Time Zones
CJ/Danny
Rating Adult –
Spoilers through end of series
Not mine, never were, never will be, but they consume my soul
Feedback and criticism always welcomed
Note: I tried to get the times right, based on daylight savings rules for the countries involved. If I've goofed, I apologize.
September 12, 2016; Santa Monica CA (9:30 AM) and Cairo, Egypt (7:30 PM)
"So I should pull out the stand mixer?" Danny walked to the kitchen cabinet where the extra appliances were kept.
"Lord, no, Danny. The hand mixer will be fine; you don't need the Kitchen-Aid."
Danny smiled as CJ's laugh came over the speaker phone. His wife might be a third of the way round the world, but in his mind the two of them were back in DC, some seventeen years ago, when he found out that the goldfish CJ liked were not the kind that were bought in a pet store. It was the first time she had ever kissed him and he remembered how much he liked it; how much he still liked it.
Danny Concannon was by no means an inept ignoramus in the kitchen. He had a healthy repertoire of recipes, some sophisticated (steak Diane), some simple (meatloaf ring with mashed potato filling). However, he had no experience with cake mixes, so when Caitlin insisted on "cupcakes like Mama makes" for her contribution to the preschool's "Fall Frolic" party rather than something bought at the bakery counter at Ralph's, Danny called on his wife's expertise.
"Okay, I've turned on the oven. What's next?"
"Well, let's get the liners in the muffin pans. Spray the pans lightly with Pam™ so nothing sticks, then put the paper cups in the holes and then spray again into the cups so the paper comes off easy."
After Danny complied with CJ's instructions, he reached for the Betty Crocker™ box.
"So I just dump everything in a bowl and mix it all up?"
"Yeah, that'll work; like I said, we aren't trying to outdo Julia Child here. Just make sure you stir the dry mix into the liquid before you turn on the beaters or else you'll have powder flying all over the kitchen. Can you hold the bowl with your hand?" Over the weekend, Danny had managed to break his left ring finger and the digit was splinted and bandaged.
"Yeah. My thumb still works."
"Listen, I need to get showered and ready for this reception. Fill the cups about two-thirds full. I use a half-cup measure for that. After the little suckers are baked, test them about seven minutes before the time's up, this oven runs a little hot, let them cool before frosting them. I usually spoon the frosting out of the container and put it in a bowl. Then I dip the top of the cupcake in the bowl with a half twist. But you can spread it on them straight from the can with a knife if you want. Then line them up on a piece of newspaper and sprinkle the Jimmies all over the tops."
"No pretty pattern or anything? Won't they look, well, homemade? Will that be okay?" Danny asked.
"Danny, the only thing the kids will care about is that they are getting cake. It's the other mothers, and only one or two at that, get into presentation and such. Mandy doesn't have a kid in Caitlin's group."
The two of them laughed, remembering the Halloween party for Paddy's preschool party three years earlier.
"Okay. Have a good time at the reception tonight, and a safe flight tomorrow."
"Yes sir. Love you," CJ said.
"Love you back."
Cairo, 10:45 PM
"Madame Concannon. Bubbling enchantment for a most enchanting woman."
CJ looked up and took the champagne flute from the 17 year-old standing in front of her. Did the French start teaching males to be attentive and flattering in kindergarten? Were all women, no matter how old, to be considered fair romantic game? The dark-haired, blue-eyed specimen in front of her was the same age as Rick and Ginger's Sev, for heaven's sake.
"Merci, Louis-Jacques," she said with a smile and took a sip. "You have been the perfect companion this evening, first at dinner and now with the dancing."
Hearing those words, the young man blushed and proved that, for all his charm, he was indeed still a boy. Louis-Jacques stammered a thank you and seemed to fish about for something else to say. CJ wanted to put him at ease and was about to start a conversation about the young man's plans for the next week when they were joined by his parents, his twin sister, several people from an Egyptian energy consortium, and Lars Enderson, the Swedish engineer who had flown in yesterday from Brazil.
The Hollis Foundation's latest adventure involved wind power. Henri (Louis-Jacques' father) and CJ, along with five others, had spent two weeks in Africa studying potential sites for wind farms and had arrived in Cairo with the sunrise. After three hours rest, the group met with Lars and the others who had been doing a similar tour in South America and compared notes.
The Egyptian government was anxious to have one of the prototype sites built in their country; hence the gala dinner and dancing event.
Tomorrow, CJ would fly to Marseille; she would spend two days in Provence with some industrialists in the area, followed by similar meetings in Milan and Pisa, ending up in Rome for two days, where Frank Hollis would join her, and then, finally, home to Danny and the kids in a week.
"We need to get up at 5:30 in the morning," Henri said, "so I think we should get to bed." His family had come in from Epernay this afternoon and the four of them were going to spend the week in Egypt. CJ wished them a safe and happy time, and they in turn told her to have a safe flight to France, Italy, and the states.
The orchestra returned from its break and Lars asked CJ to dance.
"Well, maybe one or two. I am flying out tomorrow, remember."
"You can always sleep on the plane."
Two hours later, CJ was sitting in her room, the lights on, clutching her robe about her.
If Louis-Jacques' attentions had been innocent and charming, if they had aroused happy memories of her life as a single woman, the attentions of Lars Enderson were sinister and the memories they aroused were as unwelcome as the attentions themselves. The fact that she was, as she told him, very much in love with her husband, didn't deter Lars; she escaped when the wife of the Swedish ambassador to Egypt drew him into a conversation.
Logically, CJ knew she was safe behind her double-locked door; emotionally, she felt uneasy. She wanted to call Danny, to hear his reassuring voice. It was ten hours earlier in California so the time was no problem.
But Danny would only fret and worry, and be frustrated that there was nothing he could do about the situation; the time zones that separated them and the distance they represented made that impossible. And she couldn't call and not tell him. It wasn't only that everything ingrained in her would try to keep her from lying to her husband, it was that it was too raw, too fresh in her mind. Danny would sense her discomfort immediately and quietly but insistently get to the bottom of the situation. Yes, she shared everything with Danny and share this she would, but after she returned home.
So CJ would continue to sit with the lights on. After all, as Lars himself had said, she could sleep on the plane.
September 13; Santa Monica, CA; 7:05 AM
"Guess what, Mama! In second grade, we get to do homework! Anyway, I have to brush my teeth and get dressed. Aunt Diana's taking us to school today because Mike's class has a field trip. I don't think Carmen likes it when she can't drive us. I love you, Mama. Here's Daddy."
Danny chuckled as he took the phone from his son. "What's the over/under on this excitement about homework lasting until Thanksgiving?"
"Thanksgiving? I'd say Halloween. Oh!"
Danny winced at the sound of the phone hitting something. "CJ? Jeannie? You okay?"
"Just this headache. And the lack of sleep. I'm okay, Danny," CJ hastened to reassure her husband. "Nothing that some Tylenol® and some sleep can't cure. Now be sure to call me when the skit is over. We just have a quiet dinner planned for 8:00 our time and I can easily excuse myself to talk with Caitlin."
"Look, if you don't feel up to it after four hours' rest, you skip the dinner," Danny gently instructed. "I mean it, young lady."
"Hey, hold on, Fish-boy. This is your wife you're talking to, not your daughter!" CJ laughed.
"Yeah, but I still know best. Get yourself into bed. And, like Paddy, I love you. Be safe, darling."
"Call me, if only so I can tell Caitlin that I really didn't want her to injure herself. Love you back."
Danny looked over to where Caitlin was playing with Destiny. Earlier, after talking with CJ, she handed the phone to Paddy and burst out in tears. "Mama wants me to break my leg!"
Danny explained that Mama really didn't want that to happen. It was just something that people said to actors in a play, but Caitlin didn't want to talk to Mama about it. She just ran to the dog and let the yellow lab lick her face in comfort.
Danny hoped that CJ would get the rest and relief she needed. If she were here, he would darken the bedroom by lowering the blackout shades, make her some hot strong tea with milk and sugar (well, Splenda®) and buttered (well, I Can't Believe It's Not Butter ® spray) toast, and bring her warm wet washcloths for her eyes. Danny couldn't shake the feeling that something in addition to the headache was bothering his wife, something related to the reason she didn't get much sleep last night. He was concerned, but not worried. He trusted her judgment, trusted that whatever it was could wait until next week when they were together and not nine or ten hours apart.
Anyway, now it was time to get Caitlin dressed and to transport her and the cupcakes to pre-school. Then he would do a little shopping for two hours or so before returning to watch the little pageant.
11:30 AM
"Which one is yours?"
Danny glanced over at the woman on his right. He didn't remember seeing her before, but then kids came in and out of preschool at all times. It wasn't like grade school, or even kindergarten.
"Caitlin's the red maple, second tree from the right," Danny answered, pointing to where his daughter stood on the stage.
"Of course! I see the resemblance now. She's darling. And with that hair, she's perfect for the role. The toadstool is mine. Ethan. I'm Beverly Merriweather, I'm sorry, I mean Beverly Woodson. Haven't gotten used to my old name yet."
"Danny Concannon."
"Ssh!" came the hiss from the grandfather in the row in front of them.
The pre-school director's voice interrupted whatever might have come next. "And that concludes our 'Welcome Fall' pageant. How about a big hand for our performers?"
The next twenty minutes were spent eating the treats the parents had brought and lavishing praise on the tiny thespians. ("I'm not thespian! We're Baptists!" one little boy proclaimed to the general laughter of the adults present.) Then it was time for Danny to take Caitlin home where she would stay with Steve while Danny went off to teach his 2:00 PM seminar at USC. And to call CJ so Caitlin could tell her all about being a red maple.
September 15; Santa Monica, CA; 12:00 PM.
Danny heard his name being called as he locked the car door. Looking up, he saw the woman he had met the other day, what was her name? Bitsy? Beth? No; Beverly.
"I'm picking up Ethan early; he has a dentist's appointment. I didn't see you yesterday afternoon. Does Caitlin have an appointment also?"
"Caitlin's not here full-time. She's just getting her feet wet, so to speak, before she starts kindergarten in two years. She's only here three mornings a week," Danny replied.
"Well, maybe sometime, we could get together. I could cook the two of you supper and the kids could play and you and I could get to know each other."
If the words weren't obvious enough, Beverly's smile indicated that this would be more than a kid's play date.
"I'm sorry; I'm married," Danny held up his left hand, realized it was still splinted, and then held up his right hand, where he had jammed his wedding ring. "My wife is out of the country on business. CJ recently started back to work again."
Beverly's smile changed. "Oh, well, if you ever get lonely, you know where to find me." Her look said that she wished she could put the hand she had placed on his left forearm someplace else.
Danny pulled away. "I love my wife."
Driving home, he was a little shaken. Yes, over the past few years, first at and now at USC, there had been the inevitable "older teen/young woman" crush situation, but those had been innocent, in many cases subconscious, on the part of the girls. This was deliberate; Beverly knew exactly what the situation was and didn't give a damn. He supposed he should be flattered, his male ego stroked the way Beverly wanted to stroke his cock, but instead he felt violated, he felt insulted. His integrity, his fidelity had been called into question.
When CJ called this morning, she had just arrived in Pisa.
"It's so beautiful here, Danny. We need to come back sometime, just you and me, no kids. Provence, the coast, Monaco, it's meant for couples, happily in love couples. And this part of Italy is giving every signs of being the same. I want to make love with you under the stars with the smell of the olives and the oranges in the air."
Looking over at the kids, anxiously waiting for their turn to talk with their mother, Danny was glad he didn't have the phone on speaker. Danny also thought that maybe, being a middle-aged couple, it would be better if, when that romantic interlude happened, CJ and he were on a balcony outside their room in a small but luxurious little inn and not on a blanket on the ground.
Normally, she would call again before she went to bed, but his seminar would last until 4:30 and the time difference was nine hours, so they wouldn't talk again until tomorrow. It was a good thing, Danny told himself. Maybe by then, he would be able to keep his concern about what had happened out of his voice. He would tell CJ about it, of course, after her trip. Ever since that day in early January over nine years ago, they told each other everything, but there was no reason to bother CJ with this while they were apart. Just like whatever happened that last night in Cairo, this could wait.
September 16; Rome; 10:00 PM
CJ laughed into the phone. Danny had just reminded her of his audience with the Pope four years ago and the way CJ had insisted on checking him out via web cam before he left for the Vatican. Danny wanted to know why he didn't have the same rights.
"Why do you think? Because I'm a woman and you're a man, Danny. I know how to dress myself. Besides, Sarita's here and we went over our outfits last night. And, last, but not least, you had a private audience with the man that lasted an hour, including tea with his mother's dishes. I'm going to be part of a group that will see him for maybe ten minutes at most. It's just a little courtesy thing after we meet with his bureaucrats tomorrow."
"Well, call me afterward; I want to hear all about it. Don't embarrass me, Jeannie." In spite of the distance, Danny instinctively ducked.
After she hung up, CJ poured a glass of champagne and went into the bathroom. She added more bubble bath and added more hot water. Settling into the bubbles, she sighed. Seventy-two more hours and she would be back in Santa Monica, back with her family.
CJ had experience with missing Danny, not that experience made it any easier. The first two years of their marriage, when she was pregnant first with the twins and then with Paddy, she had spent many nights like this when traveling for Frank Hollis. Back then, the days were exciting and rushed. There was so much to learn, so much to absorb, so much to do. During the days, there really wasn't any time to miss her husband; that was reserved for after dark, when she was alone in her room, or her tent.
Of course, after Paddy was born and before Caitlin came along, she continued to travel for "Road to a Better World" and she missed her son as well, so CJ also had experience with missing her children.
But on this trip, there was a new dimension to the feelings, feelings which manifested themselves during the day. In the wilds of Africa, when she saw the squalor, the effects of drought, famine, and war, she was so grateful that her children did not have distended bellies and open sores, so grateful that she did not have to feel her infant feebly try to draw nourishment from dehydrated breasts, so grateful that her husband was not under the constant threat of death by inter-tribal violence. In those first years, she had also cared about and cried for the souls that had not had the luck to be born of comfortable and caring first world parents, but having been a wife for ten years and a mother for seven made the horror of it all so much more real, so much more terrifying.
This would be her life for the near and intermediate future. Matt Santos had told Frank Hollis that yes, he wanted to continue to work with the Foundation, but he couldn't get right back into everything right away. The Santos family would continue to live in San Luis Obispo, but his kids needed the security of having their father with them, at least for this coming year. Peter and Miranda were in high school, and being a teenager was hard enough with two loving parents in the house. Many adolescents managed quite well with only one parent and far too many in foster care managed with none at all, but Matt wanted his son and daughter to have their remaining parent in their house day in and day out. And of course little Rachel, at five, was even more in need of having her father's company and caring.
Having lost her own mother, CJ was well aware of the soundness of Matt's logic. She remembered Paul telling her that it took him over three years to make peace with losing Alicia, so she knew she was in this for at least an intermediate haul. She could do this for as long as it took Matt to adjust. Correction, she told herself, she and Danny could do this. Together, there was nothing she and Danny couldn't manage.
September 17
"It went fine, Danny. He knew who I was; your wife, I mean. He told me how pleased he was with the book. He remembered about our trying for Caitlin and was glad that 'God had blessed us with a daughter', to use his words. He told me that we were doing Christ's work, quoted one of the Theresa's, Avila, I think, something about Christ having no hands but ours, that sort of thing. We got a blessing and some rosaries and medals. And I didn't trip on anything or break anything. But I don't think I'll go back there for Mass. I'm going to find a small, quiet church."
September 19; Los Angeles International Airport; 1:00 PM
"Mama's plane?"
Caitlin pointed to the sleek private jet that was approaching the Hollis hangar.
"Yes, sweetie, that's Mama's plane," Danny said. Then he reached out and grabbed the little girl, who had taken off toward the tarmac. "No, we have to wait here, Caitlin. The plane will come to a stop and then they will roll out the steps. Now, Mama isn't alone on the plane, so she might not be the first one off the plane. And even if she is, it isn't polite to block the way for the other people on the plane."
A few minutes later, CJ walked down the mechanical stairway and hurried over to her family. Paddy and Caitlin mobbed her as she knelt down to hug them, smothering her with big sloppy kisses.
Danny stood to one side, enjoying the sight of his children with their mother. Then as the kisses stopped and the kids continued to hug, CJ looked up at him and smiled.
"I think they're glad to see me."
"I think I know the feeling," Danny replied, helping her to her feet. The brief, sweet kiss they exchanged did little to hide the restrained passion in their glances and their smiles.
After dropping off the guys at McGill, the Hollis jet had stopped in Chicago to discharge two more experts, so everyone cleared customs at that point. The tarmac crew told Danny that he could bring the car up to the plane for CJ's bags.
Paddy and Caitlin asked CJ to sit in the back with them and she did. Danny told the three of them that he felt like a chauffeur and laughed when Paddy told him to "just deal with it, Daddy". Danny reminded his son that Danny had written a note so Paddy could miss school today because Mama was coming home and that Paddy should be nice to him.
Danny explained again about time zones when CJ fell asleep poolside after lunch and he carried her to the bedroom. He reminded the kids that Mama might need a day or two to adjust to Pacific time. He helped Paddy with his homework (brought home by Maggie). They ate a light supper on trays in CJ and Danny's room and then watched a video on the TV in there. By the time Danny had finished putting the children to bed, CJ was once again dead to the world, not even grumbling when Danny changed her shorts and halter for a nightgown. He considered taking something to help him sleep, but decided that holding his wife in his arms after three weeks was drug enough.
September 20; 4:00 AM
Danny woke to find CJ staring at him and smiling.
"Hi."
"Hi yourself, Fishboy. Danny, I've got to tell you - "
"And I've got to tell you," Danny replied, "But that can wait. This can't".
Pulling her against him with his left arm, Danny pushed his pajama bottoms off his hips. He used his legs to free himself from the garment as he used his hand to pull CJ's nightgown from her body. Then he carefully rolled himself into the space between her parted and welcoming thighs. They lay there together for some time, not joined, not moving, just reveling in the closeness to the other, until nature demanded fulfillment.
Afterward, CJ told him about Lars and Danny told her about Beverly. Danny told his wife that she was attractive and desirable and while he might want to punch Lars in the mouth for approaching her, he couldn't fault Lars' taste. CJ told her husband that good men were hard to find and that maybe she should take Caitlin to preschool for the next week or so, just to make sure that Beverly knew that this particular good man was hers.
"As long as you don't punch her in the mouth."
"As long as she keeps her hands off you, Danny."
"The only hands I want on me are yours."
"I hear and obey."