CJ came into her office around seven the next
morning. She was looking over the wire reports, when
Josh came into her office.
“Good morning.” Josh said cheerfully.
“What’s good about it?” CJ shot back.
“Okay, from that I guess you and Toby are still
fighting?” Josh said.
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“I don’t know.” CJ said softly.
“If you decide that you do, I’m next door.” Josh
said.
“Okay.”
“We’ve got staff in ten minutes.” Josh said.
“Yes, this should be a fun-filled festive meeting.”
CJ said sarcastically.
“You’ve been living with Toby too long.” Josh
laughed.
“What do you mean by that?” CJ asked.
“That sounded like something Toby would say.” Josh
replied.
“Yeah, it did.” CJ laughed.
“Hey, I got you to laugh.” Josh said.
“Yeah, you did.” CJ looked wistful for a moment.
“You’ll work it out CJ.” Josh reassured her.
“It’s easier said than done Josh.” CJ replied.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, when I went home yesterday Toby took Meghan
for awhile. Then later I think, as hard as this may be
to believe, he may have been trying to apologize to
me.”
“Trying?” Josh asked raising an eyebrow.
“I didn’t give him a chance. I told him I didn’t want
to talk about what happened yesterday. Then I left the
room. This may be too much information for you Josh,
but Toby slept in the guest room last night. I
couldn’t sleep last night, so about one o’clock I got
up. I ended up looking in on him. Josh, he was
sleeping.”
“It was one o’clock in the morning what did you
expect him to be doing?”
“Josh, I wasn’t able to sleep, he shouldn’t have been
able to either!”
“Maybe he woke up later?”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay,” Leo said near the end of the staff meeting,
“as much as I hate to bring this up, we need to talk
about the situation that arose yesterday.”
Toby looked uncomfortably at the floor as Leo was
speaking. He glanced up and noticed CJ was doing the
same. “What is that all about?” He wondered.
“I have a meeting with Mary Marsh and the rest of the
usual suspects at four this afternoon. Sam, Josh the
two of you will sit in on the meeting.”
“Okay.” Josh and Sam said at the same time.
“CJ, I don’t want to see you anywhere near this
meeting, nor do I want to see Toby anywhere near it.”
“Hold on a minute, Leo.” CJ said.
“Yeah?” Leo asked.
“Why am I excluded from this meeting.”
“They’re not exactly going to be comfortable with
Mrs. Toby Ziegler in the room CJ.” Leo said.
“Wait a minute, I’m being kept out of the loop on
this?”
“No, you’re not being kept out of the loop.”
“It sure as hell feels like I am.” CJ said.
“CJ...” Toby said.
‘’Don’t start Toby. I’m warning you don’t start.” CJ
said looking straight at Toby.
“CJ,” Leo said, “you’re not being kept out of the
loop. It would be better if you were not at the
meeting.”
“Leo, my professional name is CJ Cregg, not Claudia
Jean Ziegler.”
“I know that, CJ. To them you are Toby’s wife.”
“I am the Press Secretary.”
“CJ give it up. I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Fine.” CJ said testily. “Are we finished here?”
“Yeah.” Leo said.
CJ got up and quickly left. Toby followed behind
her. After they had left, Leo turned to Josh and Sam
in confusion.
“What’s going on with them?” Leo asked.
“I don’t know.” Sam said.
“Leo,” Josh said, “they got into a major fight
yesterday after the briefing.”
“What over?” Leo asked.
“What CJ said at the briefing.”
“How bad was it?”
“I heard some of it. He was pretty mad. From what
CJ has said, I don’t think they’re really speaking
right now.”
“I hate that for them.” Leo said. “They’ll work it
out. Okay, we need to plan a strategy for this
meeting. I don’t plan on handing Toby’s head to them.
So we need to figure out how to appease them.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ had barely gotten back into her office, when Toby
came in. He shut the door behind him and sat down on
the couch.
“Why did you come in here?” CJ asked.
“I wanted to talk to you.” Toby said.
“I guess I should feel fortunate you didn’t slam the
door.” CJ said sarcastically.
Although, he had intended to talk to her rationally,
CJ’s anger and sarcasm was almost pushing Toby to the
breaking point. “I could slam it, if that’s what you’d
like.”
“No,” CJ said softly, “what did you want?”
“We need to talk.”
“Yeah, we do. I can’t handle a shouting match and
that’s what it would be.”
“You’re probably right.” Toby said softly. “I’m
going to leave before Leo’s meeting, so I’ll take
Meghan home with me. Try to make up for the time I
didn’t spend with her yesterday.”
“Yeah, that’s fine.” CJ said and watched him leave.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ looked at her watch as she was walking back to her
office. It was almost four and she wanted to be safe
in her office when Mary Marsh and the others arrived.
CJ really didn’t know what she would say to the woman
if she saw her. As she turned the corner towards the
Mural Room, she saw them standing there. “Damn it!” CJ
thought. “Okay, I’m going to my office as fast as I
can, so I won’t say something I certainly will not
regret.” As she was walking past them, she could hear
part of their discussion.
“It wasn’t really surprising, all of these
bleeding-heart, do-gooder liberals react that way. I
wasn’t at all surprised. I knew I would have that
effect.”
CJ stopped in the hallway after hearing that
statement. She turned until she was facing Mary Marsh
and her minions.
“Mrs. Ziegler.” Mary Marsh said. “It’s nice to say
you.”
“I wish I could say the same. And I believe you know
I use Cregg for professional purposes. My husband is
the only person who calls me Mrs. Ziegler, so I would
greatly appreciate it if *you* don’t.”
“Well, you are a little defensive.” Mary Marsh
remarked.
“About what?”
“Your surname. Of course I was always taught that a
wife took her husband’s name, even professionally.
Maybe the reason you kept Cregg is that you don’t want
to be know of the wife of such a man.”
“I don’t want to be know as the wife of such a man!
You are so far off course that it isn’t even funny.
Would you like to know what the name on my driver’s
license is? Well, I can tell you that it reads
Claudia Jean Ziegler. My doctors know me as Claudia
Ziegler. As for me not wanting to be know as Mrs.
Toby Ziegler, nothing could be farther from the
truth.”
Just then, Josh and Sam showed up to show Mary Marsh
and the others into the mural room.
“CJ...” Josh said.
“Yeah, I know Josh, I know.”
“I’ll walk you back to your office. Sam?”
“I’ll take care of everything here.” Sam said.
As they were walking back to CJ’s office, Josh asked.
“What made you do it?”
“I overheard her saying she had basically set Toby
up. What really set me off though, was when she said
I didn’t want to be known as his wife.”
“Why did she say that?” Josh asked.
“Because I still use Cregg professionally.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“No.”
“CJ, why don’t you go home. We’ll take care of this.
It will be okay.”
“Thanks Josh.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
CJ found Toby playing with Meghan in the living room
floor when she got home.
“She actually got you to sit on the floor?” CJ said.
“Yeah. I’m surprised to see you home so soon.”
“Yeah, I tried to prevent it, but I had a little
run-in with Mary Marsh.”
“What over?”
“I overheard her basically admit that she had set you
up on Sunday.”
“And you found this surprising how?”
“I didn’t.”
“So you were defending me?”
“Yeah.”
“What makes you think I need you to defend me?” Toby
asked very calmly.
“Toby...” CJ said shocked.
“Really, although I must admit it’s nice to see you
finally take a stand on something.”
CJ stood there glaring at Toby for a moment. Then
with a cry she left the room and went into the
bedroom. She slammed the bedroom door shut behind
her.
Toby leaned his head back against the couch after CJ
left and closed his eyes for a moment. He opened them
when he felt Meghan climb into his lap. He smiled as
she showed him the stuffed animal she had been playing
with. “You know Meghan, Daddy’s an idiot sometimes.
Like now. Okay, how do I fix this, or more
importantly how do I keep it from escalating?” He
thought as she held her.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After they had fought, CJ had cried herself to sleep.
She looked at the clock shortly after she woke up. It
was ten, which meant Meghan was probably asleep. She
got up and walked into bathroom to wash her face, she
didn’t want Toby to see she had been crying. She had
been so ready to make up with him when she got home,
but not now she was too angry and most of all too
hurt. But she wouldn’t let him see the hurt, not in a
million years. She looked at herself in the mirror.
Her hair looked somewhat disheveled, but she didn’t
really care. He had seen it looked worse, hell he’s
made it look worse she thought. She went into the
living room, where she found Toby watching CNN.
“Is it anything important?” She asked.
“No, go back to sleep.”
“How did you know I had been asleep?”
“I checked on you just after I put Meghan to bed.” He
said in an effort to reach out to her.
“You did?” She asked surprised.
“Yeah.” He said softly
She knew what he was trying to do. If he had done it
a few hours ago when she had came home she would have
accepted it too. But not now, everything he had said
then still hurt too much.
“I won’t make that mistake again.” She said softly.
“What mistake?”
“Defending you.” She said and turned to go back into
the bedroom.
Toby closed his eyes for a moment after she left.
Although she was trying to hide it, it was obvious to
him that what he said earlier had hurt her
tremendously. He really could kick himself for saying
it. He had regretted it the moment it came from his
mouth. He wanted nothing more than to be able to hold
her. He missed her, talking to her. “There’s no way
this can go on much longer, there’s no way.” He
thought.
to be continued...