Title: By any actual name
Author: Loz
E-Mail: [email protected]
Rating: The gap between PG13 and R seems very large, R to be on the safe side.
Category: CJ/Leo
Series: Pair: By any other name & By any actual name
Spoilers: None/Minimal Archive (if applicable): ¿
Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.
Summary: "So would you care if I didn't tell you my name?" they walk down the street from the supermarket … "No...what do I call you then?" a puzzled look crosses her expression … "Thomas." he states simply.
Disclaimers: Over here, over there, they're not mine anywhere.
IMPORTANT NOTES: For this to work I have to ask you to take a couple of leaps and suspend reality…A LOT. Assume Leo never sent Toby to get CJ for the campaign, Toby suggested CJ and went to get her from the West Coast himself, Leo never knew who she was and trusted Tobys judgment. Assume CJ didn't know Leo from a bar of soap regardless of the fact that he was Labor Secretary.
That said this is very AU and may even push the boundaries of its definition. Obviously there is nothing necessarily politically or geographically or otherwise correct about this work.
A yelling Josh...or Sam, CJ wasn't sure yet, calls Toby away and CJ is left her alone in the office of Leo McGarry, better known as Thomas.
"Would you like some coffee, it's decaf." he apologizes, rounding his desk and sitting in his chair across from her.
"Thanks, but I prefer Kenyan." CJ states simply as she feels the air of uncomfortability roll into the room.
"I ah...." a hand gently rubs his face and CJ can't help but to stare, remembering the magic those same hands worked on her last night.
"Huh." he says at his own inability to get out what he wants to say.
"I ah, don't usually do the no names thing only to come into work the next morning and come face to face..." he tapers off realizing he's not easing CJ's uncomfortability.
"Well I'm not in the habit of picking up handsome men in supermarkets and taking them home to share my bed." CJ goes some way to try and ease his discomfort, placing herself in the same situation.
He surprises her by getting up and shutting the door to the outer office and the direct one to the noisy corridor.
"I had a really great time last night." he perches precariously on the edge of his desk in front of her.
"You said that." CJ grins widely, recalling the events in fast-forward and they both relax just a little more.
"I know." he shakes his head smiling and gets off the desk only to lean against it.
"I had a great time too." the crossed legs she had been holding taught, relax further.
Leo swings off the table and starts to briskly pace the room, only to stop as suddenly as he began. "I have a confession to make."
CJ just stares up at him in amusement. "Well I already know your name," she says in a jovial sigh.
"I kept going back to the supermarket after that first night hoping I'd see you again." with that CJ freezes slightly, tension in her body building again, a different type this time.
"I didn't really have a pretzel craving." CJ grins and then laughs. "I confess to you more than I do to my priest."
It's now Leo breaks into a smile himself, CJ can visualize the uncertainty rushing out of him as he collapses into his chair, smiling across the desk at her.
"Why the name thing?" CJ crosses and uncrosses her legs.
"It keeps it impersonal." he cringes, but CJ doesn't flinch. "It's easier for it to be just one night, no hooks, no strings..."
"You do this often?"
"No, no, no, I... because we're going on the road on Thursday I didn't think it could be any other way... I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"Because in the cold light of day it really is a harsh way to treat someone."
"Don't be, I quite willingly went along, there was no battle to be fought and won."
"Still...why Allison?"
"It was the name of the clerk who served us that the previous night." CJ rolls her eyes at her own perceived pathetic ness, but still manages a laugh. " Why Thomas?"
"Middle name." he sighs.
"Leo Thomas McGarry." the names roll off her tongue.
"I had a really great night last night." he leans onto the desk, smiling across at her.
"You said that already...twice." CJ plays it coolly leaning back comfortably in her chair.
"I know." he inches a bit further across though still seated.
"But it wasn't one night was it?" CJ more confirms than questions and is grateful for the closed office doors.
He shakes his head no.
"Because if it was..." she starts mentally gathering criteria. "You wouldn't have stayed till morning and you wouldn't have kissed me goodbye."
"I wouldn't have," he confirms leaning back in his chair again. "I wanted to make you breakfast in bed, the last place I thought I'd end up is here."
"So...?"
"So...have coffee with me tonight."
"Ok."
"So would you care if I told you my name?" They walk down the street past the supermarket.
"No...."
"Would you care if I asked your name?"
"Not at all."
"So you wouldn't care if I told you everything about me?"
"No….and it wouldn't bother you if I told you all about me?"
"You're a fast learner."
Inside CJ's place after hanging up their coats she watches Leo approach her knowing the one thing dominant in his mind at the moment.
"So, we did politics and religion but we never did get to talking about sex." his arms wrap around her waist, eyes full of desire.
"Oh I'm in favour of it," he says, leaning in slowly, breathing her lips into a passionate kiss.
"Definitely...me too." CJ's head throws back allowing him full access to her neck.
"I'm in favour of it right now." he says taking her hand and heading towards the bedroom.
"Toby says D.C. is like a fishbowl and that I won't be able to have anyone in my bed without the National Enquiror looking through the blinds with a long lens camera." side by side CJ traces two fingers down his arm and back up his chest.
"Toby knows?!?!" he stops her gentle caressing.
"No." she sighs dramatically. " He thinks I spent one night with some guy who never told me his real name let alone anything about him."
"*You're funny*" he says sarcastically, "You think you are, but you're not." he grins across the bed at her.
"You think I am." a sly secretive smile approaches.
"I think you're so many more wonderful things as well."
In the two times he's stayed over, that is last night and tonight she's found her preferred position for sleeping, spooned around him, their legs intermingled and one arm slung around his waist.
That's where she is when her body clock protests it's to early on this Monday for the alarm to be going off.
It takes her a moment to decipher that the annoying shrill is in fact not the alarm but the phone and by this time Leo is groaning, still wrapped up in her embrace, because it's awoken him as well.
CJ leans backwards over her bed, padding the floor with her hand in the pre-dawn darkness, looking for her palm sized flip phone.
Leo leans over the other side of the bed grabbing for his.
When CJ presses the talk button, not bothering to look at the display, she's met with the dial tone and realizes the obvious, that it isn't the phone that's ringing. A cursory glance at the phones clock causes her to groan and bury her head in the back of Leo's neck again; it's a quarter to five in the morning.
"Yh-ep." CJ hears Leo mumble into a phone and one of his hands covers hers as it runs over his stomach.
"CJ?" she puts her head up at the sound of her name and only then does she discover that pressed to his ear is her home phone.
He flicks over onto his back giving her a horrified look, whoever is on the other end, obviously wasn't expecting him to pick up.
"No you've dialed my number Toby." Leo is sounding more awake as the panicked expression grows on CJ's face and she buries her head in the pillow, muffling her groan. Why couldn't it be anyone but him?
"Yeah Ok." he sighs then hangs up.
"He's going to call you now, you'd better answer." he puts the phone in her hand, rolling over onto his stomach and closing his eyes again.
When her phone rings again, only moments later, she waits six rings for good measure and answers as sleepily as she can, receiving the same request to come to campaign headquarters as Leo did.
The phone clatters somewhere on the ground next to her portable, she comes to the realization that they were both too sluggish to distinguish between the different phone rings, or even whose bed they were sleeping in....not that she'd ever been to his place.
CJ rolls over to wrap herself around him again.
"Secrets out." he mumbles kissing her hand.
"Everyone will know by the time we get there." CJ sighs wishing she could go back to sleep and wake up when everyone had forgotten or was no longer interested.
"Life in a fishbowl." he says softly, rolling over and running his hands through her hair.
"We've got to get up." she pushes back the sheet and heads for the shower.
"What is with you?" Toby trails behind her as CJ strides her way into her office cubicle a half hour later.
"Good morning to you to Toby." she ignores his comment as best she can.
"Leo McGarry?" he says with incredulity, shutting her door behind him.
"Don't let him hear you say it like that." she unpacks folders from her case.
"Is there something in the water, are you going down a list or something, every man in town." the last folder remains mid air as she stares at him, it's hard to believe he would say something like that.
"You want to be next Toby?" her voice dripping with disdain.
"One day CJ, you knew him for one day."
"Actually..." she never finishes what she was about to say figuring full disclosure is in nobody's benefit.
"Actually what?" Toby prompts in his role as her mother, or someone similar.
"Nothing." she shakes her head.
"He was there Sunday morning when I called, that was why I couldn't get him at home."
"Yes, he was...Ok, happy?"
"You said it was one night."
"I thought it was," she mumbles recognizing full disclosure is probably going to become a reality whether she likes it or not.
"So?" he pushes.
"I didn't know who he was, I didn't know his real name."
"He's Leo McGarry, he was the Labor Secretary, how could you not know." Toby says astounded.
"I just didn't Ok." anger in CJ's voice rising, not noticing Leo quietly pushing her door open.
"I'm also running this campaign." his voice turns Toby around and he proceeds to brush past Leo on his way out, clearly not impressed.
"Hi." CJ smiles coming around to lean against the other side of her desk.
"He's protective." Leo stands himself in front of her, brushing his lips softly across hers.
"Don't think we'll have to worry about the National Enquirer, just the Toby enquirer." CJ fiddles with his tie.
"Po-tay-to. Po-tah-to." he grins. "You really didn't know who I was?" he tips her chin up so she's looking him in the eye.
"Nope." her eyes twinkle.
"So I was just some guy buying coffee in the middle of the night."
"Some cute guy." she corrects.
"Some cute guy known to you by any other name than my own."
"Mmm-Hmm." she confirms meeting her lips with his, trying to make up for what she missed out on this morning. "Now it's Leo McGarry, known to me by any actual name."
Author: Loz
E-Mail: [email protected]
Rating: The gap between PG13 and R seems very large, R to be on the safe side.
Category: CJ/Leo
Series: Pair: By any other name & By any actual name
Spoilers: None/Minimal Archive (if applicable): ¿
Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.
Summary: "So would you care if I didn't tell you my name?" they walk down the street from the supermarket … "No...what do I call you then?" a puzzled look crosses her expression … "Thomas." he states simply.
Disclaimers: Over here, over there, they're not mine anywhere.
IMPORTANT NOTES: For this to work I have to ask you to take a couple of leaps and suspend reality…A LOT. Assume Leo never sent Toby to get CJ for the campaign, Toby suggested CJ and went to get her from the West Coast himself, Leo never knew who she was and trusted Tobys judgment. Assume CJ didn't know Leo from a bar of soap regardless of the fact that he was Labor Secretary.
That said this is very AU and may even push the boundaries of its definition. Obviously there is nothing necessarily politically or geographically or otherwise correct about this work.
A yelling Josh...or Sam, CJ wasn't sure yet, calls Toby away and CJ is left her alone in the office of Leo McGarry, better known as Thomas.
"Would you like some coffee, it's decaf." he apologizes, rounding his desk and sitting in his chair across from her.
"Thanks, but I prefer Kenyan." CJ states simply as she feels the air of uncomfortability roll into the room.
"I ah...." a hand gently rubs his face and CJ can't help but to stare, remembering the magic those same hands worked on her last night.
"Huh." he says at his own inability to get out what he wants to say.
"I ah, don't usually do the no names thing only to come into work the next morning and come face to face..." he tapers off realizing he's not easing CJ's uncomfortability.
"Well I'm not in the habit of picking up handsome men in supermarkets and taking them home to share my bed." CJ goes some way to try and ease his discomfort, placing herself in the same situation.
He surprises her by getting up and shutting the door to the outer office and the direct one to the noisy corridor.
"I had a really great time last night." he perches precariously on the edge of his desk in front of her.
"You said that." CJ grins widely, recalling the events in fast-forward and they both relax just a little more.
"I know." he shakes his head smiling and gets off the desk only to lean against it.
"I had a great time too." the crossed legs she had been holding taught, relax further.
Leo swings off the table and starts to briskly pace the room, only to stop as suddenly as he began. "I have a confession to make."
CJ just stares up at him in amusement. "Well I already know your name," she says in a jovial sigh.
"I kept going back to the supermarket after that first night hoping I'd see you again." with that CJ freezes slightly, tension in her body building again, a different type this time.
"I didn't really have a pretzel craving." CJ grins and then laughs. "I confess to you more than I do to my priest."
It's now Leo breaks into a smile himself, CJ can visualize the uncertainty rushing out of him as he collapses into his chair, smiling across the desk at her.
"Why the name thing?" CJ crosses and uncrosses her legs.
"It keeps it impersonal." he cringes, but CJ doesn't flinch. "It's easier for it to be just one night, no hooks, no strings..."
"You do this often?"
"No, no, no, I... because we're going on the road on Thursday I didn't think it could be any other way... I'm sorry."
"What for?"
"Because in the cold light of day it really is a harsh way to treat someone."
"Don't be, I quite willingly went along, there was no battle to be fought and won."
"Still...why Allison?"
"It was the name of the clerk who served us that the previous night." CJ rolls her eyes at her own perceived pathetic ness, but still manages a laugh. " Why Thomas?"
"Middle name." he sighs.
"Leo Thomas McGarry." the names roll off her tongue.
"I had a really great night last night." he leans onto the desk, smiling across at her.
"You said that already...twice." CJ plays it coolly leaning back comfortably in her chair.
"I know." he inches a bit further across though still seated.
"But it wasn't one night was it?" CJ more confirms than questions and is grateful for the closed office doors.
He shakes his head no.
"Because if it was..." she starts mentally gathering criteria. "You wouldn't have stayed till morning and you wouldn't have kissed me goodbye."
"I wouldn't have," he confirms leaning back in his chair again. "I wanted to make you breakfast in bed, the last place I thought I'd end up is here."
"So...?"
"So...have coffee with me tonight."
"Ok."
"So would you care if I told you my name?" They walk down the street past the supermarket.
"No...."
"Would you care if I asked your name?"
"Not at all."
"So you wouldn't care if I told you everything about me?"
"No….and it wouldn't bother you if I told you all about me?"
"You're a fast learner."
Inside CJ's place after hanging up their coats she watches Leo approach her knowing the one thing dominant in his mind at the moment.
"So, we did politics and religion but we never did get to talking about sex." his arms wrap around her waist, eyes full of desire.
"Oh I'm in favour of it," he says, leaning in slowly, breathing her lips into a passionate kiss.
"Definitely...me too." CJ's head throws back allowing him full access to her neck.
"I'm in favour of it right now." he says taking her hand and heading towards the bedroom.
"Toby says D.C. is like a fishbowl and that I won't be able to have anyone in my bed without the National Enquiror looking through the blinds with a long lens camera." side by side CJ traces two fingers down his arm and back up his chest.
"Toby knows?!?!" he stops her gentle caressing.
"No." she sighs dramatically. " He thinks I spent one night with some guy who never told me his real name let alone anything about him."
"*You're funny*" he says sarcastically, "You think you are, but you're not." he grins across the bed at her.
"You think I am." a sly secretive smile approaches.
"I think you're so many more wonderful things as well."
In the two times he's stayed over, that is last night and tonight she's found her preferred position for sleeping, spooned around him, their legs intermingled and one arm slung around his waist.
That's where she is when her body clock protests it's to early on this Monday for the alarm to be going off.
It takes her a moment to decipher that the annoying shrill is in fact not the alarm but the phone and by this time Leo is groaning, still wrapped up in her embrace, because it's awoken him as well.
CJ leans backwards over her bed, padding the floor with her hand in the pre-dawn darkness, looking for her palm sized flip phone.
Leo leans over the other side of the bed grabbing for his.
When CJ presses the talk button, not bothering to look at the display, she's met with the dial tone and realizes the obvious, that it isn't the phone that's ringing. A cursory glance at the phones clock causes her to groan and bury her head in the back of Leo's neck again; it's a quarter to five in the morning.
"Yh-ep." CJ hears Leo mumble into a phone and one of his hands covers hers as it runs over his stomach.
"CJ?" she puts her head up at the sound of her name and only then does she discover that pressed to his ear is her home phone.
He flicks over onto his back giving her a horrified look, whoever is on the other end, obviously wasn't expecting him to pick up.
"No you've dialed my number Toby." Leo is sounding more awake as the panicked expression grows on CJ's face and she buries her head in the pillow, muffling her groan. Why couldn't it be anyone but him?
"Yeah Ok." he sighs then hangs up.
"He's going to call you now, you'd better answer." he puts the phone in her hand, rolling over onto his stomach and closing his eyes again.
When her phone rings again, only moments later, she waits six rings for good measure and answers as sleepily as she can, receiving the same request to come to campaign headquarters as Leo did.
The phone clatters somewhere on the ground next to her portable, she comes to the realization that they were both too sluggish to distinguish between the different phone rings, or even whose bed they were sleeping in....not that she'd ever been to his place.
CJ rolls over to wrap herself around him again.
"Secrets out." he mumbles kissing her hand.
"Everyone will know by the time we get there." CJ sighs wishing she could go back to sleep and wake up when everyone had forgotten or was no longer interested.
"Life in a fishbowl." he says softly, rolling over and running his hands through her hair.
"We've got to get up." she pushes back the sheet and heads for the shower.
"What is with you?" Toby trails behind her as CJ strides her way into her office cubicle a half hour later.
"Good morning to you to Toby." she ignores his comment as best she can.
"Leo McGarry?" he says with incredulity, shutting her door behind him.
"Don't let him hear you say it like that." she unpacks folders from her case.
"Is there something in the water, are you going down a list or something, every man in town." the last folder remains mid air as she stares at him, it's hard to believe he would say something like that.
"You want to be next Toby?" her voice dripping with disdain.
"One day CJ, you knew him for one day."
"Actually..." she never finishes what she was about to say figuring full disclosure is in nobody's benefit.
"Actually what?" Toby prompts in his role as her mother, or someone similar.
"Nothing." she shakes her head.
"He was there Sunday morning when I called, that was why I couldn't get him at home."
"Yes, he was...Ok, happy?"
"You said it was one night."
"I thought it was," she mumbles recognizing full disclosure is probably going to become a reality whether she likes it or not.
"So?" he pushes.
"I didn't know who he was, I didn't know his real name."
"He's Leo McGarry, he was the Labor Secretary, how could you not know." Toby says astounded.
"I just didn't Ok." anger in CJ's voice rising, not noticing Leo quietly pushing her door open.
"I'm also running this campaign." his voice turns Toby around and he proceeds to brush past Leo on his way out, clearly not impressed.
"Hi." CJ smiles coming around to lean against the other side of her desk.
"He's protective." Leo stands himself in front of her, brushing his lips softly across hers.
"Don't think we'll have to worry about the National Enquirer, just the Toby enquirer." CJ fiddles with his tie.
"Po-tay-to. Po-tah-to." he grins. "You really didn't know who I was?" he tips her chin up so she's looking him in the eye.
"Nope." her eyes twinkle.
"So I was just some guy buying coffee in the middle of the night."
"Some cute guy." she corrects.
"Some cute guy known to you by any other name than my own."
"Mmm-Hmm." she confirms meeting her lips with his, trying to make up for what she missed out on this morning. "Now it's Leo McGarry, known to me by any actual name."