Past Tense Rising - 5

"CJ! CJ!"

CJ looked out at the rest of the room and just barely managed to stifle a
sigh of annoyance. She caught Danny Concannon's eye just before he winked at
her and looked away.

"Bob." she called.

"CJ, is there any truth to the rumor that the Marshall family, in addition to
Congresswoman Bennett, will be attending the state dinner to be held in two
months?" Bob asked, holding his recorder up.

"Bob, come on, that's common knowledge by now." CJ replied. "I'm sure that
Zoey Bartlet will be out any minute to bring all of you up to date on the
guest list. This is her first official assignment as First Daughter and she's
been working very hard on this dinner, so let's all stick to the subject at
hand."

Sylvia, one of the press room interns, came into the room discreetly. As CJ
fielded questions from the rest of the reporters, Sylvia tapped Danny on the
arm. He got up and left.

"CJ." Carol tapped her shoulder. "She's ready."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the First Daughter." CJ stepped aside as Zoey stepped
up to the podium.

Zoey looked out at the sea of faces just in time to see Danny Concannon
leaving the room. She laughed nervously. "Good afternoon." she took out the
folder she had brought with her, hands shaking. "Thank you for your
patience."

"Ms. Bartlet!" One of the front row reporters stood up. "I'm Maggie
Greenwald. I had a question about the agenda for the state dinner."

Zoey smiled. She had pored over the agenda for several days. "Go ahead."

"Will there be a presentation of the former administrations and First
Families to the President at some point in the evening?" the reporter asked.

"There will be a chance for everyone to meet each other and get acquainted,
yes." Zoey replied. "In between the time for questions and interviews and the
actual dinner. Once we receive the RSVPs back from the invited guests, we
will be sending out invitations to those of you who will be invited."

As she looked towards the back of the room, she saw someone in a suit talking
earnestly to Danny Concannon, who visibly swayed. Sylvia grabbed his arm and
whispered something to him. Then the suit and Sylvia led Danny away slowly.
Zoey looked at CJ, whose attention was also trained on them.

"Zoey!" One of them stood up. "Can you give us any information as to who has
already accepted the invitation?"

"Well," Zoey opened the folder and skimmed the list. "Do you want an
alphabetical list?"

"She's fine." Carol murmured to CJ, whose eyes were fixed on the backs of the
three retreating figures. "Go see what's wrong."

"Thanks, Carol." CJ left, passing Charlie on his way in. He took a seat in
the back and flashed Zoey a thumbs-up sign.

**

By the time CJ found Danny and Sylvia, they had commandeered one of the
offices. Danny was sitting on the couch, his head in his hands, when CJ
walked in.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Who are you?" the suit asked.

"I'm CJ Cregg." she snapped. "Who are you?"

"I'm from the Raleigh police department." he flashed his badge. "Phillip
Matthews. I've just informed Mr. Concannon that his brother and
sister-in-law, Matt and Trish, have been killed in a car crash yesterday."

"Oh my God." CJ sat down on the couch next to him. "Danny, I'm so sorry." she
hugged him.

Danny quickly stood up and brushed her aside, running his hand through his
hair. The pain in his eyes was too much for her to bear and she looked away.
"What about little Trish? Is she all right?"

"Your niece wasn't in the car, Mr. Concannon. Right now, she's a ward of the
state."

"As of this minute, she isn't." Danny said. "I want her with me."

**

"Hey, Margaret?" Ainsley paused outside of Leo's office. "Is Ginger in yet?"

"No, and if you see Toby, tell him that I'm not responsible for Ginger's
whereabouts every minute of the day. He's already gone through two temps
today. He made one of them cry." Margaret said, not looking up from the
report she was proof-reading. "He really has no respect for the assistants."

"Sorry to hear it." Ainsley said.

"Margaret, there's something I--" Leo skidded to a halt when he saw Ainsley
standing in front of Margaret's desk. "Isn't there something you should be
doing?"

"Whoa." Ainsley said. "Rudeness factor. See you later, Margaret." she said as
she left.

"Leo, that was inexcusable." Margaret remarked.

"Well, I wanted to ask you something."

"It couldn't wait until after she and I were done talking?"

"What were you talking about?" he asked.

"Ginger and Toby." she made a note on the paper.

"Ginger and Toby?" he asked.

"Well, Ginger and then Toby. Did you know he made one of the temps cry?"

"I heard about that." Leo said. "Ginger's got a tough hide."

"I don't think it's that." Ainsley's voice floated in from the hallway. "She
deserves his respect."

"Ainsley, go away!" Leo shouted.

"What did you want to ask me?" Margaret asked, on the verge of strangling
him.

"Would you like to go to the state dinner with me?"

tbc

Past Tense Rising - 6

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