five votes - a west wing collection

viii

"C.J., there are rumors that the president is not planning on running for reelection," one of the press members called out. "Can you confirm or deny this?"

C.J. took a deep breath. She'd had so many questions thrown at her today that she just couldn't answer, for multiple reasons. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Danny moving toward the front of the room and prayed that he wouldn't make today worse. She'd spent a lot of time with him the day before, but she still refused to define their relationship, and she knew that frustrated him.

"I'm not at liberty to answer that," she replied. "It's up to the president to announce his decision." What frustrated her the most about this question was that she didn't even have an answer yet. Jed wanted to run, she knew, but she'd also heard of a deal he'd made with his wife. She knew that Abbey was the most important person in Jed's life, but he also loved his country. This was one of the most difficult decisions he'd ever made, and she sympathized with him, but that didn't make this any less frustrating.

She sighed as another reporter raised their voice to call out a question. "C.J.!" They called out. She nodded in the direction of the woman who'd grabbed her attention, but suddenly she didn't even recognize the question coming out of the woman's mouth.

Danny's hand was wrapped around hers. Danny was holding her hand, running his thumb over her palm. C.J. felt her face heating up, but she refused to look at him. She didn't want to bring attention to the fact that her- what was he? Her kissing buddy?- was holding her hand. So she just squeezed his hand, feeling her breathing calm down.

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?"

And she finished the conference, holding on to Danny like a lifeline.

[a/n: in my docs, i wrote 'set after he shall, from time to time... if i'm getting my episodes right' but i don't think that's right? it must have been season two at some point or something. oh well]