Author's Note: This takes place during Manchester Part II.

"Too Many Words"

It was getting progressively later. CJ sat at her laptop writing and deleting, writing and deleting, but with no real sense she was coming to the end of her task. She'd never actually written a letter of resignation before. She'd been fired once, and a few places had gone out of business, hence she'd never had the need to put into words her reasons for leaving. She usually stuck things out until the bitter end, regardless of what that end was.

She glanced at the clock and sighed. It had been a long day. It had been a long month. It started with the announcement that the president was running again. It included a disastrous gaffe in the briefing room and being benched on the crisis in Haiti and it would end, seemingly, with her resignation the day after tomorrow.

Toby had tried to talk to her about it, but she rebuffed him. Josh had tried to corner her earlier that day. He knew something was wrong. She didn't think he knew, at least when he cornered her, what her plans were. Although she as fairly certain that if Leo hadn't told him by now, then Toby surely had.

Suddenly Josh was who CJ wanted to see. She didn't want to talk to him. There had been too many words already. Too many word spoken aloud that just made things more complicated. She wanted to see Josh because if she was resigning in two short days, she wanted to have one last good memory with Josh. That was why she'd set out to his room at midnight.

CJ walked the hallway of the inn a bit nervously. There were people out and about. The upside of staying here was that everyone had their own bedrooms, which was a perk. The downside was that the inn was small and the odds of her running into Sam or Toby were high. Luckily by the time she got to Josh's door, not one had seen her at all. She rapped lightly on the door.

"CJ?" Josh said as he opened the door and saw her standing there. She was worried she had woken him, but he was still dressed and didn't look tired.

"Hi," she said scooting past him and entering his room. He glanced at her as she walked in and closed the door behind her. CJ looked around and noted that the television was off, there were no books or manuals strewn about and Josh hadn't been sleeping. She wondered what she had interrupted.

"You weren't sleeping were you?" she asked turning to face him.

"No," Josh said watching her rather intently. He wondered why she had decided to drop by at midnight. She looked tired and preoccupied by something. "What were you up to?"

"Writing," she said simply.

"The speech for tomorrow?" he asked with a smile that showed off his dimples. "Have Toby, Doug and Sam finally fought to the death?"

CJ grinned. "No."

"Starting your tell-all book then?"

"No it was…nothing important."

"CJ, Toby mentioned that--"

"I don't want to talk," CJ said cutting him off and walking toward him.

"But he told me that--"

CJ reached out and placed her finger of his lips to silence to him. CJ ran her finger down his lips slowly and Josh, shockingly, obeyed her wishes and said nothing when she removed her finger. He just looked at her.

"So, no talking," Josh said after a moment. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Whatever shall we do?"

"Well, I was thinking of telling you how good I think you look in jeans," CJ said as she wrapped her arms around his hips loosely. "After that I didn't really have a plan." She smiled at him as she stuck her hands into his back pockets and gave his backside a squeeze.

Josh wrapped his arms around CJ's waist and smiled at her, rubbing his hands up and down her back slowly. "Really?" he asked.

"Let's just say I kind of enjoy working weekends when I get to see you dressed in your casual ware." She leaned in and kissed him gently. Josh returned the buss and rocked slowly back and forth on his feet. When they broke CJ said, "I wasn't interrupting anything was I?"

"Definitely not," Josh said perching on the arm of one of the chairs in the room. "This is a surprise though. I don't think we've taken the show on the road since the campaign."

"Well I'm unpredictable," CJ said pulling away from him and removing her button down shirt, tossing it on the other chair. She moved back towards Josh and ran her hands down his thighs. She kissed him again, hungrily this time, which Josh returned, but with less vigor.

"CJ," Josh said. Since it was clear he wanted to talk, CJ decided to plant little kisses down his jaw line.

"Hmm?"

"I can't help but wonder what brought this on," Josh said.

She pulled away from him and rested her hands on his legs. "You don't want to sleep with me tonight?" she asked.

Josh pulled a face and ran his hand through his hair. "No, I just wanna know where this is coming from. Toby told me what you're thinking about doing and I just kind of feel like you're using this as an excuse to avoid reality or something."

CJ let out a groan. "Is there something so wrong with that? Haven't we had quite enough reality for a while?"

"CJ, I--"

"No," she said. "Josh what were you doing when I knocked on your door just now?"

"I'm sorry?"

"The TV is off, you weren't sleeping and I don't see any books lying around so what were you up to?"

"I was just thinking," Josh shrugged.

"About tobacco?" CJ ventured.

Josh made a face. "I'm tired of thinking about MS and Haiti and I have a feeling you're tired of thinking about tobacco and RU-486. Can't we just have an hour where we don't think about anything?" CJ told him.

She reached out for the lapels of his shirt. She pawed at it while she spoke. "There are too many words." She kissed him again. "I don't want words right now. I just want you."

Josh thought better of it, but only for a moment before he shed the shirt he wore over his t-shirt and reached for her. CJ had once told him that in victory and defeat they came together. He wondered what she would classify tonight as. It was surely a victory for the president. He was kicking off his re-election campaign. But somehow it made Josh wonder if CJ considered it her own personal defeat.

Josh contemplated it for a moment as he felt CJ's hand running down his chest, his hips and finally helping him remove his jeans. After that he really didn't have a thought aside from getting CJ out of her t-shirt. He reached out to her and expertly removed her shirt with one quick motion. She put her hand on his cheek and pulled his face towards hers.

Josh walked towards her as they kissed and CJ walked backward. They knew they were approaching the foot of the bed, but neither knew exactly where it was located until CJ crashed into the end of the mattress and fell backwards, pulling Josh down on top of her. She laughed and Josh smiled as they tumbled onto the fluffy comforter.

"That was graceful," CJ laughed.

"Very," Josh replied as he took a moment to run his finger across CJ's collarbone.

"I bet we make a pretty picture," CJ chuckled. She laughed even harder when she heard Josh's jeans fall off his ankles and fall to the floor in a crumpled heap.

CJ continued to laugh that wonderful, joyful laugh and Josh couldn't help but laugh along with her. As he laughed Josh had the fleeting thought of whether this might be the last time he would hear CJ's laugh and he decided that if it was, he wanted to make the most of it.

He silenced her laughter with a hard kiss, which she returned eagerly. CJ could feel her heart pumping against Josh's chest and it made her feel good and alive. She ran her nails mischievously down his boxers and along his hips, which caused him to buck unexpectedly.

"Is that how it's going to be tonight?" he asked with a grin.

"You bet your ass it is," CJ replied before squeezing her knees against his legs and flipping him over so that she on top of him.

"I think I live with that," Josh said happily.

CJ made mental note to remember the look on Josh's face at that exact moment. She gyrated her hips against his and made the most of what could be their last night together.

Later on Josh watched CJ as she crawled out of bed. "You're leaving?" he asked, leaning on his side and propping his head up on his hand.

"It's an early morning tomorrow," CJ said as she pulled up her bra strap and pulled her t-shirt over her head. "The hallways will be crowded."

"True," Josh replied, pushing down the slight feeling of letdown that CJ wouldn't be staying the night. He somehow always seemed to sleep better when she was next to him and he wasn't feeling particularly tired at the moment.

CJ found her jeans and pulled them on while Josh continued to look at her. She knew he wanted to bring up the resignation, but she still wasn't in the mood to talk about it. She hoped he would respect her silent wishes and just leave it alone. All she had wanted was time with Josh where she wouldn't have to think or talk about work.

"You know," Josh started to say, while CJ braced herself for the conversation. "Donna wondered if we had a uniform now."

"What?" CJ asked as she threw her button-down shirt over her white t-shirt. She also breathed a sigh of relief that Josh hadn't said anything about other issues.

"You and me," Josh continued. "We both had on jeans, a white t-shirt and a tan button down today."

CJ inspected the pile of Josh's clothes that lay on the floor and smiled, "I guess we did."

"I didn't notice it, but Donna seemed to think it was hilarious," Josh said.

"I suppose we did look like Raggedy Ann and Andy," CJ commented.

"Donna referred to it as more Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum," Josh smiled.

"Well I think we both know who she was calling Tweedle Dum," CJ said with a raised eyebrow.

Josh picked up a pillow and threw it at CJ as she slipped her shoes on. She tossed it back at him and seemed ready to leave. "Hey, don't forget your necklace," Josh said grabbing it off the nightstand and holding it out to her.

CJ walked over to the bed and grabbed the necklace, but Josh grabbed hole of her wrist. He knew he had to surprise her if he wanted to say what he felt he needed to say. "What you're thinking about doing," he said, looking her in the eye. "Don't do it."

"Josh," CJ sighed, wriggling her wrist out of his grasp.

"I know," Josh conceded. "I just can't let you do what you're thinking about doing without telling you that you shouldn't."

"So noted," CJ replied, clasping her necklace. She leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek. "I'll see you tomorrow."

She started to walk towards the door when Josh said, "He can't do it without you."

"I'm not so sure about that," CJ replied sadly. "Try to get some sleep mi amour."

"You too," Josh said.

CJ opened the door and closed it behind her. Josh lay on his back and started up at the ceiling for a moment. His tumble with CJ was a nice respite from his own thoughts. He figured that was what she was going for; an escape from her own thoughts. But, now, in the silence of his room, he was left alone with just his thoughts. He got out of bed and threw on his pajamas, though he knew sleep was futile. He sat in the chair, where he was sitting before CJ dropped by and thought, until Donna found him there the next morning.

TBC