DISCLAIMER: As per all my work – not mine, no money whatsoever, just some writing fun and hopefully reading pleasure….they are all.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This was written as a screen-cap challenge response in the Femslash_Fluff LJ community.
ARCHIVING: Only with the permission of the author.
Ancient Secret Service Tricks...
By ncruuk
"It's really not going to work y'know..."
"Excuse me?" Confused, CJ decided denial was the way forward.
"Waiting for me to pour coffee before checking out my backside...not going to work..." teased Gina, wondering how the controlled Press Secretary would react.
"I wasn't checking out your..." began CJ, in genuine defensive outrage, only to catch herself, "wait, how did you know I wasn't looking at the clocks?" she asked, switching to her 'professional' mode - she was the Press Secretary dammit, and avoiding questions was her job.
"Ancient Secret Service trick..." teased Gina, returning the coffee jug to the hotplate and turning to look at CJ.
"...sure you don't want coffee?"
"That's not coffee..." commented CJ, eyeing the thick, treacle-like brew with suspicion.
"No, but it's my only option right now..." agreed Gina, taking a sip and leaning back against the counter.
"So..." began CJ finally, unable to cope as well with extending silences as the Secret Service agent.
"Why are you still standing there?" asked Gina, never one for the soft approach if there was some direct action available to her - it was in part what made her a good agent.
"I..." CJ wasn't entirely sure, "I'll go..." she accentuated her decision with her glasses, ready to turn on her heel and stride out of what was now, for her, awkward, although for Gina it seemed to be amusing.
"I don't mind, you know..."
"Mind what?"
"You checking me out..."
"I didn't...I can't..." The more she realised quite how well Gina had read her, the more flustered she became. She couldn't....she shouldn't....
"Sure you can..." agreed Gina with the ease of someone who spent their daytime looking for bullets to stop. Coaxing a tense Press Secretary to unwind and relax was easy by comparison.
"But..." Again the glasses gestured what words couldn't say, namely the hustle of the Secret Service bullpen.
"We don't let reporters in here CJ..." explained Gina kindly, understanding the issues that had to be dealt with for the tall red head to relax and be herself, rather than her persona.
"And...." More eloquence from the glasses, with an expression that Gina could only describe as troubled, although the worry was, she hoped, fading.
"They already know..."
"That I think you're cute?" blurted out CJ, before clapping her hand over her mouth in horror, prompting Gina to break out into a brilliant smile - she'd finally broken down through the Press Secretary's veneer.
"Actually, I was talking about your preferences...but that's good to know!"
"They, you do?"
"It's amazing what the Secret Service knows about the people they protect..." explained Gina, taking another generous sip of her coffee, as much for the moment it bought her, rather than an actual need for caffeine.
"They know..." This time, the quiet comment from CJ, almost a whisper in fact, wasn't a question, but a statement of relief. In this tiny corner of Washington D.C., where the politics really didn't matter, she could relax...
"Yeah..." confirmed Gina, before deciding a mood shift was needed, "but you still haven't answered my question...."
"You didn't ask a question, you passed comment..." countered CJ, her lightening quick mind and clever wit not letting the opportunity pass.
"Okay..." drawled Gina, glad she'd managed to get through to the intriguing woman on a personal level.
"Why were you checking me out whilst I poured some coffee?"
"Because I think you're cute..." replied CJ boldly, finding a confidence with women she thought she'd long forgotten, left behind on a beach somewhere in California.
"Why did you stay when I went to pour the coffee?" asked Gina, enjoying the game they'd somehow started playing.
"Because I think you're smart, funny and probably amazing in bed..." admitted CJ, belatedly realising that trying to out-dare a Secret Service Agent probably wasn't a good plan - nerves of steel had to be standard issue surely?
"Why are you still here now?" asked Gina, her voice shading with a new colour, one that hinted of passion and seriousness. This was not a question CJ was going to joke or spin out of.
"Because I think, for the first time in a long, long time, I'd like to spend some time with someone..." CJ paused and took a composing deep breath, determined to follow through with her thought and not take an easy way out - it was time to be true to herself, and not her job, "...someone I'd like to start thinking of as my girlfriend...."
"Really?" Gina was impressed and surprised by CJ's boldness and honesty.
"Really..."
"I'm not the easiest person to be in a relationship with...." admitted Gina honestly, thinking of the long shifts when she'd be with Zoe Bartlett, doing a job that by its very definition, was hard on partners.
"That was going to be my line..." admitted CJ, smiling shyly.
"When should I start making your life difficult then?"
"You working tonight?"
"At the dinner, same as you..."
"Midnight?" suggested CJ, thanking any deity that might be eavesdropping for making tomorrow one of those rare Saturday's which Jed Bartlett decided the Senior Staff were forbidden from coming to work on.
"Sure...your apartment?" guessed Gina, knowing CJ would probably prefer the lower profile location.
"You don't mind?" asked CJ, grateful for the consideration.
"I'm not that good in public places..." admitted Gina shyly, her eyes darting about the room, explaining everything to CJ. In crowds, Gina couldn't help but be alert and watchful.
"Midnight then..."
"See you there..."
"You know my address?"
"I will do by then...."
"Ancient Secret Service trick?" guessed CJ, just as her pager started vibrating, demanding her presence elsewhere.
"Actually..." drawled Gina, grinning brightly, "I was just going to look it up in your file..."
"Ah..." Smiling, CJ turned to head out of the bullpen, only for the picture above the coffee machine to catch her eye.
"Interesting picture...."
"Never really noticed...." observed Gina, looking at it briefly, before turning and grinning at CJ, "...but it works as a great mirror..."
The End