both hands over the lace at her chest.

He pulled back for a moment - turning positively smug at the sight of her nipples rising in anticipation when he'd barely touched them. But his gaze turned feral and hungry as he looked up at her, and her response was instinctive and immediate as she pushed one of her legs out of the satin encasement and pulled his hand onto it.

"What did we say about giving a man a bit of warning?" he growled against her ear as he made contact with bare skin.

His fingers made quick work of opening the buttons at her waist, and as he looked at her with lust that he didn't need to disguise, the garment pooled at her ankles and he shifted them both in the direction of the bed. Moments later he was pressing open mouthed kisses all the way from her jawline to her earlobe with soft heated breath which made her push her body up against him, grip his shoulder hard enough to leave a bruise, and part her legs to make it very clear what she wanted.

Danny shrugged her off gently, and lay on his side. Pushing her thighs further apart, he inserted a salivated digit into her and flashed her a smile when she strained against it. She rocked against his palm when he brought it up against her body; vocalizing her need for more in tiny exasperated whimpers. But he was in no mood to give her quarter. Choosing instead to add one more digit and keep her on edge until she fell apart in a series of fluttering contractions.

"Danny .."

"Patience .."

Her eyes widened as he licked his fingers off and then traced her lips with them. Replacing them with his mouth seconds later, and feeling himself tighten just a little more as the residual taste and smell of her assaulted his senses.

Hers, too, if the look on her face was anything to go by.

They fell easily into rhythm as they took possession of one another; each pelvic grind obliterating the one before it. He reached for her wrists - interlocking them in one of his hands above her head. Holding her eyes as he plunged repeatedly into her, and releasing her only when slick skin made them slip and slide against one other.

"With me .." he whispered hoarsely as he felt her ankles lock around the small of his back. Knowing that the change in angle was going to be his undoing.

Blood roared through her ears as they crested, and she reached for his hand when post-coital silence engulfed them. They lay together for a while, limbs limp and tangled, and Danny found his mind returning to her truncated sentences as they enjoyed the familiar comfort of the other's uneven breathing.

"CJ?"

"Mmm?"

"There's something I need to ask you."

"Ask me .."

"With hindsight, if given the choice, would you make the same decision?"

Her hand rose to his face as she leaned in to kiss him.

"Yes."