Disclaimers: The West Wing and it's characters are the
property of Aaron Sorkin, Warner Brothers and NBC. No
copyright infringement is intended. No profit is being
made from this.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Notes: I would like to thank AJ for beta
reading this.
Summary: CJ and Toby observe each other at a party.
The party was in full swing, and Toby was miserable.
It wasn't all that surprising to him that he was
miserable. He hated these events, and wanted this one
to be over as soon as possible. He sloshed the drink
he was holding around. Something, or rather someone,
caught his eye from across the room. She really was a
beautiful woman. It wasn't something he was just
realizing, he had known it for a long time. He was
certain that he hid how he felt very well. It was
probably not obvious to anyone that he was head over
heels in love with her. He didn't know when it had
happened, he just knew that it had. There were so many
thoughts that crossed his mind when he looked at her;
the moment he knew he was in love with her, asking her
out the first time, their first kiss, and so many
other things.
************************************************************
He couldn't believe he was going to do it. He was
certain that she would say no, but he had to do it. He
looked in her office and saw she was there. He took a
deep breath, and went in.
"Hi, CJ."
"Toby, what do you need?"
"I was going to ask you a question." Toby said
shifting and looking at his feet.
"What?"
"Huh?"
"What were you going to ask me Toby?"
"Do you have any plans for dinner?"
"No."
"Would you like to have dinner with me?" Toby asked.
He braced himself for her to say no. He was so certain
that was what she would say.
"Yes, that would be nice." CJ looked at him and
smiled. She could see the uncertainty on his face as
she spoke. It was then that she realized he was asking
her out on a date. "You mean like on a date?"
"Yeah, and I guess now that you know that you don't
want to go. That's fine. We'll just forget that we had
this conversation." Toby said as he quickly turned to
leave.
"Toby." Her voice stopped him before he reached the
door. "Where are you going to take me?"
"You still want to go?" He asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"Does Italian sound good to you?"
"That's fine. What time?"
"Eight if we can get out of here."
"Okay." CJ said. As she watched him leave there was a
small smile on her face.She couldn't believe he had
done that.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They were walking quietly together. Occasionally he
would reach for her hand for a moment. He would let go
of it just as soon as he touched it. She couldn't help
but smile. It really was too cute. She knew that he
wanted to kiss her, but he was too shy to do it. It
surprised her that he didn't realize that she wanted
him to kiss her. She guessed she would have to be the
one to make the first move.
"Toby." She said quietly. He had just taken her hand
again, and as soon as she spoke he let go of her hand.
"Yeah?" He was still walking and she stepped in front
of him.
"We've been going out for how long?"
"A month." His face fell as he was certain she was
going to say she just wanted to be friends.
"Yes, we have. Don't you think that it's time?"
"Time for what?"
"Toby!"
"Seriously, CJ time for what?"
"Toby, I never thought even you could be this
obtuse!" She said as she stepped closer to him. She
stopped when she was only inches from his face. She
reached for his arms and put them around her waist.
He couldn't believe how good it felt to have her in
his arms. If he moved a just a little bit it would be
so easy to kiss her. He didn't know if that was what
she wanted. So he would be content to just hold her.
She smiled at him for just a second. She could tell
he didn't realize it, but she was right where she
wanted to be. She closed her eyes and kissed him
lightly. She hoped that would be enough. The moment
she felt his arms tighten around her she knew it was,
and then he was kissing her.
"Do you know how long I've wanted you to do that?"
She said breathlessly as he pulled away from her.
"No."
"I wouldn't complain..." She was unable to finish
what she was saying because he pulled her into a very
passionate kiss.
***********************************************************
She knew he was watching her. She wasn't going to
look over at him. She was not going to give into that
temptation. She wasn't going to let him know he held
that kind of power over her. In truth, she knew that
he already knew that. There were many times when she
wondered how she had gotten in this deep. She didn't
know how it happened. She just knew it had. She wasn't
planning to complain about it anytime soon. He was
still looking at her. She wasn't going to give in. She
wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing
how weak she was when it came to him. She couldn't
help herself, she looked up. Their eyes met across the
room, and even from that distance she could read the
triumph in his eyes. She couldn't help but smile at
him. Everytime she looked at him, there were so many
memories that crossed her mind; the moment she knew
she was in love with him, the first time he said he
loved her, and the day he proposed.
*********************************************************
She could feel that she was waking up. She didn't
want to wake up. It meant that the night was ending,
and this was one night she didn't want to end. She
closed her eyes and tried to forget that she was
waking up. She sighed as she felt him start to kiss
her shoulder. Suddenly she wasn't as sleepy as she had
been, but she really didn't want him to know she was
awake. She wasn't able to keep the pretense up for
very long. She snuggled closer against him.
"Good morning." He whispered in her ear.
"Good morning." She replied back.
"Do you know how much I love you?" He asked as he
pulled her even closer to him.
She turned and looked at him. She could feel tears in
her eyes as she looked at him. She had told him weeks
ago that she loved him. She had not been certain if
she had ever expected to hear the words from him. She
buried her head against his shoulder to try to hide
from him how it was effecting her.
"Oh, I think I know that now." She said as she got
her emotions under control again. She lifted her head
from his shoulder, and glanced at the clock. She then
kissed him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She walked into his apartment, and called his name.
It was dark and quiet and she had no idea where he was
at. He had left work hours earlier and had asked her
to meet him here. She could see a little bit of light
coming from the dining room. So, she walked in there,
and she found him. There was a table sat for two and
it was illuminated only by candlelight. She wondered
what he was up to, but it was obvious to her that he
wouldn't tell.
As they finished eating, he got up and walked to her
side of the table. She knew exactly what he was up to,
when he knelt beside her on one knee.
"You know how much I love you." Toby said. CJ didn't
trust her voice so she just shook her head. "I'm not
very good at the romance thing."
"I don't know about that. I think there is evidence
to the contrary in this room." CJ said softly.
"What I'm trying to say is," Toby said as he took a
small box from his pocket, "is I love you very much,
and I want to spend the rest of my life making you
happy. Will you marry me?"
CJ knew there was no way she would be able to prevent
the tears that were falling from her eyes. "Yes." She
said softly.
As she was speaking, Toby slipped the ring on her
finger. He then got up, pulled her into his arms, and
kissed her passionately.
*****************************************************************
He was still staring at her. He couldn't help it.
There were times when he couldn't believe he was lucky
enough to have her in his life. It was even less
believable that soon he would be lucky enough to have
her as his wife.
She really loved it when he couldn't keep his eyes
off of her. He was definitely not doing a good job of
that tonight. She wished that the party would soon
end. She really wanted to talk to him.
They were walking through the back of the hotel with
the Presidential party before they had a chance to be
near each other. They stayed a little back from the
others, and it wasn't long before Toby reached for her
hand. She looked at him then, and she could read the
promises in his eyes. She smiled at him since she knew
exactly what he was thinking. There was only a couple
of Secret Service agents behind them, so she leaned
over and kissed his lips. Just as she did so, Josh
turned around to say something to them.
"You two should really have gotten a room. "Josh
laughed. "We can't leave you alone for even a moment.
You know you can wait two weeks until you're married
to do that." Josh said as they continued to kiss. "Why
do you think we didn't let you anywhere near each
other tonight?"
"Because you were afraid we would do this?" Toby
said.
"Yeah." Josh said and rolled his eyes.
They walked the rest of the way with their arms
around each other. When they reached the outside they
separated and walked apart from each other. Their eyes
never left each other, and once they were in the car
they were sitting hand-in-hand.
The end.