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.
Perhaps Love
'Leo McGarry wants me; Yeah; Does he know I've only worked stateside does he know I've never worked a national campaign; Yes. Does he know we have a fifteen year old we might be dragging around the country with us?' Or an AU of sorts in which C.J and Toby share a fifteen year old son and a hell of a lot of history. Seasons 1-4 (ish) Not episode specific. CJ/Toby, Josh/Donna, Sam/Ainsley, Jed/Abby.
Chapter 1-Great Wide Open.
In which the President rides his bicycle into a tree, Sam accidently sleeps with a prostitute and Jacob 'Jake' Cregg-Ziegler spends his days at the White House which really is enough to make anyone jealous.
Depending on which parent he lived with Jacob ('Jake seriously man my name is Jake—only the cops and the rabbi calls me Jacob—and the President but then you can't really correct him') 'Jake' Zachary Cregg-Ziegler's day tends to start at six. He has never been what one would have called a late sleeper—both his parents will attest to that—and besides…when you have two parents who work in the White House of the President of the United States you get used to getting up early and snatching sleep when you can.
Same for schoolwork.
So Jake is pouring over a rather nasty set of sums when his Mom's beeper goes off and she comes running in from the gym with a frantic look that can mean anything from the President flipping off a member of the press to World War Three breaking out.
"Hey Mom"
"Jake" she says skidding back into the room as Jake, ever the good son pours her a cup of coffee. "It's POTUS"
Jake wants to say something sarcastic, he really, really does but his mother's never been good about sarcasm and his Dad's not here to be a human buffer.
"What happened? Did he flip of Texas again?"
"No and don't joke about that it's not funny, he's rode his bike into a tree"
Jake snorts into his mug of coffee. His mother shots him a look as she fluffs up her hair and practically inhales her coffee.
"It's not funny Jake, he has a sprained ankle, refused the help of the Secret Service and the press have pictures of him on the ground with his leg at a highly suspicious angle"
Jake laughs, he can't help himself.
"Bet Dad loved that"
"Well fortunately for me your father is in the air for another thirty minutes though I don't doubt that I will hear his views on it before the wheels hit the tarmac"
"Before" Jake says sagely. "You know Dad thinks Air Force One and all planes are the same, if you can have your cell phone on there from start to finish then you can do the same again"
"Yes well…it's why your father's such a good giver when it comes to the TSA's widows and orphan's fund."
"They have one of those—"
"Jacob"
"Yes Ma?"
"I need you to get yourself to school"
"You mean like I've been doing every day since I was twelve? Bar that one year I took off to watch my parents elect the next leader of the free world, an experience that got me into one of the best private schools in DC?"
"Only because no public school could master that cheek"
"Yeah Ma" Jake says voice heavily with irony. "And Edgar Drum threatening to follow me home had nothing to do with that"
But his mother is already putting on her lipstick and getting out the door.
"Ma!"
"Yes" she says skidding back in and Jake hands her, her coat and briefcase.
"Tell the President I said hi, also I'm gonna be at the White House after school so I need you to tell security, last couple of times they had to chase you and Dad and while I like those guys it puts them on edge if I wait there for more than ten minutes"
His mother pauses and then she drops a kiss on his mess of hair.
"Love you kiddo. Stay safe."
And with that she is gone out the door and Jake is left once again contemplating what a quiet life with parents that work normal nine to fives must be liked.
This is a bit of an exaggeration he thinks. He, his mother and his father get by quite well and if truth be told Jake knows that he is the kind of kid who was independent before he could walk.
His mother Claudia Jean Cregg had worked in advertising and PR when she had met his father Toby Ziegler. If you listened to the official story it was a brief flirtation that turned into a brief relationship that turned into…well…Jake and then like so many respectful adults they realised they were better as friends and moved on to co-parent.
Jake's opinion—his parents have so much sexual tension sometimes he feels like he needs a shower at the end of the day.
For the record this has been agreed upon by Samuel Norman Seaborn, Leo Thomas McGarry and Joshua Noah Lyman all while working for Bartlett for America.
You know, for the official report.
Anyway it's not like he has terrible parents, in fact he has wonderful parents, parents who are making a difference in their own way, parents who put out one fire and then move onto the other with grace and skill and so what if Jake has to share his parents for few years with the rest of the world? He got a front row seat to watching the next President of the United States get elected, he got a lecture on underage drinking from the First Lady and he got the President to look over his math homework (the man was ridiculously excited to blow off reporters to help Jake with his fractions) and he thinks those moments are pretty great.
Besides he's never really alone. His parents have bribed, charmed and outright threatened neighbours to check he's not having an off the books press conference in their apartments and he has his friends. He's got a great support system and after school he gets to watch democracy in action and he doesn't care how cheesy that sounds—that is pretty fucking cool.
Both of his parents love him, he loves both of his parents and both of their parents love each other.
And the President of the United States rode his bicycle into a tree.
Those are the things Jake knows this morning.
God he hopes this means the President will still offer to help him in his math homework. He thinks the sums are a lost cause.
"—Last night I accidently slept with a prostitute".
There's a definitive moment to Sam's statement which is ruined by someone opening the door. Toby watches as Jake sticks his head round the door and thinks randomly (interrupting a lovely fantasy of strangling Sam with his necktie) that it could be worse.
Jake raises an eyebrow.
"To be fair I asked Ginger and she said you were free"
Toby sighs. He'd fire Ginger but truth is the office would fall apart without her and Bonnie running it, and she makes coffee cake sometimes that quite frankly Toby would sell his soul for.
Or at the very least junior congressmen's souls.
"Dad?"
"Hmm?"
"You okay?"
"Shut the door son"
Jake shuts the door slipping into the office which is not what Toby wanted.
"I meant—"
"Yeah but I figured I'm in on this now and…dude how did you not know you were shacking up with a pro?"
Toby sighs. Jake gets this from him he admits it. CJ would have phrased it her delicate press secretary skills. His son's inherited none of those only the sharp sarcasm of his father and now as he's staring down the two of them does Sam begin to look worried.
This is where the similarities end. As Sam launches into the story once more and Toby does try to listen he finds himself shooting his son side eye glances because sitting there on the edge of his couch watching Sam gesticulate his son really does look like his mother.
CJ and he have a…complicated relationship that involved too many feelings over too little time and always encompassed in the big wide world that they didn't feel they could run in. Their relationship had existed between the hours of eleven to midnight and then five to six in the morning and somewhere between too much scotch and too much coffee Jake had been born.
They had co-parented the little boy (or the little miracle) rather well Toby thought looking at him but it was clear right until he opened his mouth that Jake was C.J's son, he had her borderline brown/blonde hair (though it was more brown than anything else) and her eyes, though Toby liked to think whenever he opened his mouth you got the full Zeigler experience. Right now his son whose jawline was all his mother, whose nose was all his mother and who was still in the process of losing his baby fat making him look more like a child than he wanted to (and less like the adult Toby wanted him to) was looking up at Sam with an rapt expression that was borderline amusement as Sam not only explained how he had accidently slept with a pot smoking hooker but how he was on a mission to civilise the entire thing.
"Damn" Jake said with a low whistle turning to him and grinning. "Bet you are so glad it was me at the door"
"Well you're the only person who can get through it without knocking" Toby said through gritted teeth and a need for a scotch.
"Mom can"
"Your Mom can walk on water"
"That she can—"
"Sam go back to work"
Sam left.
"Wow" Jake said cheerfully sitting down on his couch and cracking open a can of soda. "Between this and Mary Marsh you must be having a fabulous day"
"Don't tease your poor old man"
Jake snorted. "For what it's worth" he said finally. "I love what Josh said to her. It was so true and it was worth it just to see that look on her face"
Toby sighed. He was not going to give his son the credit of saying he was right on both accounts.
Though he was.
That being said the headache that had followed it from Leo, to C.J to Josh to the President was something else.
"When's Mom out of her briefing?"
"Two why?"
"Just wondering if Mary Marsh starts on abortion rights and how a woman's place is in the home if Mom's gonna smack her"
"You know I had the option of adoption when you were born you know?"
Jake just rolled his eyes.
"Please, the two of you love me too much"
Yeah Toby thought a little wistfully looking at the little boy who was the spitting image of his mother who was now not so little. Yeah they did.
Parenting should come with a manual.
Beats the little hats.
"Jacob!"
"Good Afternoon Mr President"
The President of the United States dressed as if he was a grandfather taking his grandchildren to the mall and clutching a walking cane with a far too jovial expression for someone who had just rode his bike into a tree, limped into view. Jake had been on his way to get another soda and possibly to draft an email to the Education Secretary proposing a new radical agenda that would get rid of math.
"You doing alright sir?"
"Nothing a good dose of novocaine wouldn't cure. Unfortunately the First Lady keeps giving me the child proof locked ones"
"You mean fortunately Sir?"
"No I most certainly do not. Now what have you got with you today?"
"Formulating algebraic conversions Sir"
"Oh! I love them, let me deal with my staff and that idiot Mary Marsh and I can do them for you"
"I'd let you Sir but Mom says getting the President of the United States to do my math homework because he's board governing is an unfair advantage"
"What does your Dad say?"
"I think at this point he just puts his head down on the desk and laments."
The President laughed. Jake thought it was utterly jarring that he, a fifteen year old was having this conversation with the leader of the free world but then again since his parents began to work in the West Wing his entire life had gone upside down.
Not that he would change it. Sure it had it's downsides, he didn't get the conventional nine to fives that other kids got with their parents, he didn't get the school plays and the parents evenings and the report cards and contrary to what his friends thought he didn't get to advise the President on shit (seriously did Harry think that if he advised the President they would be doing both Math and Gym until they graduated?) but he thought as he watched the President verbally smack down Mary Marsh and then galvanise the troops, save Josh from the job market and then ask what was next all in ten minutes or so that, he wouldn't trade this crazy life for anything else in the whole wide world.
And there you go, hope you like it and I will hopefully see you soon.
Next Chapter-Jake is back at the White House as several things happen at once including a gun lobbying bill, the President giving a TV address to the nation and the arrival of Charlie Young. Also Leo isn't looking too good.