The Benefits of Sharing Knowledge
CJ/Danny; Donna/Josh, multiple WW couples
Rating Teen– one sexual entr'acte, maybe language
Spoilers through end of series
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
August 29, 2014; mid-afternoon; Cape May, NJ
"So, are you ready for this next phase of their lives?" Ginger asked.
CJ, Donna, and Ginger were sitting in mesh lounging chairs, floating in the deep end of the pool, and drinking strawberry daiquiris.
"Joannie, stop acting like you're facing the death of a thousand cuts and they'll stop it soon enough! You know how to manage your father well enough, for goodness' sake. And he's just a bigger version of the boys."
CJ looked to the shallow end of the pool, where Paddy, Noah, Leo, Micah, Matty, and Hoop were splashing Celia, Gemma, Joanie, Giselle, and Clarissa. Once again, she marveled at the way that Donna managed her children. Was there no limit to her skills?
"I really don't see it as that much of a change," CJ answered. "I mean, I know that Paddy will be in kindergarten for the entire day, five days a week, whereas his preschool was really just a half day and only three days a week. But it's the same school, at church, and most of the kids will be the same kids he was with last year."
"But for Ginger and me, our kids will be leaving the White House and going to new situations."
With the upcoming election and the uncertainty, Ginger and Rick had decided that Celia would best be served by not having to change schools in the middle of the year. The wife of the Democratic nominee (the governor of Indiana) had said that she would "by all means" keep the on site educational facilities in the East Wing should her husband be elected. However, Haffley's wife, when asked, merely said, "My husband thinks it's a waste". And although everyone was showing a positive outlook in public, most of those in the know realized that after sixteen years of Democratic control of the White House, it was highly likely that Haffley would win in November. ("We can only hope that he fucks up as badly as he did when he first became Speaker and we can take over again in '19", Rick said last night after dinner.)
For Noah, of course, there would have to be a change, because the Lyman's would be moving to Widewater Beach on January 21, at the end of the Santos administration. In fact, Josh and Donna had seriously considered having Donna resign from the State Department now and moving with the kids before the start of the school year, in order to keep Noah in the same kindergarten class all year. In the end, the two of them decided that they did not want to be apart for five months. After all, Josh's job was not one that ran from 8:00 AM Monday through 5:00 PM Friday, with every weekend off.
"Are you that concerned, Donna?" CJ asked. "I thought that you were happy with the school district."
"Oh, we are. But it's not just the schools. It's the fact that the kids will be exposed to a wider variety of other kids, kids whose parents may not have the same mindset as we do. And I'm not talking money or class. For example, right now we're having a terrible problem with Noah."
"Has his testing of limits reached a new dimension?" CJ and Donna had had several more conversations about the way that Paddy and Noah had frustrated their parents over the course of the summer.
"Well, the Ferreira's - "
"The people who have the entire fourth floor of your building? The guy who coordinates the languages and linguistics faculty at Georgetown?" Ginger interrupted.
Donna nodded in the affirmative.
"Jason is on sabbatical and he, Maria, and the kids are spending the year in Tuscany, and they've sublet to some new official at the Indian Embassy. This family is, to put a word on it, somewhat of a problem. There's the man, his wife, two kids, her mother, and a live-in couple. The little boy, Vijay, is a year older than Noah, and has an attitude that won't quit. He's becoming a bad influence on Noah, and I'd like to keep the two boys apart, but with the politics involved," Donna shrugged her shoulders.
"Can you talk with the parents?" CJ asked.
"The mother and the grandmother, at least, are just as bad. They really think that just because their unit is larger than the rest of ours, they should get two assigned parking spaces, taking away one of the guest spaces. They also seem to think that the garden is theirs. (The first three floors of the building each held two residences, about 2,200 square feet each. The top floor was smaller and the single unit on that floor was about 2,700 square feet. The 900 square foot garden on that level was for the use of all the entire building.)
"For example, two weeks ago, when I was with Nancy at the G-8 prep meeting in Montreal and Josh was tied up with the tele-com bill, Jalisha, the woman who does all the work for this family, came down and asked Nicki if Vijay could stay with Noah for a few hours. Apparently, the mother and the grandmother were off at some distant cousin's bridal shower and Tara, the little girl, was sick and needed to go to the doctor. Well, of course, Nicki said yes.
"Anyway, Vijay comes down with this toy gun that shoots ping pong balls and starts playing 'war' with Noah. Ping pong balls are flying all over the house; two of them hit Joanie, and one of them knocks over, but didn't break, thank God, one of Josh's mother's Oriental vases. So Nicki takes the toy from the boy. Vijay throws a fit and kicks her, so Nicki makes the boys sit in the kitchen and sort through the recycling, pulling off the labels on the cans and bottles.
"When Josh gets home that night, he hears this horrible screaming coming from the place. He opens the door, and the mother is there with Vijay, screaming at Nicki. When she sees Josh, she starts in on him, demanding that Josh 'punish his servant for not knowing her place', for 'stealing Vijay's toy gun', for 'being disrespectful to Vijay', and God knows what else. Somehow, Josh managed to avoid starting an international incident. I'm not sure I could have handled it. Yes, we pay Nicki to take care of our children, but I would never think of her as a servant!"
"It can happen in any situation," Ginger said. "There was a girl in Chantelle's class who acted the same way. It turned out that her parents were separated and that the father's new girl friend treated everyone with disrespect. Once the mother found out, she got the visitation agreement changed. I was shocked. None of my grade school classmates in the Bayonne public schools ever acted as crassly as this little thing did."
"How did you handle it?"
"It was tough. You need to balance keeping your child safe and in an environment that reflects your values, but you also have to let your child know that not everyone has the same values you do. We talked to Chantelle, then we talked to the school. And, as I said, it turned out that there was something that could be done.
"But believe it or not, those are the easy situations. The really hard ones come when what the other parents do, or say, isn't necessarily wrong, just different. How late to stay out on a school night, or whether the kid can go out at all. When to allow pierced ears, whether to allow other piercings. At what age do you allow your daughter to wear pantyhose, or little heels. I tell you, girls, I've had a crash course over the past six years," Ginger finished with a smile.
"But you've loved every minute of it," Donna said and the three of them laughed in agreement.
"I guess I hadn't really noticed any of that. Everyone at home seems to have the same opinions about those sort of things. Or if there are differences, the kids handle it pretty well."
"CJ, you guys don't know how special your little block is," Donna said.
"Oh, we do, Donna, believe me, we do."
"Mommy! Daddy!"
The three ladies looked up at Hoop's cry to see Margaret and John Hoynes approaching the pool area. Margaret had stayed in Washington to be with Matt Santos until the First Family went to Camp David for the Labor Day holiday. However, when Donna suggested that she and Josh bring Hoop with them when they travelled to Cape May on Thursday, John immediately said 'yes'; Brian Gianelli had just left to spend time with his father and his grandparents and Hoop missed his big brother. The Lyman's made a similar offer to Carol and David regarding Clarissa. (Three year-old Rachel Santos was devastated. She wanted to go to the beach with her friends; however, Matt and Helen were hosting an anniversary house party for Helen's parents at Camp David and told Rachel that a lot of her cousins would be with them in Maryland.)
Margaret came over to hug CJ as John helped his son from the pool.
"Daddy! Can we go down to the beach?"
"I don't know. Maybe in a bit; let me check with Miss Ginger?" John answered as he walked up to the group of women, his son clinging to his right leg.
"The surf's a little rough, so CJ, Donna, and I decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Things should be calmer tomorrow," Ginger told the former Vice-president.
"Where's everyone else?" Margaret asked.
"Bonnie's checking on the babies; Morgan felt a little tired and is lying down. You see Nancy in the pool with the kids, along with Bryce and Chantelle. Rick took Danny and Sev with him to get crab and corn for tonight, they should be back shortly. Sam, Josh, Jesse, and Jean-Luc are on the tennis court. Carol and David should be arriving in an hour or so," Ginger counted on her fingers. "Since the three of us decided to laze by the pool and the surf was rough, we let the life guards and the au pairs have the afternoon off."
"I know that Ed and Larry are both involved in campaign planning and that Will is back in Oregon ramping up for his reelection event," John said, "but the others?"
"Well, there's some sort of Bartlet family thing happening in New Hampshire, the three hundredth anniversary of something or another, so that's where all of them are," Donna answered.
"But the Faison's stayed in Palo Alto. Something about Ellie's latest project," CJ interjected as she reached down for Caitlin, who had climbed out of the pool (with a helpful push from Nancy) and ran up with a present. ("Mama! I pretty bug for you!")
"I thought Toby was coming?" Margaret asked. "And what about Kate?"
"Kate is in Oregon with Will. Apparently, the two of them are no longer under the radar and Will decided that he should take the initiative about their relationship before the other side tries to make it something less than above-board," Donna replied.
"And Toby called Tuesday and apologized, said that something had come up at the last minute," Ginger added. "So I think that gets us caught up on everything. Do you want to go up to your room now? Do you need something to drink, or eat?"
"Actually, if we could just go inside and change into our suits," Margaret said, while at the same time, John allowed as how he could use "some iced tea or water and a sandwich, if it wasn't too much trouble."
So Ginger led the couple (with Hoop trailing after them) into the house, pointing Margaret to the downstairs bath and taking the others into the kitchen. Cal and Graciella were sitting at the table while Graciella was icing cupcakes. Cal asked John for the keys to his car, saying that he would get the bags up to the room set aside for the Hoynes. (John told him there was no rush.)
Ginger went out to the back porch where Bonnie was reading a story to her younger daughter Erica and to Diana, Rick and Ginger's latest child.
"Cupcakes! Gimme one!"
As Ginger and Bonnie returned to the kitchen, Noah led the other kids into the kitchen.
"These are for tonight," Graciella told the group. "There are some cookies on the counter."
"But I want one now!" Noah whined and reached for one of the cakes.
"Noah, no," John Hoynes firmly commanded and the boy turned away, but threw Graciella a nasty look when none of the other adults were watching.
Once back outside (with the two babies in a playpen under a canopy), Ginger went over the plans for the rest of the weekend.
"There's deep-sea fishing early tomorrow morning for you guys, if you like, and then hot dogs and hamburgers on the beach, and the beach for the afternoon. Of course, if some of you just HAVE to watch football, tennis, or baseball, I suppose that can be arranged. Tomorrow night is chicken and whatever you hunter-gatherers manage to catch in the ocean. Sunday is play by ear – beach, pool, tennis, golf – and steaks for dinner. Then Monday, it's travel back to the real world."
Later that evening
"Move your tail, woman, make room for me."
Danny lightened the words with a kiss on top of CJ's head. He had just come from checking on the kids.
As CJ shifted on the loveseat, the governor of California cleared his throat.
"If I could have everyone's attention," Sam said, standing up from the arm of the easy chair where he had been seated next to his wife. He waited for the conversations in the room to die down. "President Bartlet always said that the women of the West Wing were among the most intelligent and diligent group of females he had ever known. Apparently, you haven't lost that skill in the eight years since he left office. We've noticed the whispers and the looks since we flew in with CJ and Danny on Thursday, so, yes, ladies, your suspicions are correct. Morgan and I are expecting another child next March."
"We'd like to keep it from the general public for at least another month," Morgan said, looking up at her husband and smiling. "I just KNOW that Anne Coulter and Michelle Malkin will be all over the subject, saying that we got pregnant in order to sway Sam's reelection bid and I'm not ready to deal with either of those - "
"Bitches."
"Carol!" David exclaimed as his wife helpfully finished Morgan's sentence.
"She speaks the truth," Bonnie said as she came up to hug first Sam and then Morgan.
CJ, Donna, and Ginger looked at each other and smiled. Their suspicions of the past day were correct.
After the congratulatory hugs and high-fives were completed, the eight couples once again settled down in the living room of the big house. The windows were open to the night air and the sound of waves hitting the beach filtered through the conversation.
When asked, Danny reported that the girls were all settled down and drifting off to sleep. "The boys are telling ghost stories and fighting yawns."
With the smaller numbers, Ginger had planned to have only the older boys sleeping together in the big third floor playroom. However, there was some dissension about among the boys about who counted as "older", so Paddy, Noah, Matty, Leo, Micah, and Hoop were all sleeping in the playroom with Brad (Cal and Graciella's son, a student at Rutgers) in with them to keep the guys in line.
Cribs for Sean, Erica, and Diana were set up in the master bedroom usually used by Rick's mother and Chantelle was using the daybed in the small room next to Rick and Ginger's room that usually served as the nursery ("No, I'm not sure if I'm done," Ginger said good naturedly when asked.), so Caitlin and Clarissa were sleeping in Chantelle's room. Bryce was bunking with Sev for the weekend, giving his room to Joannie and Gemma, and Giselle was sharing with Celia. ("We actually have an extra room on the second floor," Rick said. "It's a far cry from four years ago, isn't it?")
After about an hour, Rick reminded the men that 5:00 AM came pretty early and that it might be wise to retire in preparation for "Operation Pescadores".
Saturday, August 30, 8:30 AM EDT; somewhere off the Delaware shoreline
"Here you go."
Danny handed the steaming mug of coffee in his left hand to Josh, sat down beside the other man, and took a satisfying sip from the mug in his right hand. The two men stared out over the waves. From the stern of the boat, they could hear the other men as they manned the fishing poles mounted on the railing.
"So," Danny said, "five months to go."
"Four months, twenty-one days, and about four hours, but who's counting," Josh replied with a smile.
"I take it that you are looking forward to the end of the Santos administration," Danny answered.
"I am SO-O looking forward, and yet I'm scared out of my mind. I don't know what I'm going to do, Danny."
"I though you passed the bar and had a position lined up with a firm in Fredericksburg?"
"Oh, I do, and I'm looking forward to it. But, after sixteen years of high-pressure, I don't know how I'll react to a quote-unquote normal life. How long did it take CJ to decompress? What was she like those first few days, those first weeks? Give me an idea of what to expect."
"Well," Danny laughed, "she had menstrual cramps the first few days, so I don't think her example is of much help. And I don't think the situations compare, Josh. CJ and I were just finding ourselves, groping toward the possibility of a relationship together, learning how to be a couple. You and Donna have been married for six years, and you have four kids.
"But after the first two weeks, after I asked her to marry me, I think that's when CJ really let go. Those first two weeks were different, almost the equivalent of a honeymoon, only for a 'live-in', not a marriage. But once we moved in Sam's place and I started doing some work for the LA Times, CJ totally decompressed. She slept a lot, she went down to the beach, she experimented with cooking. Of course, we had the wedding to plan, and in April, she started working on setting up 'Road'. But we did a lot of fun things, just driving around, doing the touristy things. In fact, it was on one of those spur of the moment drive that we found the house.
"Josh, if I were you, I would tell the firm in Fredericksburg that you are taking two months to reacclimatize yourself to life outside of the White House. Spend time with your kids, spend time with your wife and kids, spend time with your wife, spend time making love with your wife. And, this summer, plan to take a driving vacation. It doesn't matter where you go. You're welcome to come out to see us, but I would recommend a smaller distance at first, maybe to see Donna's folks. Stay in motels, eat in places like Denny's, just be a normal family for a change. Get to know what it's like to have kids fighting in the back seats. Stop to see the kitschy roadside attractions.
"Josh, I wouldn't have traded my years with the Post for anything and I know that CJ feels the same about her years with Jed Bartlet, but the life we have now, our kids, our neighbors in Santa Monica – it's something entirely beyond all of that."
"Hey, I think it's a big one!"
David's voice, brimming with excitement, cut into Josh and Danny's conversation, and the two men went to join the others in the stern.
9:45 AM; Cape May, NJ
"Bang! I gotcha!"
Paddy squirted Noah as they ran into the kitchen.
"Not so fast," Hoop cried out as he in turn squirted his Super Soaker at Paddy.
Within seconds, Matty, Leo, and Micah poured into the kitchen and everyone was squirting at everyone else. The boys were waiting for their mothers and their sisters; everyone was going down to the beach.
"Boys!" Cal said. "Stop it! First of all, you are not supposed to be using those toys in the house. Second, I know that you are not supposed to be pretending they are guns. Now, stop it and go outside," he ordered the boys.
"Yes, sir," Paddy said.
"Sorry, Mister Cal," Matty said. "Please don't tell Mommy. We'll be good."
"We're sorry," Hoop said with a charming smile that indicated he was indeed John Hoynes' son. "Can't we forget all about it?"
"Gotcha! No one shoots at me and lives!" Noah exclaimed as he ran from behind Graciella and aimed a stream at Paddy.
"What did I tell you?" Cal asked. "Okay, every one of you. Put those things here on the table."
Slowly, Hoop, Matty, Micah, Leo, and Paddy complied with his orders.
"Noah, put yours on the table, too."
"No!" the boy shouted. "You can't tell me what to do, you're just a crummy servant!"
"Noah Leo Lyman."
All the eyes in the kitchen turned to the doorway. Donna was standing there, with Nancy and Bonnie standing behind her.
"Ut oh," Paddy said under his breath. He knew that when a parent used all three of your names, you were in big trouble. Noah would be in time out for a long time, maybe all morning.
"Cal, I apologize for my son," Donna said. "Nancy, Bonnie, would you please take the triplets with you to the beach? Joannie, Micah, Leo, you listen to the grownups and the lifeguards. Noah, come with me." Grabbing her eldest son's hand, she led him toward the staircase.
12:30 PM
"We're starving," Danny said as he led the other men down the steps to the beach, "and those hamburgers smell like heaven. Lead us to them."
"Maybe, maybe not," CJ said, looping her arms around her husband's neck and kissing him. "What did you bring us? You seem particularly empty-handed."
"Rick and David are up at the house helping Graciella clean the catch. There's more than enough for all of us," Josh said as he reached around and took a hot dog from his daughter's plate. Then he looked around. "I seem to be missing one wife and my number one son."
"Noah's in trouble," Joannie told her father. "Mommy took him upstairs."
"Joannie, no one likes a snitch," Josh answered his daughter. He grabbed a hamburger bun and a patty from the grill. "I better go find out what's going on."
Thirty minutes later, Donna came down to the beach. When asked, Donna told Joannie, Leo, and Micah that "Daddy and Noah went into town for something".
5:15 PM
"Let's hurry up and get changed," Leo Lyman said as he led the other boys into the big playroom.
"Hi, guys."
Noah was tying his sneakers.
"Hi, Noah," Paddy said.
"We missed you, Noah," Hoop added.
"That was sure a long time out," Matty observed.
"It wasn't just a time out," Noah looked down at his shoe, then looked up with a face that begged for sympathy. "Mommy spanked me!"
"Mommy spanked you!" Micah exclaimed. "For squirting water?"
"For what I said to Mister Cal."
"You can get spanked for saying things?" Matty's eyes grew really big.
"Yes, you can, if they're really bad things," Paddy said.
"I don't want to get spanked," Matty started crying.
"Well, then," Leo said, "we need to find out what you can get spanked for so we know not to do it. We need to share. Matty, go get the girls; tell them we need to have a special meeting right away."
Fifteen minutes later, Celia, Gemma, Giselle, Joannie, and Clarissa had joined the boys (Caitlin was sleeping.)
"Okay, we need to talk," Leo said. "Noah got spanked today. None of us wants to get spanked, so we need to know what not to do. Did Mommy say why she spanked you?"
"She said I tried to make myself better than Mister Cal. She said that just because Miss Graciella and Mister Cal work in the house, that doesn't mean that I can say nasty things to them."
"Okay," Leo said. "Rule number one. Don't say anything nasty to people who work in our parents' houses."
"Don't use bad words to any grown up, especially a grown up lady," Paddy said. Then, when everyone else looked at him, added "Daddy spanked me for saying bad words to Miss Jessica at home."
"Okay, anyone else?" Leo asked. "Come on, we have to share. Do you want to get spanked?"
"Did it hurt, Noah?" Micah asked.
"Yes. When Daddy came home, he said I was lucky, that Mommy was the one that heard me. Daddy said that he would probably have hit me harder. But Mommy hit hard!"
"Well, when Daddy and Mama spanked me, it only hurt for a little bit," Paddy volunteered. "But they said that spanking was only for really, really bad things."
"That's what Mommy said to me, too," Noah added. "Daddy said the same thing later."
"Your mother spanked you too? At the same time?" Giselle asked.
"Daddy spanked me for what I said. Mama spanked me for lying about saying it."
"Well, Daddy would never spank me," Joannie said with a superior smile, "and he would never let Mommy spank me. Daddy loves me."
"My Daddy loves me, too, but he spanked me once for lying about breaking a vase, too," Celia told the little blonde replica of Donna.
"So, don't say mean things to any grown up, even if they work in your house. Don't tell your parents a lie if they ask you about something you did. Anything else?" Leo looked around the room.
"Uncle Bruno spanked Brian for setting off a firecracker in the barn and scaring the horses," Hoop volunteered.
"A boy up the street from me, he tried to set fire to a puppy and his daddy spanked him," Giselle told the group.
"Who would want to set fire to a puppy?" Micah asked. "That's terrible. If I saw someone doing that, I'd hit them myself."
One by one, everyone talked about what they knew. In the end, they decided that some kids got spanked for a lot of things for which their parents only gave time outs. ("We're lucky," Clarissa said.) However, they all decided that saying mean and nasty things to grown ups, lying to parents when they ask you about something you did, and hurting animals were things they should avoid doing. When you got spanked, it was either one or two times. If you did do something bad and you were afraid you were going to get spanked, change into your heaviest jeans or thickest sweatpants, so it won't hurt as much.
"Okay, let's go play," Leo ended the meeting.
Sunday morning
Everyone was seated by the pool, eating the breakfast buffet that had been set out for them.
"Ginger!" Graciella came out of the house. "Turn the TV to CNN; there's something you all need to hear!"
Rick grabbed the remote and switched from "Meet the Press" to the news channel.
"- and Kevin, I just confirmed with a bellman at Caneel Bay. Maryland Congresswoman Andrea Wyatt and her former husband, Toby Ziegler, were indeed married last night in a small ceremony with their children, Molly and Huckleberry in attendance. The reports are true."
"Wow! Toby and Andy remarried!" Bonnie said. "That's wonderful!"
"When he said the something else came up, he wasn't kidding," Donna said.
"I don't know why they had to be so secretive about it," Josh complained to Sam. "We could have had a bachelor party, been ushers, the whole nine yards."
"That's probably why they did it the way they did," Margaret laughed.
"CJ?" Danny looked at his wife. She was crying.
"I'm so happy for them, for him," CJ leaned against her husband. "First Paul and now Toby. Now, if I can find someone for Jessica -."
"So, your new career is matchmaker?" Danny kissed the top of her head.
Several hours later, when they were down at the beach, Toby and Andy called on CJ's cell. After the phone was passed around for congratulations, Toby gave CJ some more details. He and Andy had been talking about it for some time. Then Toby was accepted into the Poli Sci PhD program at George Washington, and everything fell into place. ("Just between you and me, CJ, in two years, Andy is going to run for Duggan's seat when he retires from the Senate. We decided that we wanted this to be a done deal, by then. If we're old married folk, maybe my thing with the shuttle won't have that much of an effect on the race. But Andy says she wants this, she wants me, more than she wants the Senate. Can you believe it?" CJ told him that she could indeed believe it, that Andy was an intelligent woman and knew a good thing when she saw it.)
Monday, September 1; 9:45 PM PDT; Santa Monica, CA
Danny sighed and moved to his side and then to his back, pulling CJ with him. He felt a slight stirring of air on his genitals as he slipped from his wife's body, thought about pulling up a sheet over them, but decided against it. He reached down with his mouth and kissed the side of CJ's face.
"I always enjoy our times with everyone at Rick and Ginger's," Danny said into her hair, "but it does feel good to be back in my own bed with my own wife."
CJ turned over and looked at Danny.
"Did you guys slip something into our drinks and have a secret wife-swapping party? 'Cause if you did, I gotta tell you, those were the six best ever and I wanna know who - "
"Woman," Danny threatened (but with a smile). "You know what I mean." He moved his hand suggestively over her backside.
"So, Wednesday morning, Paddy's big day. Are you ready to be the mother of a kindergarten kid? Are you ready to let him go one step further into the world?"
"Maybe; I got some really good advice. But right now I'm ready for something else," CJ said with a smile.
And, to his delight, so was Danny.