Title: Dulles to LAX, Indirect.

Chapter 7: Telling Meg

Pairing: CJ/Danny
Author: Array
Email: array_

Rating: PG-13 (adult themes)
Disclaimer: They're all Aaron's except Meg
Author's Notes: Takes Place between Institutional Memory and Tomorrow

Reviews?--- You betcha!

His sister Meg laughs so hard he thinks her drink is going to come out her nose.

"Danny boy!"

"Don't call me that" he warns.

"You can't even have a midlife crisis properly!" She's laughing so much people in the restaurant are turning to look at them. "What you're supposed to do is have an affair with a younger woman, buy a motorcycle, dump your nine to five job…… not get married, buy a house, and look for something more stable."

He grins and swirls the ice cubes in his drink, "Yeah, well when you put it that way…."

She's still laughing.

"But Meg, I did all that stuff already…and I didn't exactly say get married… and I'm not sure writing books is more stable"

"Hey! You said maybe teach, and at your age if you're going to move all the way across the country with her you'd better be that committed"

"Boy you play that age card whenever you like, but you sure don't like it when I play it… eighteen months is nothing junior."

"Yeah, well I'm not shifting mywhole life around."

"Yeah, well…." He runs his finger around the rim of his glass. " You think Mom's going to have a heart attack?"

"When are you going to tell her?"

"Soon…. I guess."

"She's not going to have a heart attack Danny. You are the golden boy. You could show up in the middle of the night and give her a handful of elephant dung and she'd phone me the next morning to say you came by special and gave her a present."

He laughs. "You're so full of it."

"No it's true Danny. You'll never do anything wrong for her."

"That's true for all of us though, isn't it?"

"Yeah... just truer for some of us."

He looks at her. "Oh God Meg, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault. We're all adults now. It's just the way it is…..So you know she'll either hate CJ's guts, or she'll be the golden girl."

"Either Delilah or the Virgin Mary… there's nothing in between?"

"The only thing you'll know for sure is that any children you have will be perfect, clever, and beautiful, either because of, or in spite of…"

"Well, I'd say that scenario is pretty unlikely."

"Just giving you a heads up." She holds up her empty glass, "Should I order another drink? How long do you think she'll be?"

"Well, she said 8:00 but that means about 9:00, and she's probably going to be all wound up anyways… she's got an intelligence review. So I wouldn't get too far ahead."

"You don't need to worry you know."

"What do you mean?"

"I know you too well. If you love her I'm going to like her. "

"Yeah… it's more the other way around…"

She laughs. "Well if she can put up with you she'll think I'm a breath of fresh air"

He reaches good naturedly across the table to try to slap her but she ducks.

******************

The two women are laughing together. It's like they've known each other for years. His head is in his hands on the table. His ears or what can be seen of them are bright red. "I think I liked this conversation better before it turned into let's embarrass Danny time," he says.

CJ reaches over and runs her hand through his hair comfortingly. "Oh come on! I was going to find this stuff out anyway!"

"This was a bad idea."

"We're having fun," says Meg.

He sighs and looks up at her. "Did I do this with Jeff when I first met him?"

Her eyes glitter. "It was Thanksgiving. You and Callum both took him out__ without me I might add__ and told him everything. Got him so spectacularly drunk that he threw up on the front lawn when you brought him home. It was years before mom stopped asking me how he was handling his drinking problem."

Danny grins. "Oh Yeah. We did."

*******

"What was that girl's name that you brought home for Christmas that year Danny?"

He doesn't like where this is going. "I don't really remember."

"Sure you do. Short dark curly hair. Maisie?"

He puts his head down. "It wasn't Maisie. Please don't do this Meg." It's too late. She's already figured it out.

"Mandy." Says CJ dryly.

Meg realizes too late. "Oops. Sorry."

C.J. looks at him. "That was the college graduate," she says, as if everything is clearer now.

Danny stands up. "It's late we should go."

Meg tries to help him out. "Yeah. I've got a presentation in the morning, but this was fun . CJ, I really enjoyed meeting you." She glances at Danny, then takes CJ by both hands, kisses her on the cheek and says quietly, "Don't be too hard on him. She was a real piece of work." She kisses Danny on the cheek. Looks him straight in the eye and says, "Madonna, no two ways about it. You should call Mom, because she'll grill me and you know it's better coming from you."

He sighs. "Thanks Meg. See you tomorrow?"

"You're driving me to the airport?"

"Yep. I'll call you." And Meg is gone.

************

He looks at her trying to judge the thickness of the ice.

"I think," she says slowly, "I'm going to go to my apartment tonight."

"I think," he says in the same tones, "I'm coming with you." He's waiting for her to say no, but she doesn't say anything. Given the circumstances it feels like a tiny victory.

There is a long silence as they walk out to the car.

"I like your sister."

"I thought you might."

"Right now I'm liking her better than I like you."

He sighs. "Yeah. I know. In my defense..."

"Don't." she says.

"Right."

They're inside her apartment before she speaks again.

"Why?" she asks.

He looks at the ground. "Cause you said no. In fact you said no pretty clearly."

"You're not blaming this on me!"

"I'm not blaming anyone 'cause I don't see any blame. It's just how things happen."

"There's no responsibility?"

"I didn't say that. C'mon CJ I'm sure you've had relationships you regret."

The color drains from her face. "Tell me that was just a shot in the dark."

He raises both hands. "Woah! I'm not sure what nerve I just hit, but listen to me. We're both adults. It's not reasonable to think that either of us haven't had relationships before. Maybe some pretty serious relationships. In fact, come to think of it, we'd better have had some pretty serious relationships or we're both in trouble. I already told you that I'm never sure I'm doing something right until I've finished doing it wrong. I've done it wrong a couple of times now. I just want to do this right. I don't care what happened before. I care what's going to happen next."

She walks over to him and he folds her in his arms. She puts her head down on his shoulder. "I wanted to be so mad at you."

"Yeah. I know."

"I had a bad flashback."

"I kind of saw that. Did you want to talk about it?"

She shakes her head. "Not now."

"That's okay," he kisses her gently. "There's probably been enough talking for one night anyways

TBC