Lisa's TWW Fan Fic Archive Home
Post Ep | Romance | General | Drama
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Adjustments ~ 23
CJ and Toby slept through the night. The pain medication that Toby had taken really knocked him out.
"Mom. Dad." Derek walked in and shook the bed. "Wake up."
"Huh?" CJ and Toby mumbled.
"It's almost seven." Derek said as he walked out.
"Can I call in sick?" Toby moaned.
"NO. I have to go, you have to go." CJ smiled. "How do you feel?"
"I'm hurting in places I didn't know I had." Toby whined.
"I'm sorry." CJ leaned in and kissed him gently.
"Thank you for last night."
"What?"
"Telling Derek the story." CJ looked down. "I had no idea."
"Nobody does."
"Derek will be fine." CJ smiled weakly.
After they all ate their breakfast, they got in the car. CJ and Toby knew that Derek really didn't want to go to school. But they would make sure he would be safe.
"Okay, remember what we said, okay," CJ said as she pulled up to the front of Derek's school.
"Yeah okay," he said as he got out of the car.
CJ waited until Derek was inside the school to pull away. Once he was, she and Toby drove to work.
"It's about time you got here," Josh said as the two walked in.
"Sorry Josh, it's just that we had a bit of a slow morning and a horrible night."
"Uh huh."
"Not like that you weirdo," she said. "Something happened with Derek, and we are trying to deal with it."
"Oh, is he okay?"
"He'll be fine," Toby said, aching all over.
"Well we have to be in Leo's office, so let's go."
The three walked into Leo's office.
"Ten minutes late!" Leo yelled at CJ and Toby.
"Sorry Leo, it's just that it's been a bad twelve hours!" CJ snapped.
"Settle down," Toby said quietly.
"No I will not settle down. His life was threatened!"
"Whose life was threatened," Sam asked.
"Nothing. It's not important right now," Toby said as he sat down.
"What is going on here," Leo asked.
"Nothing! Jeez Leo, just leave it alone!" CJ stormed out of his office and walked to her own and slammed the door.
"What did I do?" Leo threw his arms up in the air.
"It wasn't you." Toby said.
"What was it?" Leo snapped.
"Some kids from Derek's school are threatening in life." Toby said.
"What?" The men snapped.
"It's messed up. I'm going to go down to the school at lunch time to talk with his teacher."
"Is he ok?" Josh asked.
"Yeah, he's excited about his friend coming over tonight." Toby smiled.
"I'll fix this."
"Go help CJ first." Leo said.
"Yeah." Toby walked out and down the hall. "CJ." Toby knocked.
"Yeah." CJ said.
"You ok?" Toby walked in and shut the door.
"Are you ok?" She snapped.
"I'm going to fix this."
"How?"
"I'm going to see his teacher at lunch time."
"Really?"
"Yes, so don't worry. He'll be fine."
"Thanks Toby." CJ walked over to him and hugged him.
"Don't worry about it."
"It's just that I'm so scared. I mean, what if something happens to him? He's only a kid." Tears started to form in her eyes.
"Nothing will happen to him, that I can promise you."
She nodded, "Okay. But I'm still scared."
"I know, and that's okay. Just know that I'm here, Sam's here, Josh is here, Leo's here, hell, even the President is here for you."
"Yeah, I know. Thanks Toby."
"Of course. Now, are you ready to go back into the meeting?"
"Yeah." She wiped her eyes and they walked back into the meeting.
"Now as I was saying--" Leo was saying. "Hey CJ, are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, thanks." She sat down where she was sitting.
"You know, we're all here for you," Sam said as he took her hand.
"I know, and thank you."
During lunch, Toby went over to Derek's school and saw the teacher. He knocked on the door.
"Yes?"
"Hi, Ms. Harmon, I'm Toby Ziegler, Derek's father."
"Oh yes, I remember you." She smiled. "How are you?"
"Well, I've been better. I wanted to talk to you about Derek."
"Is something wrong?"
"You could say that."
"What can I help you with?" She asked worried.
"Well, last night. Someone threw a rock through Derek's window and had a note attached to it. It mentioned that if he told me or CJ anything about what happened, he would lose his life."
"Oh my."
"I told him something about my past that helped me back then. It was not to say anything and sooner or later they would leave. But I had no idea something this bad was happening here."
"Well, I know a lot of kids are jealous of Derek because of who his parents are. But they don't hate him."
"He did mention four young boys. He called them a gang."
"Yes, I was afraid it was them. Did Derek mention Aaron?"
"Yes, the..."
"Leader, I guess." She looked down. "We have a meeting tonight. I'll mention this then. This isn't the first time this has happened. These boys need to be taken care of."
"Derek didn't..."
"Don't worry. I won't mention Derek. I'll say a concerned parent came down. That's all." She smiled.
"Thanks." Toby smiled back.
"It's no problem," Ms. Harmon said.
"Well, I had better be getting back to work. Thank you for your time." Toby shook her hand.
"Thank you for coming down here and letting me know about this, Mr. Ziegler."
"Anytime," she said as she watched Toby walk out of the room.
Back at the White House...
"And that concludes the 12:00 briefing," CJ said to the Press Corps. She walked out of the Briefing Room, only to find Toby standing there. "Hey, how did things go?"
"Well, apparently there is a meeting tonight. The teacher said she would bring up the issue."
"Did you tell her not to..."
"I told her."
She smiled, "Thank you."
"You're welcome." He kissed her gently.
TBC...