Hi, so I have buckled down and got this done which is a huge sigh of relief for me so I am just going to post it in one swoop. Just a couple of things to consider-due to my wanting to end this story on a happy note I have decided that I am not going to kill Leo off. Just keep that in mind.

Disclaimer-Nothing is mine.

Please Read and Review.

Future Perfect

Chapter 27-This Feels Right

PENULTIMATE CHAPTER!-In which we have some more flashbacks as Toby and CJ define their future.

At some point the shooting stopped. The ringing in her ears continued but the shooting stopped and so she pushed herself to her feet. She had both her legs, both her shoes (why she noted that she didn't know) and Sam next to her brushing glass of out her hair his expression one of marble helped her to her feet and she sat on the edge of a cop car that had the glass shot out of the window and she took one moment to look around at the devastation.

The President was gone, Leo was gone, Zoey was gone. All of that she knew. That didn't meant the President was dead. Granted she didn't know what happened when the President died but she didn't think it was this. This was too chaotic, too…too whatever it was right now.

"CJ?" she turned to see Toby coming towards her and she had to look away least she start weeping. She was not used to someone looking at her with that much concern etched upon his face and with Toby it was always tied into the complicated sweep of feelings that came with Jake and…

The second she thought of him she felt the same fear that was etched upon his face enter her blood stream like ice and it paralysed her unable to move and unable to think and suddenly it didn't matter that the President might be dead or that the Press Corps had just gotten a front row seat to the ending of the world as they knew it.

But Jake…Jake…Jake who had been here tonight with his friend who had left the room earlier than she had done. Who had stepped outside, out of her line of sight.

Who was not here, right in front of her.

Who needed to be right here, right in front of her.

Right now.

She opened her mouth but nothing came out as Sam chimed in that they didn't know where Josh was either.

And then came the thin voice over the crowd of the one person she loved more than life itself.

"MOM! DAD! SOMEONE HELP PLEASE?"

She shouldn't have been able to hear him over the chaotic, catastrophic, din that was going on around them but it was like her entire body was primed to hear him, primed to feel him, primed to recognise him. Jake was her baby and her baby needed her.

It was the same for Toby and so she didn't have to even look to know that he was running right behind her. They ran together, as far as Jake was concerned they were always together.

And there he was. Jake, he was standing and CJ noticed that he didn't seem to be bleeding but then he turned and she felt vomit rise up in her so strong she was almost dizzy with it. She reached out and grabbed Toby's arm and then his hand and he gripped her back and she couldn't tell where he started and she began. She didn't know either if he was keeping her upright or if she was keeping him upright. Either way it was a moment she knew would be haunting her nightmares fordecades to come.

Jake was stood there and she could see that his face and hands were coated in blood. His nice polo shirt was splattered with it as was his jeans and there was a splash of it under his chin and he looked almost dazed when he turned back to look at his mother and father.

For a second none of them could speak and then he put them out of their eternal misery a second later.

"It's not mine" he said and even his voice sounded hollow and like an echo.

"It's Josh's"

For a second none of them spoke and she tore her gaze from her son to see the girl…Anna her name had been holding what looked like Josh's suit jacket to his stomach to hold down pressure on the wound. For a second her eyes met CJ's and they were grim too but then CJ saw Toby reach out and tug Jake into his arms and she went to join the little embrace just as Sam started screaming for help.

That was the easy thing CJ thought.

The look on Leo's face when they arrived at the hospital and he got a look of Josh on the gurney was going to stay with her for the rest of her life too.

Sometimes she thought of that night, the night that she nearly lost her son. She'd nearly lost him twice now but the shooting was the one that stayed with her the most. Maybe it was because that was the one she had witnessed. Or maybe it was because Gaza was too horrible for her to think about.

"He could have died Toby"

"I know" Toby said quietly. "I was pushed to the ground and trampled on and it was all that I could do to keep my head down and my eyes shut and my legs out of the way but when I saw him and the blood and…" he squeezed his eyes shut and then shook his head as if he was coming up from underwater and CJ knew the feeling. It was supposed to be a town hall meeting. It was supposed to be her son's first date and now the world was tipped upside down and was burning all around her and she was still sat on this bathroom floor.

"I'm gonna call Ginger, she has a spare set of keys and she has two brothers so I'm gonna get her to pick Jake up some clothes. I don't…I don't want him walking around the White House looking like he does now. I don't want him near the press. You know if it crops up…"

"Nobody in that room is gonna ask me about my son tonight" she said and though she didn't know much in this brave new world that they were being forced to live in—in which fifteen year old kids shot at the President as if he was target range with no thought to their own life, she knew that much.

"He's okay CJ" Toby said softly and it sounded more like he was trying to convince himself of that. "He didn't get shot, he didn't get ran down. Our son is fine…"

She stifled back her sob and then nodded.

"Can we stay here for a bit longer before we go?" she said and the tears were coming thick and fast and it was taking all her effort for them not to turn into sobs and Toby tucked her into his side and kissed her. It was a platonic kiss she knew, designed more for comfort than anything else but she needed it and he tucked her into his side his own face wet with the aftermath of the terrible fear that they had, had for their son and for a second they weren't not the White House Press Secretary or the White House Communications Director but they were just Toby and CJ. Jake's parents.

There was work to be done and they knew it but in that moment they were just Toby and CJ, Jake's parents and it was a brave new world and everyone had guns and tonight someone had shot at the President of the United States who was surrounded by the best armed guards money could buy and tomorrow…

Well…who knew what tomorrow would look like.

"What are you thinking about?"

"About…about…I don't know…something unhappy"

"Then don't" Toby said turning over so that his arm was over her waist and she had no choice but to snuggle up next to him.

"Think of something happy"

Out of the White House he was about to get into his car when CJ stopped him. She had a pained kind of look on her face but at the same time there was an acceptance about it as if she had been on the phone, had given her knee jerk reaction and then had listened to something and changed her mind.

"Don't blow a gasket but Andy's been in Jake's ear"

"Oh God" he said slinging his coat into his trunk. "Do I even want to know what she has been saying"

"She thinks that Jake should go on the trip with her, thinks that it will be good for him, thinks it will give him a sense of direction—"

For a glorious second he was completely non-plussed and then.

"What trip?"

"Her trip, to Israel. She's invited him to come along. More than that she's got him a press pack and a room and a seat on the plane and somehow in the hour we've been in lock down got it approved at the highest level"

There was a second where Toby stared at her and then.

"SHE DID WHAT NOW?" he roared.

CJ sighed and opened the car door taking his keys.

She would get a cab in the morning.

Clearly Toby could not under any circumstances drive himself home.

"CJ" Toby growled. "I can hear you from here and we have an hour before we have to get up. Please think of something happy so I can see it in your face"

CJ laid there and tried to…actually now that she was thinking about it…it wasn't that hard.

"I mean I saw you" Jake said shaking his head at the stunned look on both his parents face. "I saw you Mom you weren't exactly quiet."

"You never said—"

"Yeah well…you didn't come out of that room for two days I figured you felt pretty shitty about it. Besides…you're an adult. And you're my Mom. It's not my place to judge you for making a mistake. Besides…your my Mom. I love you. A married man isn't going to change that"

For a second his parents looked at each other and then his Mom burst into tears.

His Dad sighed.

"It's okay" he said standing up and then he took out his handkerchief and passed it to his Mom who took it dabbing at her eyes and sniffing. "She's fine Jake. It's just that we are both going through it right now. You see…somewhere along the lines our little boy grew up to be a man and we don't know how or why"

For a second Jake stared at him and then.

"Oh please"

"No I'm serious" his father said smiling. His hand came out and cupped Jake's cheek fingers curling around his neck and he smiled. "You grew up and somehow I didn't realise it"

"Yeah well you've got Huck to do it all over again" Jake said with an eye roll. His Dad laughed and then he smiled at his Mom who was wiping his eyes.

"Go and get my jacket from my office will you? I think we all deserve a nice meal tonight."

Jake beamed and then he left and Toby turned to CJ who was standing reaching for her bag no doubt to hide the evidence of her tears. For a second they stared at each other and then she kissed him.

Toby had told her last night that was when he had known that Jake was a man and she sighed turning over and letting her eyes close. In two days time a new President would be elected and her son would make a decision that would affect his future, his country, his world.

She didn't know if she was proud or scared. No matter what happened she knew that the world would turn on the day after the election votes were cast. She knew that she would survive.

She turned and caught sight of Toby smiling at her and she leaned forwards and kissed him and he kissed her back and just like the first time he had done that many years ago—too many than she personally wanted to count—she melted like sugar in a sauce pot. Nobody else had brought her to this point, not Ben, not John Hoynes, not anyone, just Toby.

It was like her body had wanted nothing but him for a very long time.

And she knew it wouldn't want anything else.

She was safe. She was home.

She was happy.

And this…this felt right.

And there you go, onto the Final Chapter

Next Chapter-THE FINAL CHAPTER!-Jake casts his vote and thinks back on eight years in the White House. Includes flashbacks.