Mr. October
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
Friday September 15, 2017: Santa Monica, CA; 3:45 PDT
"Mama, what's pilf?"
"Pilf? I don't know, honey. Steve, would you make sure that the kids have their harnesses on right?" CJ smiled at the reflection of Frank and Diana's older son in the rear-view mirror as she carefully maneuvered the SUV out of the pickup line in front of St. Monica's elementary where she had picked up Paddy, Mike, and Maggie after getting Steve at the high school.. The school year was still young and some of the new parents didn't have the drop off/pick up procedures down pat as yet. "Why do you ask?"
"Well, we have two student teachers this year. And when we introduced ourselves, Miss Amber asked me if Daddy was my father. When I said 'yes', she turned to Miss Petra and said 'his father is one of the pilfs.' That's why."
"Maybe it's like a milf."
Now *that* whispered comment managed to get CJ's attention away from the traffic jam in front of the kids' school. 'Milf' was a term she knew, had heard applied to herself. Not that it would be easier to explain that term to her eight year-old son.
"Mike! For God's sake! Sorry, Aunt CJ."
This time, CJ saw Steve's face turn bright red as he tried to shut up his younger brother. She hurriedly glanced over to her son. He and Maggie were engrossed in a video game and thankfully had missed the exchange between the older boys.
"Paddy, you can ask your Daddy later," Maggie helpfully volunteered. "He knows all the words, right?"
Hopefully, she would have a chance to warn Danny before Paddy descended on him. And to half-tease, half-ask him about what was going on. Right now, she had to pick up Caitlin at preschool and get home fast. It was their turn to host the monthly Friday night gathering for the block. The events were always very casual – alcohol, soft drinks, and meat provided by the host with the others bringing snacks, sides, and desserts – and Narcisia had been there earlier in the day to help with the cleaning, but there were a few last-minute details to check out.
A few hours later
"So when is Danny getting here?" Billy Rogers asked CJ.
"Yes, when?" Ken Robbins echoed, after putting his arm around Laura and kissing the side of her head. "By the way," he continued, "does this woman really look like she'll be a grandmother in six months?"
"I'm not sure," CJ answered. "About Danny, I mean. Laura and you definitely don't look old enough to be grandparents, the first on the block."
"Well, Clara and Cosmo, of course, but they were a different generation," Diana added.
"Well, let us know if you hear from Danny, okay?" Billy said as he and Ken walked off to join Steve, Joel, and Wally on the other side of the courtyard.
"What was that all about?" Diana asked.
"I have no idea," Laura answered.
CJ didn't have any details, but something was definitely afoot with the men. She took in the furtive looks that the group over by the hot tub was casting her way. The whole scene reminded her of the times when Josh, Sam, and sometimes Toby would let their inner twelve year-olds take over their more adult minds. She smiled, recollecting that Thanksgiving week with Morton Horn and his charges, Eric and Troy. It had been less amusing at the time, but then she had also been down about Danny not taking the editorial job. Everything worked out in the end, but at the time, she had despaired of ever having the kind of life with Danny that she was living now.
"Here. Try this, ladies," Hank said, handing them each a rosy pink cocktail.
CJ took a sip and smiled. "Very good. Let's see, grapefruit juice, probably vodka, maybe some grenadine."
"And something else, something that smoothes out the taste," Diana contributed.
"Pomegranate, not grenadine. And just a bit of champagne," Hank replied.
"Well, it's good," CJ said as the other women nodded in agreement. "Excuse me, it's Danny."
"Sorry, babe. This new president doesn't have any idea about an academic culture. Who in his right mind schedules a meeting for 3:00 PM on a Friday afternoon? Anyway, I'm on my way. Get one of the guys to start the grill, would you?"
"I think I'm capable of starting a grill. It's just a stove on the outside, Fishboy," CJ said with a slightly exasperated sigh. "What was the meeting about? What was so all-fired important?"
"Let's talk about it tonight, okay? About the grill, I'm sor- ". With that, Danny's phone cut out.
CJ sighed, put away her mobile, and walked over to the grill. Of course, as soon as she started to turn it on, Li and Wally hurried over to her side and insisted on taking over the chore, so CJ picked up her drink and decided to go out to the pool area where most of the kids were playing.
Becky Feldman, who was just starting work on an MSW at UCLA, was watching the kids, along with Steve Muñoz and Heather Jenkins. The two teenagers asked if it would be okay if they went in the water for a while and CJ told them to have at it.
"So, when do you move into the apartment again, Becky?" CJ asked.
"Well, TerriLynn, that's the girl that's getting married, is moving out next weekend, so any time after that." Becky paused, looked around, and then turned back to CJ. "Could I ask you for some advice, something personal?" she said with a lowered voice.
"Of course, honey. What is it?"
"You and Reverend Reeves, you dated each other for almost two years, back in the 80's right? You two were, ah, close? If it's not too personal?"
CJ knew that all the adults were aware of the history and had made assumptions; it was only natural that the older kids, the young adults, CJ corrected herself, would have the same knowledge and come to the same conclusions.
"Yes; he was my first real love, other than one extreme crush in senior high."
"After, was there ever a time when you really, really dug a guy and you told him about being with Reverend Reeves, and the guy stopped seeing you, stopped calling you because you had been with a black man?" Becky asked, blushing slightly.
It gave CJ pause. Ben had known all about Paul, as had Toby (not that she and Toby had ever been intimate). The idea of Danny having any issue with it was too ludicrous to even consider. Things never had a chance to get that far with Simon, but she was pretty sure that the agent would not have harbored any latent bigotry had he known. If she was brutally honest with herself, Marco might have had a problem, but then, if she were being that honest, he was really just a one-night stand. Thinking back, there *had* been one guy, her first year of grad school, who stopped calling after a while, but at the time, she and Ben had been in one of their good places, and she hadn't really given it another thought. And, honestly, after that, there really hadn't been anyone other than Ben, Simon, and, of course, Danny, whom she ever seriously considered as potential husbands.
"Exactly why are you asking, Becky? Do you think it would be an issue with your family if you were with someone who happened to be black?"
"Well, I think my folks would rather I find a nice Jewish boy," Becky answered, "but I'm sure they would accept any guy, or even a girl, if I were wired that way.
"There is this guy I've been having lunch and coffee with, plus a concert or two, and we're both feeling the vibe. I really would like to go to bed with him, but, right now, I can't imagine marrying him. And I'm worried that when I do find the right guy, he might not accept it if I did hook up with Chad."
"Well, as far as I'm concerned, any man who would have a racial issue with your past is not worthy of your love, Becky," CJ told the young woman. "But, I think you also need to weigh your feelings for, Chad?, Chad. For one thing, going to bed with him just because he *is* black would be just as bad as *not* going to bed with him just because he is black. You have to want to be with him for himself. Of course, his race, his religion, or lack thereof, and everything else is part of what makes him who and what he is. So I guess my advice to you is to be completely truthful with yourself about what you feel, what you want, and why you want it."
CJ decided that since Becky didn't bring up any question about sleeping with someone you were pretty sure you had no future, it was not her place to impart any wisdom gained from the years elapsed since her own university days some thirty-five years ago. Assuming that the couple used birth control and STD protection, it was none of her business. And whatever Becky thought about marrying outside her religion right now, such things were subject to change. Look at Toby. As a young man, he had always assumed that he would marry a Jewish woman, and now he had married, divorced, and remarried one Andrea Wyatt, Episcopalian WASP.
Seeing that Heather and Steve had climbed out of the pool again and were walking toward Becky and herself, CJ excused herself, saying she had to get the meat out of the refrigerator.
Of course, once she got into the courtyard, the guys (Billy and Frank this time) instantly took the plates from her and began the task of preparing the main course. Rather than arguing with them, CJ grabbed another drink and joined Nancy, Yan, and Jessica.
The door from the garage into the courtyard opened.
"All hail, Mr. October!" the men shouted as Danny entered the area.
Danny blushed as red as the stripes in his shirt. The men responded with catcalls.
"Mr. October? What's going on?" CJ asked Danny as the two of them quickly embraced.
"It's a long story," Danny sighed. "One that the guys know way too much about."
"One of the girls' groups at USC," Ken started, laughing.
"Women's groups," Steve corrected. "The Sybarites."
"The ones that did the male nudie academic calendar last year as a fund-raiser for their charities," Billy continued. "And some of the guys got in trouble with the NCAA for posing, even though they weren't paid."
"So this year, they photo-shopped the heads of various professors on the bodies, so the guys who posed wouldn't be hassled. The calendar just came out today. Here it is," Ken finished, holding out the object of discussion. "Some of the girls have started calling it the 'PILF Calendar', for 'Professors I'd Like to - ' ".
"We understand, Ken," Laura said, putting her hand over her husband's mouth. "Honestly, I think that the idea of being a grandfather is causing you to revert to prepubescent idiocy."
The calendar ran from August through July. On the first page was the face of an African-American man identified as a biology professor standing behind a carefully placed microscope. On the second page, a blue-eyed blonde man with a globe at just the right angle represented Geology.
And on the third page, Danny Concannon's face was attached to the body of a young man lying on his side on a desk, a group of Pulitzer Prizes piled up against his groin.
CJ studied the calendar shot. The person who did the photo-shopping had done a very good job. The skin tone matched perfectly. The body was slightly aged, a well-toned man maybe in his early thirties rather than one of nineteen or twenty. The face reminded CJ of the man she married back in '07; the hair was tinged the way it was that winter right before Zoey was kidnapped.
"Is this what the meeting was about? The new president wants to micromanage, to get involved in something like this?" CJ asked Danny.
"No, it was something else. Later, okay, babe? However, the calendar did come up during the course of the meeting. Most everyone was okay with it, although Zeke Cohen thought he should have had dreidels and menorahs hiding his junk instead of a Santa Claus hat," Danny turned the calendar to December. "Jamil Khaldi said that they would need a much bigger heart if it had been his body, and not just his face, for Mr. February. The only one to really object was Dudley Halbert, in Theatre Arts. He didn't like the idea of fur being used on a body purporting to be his." As the group looked at Mr. March, with a long stole strategically draped from left shoulder to right knee, Hank laughed. "Well, Dudley always was such a drama queen, you should excuse the expression."
"I heard that some of the faculty were a bit jealous, that they weren't chosen," Joel Feldman said. "The women in the Treasurer's office said that staff should have been considered as well; that there are stud muffins outside the teaching corps. And, of course, some of the more strident women criticized the reverse sexism of it, said they would be upset if it were their husbands' faces on those bodies."
"Well, I guess these Sybarites are women of taste and recognize quality when they see it, or imagine they see it, as least as far as Mr. October is concerned," CJ said.
Then the other women grabbed hold of the calendar and added their own observations, teasing Danny about what they saw on the desk versus what they had seen at the block's pools over the past few summers.
"This Mr. November, the one doing a semi-sit-up, I kinda wish he'd done it military-style instead of from the waist only," Diana chuckled. "I bet he has a really nice package, almost as nice as Frank's!"
"Querida!" her husband said, blushing.
"And this guy for June, lying on his stomach with his legs up, has the cutest little tush," Nancy announced.
Luckily for the embarrassed men, the sudden appearance of the kids who smelled the cooking hotdogs and sausages, caused the subject to be tabled.
"You're okay with it, Ceej?" Danny quietly asked CJ.
"Of course. But just to warn you, Paddy's student teachers are from USC and I think you're going to have to explain what 'pilf' means."
10:00 PM
CJ crept into Caitlin's room just as Danny was finishing "Jack and the Beanstalk". The little girl's eyes were almost closed, but she managed a sleepy "Night, Mama" when CJ bent down to kiss the child. CJ and Danny walked down the hall to Paddy's room. Their son was already asleep, his arm draped around Destiny, who had snuggled up against him as if the two of them were an old married couple.
Their neighbors had left about thirty minutes ago, after helping with the cleanup and putting away of food.
Danny poured two glasses of Aisling's cordial and, handing one to CJ led her into their bedroom.
"Stu Burton's wife has breast cancer," Danny said.
"Oh, no!" CJ cried, sitting down on the bed beside her husband. "Is she going to have surgery, or just treatment?"
"The thing is, what they found is something that had metastasized from her liver and has spread to her stomach. They really can't do much of anything now."
Danny pulled CJ against his chest and the two of them just sat there for a moment, sorrowing for their friends, remembering what had happened with the two of them six years ago and how lucky they had been.
"Anyway, Stu is taking an indefinite leave of absence, for as long as Sylvia is still here. Which means that the English Department chair is vacant."
"And they want you." CJ stated. "The new president wants you to take over the job."
"Him, the Dean of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, Stu himself. They even asked the Dean of Annenberg."
"And you? What do you want, Danny?" CJ asked.
"I don't know. I've always said that all the bureaucracy gets in the way of teaching, of inspiring the students. But then, I think that if I'm always complaining, then if I have the chance to change things, if I don't try, I'm being a bit of a hypocrite."
"Work from the inside, the way grownups do," CJ said softly, remembering what Amy Gardner had told her about the conversation she had with Matt Santos during Leo's wake.
"It would mean more time on campus," Danny said. "And with you doing more work and more travel for Frank and Sarita, I don't know if I should take more time away from the kids."
"The kids will adjust. Paddy's in third grade; by all rights, Caitlin should be in kindergarten, she's almost five. Lots of kids go into daycare after school, or a nanny," CJ answered.
"I know; but we wanted ours of have us, not a nanny. I'm not sure I'd want a nanny in the house. Nannies freak me out, ever since Doug Weston."
"I have complete faith in you, Daniel. And besides, any nanny I hire will not be young, blonde, and Swedish, if that would make you feel any better. Or I could always cut back on my work for Hollis."
"No!" Danny said emphatically. "I know you enjoyed being a stay at home mother for a while, but I also know that it wasn't a long-term fit for you."
"When do you have to give an answer? Do we have some time?" CJ asked.
"Tuesday," came the answer.
"Well, then we have plenty of time to talk. That's what we've done, ever since that night over ten years ago, right?"
CJ was already planning ahead. She'd get Diana to take the kids tomorrow. It had been a while since she and Danny had had time to themselves. It had been a while since they had made love in the middle of the day. They would talk, make love, figure out how they would make it work, the way Danny told her it would be that cold wintry January night.
CJ stood up and bent down to kiss Danny's face.
"I'll be right back. In the meantime, get yourself naked."
CJ walked out of the room and crossed the courtyard toward the den.
When she came back, she saw that Danny had obeyed her and was obviously anticipating what he thought she wanted.
Danny looked at her with a question in his eyes. "What?"
"All those coeds, all those other women, I don't care if they see your face attached to some football linebacker's or soccer midfielder's body. But I want the real Mr. October; with the real awards. And I don't mean Reggie Jackson. So pose, Fishboy."
CJ set his Pulitzers in front of his groin and began to take off her own clothes.