Aleph-Tav by International Princess

[fourteenlines.livejournal.com]

Fandom: THE WEST WING
Pairing: CJ/Toby
Author on LJ: intl_princess
Author Website: here
Why this must be read:

This is Toby all over, from A to Z. It tells the story of the whole hard year of season three, from Mancester, through the election, to the murder of Simon Donovan, CJ's assigned Secret Service Agent. All throughout, it's Toby and his love of words, his love of CJ, his profound feelings about his religion. (Aleph and tav are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.) The structure of this story is such that it only enhances the experience of reading. It's beautifully told, and wonderfully insightful.

And she's gone, in any event. Back to the hotel, back to whatever self-contained world she exists in at the moment.

Seeking absolution.

"Strategically, I felt that was the wise thing to do," she says over and over in his mind, and the gentle clunk of pool balls provides the rhythm to an uneasy soundtrack.

Though the air is clear where he's standing, on the distant horizon he can see lightning. A silent tribute to a storm too far away to hear. Agni, he thinks, the Vedic god of fire.

There was a moment when she did this to him, and somehow he missed it. She tore across him like lightning scorching places unseen, and it was over too quickly and forgotten before it even died in the sky, and all he's left with is the thunder rumbling all around him. The deafening audibility of her in his life.

When he tries to let himself into her room with the key he has scared out of the manager he finds that she has bolted it from the inside.

Aleph-Tav