Hi, one more for Season 3 but we are officially only seven chapters left of this story. Season 4 is going to be short and wild as a lot of it isn't going to be in this story (AKA Sam leaving and Will-depending)
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.
There will be a bit of a time jump through Season 3 as we near to the end, I predict maybe two more chapters of the Season 3 arc. As I always sat this story is not and will never be all episode specific.
Perhaps Love
Chapter 21-Communication Breakdown.
Penultimate One of Season 3-Jake goes tux shopping, Toby is back from Finland. Ainsley and Sam are caught, and it's Jake's penultimate High School prom.
"Mom I really don't think black suits me"
"Black suits suit everyone, it's the classic universal colour Simon tell him"
"I'm wearing grey so I don't think I can"
"Bonazna"
"I still don't get what that is"
"Go and try the blue on one Jake. Dark blue suits you makes your eyes pop and you look like some Finnish pop star.
"Ma!"
"Someone's been reading the material"
"Shut it Bonanza. Jake go try on"
CJ watched as her son slumped off to get changed and she stared down at the Black Vera Wang. She shouldn't…she really, really shouldn't especially as she was aware that there was a chance that she wouldn't get to wear it soon.
You know because of her work schedule and not because of the mad loon with a gun that wanted her dead.
She shot Simon a look out of the corner of her eye. She didn't want to ask him what he had thought about her in the dress. And her teenage son had simply looked at her raised an eyebrow and gone "Cool" which was not the ringing endorsement one usually wanted from wearing a dress like this Black Vera Wang.
She sighed.
"He's a good kid you know"
She looked up surprised he had even bothered to speak.
"I know he is" she said finally. "I just…I wish he wasn't growing up so fast. You know next year we are gonna have to talk about colleges with him"
Simon raised one eyebrow. "You might want to consider getting that dress while you still can then" he said and bloody hell that was a point she had not considered before.
She sighed again as she waited for Jake and then.
"You have kids?"
"Nope"
"Never met the right woman?"
"Didn't want them."
"Oh"
She had absolutely no idea why she was asking these kinds of questions…well…she had an idea naturally but it was a long time since she had been…interested like she was interested in Simon. CJ had a teenager, a complicated feelings process with her ex and a job that required all her time and attention, when she got ten minutes to get in the mood she took all of those ten minutes and went back into the office with her head held high and a smile on her face.
But Simon was different.
She didn't know how but he was different.
Like Danny different.
Like Toby different.
Oh shit.
"I don't mind them" Simon said suddenly. "I don't mind them when they are your boys age, I just don't like them when they scream in restaurants you know. I have three days off a month and most of the time Ron has to force me to take them, when I go to a cake shop I want to eat the chocolate souffle in peace you know. I mean they make you pay like eight dollars for it and the last thing I want is a screaming brat running around"
CJ could concede. She had raised her son to be respectful—and also to understand that Mommy needed two hands to eat an eight dollar cake thank you very much.
"He's a good boy"
"I know he is. I just…I wish he was still little you know. Days like today I wish that he'd stayed small. I know that he's a man now and believe me I don't wish for another Jake is more than enough but…but I wish sometimes I could go back and do it all again"
"Boys say their Momma's baby for a long time" Simon said in that sage and honestly annoying (read endearing) way that he did. "I was a Momma's boy long after she died God Bless her. You'll baby he will stay"
CJ honestly didn't know what her response would be to that but fortunately she was spared a response by her son coming out dressed in a tux and it was only the Secret Service Agent next to her and her pride that kept her from crying about how grown up he looked.
Finland was a beautiful place.
"Dad?"
"Beautiful place Jacob, here stuffed moose"
"Better than eating It" Jake said taking his stuffed toy with a smile. "You look…well…"
"Relaxed, fun, snow on the ground, I don't like snow but the children playing in it was enchanting, and the reindeer hotdogs—"
"You had a Rudolph hotdog?"
"Oh no, I took the same approach Sam did. Never eat anything where the cartoon can come back and haunt your nightmares—"
"AND YOU CAN SEE THE WIND THROUGH MY TAILLIGHTS!"
"Mom"
"Ah"
"Can I take a ride home with you? I don't mind Simon but right now I wanna get to bed"
"Jakey!"
"Hello Josh"
"How was Prom?"
"It's not till tomorrow night"
"Ah, it's the fresh air up there, gets into the lungs and reminds you of what a country not riddle with pollution is like, clean skies, clean air, snow on the ground—personally I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop"
"Josh what's with the chest?"
"Moose meat"
"Moose meat?"
"For Donna"
"For—Josh?"
"Yeah Jake?"
"You didn't think that maybe I don't know…vodka might work instead of meat that she doesn't know how to cook, won't eat and never has time to try a recipe on?"
Josh stared down at him.
"Well…the next time we go to Hawaii you're not included" he said as his Dad laughed.
Josh flounced off and his Dad wrapped an arm around him and Jake leaned into his side. It wasn't that he hadn't enjoyed the responsibility of living alone for a week but he missed his parents. Also with Donna, Charlie, Ainsley Margaret, Ginger, Bonnie, Carol, the two Secret Service Agents, Mike and Matt and the other people checking in to make sure he wasn't holding a party he'd barely had chance to order his shitty Chinese food and watch James Bond.
That had been Charlie's idea when he had come round claiming he was going through withdrawal from Deena leaving for college and Jake was a push over.
"I won't be back the night after Prom, I have a feeling something might be kicking off with the campaign, so you okay to get home yourself?"
"Anna's Dad will pick me up"
That was technically a lie but Jake didn't need to tell his Dad that.
"Aha"
"Dad you know until this thing with Mom is resolved a service agent is going to be with me right?"
"Yep"
"So if your thinking that I will be sneaking into a cheap ass motel I somehow don't think I will be allowed"
His Dad tightened his grip on his arm and then ruffled his hair and Jake yelped and moved away to make sure that it was still neat.
"God you've gotten old"
"Says the old man"
"And cheeky!"
"Yeah, yeah"
"I AM NOT RUNNING A HOTEL FOR TEENAGERS! THIS IS THE WHITE HOUSE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! THIS IS THE INSTIUTION FOR GOVERNEING. THIS IS THE HOUSE THAT ALL AMERICAN'S LOOK UP TO FOR THEIR DEMOCRACY! THIS IS NOT SOME RANDY PLACE FOR TEENAGERS TO GET A QUCIK FUMBLE ON BETWEEN CONGRESSIONAL MEETINGS—"
"Not me" Jake said smugly as he walked by coffee in hand. "Josh can I use your Armani"
"Sure kid" Josh said wincing in the communications bullpen. "You know walking in on that can't be good for Leo's strength or stamina, or blood pressure"
"Your just annoyed that you lost the office pool"
"I lost the office pool"
"By three weeks" Jake said helpfully. "You had it down as Sam and Ainsley being discovered around the time Congress went on recess"
"Damn"
"I DID NOT NEED TO SEE THAT, NOBDOY NEEDED TO SEE THAT SAM, AND I BLAME YOU BECAUSE AINSLEY WAS A NICE REPULICAN BEFORE YOU GOT YOUR HANDS ON HER—"
"Leo isn't taking this well" Donna said over the rim of her coffee mug. "You'd think he'd walked in on Sam with his daughter"
"They were even doing much" Ginger said stirring her coffee with a stick. "They were just kissing and then I think she was on his lap, they've done way worse than that in the office with the blinds closed. Sam thinks that we don't know but we do"
"Those desks wouldn't hold up to it" Donna mused. "I mean that would be what you would think wouldn't it? Lying there hair spread out over the desk and your hands gripping the edges as your taken to the edge over and over again—those desks are so old they'd collapse"
Josh stared at her eyes wide and Jake could see that he was imaging Donna on his desk her hair spread out over the wood and her hands clutching the edges as his head was between her legs and—
He clicked his fingers in front of Josh's face and Josh jumped too cheeks going red and he bit his bottom lip. Jake grinned.
"Okay people back to work"
"You think Sam and Ainsley are going to be alright?" Donna asked standing up.
"Yeah" Josh said easily as Leo slammed open Sam's door and strode off without realising that they were all here watching the show.
"He's pissed he missed the pool too"
"Hi"
"Hi"
"Hi"
"Oh dear God" Sam said peering through the blinds. "This is tragic"
"I really don't think that you're the right person to talk about tragic right now Samuel"
"Oh don't! Ainsley was so embarrassed she slunk off in tears, she won't talk to me now. I mean a harmless, innocent flirtation"
"Sam you had your hand up her skirt"
"I wasn't doing anything bad, I was hardly…burning Benjamin Harrison's log cabin was I?"
CJ watched as Jake in his suit held out his hand to Anna in her pink dress her hair piled high on top of her head and Anna smiled. Of course, she thought perhaps a bit territorial, the girl had to come to the White House. There was nothing sacred in CJ domain anymore.
She looked at Toby and saw that his eyes were very warm and she smiled and he smiled back and she thought that it was as little like butterflies. Suddenly she didn't care about Simon though she knew that that was rather cruel. She had been the one that had forced him, prodded and poked him towards the answer on why they couldn't be together, and really! It was not like she had manhandled the man through the door of the car was it?
She watched as her son went off on his prom date and she sighed.
"Come on" she said tapping both Josh and Sam by the shoulders. "Work, we shouldn't…and be we I mean you Sam, push Leo any further today, I think that Bruno has his eyes on your office."
"Ugh" was all that Sam said.
"You wanna grab a drink?" Toby said in her ear that soft rasping tone that had gotten them into this kind of trouble nearly sixteen years ago.
"Sure" she said because CJ had never learnt when it came to Toby Ziegler.
She followed him into her office and he shut the blinds and the door on Simon's face which she knew she was going to have to explain away when this was over and he cracked open her mini fridge and brought out a beer. He opened it and passed it to her and she took a gulp of the cold refreshing drink and it settle.
"If your thinking about getting frisky I think walking in on two people might push Leo into the Heart Unit"
"You wish Tobias"
He laughed and then he looked at her and sighed.
"Claudia Jean"
"Yes?"
"All children have to grow up"
She nodded and then she rested her head on his shoulder and if she cried a little for the man her baby was becoming then he didn't judge her.
And that was just the kind of communication breakdown that she needed.
And there you go, last chapter of Season 3 coming up.
Next Chapter-Final one of the Season 3 arc. Jake has decided something, he has a plan to do something, Anna and he have prepared...and then he gets a phone call that changes everything.