Hi, so here is my first big story for this fandom and it's part one of a two part series! I hope that you enjoy this chapter and this story.
Now I love Danny/CJ. I love the character of Danny, I love how CJ and him got their happy ending at the end but there was always just something about Toby/CJ. The two of them just had such a connection and so this little monster of a plot was born.
This will cover Seasons 1-4 and will not be episode specific, certain episodes will be skipped. Dialogue will not be the same. If that's something you look for in a story then please don't start because you won't get it here.
Also in my West Wing Universe Sam doesn't leave and Ainsley joins full time.
Pairings are CJ/Toby (eventually) Josh/Donna, Sam/Ainsley, Jed/Abby.
Disclaimer-Nothing but Jacob is mine.
And on a side note, I like so many other Fanfiction Authors no longer receive notifications via email about reviews/PMs etc. So if you do send any it might be a while, if ever before I get back to you. Please keep that in mind for it is not intentional-If anyone has a fix please let me know.
There will be a second part that follows this...eventually. Each series should cover about seven chapters some chapters several episodes. Flashbacks included when needed.
Also I do not do Private Messaging anymore, any questions stick them in a review and I will get back to you next chapter note.
Also please be aware of a bit of a time jump between these chapters.
Also after much thought and consideration I have decided not to include Mandy in this story. She's there for like one Season and misses half of the episode and while she was an okay character played by a very good actress her disappearance and everything that follows is just too hard to write. So no Mandy. Ever.
And a couple of the episodes are mixed around here but please keep that in mind.
And there is just one more chapter left for Season 1.
Perhaps Love
Chapter 6-A Bolt From The Blue
A significant time jump. Jake meets Andy again (his Dad's ex-wife don't you know) and Sam's call girl get's caught alongside Sam. Jake has just come because Leo asked him if he wanted free waffles. Also apparently he wants his input which is just...bizarre.
"I don't get why he wants to see me" Jake said and not for the first time. CJ shook her head as they exited the car, if truth be told she didn't know why Leo wanted to see her son either but Leo had for reasons beyond her comprehension invited them all for breakfast at one of the nicest places in town and had not only invited Margaret, but Donna and Jake with them.
"I don't know either but he did and so we are going to have pancakes and waffles and eggs okay?"
"Mom It's Saturday"
"Oh and you had so many things to do this Saturday did you?" his Mom asked sarcasm in her tone and Jake wanted to point out that perhaps he had been looking forwards to a day in bed doing absolutely nothing but it wasn't worth the headache that was going to come from it.
And besides…he wanted pancakes. The fluffy kind, with loads of toffee sauce.
Leo was already wating for them with Margaret decked out in black sunglasses like some mafia secretary. Donna was sat on the other side of Josh eyeing up the menu.
"Morning Jake"
"Morning Donna"
"Don't you think Josh looks lovely today in his special suit for Joey Lucas?"
"DONNA!"
"You got dressed up for some guy name Joey?"
"Joey Lucas is a woman, she's a polling expert from California, she's also deaf and she's coming out to help us set out this English is the national language—"
"Wait are you saying—"
"Jake" his Dad said heavily dropping into his seat next to Sam. "Don't poke the bear. We are not getting into the bizzarro Republican crap that is being spewed by the opposition today. Order your damn pancakes and Leo why is my son here? Does he have any input on Mandatory Minimums"
"Other than the fact that they are racist and wrong?"
"Jacob"
"Dad they are. You make one wrong decision and suddenly that's it, bang, over, and nine times out of ten the people in those situations are black and they are slinging much less product than white teenagers who sling more but because it's a higher class of drug get less nine times out of ten because they roll over for their dealer to avoid prison—or a college suspension."
There was a pause and when he looked up it was to see half the table (bar Leo and Margaret) looking at him with a mixture of pride and alarm.
"What?"
"See the liberal left of the party is going to be well stocked" Josh muttered though not in a bad way. He caught his Dad's eye who nodded giving him permission to move in for the kill, the gift so to speak that just kept on giving these past few months.
"How's the secret plan to fight inflation going?" Jake deadpanned back and Josh spluttered out his mouthful of water while everyone laughed even Leo.
"That's why I asked him here" Leo said pointing at Jake. "He knows things that you don't"
"To be fair Leo it's a point we've all made in the past" Sam said quietly mixing sugar into his coffee.
"Yes but Jake knows the dangerous leap that comes when you are a teenager and the drugs are right in front of you"
"I really don't" Jake began because both of his parents were looking at him in highly unflattering ways that told him that a drugs lecture was just around the corner (not that he needed one) but before he could comment Donna had chimed in.
"I think I should change my order to the waffles. I'm beginning to regret getting the waffles"
"I am beginning to regret hiring any of you" Leo stated just as the food arrived. Jake was too busy in pancakes, whipped cream, banana and toffee sauce heaven to care all that much.
"Hey Andy"
"Hey Jake. Your Dad about?"
"Hiding in Mom's office probably"
"Ah knew I was on my way did he?"
Jake shrugged.
"Can you grab him and say that if he's not back in five I am going to go through his speeches with my usual red pen?"
"Sure, by the way, you are right about this one"
"Damn straight I am kid"
Jake grinned, he liked Andy. And he knew he was in the minority when it came to stepsons who had stepmothers in their lives even after her and his father had gotten a divorce.
He couldn't help it. Andy was one of those straight forwards thinking people, she had her positions on things, she stuck to them and she did what she thought was right. She was the dream politician who had gotten into it for all the right reasons, because she genuinely did want to help the people she represented.
Problem was he thought as he went to grab his Dad, politicians like that were a dying breed.
Even at fifteen with the turn of the century happening before his very eyes, a lifetime in which the world had changed, he knew that.
CJ was in her office, Toby thought it was ironic that CJ was in her office when his ex-wife was in the building and his son was…somewhere…hopefully not changing domestic policy or having a one to one with Danny.
(He thought the last one unlikely, Danny and CJ had this thing going on that he didn't understand—and didn't quite much like if he was being honest with himself—and besides any reporter who valued their life…or at least their access to the President knew better than to try and incur the wrath of CJ—and everyone else—by going after Jake—seriously his son was as protected as the Bartlett girls when it came to protection from the press…and Congress)
But CJ was in her office and he knocked and let himself in as she looked up and smiled that little smile that still after all these years made his heart do that funny little jump that he could not put his finger on but was sure was bad for his heart.
In more ways than one.
He smiles at the warmth of the room and sits down on the couch.
"Leo has me meeting Andy" he says smile dropping off his face.
"About mandatory minimums?"
"Yeah"
"He's right too. Your wife—"
"Ex-wife"
Here CJ rolled her eyes but said nothing.
"Andy can cause us a lot of damage on the Hill if she wants to".
That was true and didn't Toby know it which was why this meeting was taking place in the first place but at the same time it rankled him. Andy was…is sometimes…a hard topic.
"Jake might run into her"
"Jake likes Andy"
And that was true too. When he and Andy had gotten together he had been very clear that he, CJ and Jake came as a package deal. Together they might not have been but they co-parented in ways that would make family counsellors weep (so he had been told) and with one came another, he and CJ did not play off each other, they didn't let Jake do it and they never used their son as a one up against the other, they had a routine that worked and they stuck to it.
End of.
Andy to her credit had accepted that going in. She had never tried to play Mom, she never really wanted to. She and CJ had integrated well mainly because on woman's issues they had agreed with each other and also because they had both tried. Were they best friends with each other, no. But they were civil and civil enough to enjoy a glass of wine with the other and that had been enough.
Andy and Jake had gotten on fine too. Jake had been eight when he had met Andy and even after the divorce Andy had kept in touch with Jake and Jake had kept in touch with Andy…weather or not his son knew that Toby knew about that was another story but he knew that. The Secret Service had told him that when they had, had to do the background on him and in doing so had to do background on his son.
"Toby you can't hide from your ex-wife in my office"
"I know that"
"Then why are you here?"
"I like the view"
She shot him a withering look that he ignored with ease. When it came to woman he dodged bullets for a living as it was. This was nothing new.
"Hey did you see what those pancakes looked like today"
"I saw how much the kid ate yeah. Christ I'd forgotten how much he could put down him when he was in a mind too"
"And since when did he have that much cream and sugar in his coffee?"
CJ blinked.
"That's what you took offense too? The amount of cream and sugar?"
"Just saying you and I don't have that much of a sweet tooth"
CJ rolled her eyes and then tapped her pen on the desk, once, twice, three times.
"Why do you think Leo was asking him about drug users in High School?"
"Because our son is in High School and probably knows people who take drugs"
"Do you think—"
But Toby knew where she was going with this and he shook his head before she had even bothered to finish her sentence.
"No" he said flatly.
"He knew a lot—"
"No" he said cutting her off. "It's Jake CJ come on. He' s never so much as popped as much as an aspirin unless he's needed too. Never so much as had a beer before—"
Okay he wasn't sure how true that one was. Jake was fifteen after all and there had been a lot of trigger happy interns on the campaign that wouldn't have batted an eyelid…but Toby liked to think they had raised Jake right.
"Leo needs to get the perspective from when drugs start to take hold and the reality is that Jake knows about that. Weather it be public or private school drugs are like bullying it's an epidemic. Look at Zoey…she knew someone on drugs for years and she's never been near the stuff"
That was true and he could see some of CJ's wonderful confidence coming back to her when she realised that the boy who walked into the West Wing and learnt fractions from the President of the United States was not in fact an actual drug dealer or drug taker or drug user."
"Course you could just ask him" came a voice from the door and they both turned to see Jake leaning on the doorframe. Far from looking annoyed that they were talking about him he looked almost amused.
"Drugs seriously?" he rolled his eyes. "I told Andy you'd be hiding out here, she said to get your ass to your office before she started reading your speeches, considering the President is addressing several key note speakers tomorrow in the Roosevelt Room…"
But Toby was gone.
He had learnt the hard way the damage Andrea Wyatt could do when it came to his speeches if he left her alone with them long enough.
That night the phone blared and yet surprisingly Jake was the one at two in the morning who padded out of bed to get it.
"Lo?"
"It's Sam, I think someone just took a photo of me and Laurie"
"Sam it's Jake"
There was a pause.
"Oh. Jake can you get CJ and tell her—"
But his mother was already up her hair a mess and her expression set for war.
Jake pitied Sam when he got to the office that morning.
"Sam says he thinks someone took a photo of him and Laurie"
His mother closed her eyes briefly and then opened them again.
"Phone"
He handed her the phone and then padded back to bed climbing in under the covers and then reaching out for his cell flipping it open so he could call his Dad.
"—ake?"
"Knock, knock whose there?"
"Is this some kind of a joke?"
"No It's Sam and his prostitute friend"
There was a pause as his Dad took that in and then….
"What happened?"
And this time Jake knew that his Dad was fully awake.
"He's on the phone with Mom says he saw a car take a photo"
His Dad said several things then in Yiddish which Jake knew were not mentioned in the Torah and he grinned. When his Dad was angry and it was not directed at him it was kinda fun to watch.
"I warned him" was all that was said. "Alright tell your Mom I'm heading into the office, I'll call Josh on the way but I don't want her to call Leo until she is sure that there is a picture"
"Yeah I thinks he knows that" Jake said.
"Woman Jake, this is why you should always be weary of woman"
And with that he hung up the phone. Jake stared at the plastic device for a second and then rolled his eyes placing it back beside his bed. He had four hours before his natural alarm clock kicked in. He was going to make the most of it.
He thought once of Anna Grey's smile and grinned in the darkness glad that his parents couldn't see his face.
With this one he thought that his Dad might be wrong.
And with that thought Jake fell asleep.
And there you go, see you for the final chapter of Season 1.
Next Chapter-Final Chapter of Season 1-Jake, his crush (at the President's insistence) and his parents go to a town meeting in Rosslyn. You know what happens next.
