“Institutional Memory” · Season 7
In this episode: C.J. Cregg (4), Danny Concannon (4), Toby Ziegler (1), Helen Santos (1)
As you know, we have very little in the budget for redecorating.
Oh? How much is very little?
$200,000. You might want to establish a fund raising committee to raise a few million dollars and do it right. There really is a lot to do, especially in this room. I've never really liked the color of this rug but the Bartlets ... Well. It's up to you now.
[to CJ] We keep shoving this conversation downstream. At some point you have to choose to have a relationship. We're not 25 any more. At our age you can't date a little and screw a little and wait around to see if you get sentimental at Christmas. You have to decide if you're gonna make another person a part of your life. A partner.
[to Toby] You don't need a pardon, You need a frying pan to the side of your head.
[to CJ] I want you to do what you want to do. Take the job at the White House. I just want you to talk to me about it. I want us to talk about what it will mean and how we'll make it work. I want us to talk like we're gonna figure it out together. I want us to talk...because I like the sound of your voice. I just want to talk.
I missed the window. That's what's going on here. I... missed the window to figure out... how to do this.
How to...?
Share my life with another person, how to be a partner or whatever condescending way you put it this afternoon.
Oh, I wasn't trying...
I don't know how to do it. Maybe at one point I did, maybe I never did, but it's over now. It's too late. This and skiing. It's too late, it's not going to happen.
C.J...
You said yourself, it's not an accident that this hasn't come together. This is who I am. I'm good at my job, Danny, I'm good at working, I'm not good at this.
You're right, you suck at it. You're going to need a tremendous amount of training. [pause] We're going to get good at new things.
You don't know that.
I do.
Don't make it sound like it's nothing.
You didn't miss it.
What if I did?
You didn't miss it.
What if we can't...
We'll figure it out. All of it. You can be scared. That's okay. But you're not going to walk away from me because you're scared. I'm not that scary.
You make it sound like I'm trying to avoid you.
I didn't say that.
I don't make booty calls.
You don't make any calls, kind of how it works out.
What?
You're elusive, part of the draw.
[about the prospect of C.J. joining the Santos administration] Well, you'd be a get, too. Are you gonna do it?
Mmm... Probably, I... I don't know, it's, um, complicated.
Why?
[pause] Danny Concannon.
Yeah, I heard something about that.
We've been spending time together, which is perfectly nice, but he's getting way ahead of himself. I mean, I'm not ready to shape my life around a guy I've been with for a month, that doesn't make sense.
You didn't pick him up in a bar last Thursday, you've been close for eight years.
That doesn't mean it magically falls into place once we take the leap. What? I'm not resisting.
You're not?
I'm not one of those women who can't handle a good thing when it's standing in front of them.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The West Wing pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
