Title: The Good Old Days

Timeline: Takes place during the episode "Enemies" and includes
flashbacks to Josh's early days on the Hill.

Author: Cathy Miller (www.cathyswestwing.com)

Rating: PG (a little language.)

Disclaimer: I was really good, but Santa still didn't get them for
me.

"There's got to be a way to get the Big Sky strip mining
amendment off the banking bill." Josh said to Sam, while he paced in
Sam's office.

"Uh-huh." Sam agreed without looking up from his typing.

"Why aren't you helping me?" Josh asked, then answered his
own question. "I know why you're not helping me; you don't
care about this."

"I care very much about getting the banking bill through. The strip
mining, though? Not so much."

"Josh, you've got Senator Wilson in twenty." Donna reminded
him from the doorway.

"Donna, Sam won't help me get the amendment off the banking
bill." Josh tattled.

"Do I have to separate you two? Just wait until your father gets
home." She teased.

"In the good old days, he would've been all over this with me;
fighting side by side to remove this atrocity of an amendment."

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury, my esteemed colleague is assuming
facts not in evidence." Sam countered without looking up from his
keyboard. "I'd ask counselor Lyman just when he considers the
`good old days' occurred?"

"I'd like to know who would hire counselor Lyman to begin
with." Donna muttered.

"The American people hired me Donna."

"Not really. They elected your boss who appointed you." She
corrected.

"In any case, the good old days would have been when Sam and I
worked on the hill together."

That made Sam laugh out loud. "Are you kidding me? We didn't
know what we were doing yet. We got lambasted on a daily basis from the
leadership...on both sides. THOSE were the good old days?"

"We worked together and accomplished things." Josh argued.

"Some would say we do that now." Sam stated.

"Ha! When I worked for Congressman Reardon; that's when there
was true partnership."

"Really?" Sam finally looked up from his keyboard and took off
his glasses to rub his eyes. "Okay. Why don't you fill Donna in
on your interview with Reardon. I'm sure she'd be
fascinated."

"That isn't necessarily indicative of that time period."
Josh backtracked.

"No, no. We all want to hear about the good old days. Tell her about
your interview." Sam insisted.

"Okay...Congressman Reardon had just become Minority Whip and he
was looking for someone to help him run the floor." Josh began and
was instantly transported to the small anteroom outside of Congressman
Reardon's office.

"Mr. Lyman? The Congressman will see you now." Judy, the
Congressman's assistant, announced. She was an older woman; Josh
estimated her to be in her fifties, and was known to keep order and
decorum in the Congressman's office. Josh was very careful not to
piss her off. He thanked her and picked up his backpack, which she eyed
distastefully, and opened the door to the Congressman's inner
sanctum.

"Joshua Lyman. Come in, come in." Reardon invited gesturing to a
chair opposite his. "Tell me son, what are you doing here?"

"I'm...interviewing for-"

"No, no. I know why you're HERE. I want to know why you're
here; at the Capital. Your father could get you into his law firm with a
snap of his fingers with a very nice yearly income. Why are you slaving
away for peanuts on the Hill?"

"With all due respect, Congressman, I could get myself into a law
firm. I wouldn't use my father like that. I went to law school to
work in politics, not to make a 6 figure income."

"Have your eye on a seat, do you?" Reardon asked.

"No, sir. I don't think that's for me, either. I want the
opportunity to do what your current opening would give me a chance to
do; help turn good bills into law and learn how to negotiate on the
Hill."

Reardon scrutinized Josh carefully. "The term `Whip'
originates from the British term-"

"That refers to the person responsible for keeping the foxhounds
from leaving the pack. It was first used in the House of Commons in
1897. It came to the House of Representatives in 1897 when Republican
James Tawney from Minnesota was appointed Whip by Speaker Reed who
wanted a way to keep track of the whereabouts of party members."

"That's right, but don't ever interrupt me again."
Reardon decreed.

"Yes, sir." Josh clamped his mouth shut.

"What are the three main functions of the House Whip?" Reardon
quizzed him.

Josh wondered if the Congressman actually believed that Josh would come
to this interview without this most basic information. "The three
primary functions of the Whip are; mobilizing the vote on key
legislative issues, providing information to Members and leadership, and
coordinating strategy within the House."

Reardon nodded. "It's a big job and I can delegate some pieces
of it to the Chief Deputy Whip and other Members, but this office is
going to be the hub of it all. I need someone who knows the other
Members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans. That individual needs to
know what issues are most important to all the Members and head off
those stray hounds before they veer to far from the pack."

"Working in Congress for the last few years has given me an
opportunity to know the House Members fairly well. I know how to debate
the issues and convince Members to get on board."

"I've heard that, which is why you're sitting here right
now. But this is a big jump into a much larger pond, and you're
pretty young for this position." Reardon sat back in chair and
steepled his fingers, silently assessing the young man in front of him.
Over the next year, Josh would come to know that expression very well.
"Clemens said he's never seen anyone quite as hungry and
politically savvy as you."

"I learned a lot from Congressman Clemens." Josh acknowledged.

"But you don't want to stay in his office?" Reardon asked
shrewdly.

Josh knew Clemens was retiring after this session and he was fairly sure
Reardon had that information as well. So what was this seasoned
Congressman fishing for?

"I wouldn't be here today without his tutelage and he was the
one to recommend me for this position." Josh attempted a non-answer
answer. It looked to have been the right one because Congressman Reardon
smirked. The smirk reminded Josh of a shark circling his prey; the shark
liked to play with his prey a little before he put the prey out of his
misery. He wanted to learn that smirk. It was an expression that could
come in handy when dealing with members of Congress.

"The White House...seems to be determined to push through their
new tax credits now that they have a slim majority in both houses. Since
the President is enjoying a relatively high approval rating at the
moment, we may have some of our esteemed colleagues jumping ship. Where
do you think you would start?" Reardon asked.

Josh was tempted to jump right in, but paused a moment before he spoke
which took an amazing amount of willpower.

"Some of our members took a beating with this election; quite a few
won by a narrow margin. They can't afford to strong arm the White
House right now. Looking at past performance, I'd say we have about
170 from our side of the aisle to vote nay. If we're going to block
this, it'll have to be with help from the other side." Josh
opined.

"And why would any Republican vote with us on this?"

"The President isn't polling high everywhere. We start with the
Members who declined to have the President campaign with them; the
moderate states with lower median incomes. We can easily wrangle 40
votes going that route; that puts us at 210. Is Brooks still making
noises about re-introducing his highways bill?"

Reardon nodded thoughtfully.

"We trade our support for the highways bill in exchange for nay
votes on the tax credit bill. Brooks will bring his entire caucus with
him and strong arm enough extra votes to put us over." Josh
summarized.

"What about our members that are jumping ship?"

"We give them political cover on this one." Reardon raised his
eyebrows in surprise at Josh's answer. "It would be political
suicide for them to vote against it and we need to keep those seats if
we're going to take back the House in 2 years. Giving them political
cover will buy us their gratitude and loyalty when we need it down the
line. We also need to get our Members talking about the Republican plans
for this session; start knocking down the President's numbers a few
notches. That's the way we get the momentum going our way." Josh
finished and waited for Reardon's pronouncement.

"Clemens said you never refer to the President as anything other
than the President." Reardon mentioned.

"Yes, sir?" Josh responded carefully.

"In this neck of the woods, he is sometimes referred to by other,
less respectful terms."

"Not by me, sir." Josh stated. "He is the President and the
office demands respect. Besides, I can come up with more effective ways
to neutralize the President than name calling."

"Hmmmm." Reardon tipped back in his chair again, shifting his
considerable girth.

Josh could hear the clock in the office tick the seconds away and tried
to maintain a calm demeanor while he attempted to read the
Congressman's facial expression; which eluded him.

"You're going to need to prepare all communications from this
office to the Democratic Members: the daily whipping post, the weekly
whip notice, and the House calendar." Reardon told him.

"Does this mean-"

"Until I know that you know what the hell you're doing, you run
everything by Judy." Reardon continued. "And I already told you
not to interrupt me. We're going to have the tax credit bill coming
at us right out of the gate. Find me those vulnerable Republicans and
bring them to the table. Once you get them there, I'll take over; at
least until you get your sea legs. For those meetings I want their
voting history, their district/state numbers, and anything else you can
dig up that will help me bend them to my will." Reardon smiled that
shark smirk again. "Any questions?"

"So I have the job?" Josh confirmed.

"Unless and until you screw up irreparably. I'll give you 3
weeks." Reardon turned his back on Josh to work on his computer,
clearly dismissing Josh. "Judy will show you where you can
office."

Josh picked up his backpack and left before the eccentric Congressman
changed his mind. He had NEVER been through an interview like that
before. He found himself waiting in front of Judy's desk while she
finished her phone call. Once she hung up, he had to clear his throat to
get her to look at him; old battleaxe.

"Excuse me, Judy?" Josh spoke hesitantly.

"It's Mrs. Perkins." She corrected.

"Of course it is." Josh gave her his winning smile, only it
didn't seem to have the desired effect. "Uh, the Congressman
said you could show me to my office?"

"Something wrong with your legs Mr. Lyman?" She looked at him
over her bifocals.

"Uh, no...and please, call me Josh."

"Not in this office. I don't know how you did things over in
Clemens office, but in this office, we act with decorum and that means
speaking to one another with respect."

"Yes, ma'am." Josh responded immediately.

"Your office is the third door on the right."

"I actually prefer to be on the left..." Josh chuckled at his
joke, but it appeared to have left Judy, errr Mrs. Perkins, cold.
"Third door on the right." Josh repeated and nodded.

"And Mr. Lyman? You might want to rethink your choice of briefcase.
The...item you're currently using doesn't reflect well on the
Congressman."

Josh looked down at his beloved backpack, his good luck charm, and
decided that although he may make many compromises with this woman,
abandoning his backpack was not among them. "I'll...keep that
in mind...maybe after I get a couple paychecks under my belt?" He
began walking while he talked. "Oh, and Mrs. Perkins, I'd love
to have a cup of coffee."

"Sure, the coffee maker is in the staff break room. You can make the
first pot." She smiled sardonically.

"Of course..." Josh grimaced and went to find his new office. The
first thing he did once he sat down was to pick up the phone and call
Sam. "Hey. Just thought I'd call you and give you the number for
my new office...Not so loud, Sam." Josh chuckled because despite
his protest, he knew his friend would react exactly as he had. "It
was one of the strangest, and shortest, interviews I ever had, but I got
the job....It's going to be great, except for this grumpy
gatekeeper he's got here....I can work around her though and
then-"

"Excuse me, Mr Lyman?" the grouchy gatekeeper said from behind
him and Josh cringed.

"Uh...yeah?" Josh asked without turning around.

"The Congressman has a meeting at 10 in his office he's
expecting you to attend." She told him and left without another
word.

Josh groaned out loud. "Yep...that was her." He confirmed
while his `friend' laughed hysterically.



Part 2:

Present...(during Enemies episode)

"Oh, Joshua, you didn't!" Donna had to wipe the tears from
her eyes because she was laughing so hard. "You pissed off the
office manager within the first 10 minutes of being hired?"

"She was stealthy, Donna. You could never hear her coming. You'd
just turn around and she would be there. I'm still not convinced she
wasn't an alien of some kind...or a Republican." Josh
protested and set off another round of laughter between Donna and Sam.

"That wasn't even the worst of it." Sam continued the
narrative. "When he said he could round up the votes, he may have
been overstating things a bit. See, technically he was correct in his
assessment of who they `could' get but he didn't really have
the knowledge of how to execute the plan using his newly appointed
powers in the Whip's office. His first call was to Congressman
Brooks' office; spoke to the man directly."

"Josh! He hates being called directly by staffers!"

"I know that NOW, Donna, but thanks for the info." Josh said
sardonically.

"Let me guess. You called him directly, played him heavy handedly,
and got him royally pissed." Donna summarized.

"Royally pissed may be understating again." Sam offered. "I
could hear him yelling from my side of the building."

"Yeah, well that was nothing compared to the chaos in
Congressman's office after they found out I lost Brooks and the 8
votes that went with him." Josh shook his head remembering that
horrible time.

"You must have been frantic." Donna noted.

"Excuse me? Frantic?" Josh repeated. "I was a professional
political operative, Donna. We plan the best we can, but when unplanned
things come up, we rise to the occasion."

Sam turned to Josh with raised eyebrows.

"That's my story and I'm sticking with it." Josh
insisted.

"Then it's my turn to play narrator." Sam decided. "I
got an urgent call from Josh after he left Brooks' office asking me
to meet him back in Reardon's office. He'd already gotten the
patented Lyman pace down very well and had nearly worn a path in his 10
x 10 office by the time I got there." Sam remembered....

"Josh? What's wrong?" Sam asked when he pushed Josh's
door open.

"I have a...situation I need help with." Josh began.

"A situation? A situation we couldn't discuss over the
phone?"

"I think Nurse Ratched listens in on my phone calls." Josh
whispered, looking nervously over Sam's shoulder while he shut the
door.

"I think you've become a little paranoid, Josh. Mrs. Perkins is
very nice and appears to be most efficient."

"She's not nice at all, and efficiency is highly overrated."
Josh countered. "I ran into a little problem with Congressman Brooks
earlier. I went over to talk to him about the party's agenda and
start a whip count on H.R. 6, the Republican tax cuts? But when I got to
the meeting, he was pissed it was me and not Reardon. I tried to step
around that and explain I was speaking for Reardon, but that just pissed
him off more. Now, he and the 8 votes he influences are all going to
vote for the measure instead of against it and told me to never darken
his door again. Can you believe that? I mean, what kind of person even
says things like `darken my door'?"

"I think you may have bigger problems than his communication
style." Sam noted. "It's like the first week in session, how
did you manage to get blacklisted by one of our own members so
fast?"

"It's a gift Sam. Now are you going to help me or chastise
me?"

"I'd be happy to help, but I don't know what I can do at
this point. How does Congressman Reardon want you to handle it?....Josh?
You haven't told the Congressman you lost 8 votes right out of the
gate?"

"Nine." Josh moaned.

"Yeah. I think you need to talk to Reardon and reconfigure your
strategy here."

"I can't! This is the first thing my boss asked me to do. I
can't go to him and say, `sorry, I screwed it up before we were
even gaveled into session!"

"You didn't. We gaveled into session days ago."

"Not funny Sam."

"Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

"I don't know what to do. I am so totally screwed."

"Take a breath, Josh. Think. You're a brilliant political
thinker. Push the stuff with Brooks aside and concentrate on the next
step."

"The next step...okay. I'll move on to the next Congressman
and give Brooks a chance to cool down. Once I get some momentum going I
can have the Congressman connect with Brooks and recover the 9 votes I
may have...misplaced." Josh thought out loud.

"Great. You have a plan." San nodded. "Get to work."

Josh grabbed his suit coat and his back pack and headed out the door. He
was a man on a mission.

"Josh Lyman, I have an appointment with Congressman Coles." Josh
bounced on his heels nervously while the receptionist let the
Congressman know Josh was there. Bertram Coles was known as a Blue Dog
Democrat, a moderate Democrat who often voted with the Republicans on
fiscal issues. Getting him to vote nay on the tax cuts would
be...challenging, but if Josh could hold Coles, it would go a long way
in influencing the rest of the Blue Dogs since they often voted in a
bloc.

"Congressman Coles is ready for you Mr. Lyman."

"Thanks." Josh gave her a winning smile and walked confidently
into the inner sanctum of Bertram Coles.

"Congressman, I'm Josh Lyman. We met a couple times on the
Hill." Josh reminded him.

"I remember you, boy. So, you're working the Whip count now, are
you?"

"Yes, sir. That's why I'm here. I'd like to talk to you
about the HR 6, that's being introduced in a few days."

Coles laughed. "Talk all you want, son, but if you think I'm
voting against a tax cut with an election coming up, you're
loco."

"There's always an election coming up, sir. This will give you
the opportunity to show your constituents you are keeping the budget
balanced and not providing tax cuts to the wealthy corporations in your
district." Josh argued. "Surely you don't want to go back
home and have to explain why the middle class isn't getting any tax
breaks and that you weren't able to procure any earmarks
either."

Coles laughed again. "Brooks was right, you do have big brass ones,
but they're not as big as mine and I don't like being told how
to vote from some pissant kid from Connecticut. Tell Reardon I'm
voting `Yea'. We done now?"

"It looks like we are. Thanks for your time, Congressman." Josh
choked out.

His other meetings on the Hill went just as the one with Coles had.
Brooks had wasted no time spreading the word that Josh Lyman was to be
blackballed. He decided to take a walk outside to clear his head and try
to come up with another plan.

By the time he returned to his office, he was feeling depressed and
defeated. He was surprised when his phone rang. Reardon always summoned
him through Nurse Ratched and he didn't think anyone else was
speaking to him.

"Josh Lyman."

"You don't sound so good, Joshua. I thought you'd be flying
high right now." Noah Lyman stated.

"More like crashing and burning." His son admitted.

"Rough day on the Hill?"

"It might be the last day on the Hill." Josh muttered.

"I think this might be one of those cases where you're blowing
things out of proportion, kiddo. What happened?"

Josh told him the whole sordid tale and Noah Lyman didn't interrupt
him once. After Josh had finished, there was a short pause, before Noah
started to chuckle.

"What?!" Josh demanded.

"Maybe this wasn't a case of you blowing things out of
proportion." Noah continued to laugh. "Ruth? Come here and
listen to what Josh did."

"Thanks Dad. I feel much better now."

"Trust me, Josh, someday you'll think back on this and
laugh...or at least all the people around you will."

"Yes, while reflecting on my short stint working in the Whip's
office, the story will become the character building funny part."

"Yes, it will." Noah agreed even though he knew his son was
being sarcastic. "What does the Congressman have to say about recent
events?"

"I'm not exactly sure."

"You haven't kept him in the loop on this?" Noah asked in
surprise.

"I wanted to bring it to him completed."

"Without his advice or input? All by yourself?"

"That's my job, Dad!"

"So your first week in your new job, in a position you've never
worked before, you're expected to work without a net? That's
ridiculous, Josh. Go talk to Reardon."

"This is a different level, Dad. People are expected to sink or swim
on their own here."

"Well son, you've got the sinking part down pat. How about
talking to Reardon about a quick swimming lesson?"

"He's going to regret ever hiring me and fire my ass."

"Maybe, but isn't that what you'll be looking at anyway
without some help? Talk to Reardon, Josh; do it now." Noah
encouraged him. "Then call me back and tell me how it went. I'll
wait up for your call."

"I'll be out of a job by then, so I can just come home and you
can buy me a beer."

"Potato, potahto." Noah replied and hung up laughing.

Josh took the long, long walk to the Congressman's office. He
wasn't even sure if Reardon was still in; it was getting late. But
as he got closer, he saw Nurse Ratched still at her post. Great, not
only as he getting fired, but he'd have the evil one watching.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Perkins, does the Congressman have a minute?"
Josh asked quietly and politely. He'd learned something after the
last few days.

"Go right in, Mr. Lyman." She directed him.

Josh knocked perfunctorily and entered at the Congressman's call.

"Good evening, sir."

"Joshua. How goes the battle?" Reardon looked up at him with
that smirk again.

Josh decided fast and quick was the best way to do this. "It's
rather bloody at the moment, sir. I've managed to tank our- my
effort to thwart the tax cuts while simultaneously blackballing myself
from most of the office on the Hill."

Reardon got up and poured them both a drink. "You have been busy.
Brooks burned part of my ear off complaining about me sending a rookie
to talk to him about our agenda."

"I thought if I could gain some momentum with the other members, I
could go back to Brooks with a mea culpa and salvage his voting
block." Josh explained.

"Hmmmm...and how did that work out for you?"

"Not so well. Brooks got to everyone before I even introduced
myself." Josh admitted.

"Brooks REALLY doesn't like being approached by rookies or even
senior staffers unless they've been around a while. A fact I could
have told you if you'd come to me first." Reardon told him as he
handed Josh the drink and sat next to him in the other visitor chair.
"You're very politically savvy, Josh. You've got big ideas
and you're not afraid to speak truth to power, but a big part of
this game is the relationship building. You have to carefully cultivate
that over time. It doesn't come with your office."

"I don't think I belong in that office." Josh took a deep
swallow and his eyes burned.

"Maybe not yet, but I think there's hope for you." Reardon
smirked again. "What have you learned here?"

"I don't have relationships with the members yet; not in this
capacity anyway. I should have brought them to you after briefing you on
how to approach each member for their vote."

"Yeah. That's what I need you for most right now, Joshua. I
don't have the time to do research on every bill and how it's
going to affect every district; and neither do you. That's what the
interns are for. Ask them to gather what you need, you compile it and
bring it to me along with your strategy suggestions. Then I'll want
you in on the meetings with me."

"I don't think you want me in the meetings right now, sir."

"Yes, I do; for two reasons. 1) Assholes like Brooks need to see us
as inseparable so that when you're speaking to him it's just
like it's coming out of my mouth. 2) You need to learn how to run
these meeting yourself so when you have established relationships with
them, you can take most of that off my plate."

"Then, I'm not fired?" Josh confirmed.

"Not yet." Reardon smirked again. "But you will be if I ever
hear about shit like this second hand again. If something goes wrong,
you come to me immediately with it. I don't like being blindsided or
hearing about my staff through the Hill gossip mill. Got it?"

"Yes, sir."

"We've got a 7:00 am meeting with Brooks and his entourage in
his office, bastard always insists on meeting at the crack of dawn on
his turf. Make sure you're ready for it."

"Yes, sir."

"Maybe the son of a bitch is a vampire and he likes to stay close to
the coffin he has hidden in there." Reardon speculated. "Look
into that too, will you?"

"Uh, yes, sir." Josh agreed not knowing if Reardon was serious
or not.

"We'll meet here at 6:45 and you can brief me on the way over
there."

"Good night, sir...and thank you for the second chance."

"Oh, you're going to need more than 1 second chance in this
game, son. Night."

Josh heaved a sigh of relief as he exited the office.

"Lock the front door behind you. Will you please, Mr. Lyman?"
Mrs. Perkins requested.

"I'll be happy to lock it for you, Mrs. Perkins, but I'm not
leaving." Josh announced.

"You're going to stay here all night so you don't let the
Congressman down with Brooks again, aren't you?"

"Yes, ma'am, I am."

"Give me the address to your apartment and a key to get in." she
requested.

"I don't know. I usually get dinner and a movie first." Josh
drawled, not caring if she was offended at this point. He still had his
job after all.

"And here I was going to do something nice for you."

"And now?"

"Now I'll send an intern to your place for a fresh suit and
you'll be lucky if the socks match."

"Blew that one, did I?"

"In spades. But it's neither the first thing you messed up nor
the last, I'm sure." But there was a slight smile on her face as
she said it, so Josh took it as an encouraging sign.

"I think that's safe bet." Josh agreed as he pulled the key
of his key ring and scribbled down his address. He practically ran to
his office to start putting things together for his boss and only paused
momentarily to call his father to say that he'd have to take a
raincheck on the beer.

At precisely 6:45 the next morning, Josh was dressed in his fresh suit
and had a host of documents to review with the Congressman before
meeting Brooks as well as a bulky manila envelope. He approached the
Congressman's door just as it opened and the man himself appeared.

"Good, you're on time. Let's go."

"Uh...I thought you wanted a briefing first, sir."

"I do. We'll do it on our walk over there. The pace is too fast
around here to allow time to sit and brief; you need to learn to walk
and talk, kid."

"Ah-kay. I have his district stats here with blue tabs that mark the
constituents that would be affected by the cuts." Josh handed him a
few sheets of paper as they walked. "These outline our
counterproposal and the level of support he would get at home for them.
And this last packet is a list of Members who are already committed to
opposing this cut; including the other Representatives from his home
state." Josh gave Reardon the last of the pages.

"Huh. Good work." Reardon allowed as he paged through the
documents. "Oh, look at that. The cut would affect 2 of his largest
business owners and not in a good way."

"I saw that, sir. Both owners also contribute heavily to his
campaigns."

"Very nice." Reardon told him. "What's in there?"
Reardon motioned to the manila envelope.

"I tried to research that last item you asked about last night, but
I couldn't find any conclusive evidence either way. So to play it
safe, there's garlic and a wooden stake in there, sir." Josh
explained.

Reardon stopped in his tracks trying to recall what his last request had
been last night. Then it hit him. He'd asked Josh to look into
whether or not Brooks was a vampire. Reardon let out a huge whoop of
laughter that frightened people in the hallway.

He slapped a hand on Josh's folder. "It looks like we're
prepared, then. Let's get this over with. I think this could be
fun."

Present Day....

"See how valuable a good assistant can be when the chips are
down?" Donna noted.

"She was only helping me to make the Congressman look good."
Josh objected. "She was probably just gearing up to ask for a
raise."

"Which I'm sure she deserved." Donna added. "It's a
common fact that all good assistants are tragically underpaid."

"Uh-huh." Josh agreed tongue in cheek.

"You're mocking me Joshua, and I'm just about to save your
ass yet again."

"Really? And just how do you figure that?"

"Hey! George and Gracie; take it out of my office now will you?"
Sam requested. "I have to finish this."

"You've really been spending too much time with Toby, you know
that?" Josh shot back.

"Jo-osh." Donna sing songed.

"What?!"

"Senator Wilson....meeting in the Roosevelt Room?" she
reminded him and watched his eyes widen.

"Shit. Quick I need the-" Josh began.

Donna handed him the files he'd need with a smirk. "You were
saying something about assistants, I believe."

"Only how invaluable they are." Josh said innocently.
"I'll be back in an hour...use that cunning brain of yours to
figure out how to get rid of the land use rider."

"Oh...sure...I'll get right on that." She muttered while
he disappeared from view.

Josh turned the corner sharply and stopped to take a deep breath before
he went in to meet Wilson. All this talk about the `good old
day' brought to mind the first time he'd taken a meeting in the
Roosevelt Room...

TBC...



Part 3

"I really think we can handle this alone, sir." Reardon's
Chief of Staff was saying, throwing a look over his shoulder at Josh. In
the 3 months Josh had been with them, he'd made some spectacular
saves, but he'd also made some monumental screw-ups. Evans figured
anyone that bright out to be more consistent and it bothered him that
Reardon was putting more and more eggs in Lyman's basket.

"I'm sure we could, Peter, but I'd like to get Josh's
take on this...and I'd like our opponent to get a closer look at
Josh." Reardon chuckled at the prospect. Josh was being put through
security behind them and Peter Evans leaned closer to the Congressman to
speak more plainly.

"Lyman's kind of like a ticking time bomb. You never know when
it's going to go off." He argued.

"I know." Reardon smirked. "What's the hold up Josh? You
commit a felony lately?"

"No, sir, but I work for a Member of Congress and some people
consider that a moral crime."

"Yeah, yeah. Remember, I don't want you to say anything until I
ask you something directly. Just listen carefully and take copious
notes." Reardon instructed.

"Yes, sir. What do you want me to take notes on?" Josh asked.

"The weather, the d‚cor in the Roosevelt Room, make a list of the
interns you'd like to date but can't because you're their
supervisor." Reardon suggested and opened the door to the Roosevelt
Room.

Donald Harrison, the President's Chief of Staff, the Secretary of
Defense, George Pollick, and the House Majority Leader Greg Denning were
all seated around the table and looked up at their arrival.

"Congressman Reardon, thank you for joining us. With the Minority
leader in the hospital, we appreciate you taking this meeting."

"Certainly. My Chief of Staff Peter Evans and Floor Manager Joshua
Lyman." Reardon introduced them as they took their seats. "What
is the matter of urgency, gentlemen?"

"The President is concerned that his defense budget is being
stripped piece by piece at a time when those funds are critical to the
success of our fight against communism." The Secretary of Defense
began and Josh let out a bark of laughter. Everyone turned to look at
him. Josh looked sheepish.

"Excuse me...I thought it was the opening to a joke."

"Communism is no joke, young man." Pollick noted.

"Of course not, sir." Josh agreed and immediately picked up a
pen and wrote furiously on his legal pad. He started out with
"Communism is no joke" but quickly moved on to note the number
of chairs around the table and the god awful tie the Chief of Staff was
wearing; still listening with half an ear to the conversation around
him.

Evans turned a bit to see what Josh was writing and was dismayed to see
him drawing caricatures of the men at the table and rolled his eyes at
the younger man. Josh just shrugged and kept drawing.

"Donald, our caucus isn't going to cut the spending on our
troops overseas, but we're certainly not going to increase it."
Reardon addressed the Chief of Staff directly. "And frankly,
we're more than a little tired of the President's demagoguery
about communism and the need for nation building. We have an obligation
to the people here at home and the middle class is-"

"The middle class will receive the benefit of a strong national
defense, Jim." The Majority Leader interrupted with a banged fist on
the table. Reardon blinked at the fierceness of the rebuttal. Slowly, he
sat back in his seat and without taking his eyes off Greg, said,
"Josh, what's going to happen when this hits the floor?"

Without looking up from his amateur artwork, Josh replied,
"They'll max out at 208, maybe 211 if the Majority leader here,
promises some of his good, old fashioned, no bid defense contracts to
the gentlemen from Idaho."

"Excuse me?" The majority leader demanded and caused Josh to
finally look up.

"Did I say that last part out loud?" Josh asked and Reardon
guffawed.

"How long did you serve in the military Lyman?" The Majority
Leader posed the question.

"Not a day, sir. Why? Is it required now? We still have an all
volunteer military, don't we?"

"I'm saying that maybe those who've never served don't
have the proper perspective on this issue. We have a manifest destiny to
spread Democracy and end communism." Greg pointed out as if it was
his job as Majority Leader to teach Josh Democracy 101.

"Manifest Destiny...That's the excuse we used to rob the
Native Americans of their land and kill the ones that didn't care
for the idea, right?" Josh asked leaning onto the table.

"That has nothing to do with the defense budget." The Secretary
of Defense shouted.

"Neither does communism, sir. Russia was a threat once; we raced
them to get to the moon. Now, the only way they're going to be
making a return trip is if they pile all their vodka bottles really high
and-"

"Are you just going to sit here and let him talk to me this way,
Jim?" Greg asked Reardon.

"Looks like it." Reardon concluded after purveying the scene.

Josh turned to Reardon. "This is about defense contracts. It's
an earmark by another name. There are going to be eight states in play
next go around and the Republicans are in serious danger of losing their
majority. Naturally the Majority Leader doesn't like that scenario;
who can blame him? So now they ramp up the `defend freedom and
democracy everywhere' rhetoric to inflate the defense budget and
that will give them big fat defense contracts to award to key districts,
which they hope will cement those districts in the red column."

"I think we can avail ourselves of the bully pulpit to convince the
public we need to substantially increase the defense budget." Donald
noted.

"Highly doubtful since we've already got validators lined up for
the Sunday morning shows to talk about the real reason for the budget
increases." Josh added while he went back to doodling on the pad.

"What?!" Greg shouted.

"Oh, yeah, they've got these colorful graphics and
everything." Josh told him. "Carrie, one of my interns, is
really great with the computer stuff. She's tried to teach me but
I'm helpless with technology. Anyway, she did these great district
maps and when she showed me what else she could add to them to make
them...what's the term, interactive?...I said `add it in for
Meet the Press'. NBC is going to run over and over forever."

"The bottom line is that the President's coattails aren't
going to be enough to shove this budget increase down the throats of the
American people so you can stay in the Majority Leaders office. A budget
increase, by the way, that can only happen with a tax increase."
Reardon summarized. "Tell the President we're a solid caucus on
this." Reardon rose from his seat. "Oh and don't bother to
play the "Democrats are unpatriotic' card, because we've got
ammo on this issue and we're not afraid to shoot back."

Josh scrambled to his feet and followed Reardon and Evans out of the
Roosevelt Room. He stopped short once he was in the hallway and stared
at all the hustle and bustle around him. Reardon noticed Josh had fallen
behind.

"Something wrong, Joshua?" he asked.

"No, sir." Josh shook his head and joined the Congressman again.
"Remember when you asked me why I was on the Hill instead of a law
firm someplace?"

"Uh-huh." Reardon answered.

Josh indicated the hallway behind him with a jerk of his thumb.
"That's why, sir." Reardon smiled as he got Josh's
message. Now that he knew Josh a little better, he thought the White
House would be exactly where that young man would eventually end up.



Part 4

"I'm back!" Josh shouted as he made his way down the hall
towards his office with his usual fast paced stride.

"Leaving a trail of eviscerated Republicans in your wake, no
doubt." Donna muttered.

"No, I did not, Donna. And you know why not? Because they think they
have me nailed with this stinking land use rider. And why do you suppose
that is?"

"Because they do have you nailed with the land use rider?" Donna
guessed.

"Because we haven't come up with a solution to it yet." Josh
corrected her.

"See, you say `we' but I'm sure this falls under your
job description; not mine."

"Donna...how can you say that? We're a team, you and I. We
share the workload, we share the success."

"Will we be sharing the paychecks too?" Donna asked cheekily.

"The way you make me pay for everything? I honestly think we
do." Josh replied smiling. "I think what's called for here,
is a change of subject. I'll work on some other issue and let my
subconscious mind find a solution to the land use rider. What have you
got for me?"

"Well...Leo called."

"Excellent. What did he want?"

"I don't think that's the distraction you're looking
for." Donna shook her head.

"It might be. What is it?"

"Let's look for something else." Donna suggested.

"Donna, what the hell did Leo want?"

"He...wanted to know if you had a solution for the land use rider
yet. The President is getting anxious about it."

"Terrific." Josh sat on her desk.

"You insisted!" Donna noted.

"So I did. Do you have the stuff on Madison yet?"

"We're working on it, Joshua. Go do something productive in your
office and I'll bring it in as soon as I have it."

"Fine..." Josh walked dejectedly into his office and slumped down
in his chair and closed his eyes. `There must be a way to get the
bill passed without the rider' he thought. He'd pulled this off
before...of course, he'd also tanked when he'd tried it
before. `Man, that time with the energy assistance bill' he
remembered, `I thought my political career was over'....

*flashback*

"Josh, it's over." Peter Evans declared. Reardon looked from
his Chief of Staff to his Floor Manager and shrugged.

"Josh doesn't seem to agree with you, Peter." Reardon
chuckled.

"He doesn't have to agree with me. It's over. We aren't
going to be able kill the amendment without killing the bill."

"Just give me a few more hours, Congressman. I still have a couple
angles I can try." Josh begged.

"Okay." Reardon agreed watching Josh carefully.

"Congressman-" Peter objected.

"A few more hours won't cost us anything." Reardon
interrupted him.

Peter Evans got up and left in a fit of pique, shaking his head.

"Josh, you know you can't win them all, don't you?"
Reardon reminded him.

"I can try, sir." Josh shot back.

"We need the energy bill, son. We can't kill it to get rid of
the amendment."

"It's a lousy, cheap stunt and the Majority Leader is only doing
it for payback. He doesn't give a shit about the bill or the
amendment." Josh stood up and began pacing.

Reardon watched him for a few moments. "You're taking this too
personally. Yeah, it's payback. That's how things work in D.C.
So you swallow it and move on knowing that the good the energy bill will
do far outweighs the negatives attached to the amendment."

"It's dirty pool."

"It's politics." Reardon rebutted.

"I can get the amendment off."

"Take your shot, kid. But a big part of this game is knowing when
the game is over."

"I'm not so good with that part." Josh admitted.

"So I've noticed." Reardon chuckled again. "Go see what
you can do. You've got three hours until the vote."

"Yes, sir." Josh stopped briefly in his office before heading
out to see what he could do about the amendment.

"Josh, the caucus is looking for the daily whip notice." Carrie
announced when he appeared. "Can I send it out?"

"Not yet." Josh stopped her.

"Jo-osh." Carrie whined. "They've been asking for it for
hours already."

"It's not done. We're not done yet."

"Okay, and by done you mean..."

"It hasn't gone our way yet." Josh replied absently.

"Josh, let's go get a beer." Sam said as he entered
Josh's office.

"See?" Carrie pointed out. "Sam realizes we're done.
It's over isn't it Sam?"

"If it isn't it should be. Let's go get a beer. It was a
tough fight, the bill is going to help millions of Americans. Call it a
victory and take your lap...with a beer."

"I'm not done yet." Josh insisted and Carrie and Sam both
rolled their eyes. "I'll be back in an hour."

Sam felt it was his duty as the best friend to the crazy man to follow
Josh and try to make him see reason.

"Where the hell are you going?" Sam asked from five feet behind
Josh.

"To see a man about a bill." Josh called back.

"No. Don't do it. Listen to me, Josh. It's as good as
it's going to get." Sam ran to catch up with him.

"No, it will be much better once his stupid ass amendment off our
bill." Josh retorted.

"He's not going to remove it. He'll kill the bill
instead." Sam argued.

"No, he won't. He doesn't want to come down against the
energy bill. He won't take it that far. I'll call his bluff,
maybe threaten a bit, he'll back down and pull the amendment."

"I don't think so."

"Nobody else seems to think so." Josh scoffed.

"And maybe we should take a moment to examine that fact in greater
detail." Sam suggested.

"I'll be back in an hour. Then we'll take the victory lap
and I'll buy the beers. Later buddy." Josh took off on his own
and Sam watched him leave with a sinking feeling in his gut.

Two hours later, Josh returned to the office with neither victory nor
beer. Sam, being the friend that he was, had waited the entire time. He
even ordered pizza for the staff after the first hour mark had passed.
When Sam saw the look on Josh's face, he knew his friend's plan
hadn't gone as planned.

"Hey guys, can we have the room please?" Sam requested. Without
another word the interns and staffers took one of the pizza boxes and
left.

"Couldn't get rid of the amendment?" Sam guessed.

"Oh, I got rid of the amendment." Josh sat heavily in his chair.

"No...." Sam sat down too.

"Yep, he killed the bill and the amendment; didn't like my
`tone'. He's pulling it off the floor. It won't get any
vote at all."

"Shit." Sam summed up.

"Uh-huh." Josh agreed.

"Maybe we could-" Sam started.

"No. I blew it, and I blew it HUGE." Josh interrupted. "I
need to go see the Congressman."

"Wait. Just wait a second."

"No, we have a deal, the Congressman and me. When I screw up I go to
him first. And I think this definitely falls into the screw up
category." Josh rose from his seat. "Go home, Sam. I mean,
thanks for waiting for me, but go home. I'll talk to you later."
Josh really didn't want Sam here to witness his firing.

Josh gave a quick knock and entered the Congressman's inner sanctum.

"Joshua." The Congressman greeted him before removing his
glasses and putting down a briefing book he'd been marking up.

"I'm going to have to change the daily whip notice. I messed up
bad on the energy bill and...it's being pulled off the floor."
Josh got it out in one breath. The Congressman gestured for Josh to take
a chair but Josh chose to remain standing.

"You've got a lot of fire in you, Josh. You have great political
instincts and a gift for debate I've rarely seen in my years here.
But your incessant need to win is going to trip you up every time."

"It wasn't right, sir."

"It hardly ever is, but now instead of something we could celebrate,
we've got nothing; nothing to show for the months of work we've
done to get the energy bill passed." Reardon pointed out.

"I know, sir. It's entirely my fault. I pushed the Majority
Leader too far, threatened too much, and now it's costing everyone.
You'll have my resignation as soon as I can figure out how to print
it off the damn computer."

"Joshua, sit down." Reardon commanded. Josh took a seat and
rested his chin in his hands.

"I didn't take you for a quitter." Reardon said quietly and
Josh's head shot up to meet his gaze.

"Quitter? I just got my ass kicked all around the Potomac! No one is
going to take my calls now. I'm worthless to you and I've burned
some pretty big bridges. I have to resign."

"If you're burned out and don't want to play with the big
boys anymore that's one thing. If you're just resigning because
you're pissed that Greg got the better of you this round, then
that's another thing altogether and I've seriously misjudged
your character."

"Sir, I blew the entire energy bill. Me. I did that all by myself.
And getting that bill killed is going to affect a lot of people."

"Well, I think the Majority Leader might have had a great deal to do
with it too, but yes, your strategy sunk the bill. So what do you do
now?"

"You're asking me what I've learned from this? Like it's
another cognitive exercise? What's wrong with you?" Josh nearly
shouted.

"Well...my wife says I drink too much, smoke too much, and work
too much." Reardon offered. "She claims all that is going to
lead to an early death, but I'm already 67, so I can't help
wonder what early means to her."

"Congressman..."

"Josh. Someday, when I'm nothing but a memory around here, some
enterprising grad student is going to write about what I did as a
Congressman and as Minority Whip. It's going to be chock full of my
mistakes; some of which are so damn embarrassing I'll be glad
I'm dead when it's written. You've got to stop operating
under the assumption that people sitting on this side of the
Congressional Offices are one up on you. You need to start seeing what I
do when I look in your eyes, when I hear you advocate for some dead in
the water bill and get it passed."

"And what is that, sir?" Josh asked wearily.

"The future of the Democratic party." Reardon answered simply.

"You can honestly say that after the day I've had?"

"I can say that especially after the day you've had. If
there's one thing I've learned in my years here it's how to
spot the `real thing'. You're the real thing, Josh. You need
to learn to spot the real thing too. Once you stray from that you're
in deep trouble...Now, how are you going to fix this mess you've
made with the energy bill?"

"I'll do whatever you want, sir."

"You don't need my direction. I've got enough on my plate.
Go figure it out." Reardon dismissed him, put his glasses back on
and went back to his briefing books.

Josh walked back to his office in a daze. Instead of losing his job, as
he had expected, he still had his job and the Congressman trusted him to
fix the very mess he'd created. He opened his office door to see Sam
half asleep in his chair. When he realized Josh was back he sat straight
up.

"Sam...I told you to go home."

"Yeah, and I told you not to threaten the Majority Leader."

"Fair point." Josh agreed and nodded.

"I thought maybe you'd want a ride...or a drink...or a
weapon of some kind." Sam chuckled.

"No thanks. But we could re-heat some of that pizza. I'm
starving." Josh suggested.

"A last meal?" Sam asked.

"No, sustenance; while I figure out how to revive the energy bill. I
need to have it all worked out by the time the Majority Leader walks
into his office in the morning."

"You're doing this on a...voluntary basis?"

"No, sir. Sam, I'm a paid political operative for the Minority
Whip. I'm not sure why, at this point, but he hasn't fired me
yet."

"Probably because knowing you, he understands you won't rest
until you fix what you broke."

"Will you help me? I know I should have listened to you before.
I'm ready to listen now." Josh admitted. Sam choked down the
lump in his throat.

"You're the one with the brilliant ideas...but I'll be
happy to be a sounding board."

They plotted and schemed while they ate the leftover pizza and drank
lukewarm coffee.

By the time the Majority Leader got to his office the next morning, he
found a rumpled but energized Josh Lyman pacing in front of his door.

"What? Did you sleep here? Plant a bomb of some kind so that when I
turn the doorknob-"

"Sir, pardon me for interrupting, but I wanted to see you first
thing this morning. I treated you and your office disrespectfully
yesterday and I want to apologize." Josh rushed the words out before
he gagged. He hated saying them but they were, in essence, true, and he
knew no other way to fix this than to eat crow.

"Well...then it would be childish not to let you inside to hear
you out." Greg replied and opened the door to allow Josh to pass
through. Josh played his mea culpa card and explained why he felt so
passionately that the energy bill needed to be passed clean. Knowing
that wouldn't be enough on its' own, Josh backed up the
passionate with the political. He went over how this energy bill would
help Republicans in key states when it came time to go to the polls.
Then, for the `piece de resistance', he asked the Majority
Leader for his help in passing the bill clean in exchange for a separate
vote on the amendment where the Whip's office would release their
caucus from a party line vote. After all that the Majority Leader agreed
to the plan. Josh let out a huge sigh of relief, gave the Leader his
sincere thanks and headed back to the Whip's office to outline the
deal in the daily Whipping Post.

When it was all done, he brought it to his boss, who read it over
quickly, nodded his approval, and handed it back to Josh without another
word. It wasn't until Josh closed the door on his way out, that
Reardon let his trademark smirk appear on his face.

Not a minute later, Reardon was predictably interrupted by Judy Perkins.

"The Boy Wonder put Humpty Dumpty together again, I take it?"

"He did." Reardon acknowledged. "Have a drink with me,
Judy?"

"At this hour? Don't be ridiculous." Judy admonished him.
"Why have you left the boy floundering so much?" she asked as
she took a seat opposite him.

"What are you talking about?"

"You could have headed him off at the pass a dozen times over the
past few months, but you just let him fall on his face."

"I've done nothing but help him." Reardon protested.

"Once he'd taken a mortal hit."

"I reject your premise, woman. If they'd been mortal hits, he
wouldn't be here now celebrating the passage of the energy bill
without the detested amendment."

"Fine. Use your lawyer lingo to wiggle out of it, but you know
exactly what I meant."

Jim smirked. "Maybe I do, but what would he have learned if I'd
run interference for him all the time?"

"That would be preferable to letting your quarterback get sacked all
the time." Judy shot back. Reardon loved to debate with this woman.

"If a Quarterback gets sacked enough, he learns self defense and how
to avoid it in the future."

"A good coach can teach his quarterback those skills without risking
serious injury." Judy maintained.

"Maybe, but I've never claimed to be a good coach and this was
has been far more entertaining. Plus, the lessons will be indelibly
carved into his brain for life." Reardon countered.

"I hope it's worth it in the end." Judy sat back and sighed.

"It will be. That Wonder Boy, as you call him, is going to be a
major influence in the party down the road; a major influence."

"And you know all..." she mocked gently.

"Damn right I do." Reardon agreed.

"Well, try to get that ego of yours in check. You've got a
conference call in ten minutes." Judy told him as she got up and
left the office.

"Yes. Ma'am." Reardon said to the empty room and pulled out
one of his beloved cigars.

"And don't even think of lighting that foul thing in your
office. I won't be smelling that all day." She called from the
outer room.

"Yes, Ma'am." Reardon reluctantly replaced the cigar. The
other lesson he'd learned was to never piss off his office manager.

*****************************

"Another round please, for me and my friends." Josh asked the
waitress. He'd decided to treat his team, and his best friend, to
drinks after a successful day at work.

"Uh...Josh...you've already had two and we all have to work
in the morning." Sam reminded him.

"I am a graduate of Harvard and Yale and you think I can't
manage 3 beers without embarrassing myself?"

"Pretty much, yes."

"Sam, Sam, Sam...You have to learn to trust me, buddy. What can
possibly happen with 3 measly beers in me...?"

Present...

Josh shook his head ruefully as he remembered the hideous hangover
he'd had the next morning. And the endless teasing he'd endured
by the people he worked with over his behavior after the third beer. If
only he'd had Donna with him in those days. It would have made all
the difference. Speaking of which...

"DONNA!"

"WHAT?!"

"Where is the stuff on Madison?"

"Keep your pants on Joshua. These Government systems are terribly
antiquated!"

"The President will not be accepting that as an excuse Donna."

"Whatever!" she called back a little testily.

"Wait a minute. What did you say?" Josh got up and walked to her
desk.

"I said `whatever' and frankly, that's a much nicer
reply than you deserved.

"No, no; before that."

"I said these systems are antiquated." Donna repeated.

"Yes! Yes, that's it! They're antiquated." Josh grabbed
Donna's face and in his jubilation planted a kiss right on her lips.

"Wha- What?" Donna asked dazedly.

"Antiquated! You're brilliant, Donna, absolutely brilliant."
Josh twirled her around to the amazement of the others in the bullpen.
"Call the President and tell him I've got a solution for him
whenever he's available."

"You do? What is it?"

"The Antiquities Act my most valuable and dedicated partner in
crime. We let the bill pass with the rider on it. Then afterwards, the
President declares the land to be a National Park and as such protected
from strip mining!"

"That's...that's fabulous. You did it!" Donna picked
up the phone and called Mrs. Landingham.

"No. We did it." Josh told her quietly and she could see the
sincerity in his eyes.

"The President can see you now." She replied softly.

"You come too." He grabbed her hand.

"Josh, no! That's not my place." Donna shook her head
`no'.

"You're place is with me on this one. You don't get nearly
the credit you should every day. This time, we share the glory. Come
on." Josh pulled her along with him.

Part of Donna was nervous about being included in this meeting, another
part was thrilled that he wanted to include her, and the third part was
still reeling from his impromptu kiss.

"So is this rush of adrenaline like it was in `the good old
days'?" She asked as they walked quickly to the Oval.

Josh stopped in his tracks. "Actually, I think Sam was right about
that. This, right now? These are the good old days." He shot her his
dimpled grin, knocked perfunctorily and took her in with him to brief
the President of the United States on their plan. A very good day
indeed...

The End.



Epilogue: The Good Old Days

"Josh Lyman." Donna answered the phone.

"May I speak to Josh please?" An elderly female voice requested.

"I'm sorry he's in a meeting with the President, may I take a message?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose I should leave a message. I'm sorry, I'm a
little...never mind. Please tell
him that Elizabeth called. He has my number. It's...I know he's a very
busy man, but it's urgent
that I speak to him as soon as possible." Elizabeth explained.

"If it's urgent, I can slip a message to him right away." Donna
offered. She didn't usually make
that kind of offer, but there was something in the woman's voice...

"Oh, could you? I'd appreciate it so much. Jim has been asking for him
repeatedly." Elizabeth
sounded very relieved.

"Sure. It's Elizabeth...?"

"Reardon. Elizabeth Reardon." That rang the bell for Donna. She
quickly hung up and walked
briskly to the Oval. She got permission to knock on the Oval door and
paused only for a
moment between knocking and opening the door. She excused herself to
the President and
handed Josh the note she'd hastily written for him. His face turned
pale and asked to be
excused. The President nodded permission and went on with the meeting
without his Deputy
Chief of Staff.

"When did she call?" He asked as soon as they were in the hallway.

"Just a minute ago; she sounded very anxious. This IS Congressman
Reardon, right?" Donna
confirmed and Josh nodded in response. He didn't say another word
until he got back to his
office and hit a number on his speed dial.

"Elizabeth? It's Josh. What's going on?... Uh-huh...I can be there
inside a half hour...No, it's no
trouble, don't be silly...I know, I haven't been able to get out there
as often lately...I know, but I
still feel badly...I'm leaving now. Tell him I'll be there shortly...Bye."
Josh looked up and saw
Donna in the doorway. "They don't think he can hang on much longer.
He's asking for me."

"Go." Donna encouraged but saw uncertainty in his face. "Would you
like me to drive?"

"Yeah...yes, I would." Josh jumped on the offer. Josh picked up his coat
while Donna went to
her desk to call Margaret and asked her to re-schedule Josh's
afternoon. Then she picked up
her keys and walked next to Josh as they left the White House.

Donna was most concerned that Josh wasn't saying anything. He gave her
terse directions but
didn't say anything else to her. She assumed he was thinking about
what he would say to his
first boss on the Hill. It was only a few weeks ago that he was
telling her about the 'good old
days' working for Reardon. Now, it looked like he was going to lose
one more person who was
very important to him.

They pulled up to the stately home of the Reardon's and parked in
front. Donna would have
kept back a few paces, but Josh took her hand and drew her next to him
as he rang the bell.
When the door opened, an older woman with snow white hair sighed in
relief and took Josh
into her arms.

"Oh, Joshua! Thank you so much for coming. He keeps asking for you and
he's very agitated
about something."

"How's he been today?" Josh asked.

"All week he's been thinking he's back on the Hill, but today he's
been mostly lucid; in and out,
you know?." Elizabeth explained as she drew him inside, then looked
over his shoulder to
Donna.

"I'm sorry." Josh apologized. "This is my friend Donna Moss. I asked
her to come with me. I
hope that's okay."

"Of course it is. Any friend of yours is welcome here. Ms. Moss, I'm
Elizabeth Reardon." She
introduced herself.

"Donna, please. I'm so sorry to meet you under these circumstances."

"Oh, aren't you an angel." Elizabeth squeezed her arm. "Josh, however
do you manage to
keep such an angel in your life?"

"I pay her of course." Josh deadpanned and Elizabeth chuckled.

"Now that I believe." Elizabeth responded as she opened another door.
"Jim? Look who I found
hanging around outside."

Jim Reardon, a shadow of the formidable man he once was on the Hill,
tried to sit up a little
more and gave a smirk to the younger man entering his room. Donna did
a double take when
she spotted the smirk so like Josh's. "Looks like Federal Employee to
me, Elizabeth; shark
eyes and a lazy swagger. Or, it could be a lawyer..."

"God help you, I'm both." Josh finished the joke they'd been telling
for years. "Elizabeth tells
me you've been giving her a hard time today. You keep that up and I'll
finally get her to run
away with me."

"Ha!" Reardon laughed shortly. "She'll be free of me soon enough."

"Jim!" Elizabeth admonished him.

He waved her criticism away and then he spotted Donna. "Who do we...
have here?" He asked
gasping a bit for breath.

"I'm Donna Moss, sir. I'm Josh's-"

"I know... who you are, young lady." He interrupted her. He looked
between Donna and Josh
and chuckled. "So this is the...famous Donna Moss?.. I've heard a lot
about you, Donna."

"You have?" Donna shot a curious look at Josh and she could have sworn
his face turned a
little red.

"This one here," He jerked a thumb at Josh, "says you're responsible...
for the save on the
banking bill."

"No, sir. That wasn't me...or at least that wasn't me alone. I said
something that Josh picked up
on and he was able to tie it into the land use rider, that's all." She
looked over at him proudly.

"It sounds like... it was teamwork, then?" Reardon supposed.

"Yes, sir." Donna threw another glance at Josh. "I think that would be
a good description of a
lot of the work we do."

"This braggart comes here... week after week... with all kinds of crazy
stories about his daring
deeds... but the one thing...that's always been consistent... is you. He
always tells me... how
invaluable Donna is to him."

Now Donna felt a blush rise on her face. "That's very kind of him."

"Nonsense... The boy learned what happens... if you cross your assistant...Didn't you
Joshua?"

"Yes, sir. And it was a painful lesson." Josh smirked back. "I'm still
in fear of Mrs. P."

"And well you should be." Jim agreed. "It's lovely to meet you Donna...
You've made this one
look good... and I know that's no easy task."

"No, sir." Donna smiled.

"I wonder if I could ask... you ladies to excuse yourself for a few
minutes... I have something I
need to discuss with Joshua;... man to man."

"Certainly." Donna agreed and walked to the door with Elizabeth, but
threw one more
concerned look at Josh before she left.

"You don't... pay that woman... enough." Reardon commented.

"You don't know WHAT I pay that woman, old man."

"Whatever it is... it couldn't be enough." Reardon decided. "Besides...
that one...isn't doing it
for the paycheck."

"You're unusually snippy today, sir."

"I haven't got much time left, Joshua... I've got to get in my
licks...while I still can."

"Sir-"

"For this last conversation... will you please call me Jim?"

"Yes, sir." Josh smirked at the man who taught him how to do it. "But
I'd like to think we have
more than one last conversation between us yet."

"It's hell growing old, Josh... The body goes, and while that's a
pain...it's when the mind goes...
that you want to die."

Josh blinked. "Sir... I can't pretend to know what you're going
through now, but I look back on
the life you've led and the contributions you've made and I can only
hope that when my times
comes I'll have half as much to be proud of."

"You already do, Josh... You found the real thing and took him to the
Presidency. All the
pundits wondered... what the hell Josh Lyman was doing...leaving Hoynes
for Bartlet, but I
knew. I knew what you were doing...so did you. There will be many days
in your office...that
you'll wonder what the hell you're doing there...remember why you went
to Jed Bartlet in the
first place."

"Yes, sir."

"Leo McGarry is a fine man... and I know your families have been close
for years...but you can'
t let him... be your only barometer... of how you do your job. I never
worried about the political
operative, son...but I worry about the man. Your only barometer...should
inside you... and
needs to be balanced out by that young woman out there... that clearly
loves you very
much...that's what I wanted you to hear..."

"Wait a second. You met Donna for like 5 minutes."

"But I've heard you talk about her... for years. And let me tell you
something, Josh... it didn't
even take 5 seconds.. for me to see how she felt about you...It's not
only in politics... that you
need to look for the real thing; and sometimes, if you're extremely
lucky..it's standing right in
front of you." Jim Reardon was visibly fading and Josh felt his throat
tighten. "It's important,
Josh... so important."

"Yes, sir." Josh choked out. "I want you to know...I learned so much
from you. It was a privilege
to work for you. It's a privilege for me to be able to call you my friend."

Jim's eyes closed for a moment and when they opened they were visibly
wet. "I...I.."

"You don't need to say anything. I just wanted you to know how I
felt." Jim looked shaken and
pale.

"Josh?" he looked at the younger man quizzically.

"Yes, Congressman. I'm here."

"I...I.. can't find my briefing book."

Josh recognized he'd lost the Congressman and put a steadying hand on
his frail shoulder. "I'll
find it for you, sir."

"Okay...okay...Do you have the Daily Whipping Post ready?"

"Yes, sir. I'll make sure it gets out."

"Can you take the meeting with Coles?... I'm...just not feeling up to
it." Jim look confused now,
like he realized he wasn't in his office, but wasn't sure how he'd gotten home.

"I'll take care of it, sir.

"And try not to piss off... Judy anymore today. Maybe... bring her some
coffee or something."

"No. Way." Josh insisted.

"You'll regret... pissing her off." Jim predicted.

"No doubt." Josh agreed as Elizabeth came back in the room.

"Jim?" she approached them. "Are you ready for some lunch?"

"No, no. I'm not hungry... I'm not feeling well... Josh is going to take
my meeting with Coles for
me." Jim announced. Elizabeth's heart broke when she realized her
husband had slipped away
from her again and her eyes shifted sadly to Josh's who offered her a wan smile.

"Sure he will. Josh is a good man." Elizabeth tried to keep her voice
steady as she watched her
husband labor to get another breath.

"He has his moments." Jim allowed. "You didn't bring any... cigars with
you.. did you?"

Josh actually laughed then leaned in to whisper, "I've got them in the
car. I'll sneak them in
when Elizabeth isn't looking." Josh promised.

"Good, good. I...dearly love a...good cigar." Reardon noted.

"I know you do sir. I'm going to head over to the office and take care
of business. If there's
anything else you need, you just call me." Josh invited.

"I'll walk Josh and Donna out and be right back, Jim."

"Donna? Is she the new girl?" Reardon asked.

"Yes, she's the new girl." Josh agreed.

"That's what...I'm telling you...You can't keep... an assistant for a
week...cause you piss them
all off."

"I'll try to do better with this one, sir." Josh promised and gave the
man a gentle hug.

Elizabeth walked Josh out silently to the kitchen where Donna sat with
a cup of coffee. Her
head shot up at their entrance and she sought out Josh's eyes to try
to get a read on how he
was doing. What she saw there made tears well up in her eyes.

"We should go." He told her and she immediately got up, and after
placing her cup in the sink,
joined him at the door.

"Thanks again for coming Joshua. You have no idea what it meant to
him; to both of us."
Elizabeth told him when she opened the front door.

"It was nothing." Josh assured her and gave her a hug. "If there's
anything I can do..."

"Thanks. You take care of yourself. Don't work too hard and be good to
this delightful woman."

"Thanks for the hospitality, Elizabeth." Donna responded. "The
Congressman is very lucky to
have you."

Elizabeth smiled her thanks and gave Donna a hug as well. Josh and
Donna walked side by
side to the car, but about halfway there, Josh reached out and took
her hand in his and
squeezed. It was the first 'personal' touch he'd initiated since his
impromptu kiss weeks ago
and it made Donna shiver.

The ride back was just as silent as the ride there had been. When they
got back to the office,
they jumped right back into business as if there had been no
interruption in their day at all.
When 7 o'clock came and went with no apparent end in sight, Donna
decided Josh was dealing
with this by distracting himself with work. If it helped him get
through the day, she was all for it.
Sadly, things came to an abrupt halt when Donna fielded a second call
from Elizabeth near 9:
00 and passed it through to Josh. She gave him a few minutes after his
light blinked off before
going into his office.

Josh's chair was turned toward the window, but she must have made some
sound, because he
spoke to her without turning around.

"Jim Reardon died about 20 minutes ago." Josh told her.

"I'm so sorry, Josh." Donna said quietly not moving any closer to him.

"He really liked you."

"If he did, it was because of what you told him about me." Donna
noted. "Does Elizabeth want
you to come back tonight?"

"No, their kids are there. They got there shortly after we left so
they got a chance to say
goodbye."

"That's good. That helps a little."

"You think?" Josh posited.

"Let's get you home." Donna offered.

Josh got up and grabbed his backpack without another word and Donna
turned out his light.
She asked him questions about his schedule the next day and tried to
distract him with stories
about Toby's fight with Sam earlier. Josh listened, and even smiled at
different points, but
Donna could see it never reached his eyes.

They climbed the stairs up to his apartment with small talk and when
they got inside, Josh
turned on CNN where news of James Reardon's death was just breaking.
Donna fetched a
beer for each of them out of his frig and sat next to Josh as Reardon
was eulogized.

"Why'd you tell him I was responsible for neutralizing the land use
rider?" she asked.

"Because you were."

"Not really, no. I just made an offhand remark. You were the one who
put it together with the
solution."

"It was teamwork, just like the Congressman said." Josh insisted.

"You realize this makes it much harder to give you shit about your ego."

Josh actually laughed out loud at that comment. "Then maybe it's best
if we both forget it was
ever mentioned."

"Maybe." Donna acknowledged. After the segment on Reardon ended Josh
shut off the TV.

"He had some advice for me. Told me he was proud of me and gave me
some advice about
the future." Josh took a long pull of the beer.

"I'm glad you had the chance to talk to him today. He seems like he
was a pretty perceptive
man" Donna said as she took her own sip of beer.

"He was; very perceptive." Josh agreed. "Don't you want to know what
his advice was?"

"Sure, if you want to share it with me."

"I guess it's only fair since it concerns you too."

"Me?" Donna asked in surprise.

"Uh-huh." Josh took one more sip of liquid courage before setting his
beer on the table in front
of him.

"And what did he say about me?"

"First, he said I wasn't paying you enough."

"Well, I like his conclusions so far. He obviously sees how valuable I am."

"No doubt." Josh gave her a half smile. "He said I was letting my job
define me to much; or at
least that was what he meant. I'm paraphrasing here. He said I needed
something in my life to
balance out the political. He thought maybe that would come from you."

"Me?" Donna squeaked and Josh nodded. "Why did he think I could do that?"

Josh took a deep breath. "Because he's heard me talk about you for
years and he was under
the impression that I'm in love with you."

Donna's jaw dropped and her heart started beating in double time. "He was?"

"Uh-huh." Josh nodded again. "And from your brief interaction with us
today, he got the
impression that you might feel the same way about me."

Now Donna's heart stopped completely. "Josh...I...I..."

"Since he was right about me, I thought maybe he was right about you
too." Josh took that
giant step out onto the ledge. Seeing the truth in his eyes and
recognizing the courage it took
to speak those words, she joined him on the ledge.

"He was an exceedingly perceptive man if he could pick all that up
from me during our one
conversation; because he sure nailed it."

Josh blinked in surprise at her admission. "Damn, he was very good."

"I'll say." Donna agreed and wondered what would happen next. She
didn't have to wonder
long. Josh leaned closer to her and took the beer from her hand.
Slowly his hand touched her
hair and stroked downward until he reached her chin. Then his fingers
traced her jaw before
slowly leaning closer and closer. Donna could feel the warmth of his
breath on her face and
thought she might die before he finally met her lips with his.

Once their lips touched, it was absolutely combustible. Their lips
fused together and it wasn't 2
seconds before the rest of their bodies were melded to one another.
Josh slowly leaned her
backwards until they were laying full length across the couch with
Donna underneath him.
Their hands, freed from their self-imposed restrictions at last,
wandered all over one another's
bodies as they struggled to pull breath in their lungs without
breaking contact between their
lips.

Finally, the need for oxygen won out and they broke apart and stared
at one another.

"God, Donna...you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that." Josh admitted.

"I think I might actually." Donna's chest heaved with the effort to
breathe; scared that at any
moment Josh would realize what a mistake he was making and move away
from her. At this
point; she knew that if he did, she wouldn't be able to recover from it.

"This isn't a mistake." He assured her and her eyes bugged out with
his ability to read her
mind. "This isn't about grief, or death, or convenience; you need to know that."

"Okay." Donna said hesitantly.

"No, really Donna, the Congressman just made me see I shouldn't waste
another minute
pretending my feelings for you were only platonic. I'm in love with
you." Tears pooled up in
Donna's eyes and spilled over onto her cheeks. "No, no, no. No crying.
And don't give me that
shit about happy tears. Just stop right now."

"Then stop saying such sweet things to me." She smiled through her tears.

"We can stop talking entirely; although I don't know how long YOU
could hold to that."

"Maybe if my lips were otherwise occupied, I wouldn't be tempted to
speak at all." Donna
suggested and she saw Josh's smirk break out across his face right
before he attacked her
lips with renewed vigor. Slowly, but surely, items of clothing were
removed and discarded on
the floor. When they got down to the last layers of clothing, Josh
slowly rose off the couch and
pulled Donna along with him.

"Where are we going?" Donna asked absently.

"I was thinking someplace with a large bed..." he said in between
kisses, "My bedroom has a
large bed in it, for instance."

"How fortunate." Donna agreed and let him walk her backwards to the
edge of his bed. He
kissed his way down her throat and across her collar bone while he
unhooked her bra and let
it, too, fall to the floor. Then he stood back from her to admire the view.

"You are so beautiful, Donnatella." He whispered as his hands
worshipped the skin he'd just
uncovered and made her shiver.

"Please..." Donna begged and Josh again showed off is ability to read
her mind. He dipped his
head to take one breast into his mouth while kneading the other with
his hand. Donna couldn't
stand up any longer and dragged them both on to the bed. When she
could think somewhat
coherently again, she removed Josh's boxers and explored his body too.

It was everything she had ever imagined and more. Josh gave the same
single minded
attention to detail in making love that he gave to his work. She felt
like she was floating and
prayed she never had to come back down to earth.

Josh's anxiety about telling Donna he loved her had evaporated in his
relief at her admission
that she loved him too. Now, he was engaged in the most intimate
sexual experience of his life
and he discovered that being in love with your lover made all the
difference in the world.

Donna's moan of pleasure brought his thoughts back to more pressing
matters. Even though
this moment was one that both of them had fantasized about for some
time, neither was in a
particular rush. They reveled in each touch and each caress. When
their bodies were finally
joined together there was no urgent dash to the finish, but rather a
moment of stillness and
silence.

Josh watched Donna's eyes go glassy with pleasure through his own
heavily lidded ones.
Pleasing her gave him even more pleasure and the upward spiral
continued until it reached
the peak and tossed them both over the edge together.

Josh briefly attempted to move from on top of Donna, but she firmly
pulled him back down to
her. She loved feeling his weight on top of her and felt the warmth
from his skin; she could
even feel the pounding heartbeat in his chest. Josh tucked her chin
into his shoulder and
placed soft, light kisses across her face.

"You are the most amazing woman, Donnatella Moss." He whispered into
her ear and made
her smile dreamily. She had hoped that someday she might hear such
words from Josh, but
when she had woken up that morning, she would never have guessed that
today would be that
day. She still feared that by the morning he would regret taking this
step with her. "We should
get some sleep. Will you stay with me?" Josh asked.

Donna half-laughed. What a stupid question! She thought it was sweet
that he asked it though
and didn't take her presence for granted. "I'd love to."

"Are you cold? Should I get the extra blanket?" he asked considerably.

"I'm a little cold." Donna admitted before curling herself around Josh
and pulling the thick
comforter around both of them. "There. That's much better."

"Yes, it is." Josh agreed and stroked her hair until he fell asleep.

The morning brought surprising normalcy. Except for waking up naked in
each others arms, it
was like one of the many mornings they'd spent together during the
campaign when they'd
crashed in the same room. There was banter, there was a fight over who
would make coffee,
and Donna supplied her usual fashion advice over which tie Josh should
wear. The only
difference was that this routine was occasionally punctuated with
kisses; some short and
teasing while others were long and passionate.

So it was surprising to Donna that it was Josh who kept breaking the
kisses off and insisting
they get to work as soon as possible.

"It's not very complimentary to me that you want to leave my arms to
rush to work." Donna
complained on their way to his car.

"It's because I want to get back to your arms that I'm in a rush to
get to work." Josh explained.
"Leo is going to be out of the building after senior staff, so I need
to get there before staff
starts if I want a minute alone with him."

That startled her on a different level. "Why?"

Josh gave her a knowing look. "I have to talk to Leo, Donna."

"Not yet." She replied urgently. "Just...wait a few days."

"Donna. It's going to be fine." He assured her as he opened his car
door for her, but she didn't
look comforted by his words.

"I don't understand why it can't wait for a few days. God, Josh, it's
only been a few hours. Don't
we deserve a few hours to ourselves? Does everything have to be about
King and country?"

"You sound a little melodramatic there, Donnatella." Josh noted. "What
are you worried about?"

"Let's see, you having a private chat with your boss, and mine by the
way, about the fact that
we're now romantically involved while I'm working for you? You're
right. What could possibly go
wrong in that scenario?" Donna replied sarcastically.

Josh started the car, then turned to face her. "What are you afraid
of?" he repeated.

"That one or both of us will be fired, that I'll get transferred out
of operations, that you'll realize
this was a mistake and have no way to undo all the ramifications; take
your pick."

"This is not a mistake." Josh stated firmly. "It's probably the
smartest move I've ever made in
my life. There are other jobs we could do together; we're both
incredibly employable, if it
comes to that."

"Who's going to want to hire a political operative who was fired for
having an inappropriate
relationship with his assistant? And why would they invite the same
problem by hiring us both?"

"If that happens, which I sincerely doubt, our relationship wouldn't
be an issue because we'd
be married." Josh took the car out of park and started driving.
"Campaigns and elected officials
hire husband and wife teams all the time; look at Carville and Matlin."

Donna did a head tilt and replayed his little speech in her head. "Did
you just say married?"
she asked for clarification.

"Well...yeah. I figure sooner or later you're going to figure out I'm
more trouble than I'm worth
so the only way to hold on to you is for us to get married."

"You figured that, did you?" The words were innocuous enough, but Josh
had already learned
to fear that tone of voice.

"Yeah?" He replied as a question right before Donna clocked him with her purse.

"And just when did you decide that, jackass?"

"Hey, I'm driving here." Josh protested. "And I decided it when I was
holding you this morning
watching you sleep, okay?"

When that brought no response from the other occupant of the car he
risked a glance in
Donna's direction and saw her crying silently.

"That was a good answer?" he queried.

"It was a perfect answer. You never get up before me." She leaned over
and kissed the cheek
she had just bashed with her purse. "But that doesn't mean you get out
of a proper proposal.
You don't get to just skip that part."

"I figured as much." Josh pretended to grouse. "I was just softening
the ground, so to speak."

"Always the strategist." Donna shook her head and wiped her tears.

Even though her man was a master strategist, Donna waited on pins and
needles until Josh
got back from senior staff to find out how things went with Leo. He
walked briskly through the
bullpen talking to Sam and perusing some papers they were obviously
arguing about. He didn't
even slow down as he passed her desk.

"Anybody need me?" he called over his shoulder as he entered his office.

"Yes!" Donna clipped off and stood. She grabbed her message tablet and
followed him into his
office before slamming the door.

"Who needs me?" He asked finally looking up at her.

"Me! I need you!" Donna said in exasperation. "What happened with Leo?"

Josh closed his eyes briefly. "Sorry, I forgot and then this thing
came up with-"

"You forgot?!" Donna shouted. "That comment does not bode well for you
Joshua Lyman."

"Donna, it was three hours ago, give me a break." Josh defended
himself. "Sit down. It went
fine with Leo."

"What does that mean fine? We have two weeks to clear out our desks?
We're being allowed
to resign rather than be fired? What?"

"Calm down." Josh came around his desk to put his hands on her
shoulders. "And to point out
how ridiculous you're being, think about this: when was the last time
I was the calm one and
had to talk you down from the ledge?"

"I don't know but it's going to happen more frequently if you continue
to call me ridiculous." Her
pitch rose as she rose from her seat. Josh really couldn't help it,
she looked so beautiful full of
fire and fury, he cupped her face and kissed her soundly.

"We are not being fired, or allowed to resign. We still serve at the
pleasure of the President;
who Leo insisted on dragging into the conversation by the way." Josh
pushed her shocked
mouth closed before planting one more brief kiss on her lips. "You're
going to be a direct
report to Leo from now on; for reviews and, thank God, raises too.
He's keeping us as a team
for now, and will continue to do so as long as it doesn't affect our work."

Donna let out a deep breath in relief. "Good. We can handle that, right?"

"I don't know...you were a distraction to me before. Now..." he leaned in
to kiss her again but
she backed quickly away. "Donna..." he whined.

"No way. Not in the office. I don't want to be transferred away from
you, therefore you will not
do anything to put us in that kind of position." She directed when
Josh didn't reply she asked,
"Did you hear me Joshua?"

"Sorry, I got distracted when you said 'put us in that position'." He
smirked and she tried not to
let her lips twitch.

"Why don't you get some work done so we can get out of here at a
decent hour and get back
to being naked at your place?" she suggested.

"Yes, ma'am." Josh agreed and followed her advice.
*********************************************
Josh and Donna left the funeral hand in hand. Josh was saddened by the
loss of Jim Reardon,
but that loss was softened by the love and support he had from the
woman standing beside
him. He'd told Sam about the changes with Donna and his best friend
had been thrilled for
them. That was heartening considering C.J. had quite the opposite
reaction initially. She'd hit
him, yelled at him, and asked him what the hell he was thinking! When
he'd replied simply that
he'd been thinking about how much he loved Donna, C.J. gave him a
grimace and started
making plans to spin it if it came up in the room.

His mother was, predictably thrilled, but the final blessing came from
the President himself.
Last night, when they'd been talking about Reardon after a briefing,
Josh admitted that it had
been Reardon himself that had been the impetus in telling Donna about
his feeling for her.

"He was right, you know. Not just about Donna; that much has been
obvious to all of us for
quite some time. I mean about balance. I don't know what might have
become of me if I hadn't
found Abby. That personal relationship will help keep everything else
in perspective for you.
Your job will cease to be the only thing in your life or even the most
important part of your life."

"I swear it won't affect my job here, sir."

"Of course it will, you idiot; it should." The President teased him.
"But it will affect it in a positive
way. You'll be happier and spend more time away from here, which will
be a great benefit to me
as well." President Bartlet grinned. "When you start thinking about a
wedding, think about
having it here. That is one event I don't want to miss."

"Well that will completely blow Donna away, sir." Josh grinned back.
"Thank you for the offer,
but I have a feeling Donna might prefer something a little...smaller.
You'll still be there though;
that I can promise."
**************************

Donna hadn't let go of his hand at all except for when he acted as one
of the pallbearers.
Donna would never let go and that made him feel stronger and happier
than he could ever
remember feeling before.

Jim Reardon had been responsible for the start of his political career
and all that it had
become. Josh would be forever grateful for that. But now he owed an
even deeper debt to the
man for his new relationship with Donna.

Josh had opted to return to work after the funeral even though both
Leo and the President had
both given him permission to call it a day. He wanted to dig into a
few things before he took
Donna home for the night.

"Donna?! Where's the new whip count on 434?"

"It's right on your desk where you yourself put it before we left."
She shouted back.

"That doesn't seem possible." Josh replied. "If I'd put it on my desk,
surely I'd remember I'd
done it, or at least, see it now."

"Joshua, Jacques Cousteau couldn't dive into the depths of the papers
on your desk and come
up with anything worthwhile."

"But you could, right?" Josh called back. "You can find anything."

"Buttering me up will not help your cause." She told him when she
appeared in his doorway.
"The only reason I can find things in here is because I've learned how
your twisted mind
works." She reached into the mess on his desk and pulled out the ship
count effortlessly.

"I knew it was there all along." He claimed. "It was just a ruse to
get you in here within reach."

"Uh-huh." Donna said sarcastically. "Well, that was a waste of your
time and effort since you
know what my rules are about work and the workplace."

"Yeah, but the rules suck." Josh complained.

"Tell you what...when we get home tonight I'll give you an opportunity
to change my mind."

"I can be very persuasive, you know."

"Yes. Yes, I do." Donna smiled.

"See if you didn't have those stupid rules I could tell you how much I
love you right now." Josh
pointed out.

"But since I do, I'll just have to relive the moments when you told me
you loved me this
morning." Donna shot back as she exchanged places with Toby who was
just coming into Josh'
s office. Josh, noting Toby's head shake at the exchange he had just
heard, decided to play it
up for his audience.

"You're totally hot when you go all professional on me, Donnatella."
And he blew her a kiss
when he heard her laughter. She knew him well enough to know exactly
what he was up to.

"You're going to be completely insufferable now, aren't you?"

"No, not at all! Insufferable will come after I marry that woman."
Josh lowered his voice. "I swear
to you Toby, that woman can make your toes curl...well, not your toes,
maybe, but-"

"Stop! I beg of you stop now!" Toby shouted. "Do you have the whip
count for 434?"

Josh's smile got wider. "The love of my life just handed it to me. If
you get close enough to the
paper you can smell her lotion on it."

"I'm in hell." Toby stated as he grabbed the paper from Josh.

"Joshua, stop torturing Toby and get back to work. I want to leave at
a reasonable hour
tonight." Donna shouted from her desk.

"Sorry, Toby, can't chat right now." Josh dismissed the communications director.

"You know, it worked much better for me when you would stay all night
working just to be near
Donna." Toby opined.

"Yeah, but it works much better for me this way." Josh replied still
smiling even as he buckled
down to work.

A mere two hours later, Josh appeared at her desk and began rubbing
her shoulders. "I'm
done, which means you're done. Let's go home."

That phrase was still new enough to give her shivers. Without a moment
of hesitation, she shut
her computer down and grabbed her coat and purse. They walked out of
the White House with
Josh's arm around her shoulder talking quietly to each other, bright
smiles on their faces and a
new light in their eyes. Somewhere, far beyond the White House gates,
a perceptive and sly
Congressman watched on with pleasure.

The End