Title: Transitions
Rating: R
Disclaimer: They're not mine. Though I admit they're better off in
the hands of this group.
Timing: Post Transition
Feedback: As always.
Summary: Josh and Donna are off to Hawaii
A/N: I'm not quite sure where this is going, but it's started and I
don't think it entirely sucks, so I'm posting it.


JOSH's POV

**********

Oh. My. God.

Let me explain why I'm freaking out. I just left my entire life
behind in D.C. and hopped a plane. Well, okay. I'll admit that's not
entirely true. I just left my *job* behind in D.C. and hopped a
plane. My highly sensitive, incredibly important job. My *life* is
currently asleep in my lap, with her arms around my waist and
stretched out across our seats in the first class cabin. We had
originally booked coach for the flight, but it seems a certain
President-Elect, who shall remain nameless, made a phone call and
upgraded us round trip to first class. The pilot himself came back to
invite us up to first class. Since then, well, the flight crew has
been amazingly attentive. It probably doesn't hurt that the FAA works
for me, and well, him.

I look down at Donna, sleeping peacefully in my lap. I reach down and
brush some hair away from her face. The hair was actually in no
danger of covering any part of her face, but since I can now touch
her like this, I do. I continue to stroke her hair, while marveling
that she's asleep in my lap. Donna's fallen asleep on me a hundred
times over the years, on campaign buses, vans, cars, Air Force One,
my apartment, her apartment, in chairs at polling banks; you name
places we've been over the years, and I promise you, she's fallen
asleep on me. But, it's always been on my shoulder. Now, she's in my
lap. And she was real obvious about it, too. She just put the armrest
up and settled down. I would have thought that she would have tried
some suave movie theater move since the touching each other thing is
still pretty new, but she's just gone forward and staked her claim,
which, I'll have you know, is just fine with me. I ask you, what man
on this planet doesn't want a goddess wrapped around him?

With the exception of the last year, we've always been comfortable
with each other; comfortable in each other's presence. This last
year, we hadn't even been comfortable in the same state as each
other, much less the same hallway, elevator, room, convention center.
Need I actually go on here? What happened you ask? Seven years of
being best friends and we were at a point where we'd gotten so far
away from each other that we could barely choke out a hello?

Simple.

We realized we were in love with each other and everything pretty
much turned to shit from there.

Now, don't get me wrong. I've loved her a long time. This I freely
acknowledge and always have. But it had taken me a long to time to
realize that I was *in love* with her. And we all know there's a
difference there. No. I haven't suddenly become a woman here. But you
don't get to my age, and experience the amount of failed
relationships I have, without realizing that there's a difference
between loving someone and being in love with someone.

I know what you want to hear. You want to hear that I knew I was in
love with her the day I met her, right? The day she took over my
office, and by extension, my life, in Nashua? Right?

Nope.

The day she came back to the campaign?

Nope.

So, now you're thinking I realized that I loved her on the night of
President Bartlet's second inauguration when I realized that she took
the fall for Commander Wonderful and he let her and I gathered a
posse, went to her apartment, and threw snowballs at her window until
she came out. Right?

Nope.

But, don't ask me what that was, because looking back on it, that was
an incredibly romantic gesture. Especially, considering I told her
that night she looked amazing, and did it in front of the Washington
Post's senior White House correspondent. Yeah. That was awfully
stealthy of me.

Anyway, that's not when I realized it either.

So, that leaves one time, right?

Yes. Germany. I realized in Germany that I was in love with her.
Because I realized in Germany that I couldn't live without her. Now,
I was all ready to pour my heart out to her because I was pretty
emotional at the time and my guard was most definitely down, but the
presence of Heathcliff - what was that guy's actual name? - anyway,
the IRA guy being there threw me off a bit. I wasn't really
threatened too much by him. I mean, he didn't live in the United
States and his job took him every where but his home, so how was he
really going to pursue her? But he was there at the time and that
definitely threw me off my game. When you're about to admit to a
woman you're in love with, who you've shared every aspect of your
life, but your bed, with for six years, that you're in love with her,
it's best not to have a dashing and charming photojournalist around
to screw it up. Trust me, I know of what I speak.

So, what happened? We came back to America and, like I said,
everything turned to shit.

After a few months of trying to hide it, because well, she had
dropped her guard down, too, we imploded. Huge. Spectacularly.

And she left her job.

For a long time, I had convinced myself that she left me. But then I
realized that she wouldn't have left me if I wasn't such an idiot
after she left. Does that make sense? See, we would have stayed
friends, or became more than friends, but my wounded pride prevented
me from talking to her about it. So, things just snowballed from
there, and not the good snowballs from a few years ago, either.

I was blind sided the day she came to work for the Santos campaign.
And I think over the years, we've all discovered that a blind sided
Josh, is U-G-L-Y, ugly. A blind sided Josh is an incredibly defensive
Josh, even when it's Donna doing the blind siding. Especially when
it's Donna doing the blind siding. It took a couple of weeks of
getting used to having her around me again. Then, one day, we were in
a meeting with like ten other people, and I realized that for the
past week, we had gone back to the way we were. Well, we were working
like a well-oiled machine again, reading each other's minds. It was
freaky. Lou was pretty freaked out by it, and I swear, nothing throws
that woman off. She's second only to CJ in that regard. And in
addition to only Leo, Donna was the only person on the campaign that
I trusted. Still. After all that time. She was anticipating my needs
again. But, not in an assistant's way like before. This time, she was
doing it like someone who really knew me, like an equal, like a soul
mate.

Then came the morning I kissed her in my hotel room. Let me tell you,
that unnerved the shit out of me. The first kiss was purely
celebratory. Granted, before that particular kiss, celebratory signs
of affection were always hugs and pecks on the cheek, so I'm not so
sure why this one warranted me planting one on her. I mean, we won a
presidential election twice at that time and I still didn't kiss her
on the lips. But I felt the need to do it when I found out we were
tied with Vinnick? Not really sure why that was. But anyway, when I
pulled away and looked in her eyes, my only thought was, "Oh, there
you are; I've missed you." And next thing I knew, we were kissing.
Really kissing. With tongues and everything. And if you thought I had
bad timing, the President-Elect busts in. I mean, I was just getting
to the good part. She had her arms wrapped around my neck, and my
hands were just sliding down her back...

Where was I?

Yeah, the kissing and my revelation. So, that freaked me out a bit. I
couldn't believe I'd actually done it, stone cold sober no less, and
she was totally into it. Plus, she was totally cool with it. She
wasn't at all freaked out about it. It's what made me pause for that
fateful split second when she slid her room key over to me. Damn, but
I could have fired Edie right then and there. I was afraid once in
her room, my mouth would get in the way of the things my mouth could
have been doing. You know what I mean there, right? Good.

Anyway, Donna takes the proverbial bull by the horns on the night
before the election and out and out propositions me in a bar. This
time, nobody got in my way. The signals were loud and clear, I picked
them up and followed her to the elevator. Now, I know you'd like to
hear about all the romance that went into the first time we had sex,
and all the loving whispers between us and worshiping of each other
and all that mushy Sandy and Danny kind of stuff.

Sorry again. And yeah, I brought that reference. Like I said, you
don't have the number of failed relationships I've had without
learning things along the way you'd rather forget about. And no. Like
I said, I haven't recently turned into a woman. I know I've recently
spent some time in Sam's presence, and he can bring the dork, but I'm
still all man, mi compadre.

The two times we had sex on election day were hot and fast. They were
all about doing what we'd wanted to do for years. Ripping each
other's clothes off and going for it. Not a lick of romance there.
But a lot of licking still. Yeah, I told you I was all man.

Then Leo died. And I'm not going to get into that. Suffice it to
say, I don't even want to think about what I would have been like had
she not been there that day, night and ever since that day.

So, that brings us to the other night when she showed up at my place.
Yeah, no that wasn't slow and romantic either. That was more of the
Donna showing up at my apartment and devouring a totally spent Josh.
Well, not totally spent, if you catch my meaning there. There was
plenty of Josh to go around.

This trip is about the romance. She doesn't know that yet, but she's
smart. She's probably figured it out. This trip is about that I'm
more than the sum of my job; that I can do this. I miss her in my
life; I want her in my life; and I want her to be my life. I know
that sounds pathetic, but what I mean is that I want her to be what's
most important in my life. I want to come home at the end of the day,
and tell her all about my day, well, as much as I can tell her. She
knows the difference, and you know what I mean. And no, I don't want
her barefoot in my kitchen making me dinner...I want her naked in my
kitchen making me dinner, but what I'll probably get is naked in my
kitchen ordering dinner, which is really the same thing in our world.
You're seeing the reference there to 1950s sexual politics, too?
Fine, I'll work on it. This is trip is about telling her that I love
her. Eventually. First, I have to say things to her that are going to
piss her off. Royally. But, then I have things to say to her that are
going to make up for it.

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking that I'm going to screw
it up, she's going to get pissed, and go storming out of the room.
You're forgetting one important factor. I know Donna. So yes, she's
going to get pissed. But then she's going to hear the rest of it, and
not be pissed anymore.

Plus, I would imagine that she has a thing or two to say to me.

I know Donna. Donna's done a lot of changing over the years, and
she's really grown as a person, but she's done it all right before my
eyes. So, I can still claim that I know her better than anyone. I
know how she'll react in certain situations. I'm not egotistical
enough to say I know how she'd act in every situation, but I know the
kind of reaction I can expect from certain things I'm going to say.
This is Donna after all. This is my moon goddess, my soul mate.
Stopping looking at me like that.

But, the other reason I know we're going to be okay is that less than
24 hours after she gives me the big ultimatum, I'm on a plane with
her headed to Hawaii. I'm not stupid. It didn't take me long to
figure it out. Admittedly, it took a little pushing from Sam to
figure it out, but the point is, it's less than 24 hours later and
we're flying to Hawaii.

Speaking of Sam, you should have seen his face when I told him I was
taking Donna to Hawaii with me. That was priceless. He hasn't been
around us in four years, so he's missed pretty much all the big
stuff. I mean, he was absolutely stunned. It was some funny shit.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, going to Hawaii with Donna. So, I'm looking down at her and
stroking her hair, because I can touch her that way now. And just in
case you were wondering, her hair does feel just as silky as I
thought it would. We finally caught up to sunset on the west coast,
and the plane's getting darker. The soft lighting in the cabin is
making her hair look gold. And I know that we're going to be together
forever. The big hurdle has been overcome. I asked her to come with
me, and she said yes. This speaks volumes in our language. Plus, like
I said, it's been eight years here.

Eight. Years. People.

So, she knows that if I'm making a gesture like this to her, of all
people, I'm talking about forever. This would be troublesome if we
were any other couple. I'd be thinking that a guy like me was a
stalker. But this is us we're talking about here. We've got a
history. We know exactly where we stand on everything. The only thing
we hadn't done was have sex. And we've done that. And I'll tell you
something else, too. We're damn good at it.

I told you that that first time was hot. There's something else I
gotta tell you, too. That first time, that was obviously the product
of something that had been preplanned in our heads. It was like we
knew exactly where we wanted to touch each other if we were ever
given the chance, and we did. We didn't have time for all the mushy
stuff. I mean, of course, we did, but...well...did I mention the
eight years thing?

She stirs in my lap and slowly opens her eyes. She blinks once or
twice while she gets her bearings and then looks up at me and gives
me a lazy smile. And I swear to God, I melt. We dropped our guard
around each other, and so now I can see what she's thinking and I see
all the reassurance I need. She brings a hand up to my face and I
turn and place a soft kiss on the inside of her palm, which makes her
smile again. And when Donnatella smiles, I swear to God, angels sing.
Don't think I don't know you've been waiting to see the sappy part of
me.

"How long have I been sleeping?" she asks not moving from her current
position.

"About two hours."

"Two hours?" she nearly shrieks and I nod. "You've been left alone
for two hours? What have you been doing?" This worries her because I
have left all of my electronic devices at home, so with her asleep
for two hours, I've been left to my own thoughts. But you've been
entertained. Right? I mean, it hasn't been time wasted.

"I've been looking at you."

"For two hours?" I nod and start stroking her hair again. It's clear
she's not sure what to do with that information. She finally sits up.
But instead of settling back into her seat, she wraps her arms around
my upper body and drops her head on my shoulder, and I immediately
turn and kiss her forehead. It's totally reactionary. It's great.

"How much longer until we land?" she asks, grabbing my left hand with
her right and linking our fingers. Her hand looks good holding mine.
We have actually held hands before, hundreds of times actually. We
have spent significant time at each other's hospital bed side, after
all. But this time feels different.

"Don't even ask." I reply with a shudder. President Bartlet loves
long plane flights at night. Me? Can't stand them. "Why couldn't you
want to go some place closer to Washington? Why Hawaii?"

"Closer to Washington? Like where?"

"I don't know. Cleveland."

"Yeah, Cleveland's really a romantic hot spot there, Joshua." she
quips.

"I don't need a romantic hot spot if I've got you with me." I reply.

"You're really running with the saying nice things tonight, aren't
you?" she smiles and I shrug in response. Yeah, I know, real witty.
Where's the guy that can bring Donnatella the banter, you ask?
Putting his skirt on because he's turned into a woman. And I'm not
afraid to admit either. Okay. So that's not true. Don't tell anyone
what a sap I've turned into. I'm sure Donna's already planned out her
phone call to CJ. She leans up and places a soft kiss on my lips that
I feel in my toes. I never thought I'd actually get to feel a kiss in
my toes when I kiss a woman. I thought that was just what they said
in movies. Guess I haven't been kissing the right woman.

"What was that for?" I ask softly.

She shrugs. "No reason. I've waited a long time to kiss you for no
reason." I'm telling you, I love this woman.

"How long?" I ask, because as big as my professional ego is, I don't
have much personal self-confidence.

"Six years, six months, three weeks." She answers in a very matter of
fact way.

Six years, six months, three weeks? That's an awfully specific amount
of time. She didn't say, a long time, or since I met you, or anything
like that. She had a specific amount of time that she's been waiting
to kiss me for no reason. So, that leaves me to wonder what happened
six years, six months and three weeks ago.

Oh.

I see.

Guess who won the I've been in love with you longer contest. I'm
suspiciously quiet. Reason being? I might actually cry right now. She
looks for a second like she's going to pull away, but instead, she
drops her head back down to my chest, drops my hand and starts
trailing her fingers up and down my leg.

"I didn't mean to freak you out." she says softly.

"I'm not freaked out." I manage to choke out. I'm not. I'm mentally
yelling at myself for being an idiot for six years. I turn to kiss
her forehead again and speak with my lips still pressed against her
skin. "One day, please explain to me what you see in me."

She pulls back and looks in my eyes again. You'd think the tears in
her eyes right now would make them sparkle, but they're smokey
instead.

"I see you." she says simply. Love this woman? I can't breathe
without this woman.

"You know I'm totally in love with you, right?" I ask. And she smiles
again.

"When did you figure that out?"

"Don't make me say it." I say quietly dropping my gaze.

"Why not?"

I look back up at her and see the exact moment she realizes my silent
answer. "Josh." she says with a sigh. She brings her hand up and is
stroking my cheek with her thumb and it's all I can do not to cry the
tears that have been threatening to come every time I've looked at
her since that Memorial Day weekend.

"I never thanked you for coming." she says quietly. I try to look
away, but with her hand on my face, she forces me to look at her.
This is the only woman on the planet I've allowed to see me cry. I
almost cried in front of CJ twice when I got back from Germany, but
by an amazing display of self-restraint, managed to keep it together.
But Donna can see the tears now. I swear to God that I'm trying to
pull myself together here. "I almost told you on the operating table
that I loved you." she confessed.

"I would have totally come unhinged right there." I replied.

"I know."

"I already had a nutty outside the Oval Office," I say. "you wanted
me to have another one in that operating room?"

"No." she says. "But I thought I wasn't going to make it. Don't think
I wasn't thinking about your father then."

"Stop." I say again. This time I am successful in looking away. I
hear her sigh again and her arms snake around me again. She turns my
face back towards her, and I keep my eyes closed. She leans her
forehead against mine and kissed me. I gotta tell you. This loving
her was a lot easier when she was sleeping. I can't believe she's
bringing this stuff up on the plane. We're on a Continental flight
for crying out loud. I have no idea who's in front of us, or behind
us. I have no idea who's listening to the next White House Chief of
Staff lose his shit in the arms of the woman he loves. Paranoid you
say? Well...yeah.

"Josh," she says quietly, "look at me." And because since the day I
met her, I've never been able to resist her, I open my eyes, and she
smiles at me, and those angels are singing again. Shut up. I'm having
a moment here.

"Donnatella...." I start, but I can't seem to get anything else out.
So, I drop my head back onto the seat and look at her. I know that I
must look like some love sick sap right now. But you know what? I
don't actually care anymore. I've lied for this woman. I've flown to
the other side of the planet for this woman without so much as a
toothbrush. I've taken chance after chance on this woman, and she's
never let me down. Her faith in me has been absolute. I suddenly feel
like I'm going to bust out of my skin if I don't touch her, so I
reach over and slide her across the seats until she's sitting across
my lap, and I drop my head into her shoulder and sigh. I wrap my arms
tightly around her and inhale her scent.

Donna. My Donna. And I can finally say that out loud.

"I must say," she says, "I'm surprised to find out that you didn't
love me at first sight."

I see what she's doing. She's bringing the banter now. You know what
this is? I'm being handled now. Donna's an expert at handling me. See
Josh get handled. And for the first time in eight years, see Josh not
care about being handled.

"I didn't love you at first sight." I smile pulling back to look at
her.

"This amazes me."

"You'll adapt." I assure. "You're adaptable."

"What *did* you think at first sight?" she asks.

"You don't want to know the answer to that, Donnatella."

"Oohh." she purrs. "Now my interest is peaked. Is there actually
something that you haven't told me over the years?"

"I don't want to shock an innocent mind." She actually snorts in
response. Very unladylike that was. "Well, I obviously found you
irresistible if I hired you. I mean, I was working on spec there. The
sales pitch left something to be desired."

"I thought you were Toby." she blurts. What?

"What?"

"Before you walked into your office and told me you were you, I
thought Toby was you."

I can't figure out how to react to that. She thought I was Toby? Or
Toby was me?

"Okay. I'm missing something here."

"I picked your office because not only was it the one in most need of
help," she says eyeing me accusingly (this is because despite her
best efforts since, the seven years following that it always ended up
like that again at the end of the day and she had to fix it
again). "but because I thought Toby was you. You walked in and I got
flustered. I had a whole pitch planned, but I got distracted when you
said you were you."

Aha. The light clicks on and I break into a large grin.

"No, no, Joshua." she says.

"I see."I say with what I hope is a wicked grin. "You were so
distracted by my good looks that you couldn't remember what you were
going to say."

"When has *that* ever happened?" she says.

"That day, apparently."

"Well, I recovered quickly." she replies. "It lasted approximately
the length of time it took you to open your mouth."

"Nice try."

She slides off my lap into window seat, forcing me to move over. I'm
confused for a second, but then she pats her lap. "Your turn." she
says. "You look tired." I shrug. "You also look like you lost
weight." she continues.

"Are you going to start handling me again?"

"If I have to."

"Kay." I brilliantly reply. The truth is, I *am* tired. I flew to
California and back in the same day. Then she came over and kept me
up late. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. I couldn't sleep though,
so I got out of bed. I'm going on about two hours of sleep here,
because that's what I'm averaging a night right now. I mimic her
position from earlier as she starts running her fingers gently
through my hair. If this is how Donnatella Moss is going to handle me
from now on, I've got no problem with that. It's not long before I
give in to sleep.

-TBC-


Title: Transitions (2/?)
Disclaimer: Not mine. Just taking them out for a spin again.
Rating: R
Feedback: Yes, please
Summary: Josh and Donna are off to Hawaii

DONNA'S POV

God, he's been run through the ringer. After all I've grown in the
last year, not being with him every day, I still blame myself for his
current state. I know what you're thinking. No, Donna, no! You've
grown so much in the last year; you've come so far. I have. But my
feelings for him haven't changed. My instinct to take care of him was
never a result of my job; it was the result of being in love with
him. For eight years, the only way I could love him was to take care
of him.

Ah, shut you up, huh? Not so vocal now, huh?

Yes. Professionally, I had to move out of his shadow. He gave me
wings; I had to fly. And I did. I've learned a lot from him over the
years. And I struck out on my own and made quite a respectable name
for myself. I think that was because of him though. I think everyone
suspected that I would have learned everything from him, and that
scared people sometimes because, well, he scares people. I know I
made it look like it was easy for me when I left, but believe me when
I say that's unequivocally not the case. I practically gave myself an
ulcer stressing over that decision.

See, he was supposed to come after me. I didn't need him to beg me to
stay at my job because I did want to do something different and take
on more responsibility. But, he was supposed to beg me to stay with
*him.* My problem is, as well as I know him, I actually thought his
wounded male pride *wouldn't* get in the way there. What can I say?
I took a chance there. It didn't work the way I wanted it to. Not
that I was surprised, mind you. When Josh gets backed into a corner,
it's pretty ugly. And I most certainly backed him into a corner then.
I tried to force him to show his hand; it didn't work. So, I had to
show mine.

I look down at him now and take the opportunity to get a good look at
him. I like watching him sleep. I always have. Because when he's
awake, he's always in motion. I'm surprised he can even get on a
plane to Hawaii. I mean, this is a REALLY long flight. This wouldn't
be so bad if we were on Air Force One. He'd be able to walk around
the plane to work off the energy. But, we're on commercial. He always
looks so peaceful when he sleeps. I just want to hug him. I'd hug him
now, but I'd wake him up and I'm looking for the greater good here,
which is him actually resting. Josh is of the "I'll sleep when I'm
dead" club, so you really kind of have to force the issue with him.
So, sadly, no hugging at the moment.

He has lost weight and there's circles under his eyes. They'll go
away though once he's had a decent night's sleep. The thing is,
though he doesn't really look like he's aged, he's eight years older
than when I first met him. Plus, he got shot in the chest since then,
too, and had bypass surgery. He can't live the way he did then. He's
got a monumental task ahead of him, and I wasn't kidding when I told
the President-Elect that he was amped up to a particular peak of Josh-
ness. But I've got to confess, I've never seen him *this* amped up
before. The thing is, when we get back to DC, he's not going to like
the plans I've got in store for him. He's going to call me his
jailer; he's going to swear; he's going to whine. But, too bad for
him. I've got tunnel vision when it comes to this man, he should know
that by now.

Before when I handled him, it was because he was my friend, and
well...yeah, I was in love with him. But now, he's the man I'm going
to spend the rest of my life with, and I want him to be around for a
while. He is a bit older than me, don't forget. Oh yeah. I said it.
The man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with. You think the
meaning of this trip was lost on me? Josh has never taken a vacation
in his life. And in the middle of transition of all times, he takes
me to Hawaii? I know what this means. You forget. This is us. We have
subtext; we have history; we have our own language. This is eight
years of reading between the lines, people. I'm wondering when the
last time he's had a physical is. He'll never admit it to me, for
sure. I won't even bother to wonder when the last time he saw his
cardiologist was.

He's fast asleep now and I'm still running my fingers through is
hair. He's got soft hair. I love the way it feels. Obviously, if I'm
still doing it long after he's asleep. He's got a slight smile on his
face right now, and I smile to myself because I know I put it there.
It's been an emotional flight. I didn't think we'd get into the stuff
we did, but there it was. He was pretty upset, too. Josh isn't one to
show his feelings, but since election day, his guard has been down
with me. I mean, what with Leo and all, that was pretty intense.
Leo's funeral was a mess, and then at the reception at the White
House, well, it seemed that he never even got the chance to mourn for
him. As soon as we were through the door, Amy practically pounced on
him. Some stupid crap about a VP candidate. Like Josh and the
President-Elect couldn't figure out we needed a new VP. But then
again, she's never been coothful. Trying to set him up on a date
right in front of me? What an uber bitch. I could only imagine what
my face must have looked like to Josh when he told me the President-
Elect hired her for Director of Legislative Affairs. Now I'm hoping
Josh gives Donald Sherman Deputy of Legislative Affairs. It would
serve Amy right to have to watch him spit little bubbles every time
she talks to him. Oh, I'm sorry. Was that me being catty? Me being
catty about Amy, wow, imagine that.

He was so lost the day of Leo's funeral. I went to him anyway that
night. How could I not? I didn't tell CJ where I was going, but I
think she knew. It was just as well because I think she was going to
sneak out to Danny's anyway. Josh used to get freaked out by my
apparent ability to know pretty much everything that went on at the
White House. Trust me, I'm not Kreskin. Don't tell him this because
I'd rather he think I'm psychic, it keeps him in line easier, but
it's just paying attention to what's going on around you, for crying
out loud. Anyway, he opened the door that night, and I could see he'd
been crying, and my heart broke into a million pieces for him.
Again. I lost count a long time ago how many times Josh broke my
heart over the years. But the thing is, he was also always the one to
put it back together again.

I know what you're thinking. No. We didn't have sex that night. I
gotta say, I'm not sure it was even on my radar. We fell asleep on
his couch and I held him all night. What? You didn't think we could
bring the mushy, too? Well, we can, if there wasn't evidence of that
in our conversation a little while ago.

Josh isn't about what he says; it's what he doesn't say. I mean,
really, why do you think I stuck with him so long? If I just went on
what was coming out of his mouth, I wouldn't have lasted `til we got
to the White House. Classic example: President Bartlet's second
inauguration night. I ask you, if I wasn't in love with him before
that, how couldn't I be after that night? After how pissed he was at
me, he does a thing like that? I mean, come on. He could have gotten
along just fine that evening without me. Amy was around, ready to
suck him back in; Mandy was probably lurking in the shadows at one of
the balls. We hadn't seen too much of her since she left the White
House, but we were going to nine balls. I'm sure she would have been
at one of them. Joey Lucas was in town. And then there was the scores
of women in the DC political scene that have been trying to get him
into bed for years. Another thing he thought I didn't notice, but
again, I have eyes in my head. I'm just saying, he didn't have to do
what he did. He could have had a *much* different night.

So, it's moments like that that kept me around. He really can be a
sweetheart when he puts his heart to it.

But that was always our problem. Not everyone witnessed those
moments. People certainly witnessed that night. I mean, he brought
Danny with him? What is he, nuts? Wait, the answer to that is
actually yes. But, you know what I mean. The right people weren't
there that night to see that. CJ wasn't there to see the look in his
eyes when he told me I looked amazing. If she had been, I don't think
we would have had that conversation in her office before I left for
Gaza. She apologized after I came back from Germany. She said that
she'd misjudged our relationship. You think, CJ? A simple "misjudged"
isn't really the term I'd use there. How about staggeringly
underestimated? I think that might cover it. She said as long as she
lived, she'd never forget the look in his eyes when she told him
about the explosion, or the way he looked when he came back from
Germany. I would think not. I mean, he finally figured it out that
week. Talk about slow on the uptake. That's my Joshua.

He stirs in my lap and his arms get tighter around my waste and I
smile. I could look at him forever. Mainly, I'm still kind of afraid
he's going to disappear again into my dreams. When you spend six
years, six months and three weeks waiting for this moment, it's hard
to wrap your mind around it when it's finally here. I keep waiting
for someone to sweep in and tell me it's inappropriate; for someone
to sweep in and say I don't deserve him, I'm not in the same league
as him. I'm less of a person or something because I'm so attached to
him. Yeah, I know. It doesn't sound like the person I've become, but
I can't say I've ever really changed when it came to my feelings for
him. When you love someone with the intensity that I love him, you
can't shake them that easily. Since the day I met him, he's been my
weak link. And what's wrong with that anyway? You can't help who you
love. When your subconscious finds it's other half, there's not much
you can do to stop it. Trust me, I tried. You think it was easy for
me to accept that I was in love with my boss? With all that
misdirection I brought? Please.

I wasn't kidding before. I thought I was going to Toby's office. I
figured that someone as surly as Toby seemed to be would be more low
maintenance. And at that time in my life, I didn't want to be dealing
with any entanglements and high maintenance men. At least, that's
what I thought I didn't want. Turns out, cosmic forces were at play
that day and they brought me straight to my soul mate.

I've lied for this man. And I'm not talking about little white lies
to congressmen and senators who are looking for access. I'm talking
lying at a congressional hearing. Yeah. You all know what I'm talking
about. I committed a felony for this man, and don't think I won't do
it again. You think I was going to let congress know about his
fragile psyche? Not likely. I mean, I know that craziness is the
mark of a genius, but his enemies would have used it against him. And
for the record, I don't think he is or was actually crazy, but that's
what he thought at the time, so there it is. I've not dated because
of this man. I know you're going to bring up Cliff and Jack. I was
enchanted by Jack. I mean, the man did wear a uniform well, and with
the honor and integrity and all that, he reminded me of Josh, you
know, without the republicanness and the dress saber. He was purely
reactionary to Amy. I mean, look what happened there. And
Cliff...well, that was reactionary to Josh getting shot and me
discovering I was in love with him. That certainly must have made
good reading for Cliff that night. Poor guy. Talk about a blow to the
old ego there.

After Josh left Germany, Colin followed the next morning, so it was
just me and my mom for the rest of my stay there. She pounced on the
Josh thing almost immediately. She told me it was pretty plain why I
didn't get home much. I tried to play it off with the whole working
in the White House thing, but I lost the energy pretty fast and
finally admitted out loud that I was in love with him. Her response?
How could I not be when he flies half-way around the world to my side
without even bringing a toothbrush? See what I mean by Josh is about
what he does and not what he says? I knew he loved me because he
didn't stop for red lights. Three years later, after I said that to
him, he got it. Again, a little slow on the uptake.

I take Josh's wrist in my hand and turn it to take a look at his
crappy watch - can you believe he still has this thing? He's been
asleep for two hours now and I'm reluctant to wake him up. I can see
the increased activity among the flight crew as they're getting ready
to start our descent. They're going to ask me to wake him up soon, so
I lean down and gently suck on his earlobe. When I pull up, he's
smiling, still with his eyes closed.

"Feel free to wake me up like that every morning." he says
smiling. "Or, you know, just kiss whatever you want."

"Darn." I deadpan. "And I was going to start bringing you coffee in
bed each morning."

"Walked right into that one." he says rubbing his now open eyes. He
sits up and looks past me out the window. "How can we not be there
yet?"

"We're going to be starting the descent soon." I explain, taking a
second to smooth out his bed head, or I should say, lap head. He
looks so cute when he has fuzzy sleep head. I mean, how could I not
love this man? He sits back in the seat and takes my hand.

"I meant it." he says. "I want to wake up with you every morning."

"Okay." I smile. See? I told you I was going to spend the rest of my
life with him. No. I'm not so far gone that I'm translating this into
a marriage proposal. But, I see where he's going here.

"Okay?"

"Yeah."

"Okay as in you realize I'm asking you to move in with me?" he
continues. He smiles and kisses me when I nod in agreement. See, I
told you. Even though I saw this coming, I'm still impressed with the
leap he's just taken. He has found this whole thing difficult to
navigate. He's trying hard not to screw up. Like after the first time
we had sex, he tried to give me space. He's so sweet. I'm not sure
how he thought he was going to manage that on election day, of all
days. But he tried, and that was nice.

The flight attendants start to move around the cabin asking everyone
to put their seats up and tray tables away, turn off their laptops
and all that other stuff. He's got my hand in his, his head on my
shoulder and he's back asleep again. I smile as I lean my head on
his. He stayed awake just long enough to ask me to move in with him.
Sometimes it's about what he says and what he does.

- TBC -


Title: Transitions (3/?)
Disclaimer: Not mine. I'll have them back in time for bed.
Rating: R
Feedback: Yes, please.
Summary: Josh and Donna are off to Hawaii
A/N: It's really windy where I am right now, and apparently, it's
wreaking havoc on Yahell because I'm having trouble posting tonight.

DONNA'S POV

As soon as we're off the plane, I turn my cell phone back on and in
it's immediately ringing. Josh is holding my hand and raising his
eyebrows at me. I guess when he left his phone behind, he thought I
would, too. But he forgot. I can go a week without calling into the
office. Plus, I bet he's secretly happy I brought it. It means that
if he actually had to be in touch, he could be. Whether or not he
ever talks to the office this week is immaterial. It's just knowing
that he could if he absolutely had to. But trust me, unless we get
bombed, I'm not letting him call.

I look at the caller i.d., and it's CJ's cell phone. I do the math
and realize it's morning now on the east coast. I'm guessing CJ woke
up and has found me gone again. I've been staying with her because
the twitchy chick from Treasury's been subletting my place, but we
haven't talked too much about what's going on in our lives. I know
she knows I'm sneaking out to be with someone, and I think she
suspects it's Josh. Now I'm realizing that I forgot to tell her I'd
be gone this week. Guess she's about to find out who I've been
sneaking away with. Well, if I'm going to live with him, I'm going to
have to tell her who I'm living with, right?

"It's CJ." I say to Josh as we head towards baggage claim.

"If it's work-related, I don't want to talk to her." He
announces. "She's part of the reason I flipped. Unless it's really,
really important. Then I guess it's okay."

"It's not." I assure him, taking note of the slight disappointment on
his face. Who does he think he's fooling? "It's her cell phone. I
forgot to tell her I was leaving this week." I hit Okay on my phone
and put it to my ear. "Hey." I greet.

"Where the hell are you?"

"Mom?"

"No, it's CJ."

"I know. I was just poking fun."

"Ah, I see. One of your little funnies. Again, where the hell are
you?"

"Really?"

"Really."

"Hawaii."

"No, really."

"Really. I'm in Hawaii. We just landed."

"That would have been important information to let me know." she
says, as I wait for the light to click on in her head. "I mean,
you're staying at my place, I wake up and you're gone. Again. Wait a
minute." Ah yes, here it comes. It takes a little longer for her to
catch on now than it used to because she's got a lot more on her mind
these days. "Did you say *we* just landed?"

"Yes. *We* just landed." Josh smiles and lets go of my hand, opting
instead to put his arm around my shoulders.

"I take it you're in Hawaii with this mystery man you've been
seeing?" she leads.

"Come on, CJ. Is it really a mystery who I've been sneaking off to
meet?"

"I want to hear you say it." Damn.

"Fine. I'm in Hawaii with Josh."

"Working?"

"No. We're on vacation."

"You're on vacation with Josh Lyman?" she demands, but I can hear the
humor in her voice. "Josh Lyman took a vacation?"

"Yes."

"So, the Josh thing *has* happened." She's getting a little quicker
on the uptake now.

"Oh, yeah."

"You've been holding out on me."

"As have you."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She's attempting to
change the subject now. It's all fine, well, and good to give Donna a
hard time about her love life, but when the tables are turned, CJ
runs for cover pretty quickly.

"Yeah? How's Danny doing?"

"Danny!" Josh yelps. "She's been running around with Danny and she's
going to lecture *us*? Give me the phone."

"Don't you dare put him on." CJ demands.

"I won't." I assure. "I'm trying to keep his stress level down this
week. I don't want him to start talking shop under the guise of
catching up with you."

"That's not fair." he says.

"All's fair in love and war, my friend." I reply.

"There's a difference between love and war?" he asks giving up.

"There's no difference between love and war in the world of Josh and
Donna." CJ says apparently hearing his comment. "So, how long are you
gone for?"

"Well, we're here for a week, and then I'll be out of your hair after
that." I give by way of a vague explanation.

"The twitchy chick from Treasury's moving out?" CJ says. She's
fishing now. Damn politicians and their incessant need to know
everything, especially ones that were former White House press
secretaries.

"Not so much." I reply. We're at the baggage claim now, waiting for
the luggage carousel to start.

"Ah, you've made other arrangements?"

"You could say that."

"More permanent arrangements?"

"You could say that."

"You're going to redecorate that hideous bathroom, I hope."

"First order of business." I assure. I know you've never seen Josh's
bathroom, but I don't know who decorated that, or told him that it
was nice. Ick. I'm all over Bed, Bath and Beyond when we land in DC
next week. I mean, just ick.

"So...wow." she says.

"That's an apt term."

"When you get back, we're going to lunch or dinner and really getting
into this." she says.

"That goes ditto for you." I up the anty.

"Fine." she mock sighs. "So, does this mean I won't be hearing from
the transition offices this week?"

"No, you should definitely call over there. Sam's on board now.
Deputy Chief of Staff."

"Josh left *Sam* in charge?" she shrieks. "Shit. They're my next
call."

"He's engaged again." I say.

"Really?" she says. "Interesting. I wonder what she's like."

I consider this remark for a minute. "Let's save that dinner for when
I get back. We'll grill him on that issue together."

"Done, young grasshopper." CJ says. "See you in a week."

"By CJ." I flip my phone shut and drop it in my ever present tote
bag.

"So," Josh says wrapping both arms around my shoulders. "what do you
want to do first?"

"Order dinner and go to bed." I say.

"You'll get no arguments from me." he smiles.

"Where there will be lots of sleeping involved." I continue.

"And lots of sex."

"This trip is supposed to be relaxing." I remind.

"I'm sure you've got an itinerary in your beautiful head that has
ample relaxation time blocked out."

This earns him a pout because, damn, he really does know me better
than I thought he did. I was always under the impression that I knew
him better than he knew me. Apparently, we're neck and neck here. I
wrap my arms around his waist and lean in to him. I'm incredibly
tired right now. I mean, I think he's holding me up at this point.
This might possibly be the most tired I've ever been in my life. And
I've made it practically a profession to operate on next to no sleep.
I see my suitcase come around and pull away from him to haul it off
the carousel; his is not far behind. Hand in hand, we head for the
long line of cabs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

I flop on the couch and reach for the remote control, flip on the
t.v., and start channel surfing. I'm waiting for room service to come
with breakfast and coffee. You wouldn't believe the size of this
suite I got us. I thought Donna was going to have a stroke when she
saw it. I tell you, eight straight years of all work and no play has
built up an *insane* savings account on my part. Granted, I put a bit
of a dent in it before the primaries this year, but not too much.
It's still pretty big. I mean seriously, working the way I have and
not having a life, I unintentionally saved quite a bit of money. So,
I figured it was okay to splurge on this trip. I pulled out all the
stops, except, oddly enough the first class seats for the plane. What
can I say? I keep forgetting that commercial has different parts of
the plane. I just assume now that every time I fly, the plane will be
like Air Force One.

Anyway, this place is really big and Donna nearly started
hyperventilating when she saw the size of the bathroom and the
bathtub. She immediately announced that most of our relaxing is going
to take place in that bathtub. Okay. Now, don't get me wrong. I see
absolutely no flaws in the taking many baths with Donna plan. But,
come on. She doesn't see the flaw there? How does she think there's
going to be relaxing there? She doesn't actually expect me to sit in
a bathtub with her naked and not be all over her. Does she?

Wait a minute. *Does* she? No. She knows me better than that. She
knows a relaxing bath with me in the tub with her is a contradiction
in terms.

She told me last night that she was going to take the job with Mrs.
Santos. I got to tell you. You have no idea how happy I am about
this. True, Helen stole her away from us. But, thank God she did! By
doing that, she took away my very last hurdle. This is perfect in so
many ways. First of all, Helen saw right off the bat what it took me
ages to accept. Donna's going to be perfect for that job. First off,
she knows exactly how the West Wing works. Granted, that might bite
me in the ass just as much as it benefits me, but I know that when
push really comes to shove, she knows how it is. She'll know what to
push us on and what not to. Not to mention what having her around me
all day does for my mental well-being. Granted, she's going to be
across the building, rather than just outside the door, but she's
going to be accessible to me. That's my point here. Don't be thinking
I'm not going to be taking absolutely every advantage of that that I
can.

Here's the downfall of her taking that job. Unless someone drops a
house on Amy between now and inauguration day, Donna's going to have
to be working pretty closely with Amy. This has migraines for Josh
written all over it. The problem is, Amy is more centered on women's
issues than the President-Elect's. I just don't see her playing nice
with Donna. Plus, Amy can't separate the professional from the
personal. She never could. That's why it was never going to work
between she and I. And Donna can't stand Amy. I know that she always
tried to hide that little secret from me, but well, sometimes it was
pretty obvious. Not that I don't think Donna will rise above it and
put her personal issues with Amy aside. She will. But if Amy gets
personal, it's going to be hard for Donna not to get personal,
especially if it's because of me. All I'm saying is I'm not looking
forward to that little aspect of her taking the job.

Donna also told me last night that she was instituting The Rules
again once we were back in Washington. This did not go over well. In
fact, I practically threw a temper tantrum. I can handle being
handled, but there's just no need for the The Rules. First of all, I
haven't been shot recently! I need to unwind, but this is drastic
measures she's taking. Granted, she says they're a new and improved
version of The Rules, like I'll actually be able to socialize and all
that. I won't be under lock and key. But they go pretty much like
this:

Once we land in Washington, they go into effect. I can't stay at the
office later than 7 p.m. I can, however, bring work home with me, but
I can't work on anything later than 10 p.m. This rule is subject to
renegotiation once we're in the White House. Well, yeah, duh. This
rule is so that one, I'll have plenty of time to unwind before going
to sleep at night; and two, she can actually make sure that at least
one meal a day that I eat is healthy. Okay, she's cute. Look how much
she loves me.

She's going to clear all the crap off my treadmill and make me use it
in the morning. This is negotiable in that I can actually leave the
house to run in the mornings, if I want. Isn't she nice? That was
actually sarcasm there. She thinks I'm going to get up an hour
earlier to endure physical hardship? She says that it won't be as
hard as I think if I'm actually getting to bed at an early time. But
if I'm having sex with any regularity, that doesn't count as
exercise? There's good cardio involved there. Especially with her.
She once made a quip to me that women could get out of hand in bed.
She's not kidding. Anyway, so now I've got to exercise. So, I'm not
really looking forward to that.

Mainly, she's got me eating right and exercising. She said she won't
withhold caffeine yet. If I can prove myself at the first two rules,
rule number three won't need to go into effect. She got lucky so far
with this one.

After that bit, she hit me with the doctors' appointments. Notice I
used the plural there. She's setting me up with appointments with my
regular doctor for a physical (I thought I didn't need to get them
after a certain age); an eye doctor, because she said I've spent too
many years reading by the crappy light in my old office at the White
House (I won't admit this to her, but this is a good thing. I do
actually think I need reading glasses). But the big one is she's
making me go to a cardiologist for a stress test. This I think is
paranoia. But she's done research (oh, *of course* she's done
research! This little tidbit basically means I'm screwed) and she's
discovered there can be lingering effects from the shooting. As I get
older, things can crop up, and since I'm going to have a high stress
job, it can impact the health of my heart. I started to freak, but
she immediately pulled the Leo card. Talk about nipping something in
the bud.

I think that was pretty much all of the rules at the moment. I guess
there's really not that many, but wait until the President-Elect gets
wind of them. Crap. He's going to make fun of me from now until the
end of the administration. Here's the difference between President
Bartlet and President-Elect Santos. President Barlet was like
everyone's father; President-Elect Santos is like everyone's
fraternity brother. The problem is, now I've got to be crafty about
giving as good as I get. The Secret Service is involved now and
seriously, Ron Butterfield has NO sense of humor. I mean, maybe he
appreciates a good joke once in a while, but not so much in the White
House.

So, anyway, those are The Rules as they currently stand, in all their
crappiness. But I'm going to endure them. I'll follow each one to the
letter for her. Why? Because I'm that far gone, that's why. Oh don't
think I'm going to follow them to the letter without bitching about
them every chance I get. I am still me, after all. But she came up
with each one of those rules because she loves me. And I now know
that she came up with each of those rules the first time around
because she loved me then, too. Things start falling into place after
you have epiphanies of love. I mean, looking back on it. I always
knew she and I were different, but quite frankly, Ginger and Kathy
would be all about having that time away from Toby and Sam. Of
course, I don't mean to be callous and say that they'd be happy they
got shot, the exact opposite actually. But they would have just gone
to work day in and day out and let Toby's and Sam's mothers take care
of them. Donna did not do that.

There's a knock on the door and I let room service in. Once they're
gone, Donna appears yawning, sleepy-eyed and stretching in the living
room part of the suite. Thus, effectively ruining my brilliant idea
of serving her breakfast in bed. I'll have to wait for another
opportunity for that one. But, damn, if she doesn't look hot right
now. She's got this little pink pajama set on that's a quite tight
tank top and shorts. Why she bothered to bring clothes with her for
this trip, I don't really know, but she did. Her hair is all mussed
up, her face is completely makeup free, and she's lazily wandering
over to me. I don't know if she's meaning to be, but she's incredibly
seductive right now. She plants a good morning kiss on me and her
breath is minty fresh, so somebody swung by the toothpaste tube on
her way in. She's pretty delectable looking right now, and since the
breakfast is on a warming tray (I told you I picked I nice place),
I'm going to stop talking to you now because I have more important
things to attend to.

TBC


Title: Transitions (4/?)
Disclaimer: Oh, if they were only mine.
Rating: R (but just because there can be swearing)
Timeline: Post-Transition
Summary: Josh and Donna's trip to Hawaii
Feedback: Always

JOSH'S POV

I slowly wake up to the sound of Donna's cell phone freaking out. It
seems like it's been ringing for hours, but in reality, it's only
rung three or four times. I bury my head under the pillow in protest
because I also notice there's light in the room. We've been in Hawaii
for four days now and I've gotten used to sleeping in. I think
Donna's sleeping plan for me when we get back to Washington has
merit. I could get used to this, if she's next to me.

"Hello." I hear her sleepy voice answer. She has a really sexy
morning voice. I've always liked it. Seriously, why do you think I
made her call me and wake me up every morning for all those
years? "Yeah, Anna. It's six in the morning here." Anna? Funny, my
mother's name is Anna.

Oh shit.

"Yeah, he's right here."


Her hand with her phone in it is now smacking me in the shoulder. I
burrow deeper under the pillow in a pathetic attempt to escape my
mother. I love my mother. I swear to God I do. But I didn't tell her
I was taking a vacation, and I've barely spoken to her since the
election. I couldn't handle it because she started talking about Leo
and my dad and it was really depressing. So my point here is, I'm
about to get in trouble. A lot of trouble.

"Joshua, be a man and take the phone." Donna threatens. Well, that
wasn't fair. Just because I'm afraid of my mother doesn't make me any
less of a man. I grab the phone out of her hand and snake it under
the pillow to my ear.

"What?" I demand into the phone.

"*That's* how you greet your mother, Joshua?" my mother demands
indignantly. "I thought I raised you better than that."

"You heard Donna; it's six o'clock in the morning and I'm on
vacation." I reply.

"Yes." says my mother, ignoring my tantrum. "Let's discuss why in
order to get in touch with you at all, I have to call Donna's cell
phone, and imagine my shock when she's what I'm assuming is in bed
with you, and on a vacation. Not to mention the fact that you're
actually on a vacation. Where are you exactly, dear?"

"Hawaii."

"Hawaii. Very romantic place for you to take someone you've spent
eight years telling me you had no romantic feelings for."

"What am I supposed to answer to first, mom?" I sigh. Mind you, this
entire time, I'm still under my pillow. However, I now feel a shift
in the bed and feel Donna get out of it. Thanks, Mom!

"You being in bed with Donna." she says.

"Well, up until a minute ago, I was in bed with Donna." I reply. Some
of you are probably shocked to hear me talk to my mother that way.
But you've been following this conversation, my mother's no innocent
mind. I mean, where do you think I get it from?

"Donna Moss." She says.

"The very same."

"Beautiful, intelligent, funny, Donna, who I've been telling you for
years to go out with."


"And you say I don't listen to you." I've now rolled over and pulled
the pillow off my face. In doing so, I can smell coffee floating into
the room. Ah, coffee. Which means Donna's not coming back to bed.
Again, thank you, Mom!

"Where's *your* phone, Joshua?"

"Washington." I say. "I left it behind in a shocking show of
independence from my job."

"That's unlike you."

"It's also unlike me to have Donna in my bed, mom. But there she was
up until about two minutes ago. And you'll be happy to know that
she'll be answering my phone a lot more in the future."

"Oh, Joshua." my mother sighs like she's lost all hope for me. "Don't
tell me you're trying to convince her to work for you again."

"First of all, mother," I retort "you make it sound like it's a jail
sentence. Did it ever occur to you that there was a time when Donna
*liked* working for me? And also, I say that because she's moving in
with me."

Silence.

Amazing. There's silence on the other end of the phone. I've finally
shocked my mother into silence. I'd prompt her to speak, but I want
to revel in this moment.

"Joshua." she breathes. The last time I heard that tone of voice was
the time I called her to tell her that they were just about to call
the election for Governor Bartlet. This is pride in my mother's
voice. "It's true?"

"It's true."

"You're not pulling a fast one on an old lady."

"I know how seriously you take this issue, mother."

"But you're comfortable with the old lady part?"

Shit. Walked right into that. In fact, there's a Josh-shaped dent in
that one. What does she expect from me? It's 6:05 in the morning.

"Does this mean you're finally going to marry her?"

"I haven't discussed that with her yet." I say.

"But you're open to the possibility."

"This isn't a negotiation, mom; this is the woman I love." Donna has
come back into the room now, and would you believe it? She's actually
got TWO, count them, TWO mugs of coffee with her! My mom starts
prattling on about finally getting to tell her bridge club that
there's actually grandkids in the future, but I'm stuck on this
momentous occasion taking place in front of me. Donna's brought me
coffee three times in our entire relationship. One, when she thought
I was going to get fired; two, when I was about to meet Joey Lucas
and I was unbelievably hung over. I think that was because she wanted
to watch my face when I took a sip of day old, cold coffee. She can
be pretty conniving this woman of mine. And third, after we had sex
for the first time. I don't know what that was, but that was the
third time in eight years she decided to bring me coffee.

"Mom, I've got to call you back." I say off-handedly. "Donna's just
brought me coffee." I snap the phone shut and toss it across the bed.
Don't think my mom's not going to kick my ass for that one later, but
this is a dire situation here.

"What the hell is going on?" I ask as she hands me a steaming mug.
She sits on the bed in front of me, curling one deliciously long leg
up underneath her, and letting the other one dangle off the side.

"What'd your mom say?"

Misdirection? Is she kidding me? This might be worse than I thought.

"Are you leaving me?" I demand.

"Don't be ridiculous." she laughs.

"Are you pregnant?" What the hell? I actually asked her that?

"Not likely." she laughs again. Thankfully, she just saw that as my
paranoia. This woman knows me so well. "What's the matter with you?"

"Donna, coffee is like the kiss of death with you and me." I reply. I
don't get it. I'm truly at a loss right now. To make matters worse,
she leans in and kisses me. See? I'm a dead man. My life as I've
briefly come to love it is ending.

"I brought you coffee because I thought you might like some." she
says. She leans in and gives me a well-placed, wet, open-mouthed kiss
right under my ear. She pulls away and I raise my eyebrows.

"Seriously?" Yes, I'm aware that my voice got very high just then.

"Seriously." She's still laughing at me. The woman I love is laughing
at me. She's laughing at my complete confusion right now. She
seriously doesn't see the enormity of this situation. "You really
thought me bringing you coffee over the years was indicative of
impending doom?" She cocks her head to the side, and she's cute as
hell right now.

"Well, yeah." I confess. I mean, wasn't it? It certainly seemed like
it was.

"Well, I'm bringing you coffee now, Joshua, because I love you." she
says. "I brought it to you on Election Day, too. Don't you remember?"

"Yeah. I thought I was going to get the brush off then." I
confess. "It wasn't until the afternoon that it started to confuse
the hell out of me." She seriously doesn't see why this is
weird? "You out and out refused to bring me coffee."

"I was taking a professional stand." she said realizing that I'm
totally serious right now. "That was for women everywhere."

"Okay." I say giving up. I mean, really. It's best not to get into
it. What's important is coffee means something new now; something
better. I bet you didn't know coffee could have meaning, did you?
Well, it can. Know what else has meaning? Red lights. I know. You
all thought I forgot about that. Oh ye of little faith. Why do you
think I didn't stop to pack a bag before flying to freaking Germany?
There was a whole thing going on there!

She leans in and puts her coffee on the night stand next to the bed,
then follows suit with mine. I guess we're taking baby steps here.
She'll bring me coffee right now but not actually let me drink it.
She sits back for a second and looks at me. I don't know what the
hell is going on right now, so I just look at her back. I mean, give
me some credit here. It's 6:17 in the morning and I apparently can't
drink my coffee yet. I'm forced to work on wits alone here. Then she
does something really freaking sexy. She literally crawls up my body.
She stops to kiss my stomach, then my chest on the near invisible
scar there, and then she's working on my neck again. I'm leaning back
on my elbows and she's draped across me like at cat before she's
straddling my hips, and I swear to God, I'm the luckiest man alive.

Now she's kissing me on the lips and I sit up to meet her and wrap my
arms around her. I wonder if I've ever actually touched her before
because she's created this fragile balance right now as she wraps her
endless legs around me and locks them at her ankles. She's giving me
these lazy kisses like we've got all the time in the world, which
right now, we do. If she wants to do just this for hours, I'm good
with that. I'm happy to give Donnatella anything she asks for as long
as she keeps with this little lap dance she's started. This is the
romance I told you about. There's going to be nothing hot and fast
this time; this is lovemaking in it's most purest form. She's worked
her way back down my neck again and -

Ah.

Yeah.

We'll talk again later.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

"Hey, Sam." I say quietly. I really don't need to talk so softly. I'm
on the balcony of our room and Josh is inside passed out still. He
had quite the morning. He needs his rest. Yeah, I'm that good.
Anyway, I snuck out here to make some phone calls. I started with Sam
since I saw him for all of about 15 minutes before Josh whisked me
off to Hawaii.

"Donna! I can't believe you're calling from vacation. How's Hawaii?"

"Awesome." I confess. And yes, I have gotten to see some of the
island. We went to the Pearl Harbor Memorial and everything. Despite
Josh's best attempts, we actually have left our suite.

"Josh didn't elaborate too much before he took off. How long have you
and he been an item?"

"You mean how long have he and I been sleeping together?"

"Yeah, that." Sam's so cute. I can actually hear him blushing over
the phone. I mean, I can't believe there's men like this still in the
world.

"Election Day." I say. Sam pauses for a minute and I know he's
thinking of Leo.

"Wow." He says. "Josh really had quite a day that day, huh?" I smile
as I think of how well Sam knows Josh to take note of that and
exactly what kind of day Josh had. Other than me, Sam is probably the
only one that truly realizes the major events in Josh's life that
transpired that day.

"Yeah." I say. Damn, how can I change the subject? I don't mind
talking to Sam about me and Josh, but I don't really want to talk
about Election Day.

"You know I'm really happy for you two, right?" he says. "I mean, I
always hoped you guys would come around. You really are made for each
other."

"Thanks, Sam." I smile because he's so right. "Josh tells me you're
engaged. What's her name? Tell me about her."

"Her name is Robin; she's an attorney; and she'll be meeting me out
here next week." Sam says.

"Is she into politics?"

"Not in the slightest bit."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Well, that's going to be interesting." I say. Wow. This is quite the
thing now. I know that I told CJ we'd grill him together, but now I'm
into this conversation, so I'll have to fill CJ in later. She'll get
over it.

"The White House Deputy Chief of Staff is going to marry someone who
doesn't follow politics?"

"That's the long and short of it."

"I'm not sure, but that might be a match made in heaven, Sam. I mean,
you can really not take your work home with you."

"On the other hand, I cannot take my work home with me."

He sounds a little sad there and I feel bad for him. I know we've all
looked for someone who didn't follow politics at one point or
another. But when you work in the White House, well, you really kind
need someone who has some clue, especially if you're in a job like
Deputy Chief of Staff. The White House is a fishbowl, and you don't
understand it, unless you've been there. (This is something that I'll
be working with Mrs. Santos on when we get back. She thought her life
was under scrutiny before? I'm about to blow her mind.)

Someone who doesn't understand politics and the role of the different
players in the White House isn't going to understand the hours that
are involved there. I mean, this girl's a lawyer, so she puts in the
hours, too, I'm sure. Plus, she's obviously smart, so if she wants to
brush up on the workings of the White House, I'm sure she'll catch on
fast. But I really hope this girl loves Sam, because I'm actually
*not* sure this will bode well for them.

See, I can reign Josh in the hours he works on a daily basis. I
really can, even after we're in the White House. Josh has already
solidified his reputation on the Hill. Sam has not, at least in the
capacity that he'll need as Deputy COS. Plus, he's been away from
Washington for four years now. The players have changed. Sam's got to
establish relationships with all of them, and that's going to take
time. I think I'm going to have to start spending time with is fianc‚
and bring her in gradually. I'd ask CJ to help, but she's pretty much
getting the hell out of Dodge as soon as the President-Elect utters
the words "so help me God."

"So, what's going on at the office? Just the gossip, please." I don't
want to get into anything else. I want to have plausible deniability
when Josh finds out about this phone call. Plus, I want to move Sam
off the topic of how hard it will be for his fianc‚ before he has too
much time to dwell on it and change his mind about taking the job. I
just don't need Josh freaking out like that now.

"Well, it's really kind of weird." Sam says. "I'm not really sure I
should tell you this."

"This certainly sounds interesting."

"Well, that guy Bram? What do you think of him?" Sam asks. He's got a
strange tone in his voice and my interest is quite elevated now.

"Bram?" I ask. "Well, Bram is Bram. He was with the campaign before I
was. He's a hard worker, fast learner. Sometimes, I think he might be
a bit of an airhead, but he's okay. He's a bit of a player though. He
dates a lot. He hooked up a bit on the campaign trail. Why?"

"Okay. Well, keep in mind that I've only been here a few days, and I
only knew like four people when I got here, and two of them are now
in Hawaii. So, I could be totally messing this up." Sam starts.

"Sam, what the hell is going on?"

"Well, Otto tells me that I guess Bram has a bit of a crush on you.
But during the campaign, they thought that you ran a little cold;
like you weren't really interested in getting involved with anyone."

"That's because they've got no clue about mine and Josh's history." I
explain. I mean, Leo was the only one on the campaign that knew what
was really going on there with us. No one else knew us but Annabeth,
and she didn't know us well enough to know what was going on behind
the scenes. Leo, on the other hand, was all knowing. I really miss
him.

"Well, okay." He says, because quite frankly, while we've kept in
touch over the last four years, mainly by e-mail, Sam's pretty much
been out of the Josh and Donna loop, too. Most all of our friends
were. "Anyway," he goes on. "it seems that Bram finally got up the
nerve to ask you out." Oh shit. We're going to step back in the
office on Monday, and Josh is going to have a conniption. "But it's
now gotten around the office that you were on vacation with Josh. So,
of course the rumor mill is working overtime. Plus, it seems that
Ronna and Edie know what happened on Election Day."

"Yeah, we were sort of busted by them."

"So, now, it's this whole thing on whether or not you're together."
Sam goes on. "Well, Amy started work the other day."

"Oh, shit." I groan. I actually smack my forehead with my hand. I
thought Josh told me she was seeing some lumberjack. Why does she
need to get involved in anything? Isn't my job going to suck enough
with her around?

"Yeah." Sam says sympathetically. "It seems that she's obviously not
in the know about you two. She took it upon herself to quite
emphatically assure Bram and Otto that there's nothing going on
between you and Josh, and you just went on vacation together because
you're friends. She encouraged Bram to ask you out. She assured him
that Josh would have no problem with this."

I'm still groaning here. I mean, I know this seems so simple of a
problem, but you know Josh. This will hit his radar and unspool him.
He's got enough to worry about, he doesn't need to be dealing with
trivial shit like this.

"Sam," I plead. "please, please, please run interference on this for
me." I'm begging now. I'm throwing myself on Sam's mercy here.

"I already did." Sam confesses. "I sat down Otto, Bram, Edie and
Ronna and gave them sort of a crash course in you two." What the hell?

"You what?"

"I sort of gave them the Cliff's Notes version of you guys. You don't
have to worry about Bram." He assures. He sounds quite proud of
himself, but I suspect damage control when we get back.

"Do I even want to know what the Cliff's Notes version of us sounds
like, Sam?"

"You're better off just taking my word for it here, Donna." He says.

"Thanks."

"You bet."

"Okay. Well, I'm going to wake Josh up now, Sam. We'll talk to you
later."

"See you in a couple days." Sam says and hangs up. I snap the cell
phone off just as the sliding door opens up. Josh appears wearing my
favorite jeans and a gray Mets t-shirt. He's also barefoot. I love
this look for him. He flops down into the chair next to me and
stretches. And if I do say so myself, it's the stretch of a well-
satisfied man. He's so delicious. It's all I can do not to launch
myself at him on this balcony, which I would be all about, but for
the public beach we're facing.

"Who was that?" he asks running a hand over his face.

"Sam." I confess.

"What happened?" he anxiously sits up and he's reaching over for the
phone. At the last second, I snatch it away and hold it over my head.

"It was a completely personal call." I say. "We didn't talk about
work at all."

"Oh." He falls back against the back of the chair again and looks out
at the ocean.

"Except there was a little thing." I hedge. Might as well tell him
about it now, where I can easily jump his bones to distract him and
calm him down. That tactic won't go over too well in the office. He
looks over at me and I see one eyebrow slowly raise. My political
bulldog is going to make an appearance any second.

"It seems Amy has taken it upon herself to inform the available men
of the office that I, in fact, am available for dating." I
explain. "Sam's putting a quash on that." He looks at me for a
second, clearly weighing the gravity of what I just said. Slowly, he
holds out his hand.

"Give me the phone." He says calmly.

"Not a chance in hell." I reply.

"Donnatella, look at my face right now." He says. Damn, he's really
serious. And really hot. "Give me the phone." I'm torn. I'm torn
between sticking to my guns and not letting him call that office, and
giving him the phone to find out what he's going to say and who he's
going to say it to. I mean, you should see the look in his eyes right
now. It's the look he gets when he has a plan. It's the look he gets
when he's going to smack someone down. It's the look he gets that's
made me want to jump him for the last six years. Because I'm
dramatic, I cover my eyes and hand him the phone. It's out of my hand
in a split second and he's dialing a number. I guess it's a number
that I don't keep in my contacts. I look over at him and he's still
got that look on his face.

"Amy, the reason I didn't want you to set me up with Sara Petrero is
because I'm having quite a lot of sex with Donna. So, take your best
intentions and shove them up your ass." He flips the phone shut and
casually tosses it on the table and looks up at me. "I got her voice
mail." He says simply.

Screw the public beach.

I launch out of my chair and straddle him for the second time this
morning. I'm practically sucking his face off, I want him so bad
right now. God, I love this man! He picks me up, and with my ankles
crossed behind his back, and our lips locked, we stumble to find out
way back inside.

TBC


Title: Transitions (5/?) - REPOST
Disclaimer: Not mine, so there.
Rating: R (But that's an overall rating. I don't think there's any
swearing in this chapter)
Feedback: No one's better at it than you guys. Seriously, thanks for
all the great words. It's great motivation.
Summary: Josh and Donna return to Washington
A/N: I accidentally typed Donna's name in a part where it should
have been Carol's and it was making me nuts, so I reposted. That's
the only change to the chapter though. I just couldn't let it go.


JOSH'S POV

It's Sunday afternoon and I'm making my way into OEOB. Donna and I
got back on Friday and spent Saturday pulling her stuff out of
storage. We fell asleep at like 5 p.m. because we were so screwed up
by the time change. Anyway, she's spending the day making sense out
of my - well, our (and don't think that doesn't make me smile) -
place. And in case you were wondering, she wasn't kidding on that
Bed, Bath and Beyond thing. On our way back from Dulles (yes, I've
been properly berated by Donna for flying in and out of Dulles, which
apparently doesn't make sense, and not using National), she made us
stop at a Bed, Bath and Beyond in Reston and now the bathroom has a
totally new color scheme.

I know some of you are immediately thinking about The Rules and how I
managed to get to the office so soon after landing. Easy. She wants
me out of her way today, so an exception was made. Anyway, I come
into the office and immediately all eyes are on me. Now, granted,
there's not too many people here, because it's a Sunday, but they're
all staring at me. They all look like a ticking bomb was just wheeled
in. I can't say I blame them really. Last time they saw me, I was
quite strung out. I've had quite a bit of sex since then. Well,
sleep, too. Also, I'm dressed casually, which is something I'm not
sure they've ever really seen. I'm not saying I'm in various stages
of a suit, which they have seen, those of them that were actually on
the campaign trail. I've got khakis and a dark green sweater on. So,
I think I'm freaking them out a little bit.

One of the people I see eyeing me with great trepidation is Otto.
Yeah, can't say I blame you there, kid. But see the thing is, I can't
actually apologize to him, even though he totally deserves it. If he
wants a job in the White House, he needs to see how it really is, or
how it can get. Yes, he needs to be afraid of me. I don't need him to
run in fear every time he sees me, but yes, he needs to know what
happens when I've hit my limit. I know I didn't show it often, but I
was most definitely scared of Leo; CJ, not so much, but definitely
Leo, and Leo and I had a different relationship than he had with the
rest of the senior staff.

I've wandered over to Ronna's desk, who's currently acting as both my
assistant and the President-Elect's. I think Ronna is actually the
only one of the support staff that can actually handle me. I think
that's because she's so sweet and doe-eyed all the time. Every time
something good happens, she's totally amazed by it. It's kind of
infectious. She reminds me of Donna that way, which is why I think I
react to her differently than I do everyone else. She has kind of a
calming presence. Except the President-Elect is stealing her for
himself once we're in the White House, so I have to find someone
else.

She's not in today, but she's got everything ready for my return. I
have a three-inch stack of messages, and she's got this huge binder
with my name on it. Apparently, she tried to make things easier for
me by putting all the memos and briefings into chronological order
and putting them in this one binder so it's easily transportable.
It's a good idea in theory, but when I open it up, it makes no sense.
Because it's not broken down any further, you see. There's a memo on
the staff that Sam's hired in my absence, followed by a proposed
legislative agenda for the first 100 days from Amy, followed by a
defense briefing memo - I mean, you see what's nuts about this right?
Or is it I'm just so used to Donna's insane filing and organization
system that I can't comprehend anything else? Nah. I think Ronna
needs to learn to prioritize.

Otto's eyeing me a little more bravely now as my Blackberry rings. I
grab the binder and the messages and wander to my office. Otto
follows.

"Josh Lyman." I say into my phone.

"Hi, Josh. It's Carol." Say the voice on the other end. Carol? Carol-
Carol from the White House? "I hope you don't mind, but Donna said I
could call you directly on your cell." She has that tone to her voice
that she gets when she's either passing the blame to someone else or
delivering bad news. What she doesn't know is just by mentioning
Donna's name puts me in a good mood. Yeah, I'm pretty far gone. I
told you, I've had a lot of sex; it's made me a different man.

"No, it's fine. What's up?" Okay. Otto's now lingering in my doorway.
I have to deal with him. "Hold on, Carol." I move the mouthpiece away
from my face and look over at Otto.

"How was Hawaii?" he asks.

"Great." I nod. How does he know I'm not on an extremely important
phone call right now? I could be on with, I don't know, CJ or
something. Well, because he probably heard me say Carol's name.

"Did you see a lot of the island?" he's smiling at me right now. You
know why? Because he's asking in man code if I had a lot of sex and
he doesn't know me well enough to come right out and ask. So, you
know what he gets in return? The glare I give republicans. It works.
He's suitably unnerved.

"I saw some of it." I answer. I mean, I still have to make sure
everybody knows Bram can't ask Donna out here, too, without damaging
Donna's reputation in the process.

"Oh, that's, um..." he's falling over his words. This kid's so green.

"Otto," I say. I'm going to extend the olive branch to him now. "pull
all the speeches you wrote for us and give them to Sam, also give him
the draft of the inaugural speech."

"Huh?" This is the kid we're paying to write a major address?

"If you want a job on the speech writing staff, I want Sam to sign
off on you." I explain. He smiles now and leaves me alone. See how I
did that? See how I made nice without out and out having to say the
words? I can be so slick sometimes.

"I'm back, Carol." I say.

"I'm told that you're looking for an assistant." She says. And it
dawns on me that with CJ's promotion and Toby under house arrest, I
wonder what Carol's actually been doing at the White House the past
few months.

"Yeah." I say.

"I was thinking we could go to the Hawk and Dove and talk about it."
She says. Well, that's awfully bold of Carol. Carol hardly hung out
with the senior staff in our hey day. She did sometimes, but usually
it was just Donna with us, which never seemed odd at the time.

"Go to the Hawk and Dove and talk about it?" I repeat.

"Unless you'd rather go somewhere else." She says quickly. "Donna
mentioned coming over to your place, too."

"You want to apply for the job as my assistant?" Yeah, I caught up. I
was confused for a second; she's got an interesting sales pitch this
one.

"I do." She says.

"Okay." I say.

"Okay, we'll meet and talk about it?" she says.

"No. Okay, the job's yours." I say. Carol will be almost perfect for
the job. She's never worked operations, but she's worked in the White
House and she knows me. I say almost perfect for the job because I'm
sleeping with the woman who's perfect for the job, so everyone else
will pale in comparison. But, I'm thinking Carol's a pretty good
choice. I briefly considered begging Margaret to stay like CJ did,
but Margaret freaks me out.

"All right then!" she's pretty enthusiastic right now, and I'm
thinking she's been bored out of her mind the last few months. I wish
I'd thought of her sooner, I could have stolen her for the campaign.
Unfortunately, this is one of those trivial things that flew just
under my radar.

"When can you start?" I ask. I happen to glance at my doorway, and
believe it or not, she's actually standing in it. I disconnect the
call and look up at her with what I'm assuming is surprise.

"Donna said I could also cut all the other crap out and just head
over." She smiles shyly disconnecting her call.

"Donna went ahead and hired you for me, didn't she?" I smirk. I love
that woman. Talk about getting handled. Carol nods and walks in. "She
told you that I'm a pain in the ass to work for, right?" Carol cocks
her head to the side and gives me the assistant's patent, `yeah, I've
met you before look,' they used to give me all the time. "I can be
hostile, arrogant, paranoid, egotistical, clever, and Donna once said
I was a dastardly villain. She told me once that she hated my
breathing guts." She also told me that night that if I was in an
accident, she wouldn't stop for red lights, so that negated the
hostileness she was giving me that night, at least in my mind. But,
again with the look from Carol.

"Okay." I motion to the chair on the other side of my desk and she
sits down. "First, I need you to make sense of this binder." I say
handing it over to her. She opens it up and flips through, and I
swear to God, she's holding in laughter. Thank God for Carol. "One of
the things I need you to be all over over the next six weeks is
Ronna. She put that together. She's going to be the President-Elect's
executive assistant. She's nice, determined, extremely loyal to the
President-Elect, but green. I need you to help make her into a force
to be reckoned with. She needs to do better than that. She's going to
be one of the people that walks into the White House and gets blinded
by the lights." Carol looks up at me amused. For crying out loud,
does Donna tell these women everything?!

"I also need you to be steadfast outside my door, starting today." I
continue, and she looks up at me again. "I got a different job now,
and the only three people that get through that door without an
appointment are the President-Elect, Sam, and Donna." When I say
Donna's name, I see Carol smile again. It makes me smile in
turn. "Carol, I need you to be Mrs. Landingham." Carol looks up at
me. I don't need to say anything more on that subject. She's just
perfectly understood what I need her to be. Orientation over. Well
played, Donnatella.

"Done." She nods once and gets up walks out of the office, passing
Sam on the way in.

"Nice choice." Sam greets gesturing back through the door Carol just
left. Sam is likewise dressed casually, and I take a second to
appreciate the fact that he's standing in this building, and
evidently not bailing on me.

"Donna's." I reply. And there's that smile on Sam's face that Carol
just gave me. It strikes me now that all of our friends are
incredible happy for us now. It makes me feel good.

"What?" I say.

"Nothing." He smiles.

"Sam." I coaxed.

"You and Donna." He's smiling again.

"Yeah, me and Donna."

"It's great."

"It's not that far-fetched." I say playing off the miracle in my life
that's recently transpired. "We've had every other part of a
relationship for the past eight years, we've just added a lot of sex
is all."

"Oh, a lot of sex you say?" See, I can actually talk about sex with
Donna with Sam. Otto, not so much; but Sam gets it.

"It's quite something."

"And the co-habitation." Sam continues, dropping into the chair just
vacated by Carol.

"She even redecorated the bathroom." I reply propping my feet up on
my desk. "She's going to be Mrs. Santos' Chief of Staff." Sam looks
suitably impressed. And again, I have to give pause to just how much
Donna loves me. I would have thought she'd steal Carol for herself.
But instead, she sent her to where the better good would be done. I
love the fact that she can take care of me while not even being in my
presence.

"Wow!" Sam says. I guess no one told him that while we were
away. "That's amazing!"

"She's amazing." I say. I like to say it out loud now. A lot.

"At least she'll be a Chief of Staff that won't use sex with you to
further an agenda." Sam says.

Ouch.

"Okay. We didn't need to go *there,* Sam." I say.

"It was a segue." Sam says. *That* was a segue? That was a terrible
segue. "She's quite pissed at a voice mail you left her. She says it
was unprofessional."

"I wasn't calling her in my capacity as her boss." I say. "I called
her in my capacity as her pissed off ex-boyfriend. That's her
problem; she can't tell the difference."

"I'm just saying is all." Sam says.

"I'm not afraid of Amy." I remind him. "And you'd think by now, she
would have learned not to mess with me about Donna." In fact, I'm
thinking Amy knew exactly what she was doing. Yeah, Amy having to
work with Donna is going to be a nightmare.

"I think everybody knows not to mess with you about Donna."

"What with your Cliff's Notes version." Yeah. Donna told me about
that. I have no desire to know what Sam said. But he actually winces.

"Anyway," he says standing up. "I've got to look over this pile of
speeches Otto gave me."

"I want your honest opinion on him, Sam." I say. "He's pretty good,
but I think he just needs discipline. I'll put him wherever you tell
me." Sam nods and walks out. I watch the empty door for a minute and
hear Carol shoo someone away. I hear them try again, and listen to
her tell them to turn around and walk away in an extremely
threatening voice that I don't know that I've ever heard her use. I
smile as I open my laptop and pull a folder of resumes off my desk.
I'm actually looking forward to coming into work again tomorrow.

TBC


Title: Transitions (6/?)
Disclaimer: Would that they were mine, I'd have a lot more money
Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Transition
Feedback: Yes, please.
A/N: You might be interested to know that I have absolutely no ideas
right now for an ending to this series. I have a feeling it's going
to go past the inauguration.

DONNA'S POV

I can hear Josh and Carol arguing as I approach his office door.
Carol was great choice. She's not taking any of his shit. It's making
him nuts. I cross the threshold into his office and see immediately
what the problem is. It's tech time. Carol's got Josh and Ronna
seated at Josh's desk for "training." Carol had the IT guys from the
White House come over to install the exact phone system the White
House uses here in Josh's office, the President-Elect's office, and
at hers and Ronna's desks. She's been subjecting Josh and Ronna to
training ever since. She wants no glitches on inauguration day. Josh
assures her that when he needs her, he's just going to bellow for
her, but Carol said that I'd be a very sad woman if she had to chop
off any appendages of his because he called her like a dog. I can
only imagine the look on his face when she said that. Carol can get
pretty sassy. But, come on, Josh should certainly be used to a sassy
assistant by now. I think I broke him in pretty good for Carol!

Mostly, I think these little sessions are for Ronna's benefit more
than Josh's. They're little training seminars on how to handle your
boss in the White House (Though I don't think Ronna was actually
present for the appendage chopping threat, which is a good thing. I
mean, can you imagine if she said something like that to the
President-Elect?!). Carol also had the IT guys network hers and
Josh's laptops, as well. The only parts of Josh's laptop Carol isn't
privy to is his personal section and that which she doesn't have
clearance for. Those are password protected. Otherwise, she has an
exact replica of Josh's computer.

Josh looks up from the tutorial at me and it's all I can do not to
dive across the desk at him. As suspected, he needed reading glasses.
They're currently perched on the end of his nose and damn if he
doesn't look hot with them. Am I the only woman who finds reading
glasses on a hot guy a turn on? Screw it. I've long since
acknowledged that I might not be all that conventional when it comes
to Josh.

I also take a minute to take note of the fact that all the clutter is
also gone from Josh's office. Carol told him that he's Chief of Staff
now and not Deputy Chief of Staff anymore and his office can't look
like a file cabinet exploded in it. See, this is what I was trying to
tell him for the better part of seven years. It's nice to be
vindicated. She said he'll be meeting with very important people in
his office and it gives off a bad impression if he has to clear off a
pile of shit before someone can sit down. She scans most things into
her laptop, so he can call it up on his. So when he takes his laptop
home with him, he's literally taking home his whole office. I swear
to God, Carol's smart as hell. The simplicity of her plan is pure
brilliance. He'll never admit it, but I can see he agrees every time
he powers up his lap top at home. And can I tell you that she's only
been here a week? She really took charge.

"Are you giving Carol a hard time, Joshua?" I ask.

"No." he says.

"Yes." She says. Ronna rolls her eyes.

"She doesn't understand that I don't have a lot of time to be futzing
with an intercom." He says impatiently waiving his hand at the
offending piece of equipment.

"Josh, if you bitch at me one more time for the phone, I'm giving Amy
full access." Carol threatens.

"That's ruthless!" Josh protests looking at me for help. Sorry, my
love.

"It's tough love." Carol says shrugging.

"Okay, fine." He sighs. He takes the reading glasses off and rubs his
eyes. I can see he's a little tired. That'd be my fault. I kept him
up past his bedtime. Carol motions to Ronna and the two of them
leave, Carol closing the door behind her.

"Admit it," I say sitting across his lap. "she's awesome." He pushes
the chair away from the desk to give us more room.

"She'll have that office running tighter than I don't know what." He
acknowledges. "Are you here for lunch?"

"Nope." I say. "I'll be gone the rest of the afternoon. Mrs. Santos
and I are with the Vera Wang people for our dresses." The
inauguration is still a month away and Mrs. Santos is freaking out
over the balls. There's nine after all, and she's got to make a dress
change for some of them. She can't figure out why she can't just wear
the same dress all night. I know. I think it's stupid, too, but
protocol and traditions are what they are, so we'll be spending the
next few hours with the good people from Vera Wang. They just opened
a salon in DC, and we've got an appointment. They're clearing the
place out for us for a private consultation. I know. Doesn't my job
just suck?

"You'll be home for dinner?" he asks and I nod.

Let me take this moment to tell you how well The Rules have worked
out. Since Carol's laptop overhaul, Josh is pretty confident leaving
at 7 each night. He's discovered since we came back from Hawaii that
I'm actually a pretty good cook. He was REALLY surprised by that
discovery. But, really, what exactly did he think I did for Dr.
Freeride? I also gave his home "office" a complete overhaul. Before I
moved in, it was mostly storage. I raided Pier 1 and Ikea and now
it's got shelving, a large desk, a comfy chair, great lighting, a
futon, t.v., internet access, a beer refrigerator (Do I take care of
my man or what?). I really made the most of the space. Josh couldn't
believe it was the same room. I also thought we could have used
someplace for the secret service to hang out. Josh's detail starts
soon and they've been by many times in preparation.

I also completely rearranged the furniture in the living room. It's
always driven me insane. He's never heard of feng shui. I thought he
was going to flip over all the changes I made. I mean, I really
changed things. But he didn't care in the slightest. It was a bit
unnerving, to tell you the truth. I'm sure it comes as no surprise to
you that Josh doesn't handle big changes well, especially big,
unexpected changes. Rebellion usually always ensues, so you can
understand my surprise at the ease he accepted the changes to his
home.

I open my mouth to speak, but he puts a finger to my lips and nods
towards the door. I take a second to listen for what's caught his
attention. Amy's outside the door, and from the sounds of it, she's
giving Carol a hard time about not being allowed in.

"I'm sorry, Amy -" Carol was saying.

"Ms. Gardner, please." Was Amy's bitchy response.

"Hey, I'll call you the Queen of Sheeba, if you want. You're still
not getting in there now. You have no appointment." You rock, Carol!

"I want to talk to him about this." I know you can't hear her, but
I'm telling you, she's hissing like a cat.

"Those are his changes to your proposed legislative agenda for the
first 100 days." Yeah. Josh told me he nixed most of her ideas. Not
that he thought they were bad, he said, he just didn't want to get
into most of them in the first 100 days was all. Evidently, Amy's
insulted by that.

"I know what it is, thank you. I only need five minutes."

"And you can have those five minutes on Thursday. He's pretty busy
between now and then." Carol replies.

"Today's Tuesday."

"I'm aware of that, Ms. Gardner." It's possible that Carol's talking
through her teeth right now. She sounds kind of annoyed.

"I don't think Josh is going to mind a brief interruption."

"Well, you're not going to get to find out." Carol insists. "2:30 on
Thursday or you can send him an email about your concerns. This issue
doesn't warrant an interruption. There's no more random
interruptions, and if anyone tries it when we're in the White House,
I'll have the secret service escort them away. I can only imagine how
embarrassing that'll be for that unfortunate person. He's a busy man;
he's an important man, and you're not one of the three people with
carte blanche access. 2:30 Thursday, take it or leave it."

"Fine."

"You can take it to Sam in the meantime." Carol suggests. Oh, poor
Sam.

"I will." Amy sneers. I'm not kidding you, she's actually sneering.
She's hissing and sneering. This was pretty entertaining. I'm glad I
got to bear witness. "Let me guess, you've been trained by Donna?" I
start to rise out of Josh's lap, but he holds me down. I'm dying to
go out there right now. I'm dying to let her see what he's so busy
doing right now. Apparently, he's not going to let me.

"I worked in the White House for eight years." Carol reminds her. "I
was CJ Cregg's assistant for almost seven of those years. I didn't
just fall off the turnip truck."

I guess the conversation is over because Carol pokes her head through
the door.

"Is it possible for her to be a bigger bitch?" she asks us.

"Yes." I say, while Josh remains silent. Carol disappears and I turn
to Josh. "You're unusually quiet. Why didn't you let me go out there?"

"This is me being professional." He shrugs.

"With me draped across your lap?"

"With Amy." I know what he meant. But I'm Donna to his Josh, and I'm
supposed to give him a hard time. It's still what we do. Carol pokes
her head back in.

"Donna, Sam's fianc‚ is here." I frantically wave Carol in closer.
She knows what I'm going to say, too and rushes over to Josh's
desk. "She was really kind of quiet." Carol dishes. "Sam introduced
us. She's pretty, and she's *really* well-dressed."

"I would imagine." I say. "She's a corporate lawyer."

"She's currently an unemployed corporate lawyer."

"Yeah, but she made a lot of money, up until Josh flew to California
and ruined it all for her." I say.

"Hey!" he protests. "I'm actually sitting here, you know." He sighs
as I pat his arm while keeping my attention on Carol. He hates when I
do this. This is my placating Josh and not giving credence to what
he's said bit. It annoys the hell out of him. Oh well for him. He's
gotten over it before.

"Well, anyway," Carol shrugs, "she's here, so have fun." Carol leaves
again and I turn back to Josh. I lean in and kiss him, and when I
break away, he falls back into the chair and smiles.

"Try not to buy the most expensive dress they got." He says. Yeah,
that savings account of his? It's huge; he wasn't kidding. He told me
he'd buy my dress for the inaugural balls. He said it was the least
he could do, since he built it up by keeping me at work late so much
for so long. How can a girl fault *that* logic. And he's right. It is
the least he can do. I think I deserve an extravagantly expensive,
designer dress, which is probably going to be a one of the kind since
I'll be shopping with the First Lady, for loving him all these years
and suffering in silence while putting up with his crap. Okay, so I
haven't silently put up with his crap. But I have suffered in silence
with the loving him bit. He doesn't know it yet, but he's also
getting me shoes, too, and possibly jewelry. We'll see. Harry Winston
will be outfitting Mrs. Santos that night, as well. I'm thinking the
invitation might not be extended to me. But have you seen the jewelry
Vera Wang does? Trust me when I say, I'm sure I can find something
amazing.

"You want to meet Robin now?" I ask Josh getting up. He nods and
stands up as we make our way out of his office. Carol tells us that
they're over in Sam's office so we head over there. Oh, and guess who
was at the coffee machine when we came out of Josh's office? Yup.
Looks like Amy saw me anyway. Darn.

Josh raps his fingers on Sam's door and we walk in. They're sitting
on either side of Sam's desk, and Carol's right. Robin is pretty.
She's got blonde hair that looks like she might have some brown low
lights in it, it's shoulder-length and she's got these big blue eyes.
I know that I say big, but I don't mean like bug out her head big; I
think she's just wide-eyed at the moment because she's in the offices
of the President-Elect, and it's probably more than a little
overwhelming. And let me tell you, for December, she's got a hell of
a nice tan, and I have to remind myself that a week ago she lived in
California. They stand when we come in and Sam introduces us all. She
doesn't really say too much, but Sam told me she tended to get shy,
which is why she's in corporate law and not a litigator, I guess.

I know what you're thinking. She's shy, and I'm taking her to a Vera
Wang consultation with the soon-to-be First Lady of the United
States. Helen Santos is an incredibly friendly, warm, and funny
woman. I know she's got an intimidating title now, but she's probably
the least intimidating person I know, on the whole. Don't get me
wrong, she can definitely be a force to be reckoned with when she
sees fit, but mostly she's really laid back, pretty much because
she's completely out of her element now, which is actually what I
like about her. She wasn't brought up by rich parents and part of DC
society and all that. She's just so level headed. I'm really looking
forward to working with her. Robin and I say goodbye to Sam and Josh,
and as I turn to leave, I see Sam flash her a thumbs up sign. Okay.
That was fairly adorable.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

Okay. Don't tell Donna this right now, but she's long since passed
the point where I care. She's telling me about her afternoon at the
dress place and she's describing this dress to me, and quite frankly,
I just don't care. She tells me it's a crepe backed satin V-neck
dress with chiffon ties and it's a deep navy blue. Can someone please
translate that for me? What the hell does crepe backed mean? And
chiffon? Is that that frilly shit? I don't know. In my mind, it's a
dress, she's got great taste and she's going to look completely
amazing on inauguration night. I mean, come on. It's inauguration
night, of course she's going to take my breath away. It wouldn't be
inauguration night if she didn't take my breath away. So, enough with
crepes suzette and chiffon crap already.

Oh, and of course I got her shoes that were specifically designed to
go with this dress. And did I mention the sapphire earrings and
sapphire and diamond tennis bracelet? I didn't? Apparently, I got her
those, too. I'm really quite something. We're at home and I'm sitting
on the couch looking up at her, and she's standing before me
describing all this, and she's incredibly animated about it. You'd
think it was a `65 Mustang or something. Wait. I think this is the
chic equivalent of that, right? See that? I'm learning. It helps to
be part woman now myself.

My eyes glaze over as she's now moved on to describing one of the
three dresses for Helen. I'd repeat what she's saying, but honestly,
I just can't hear her anymore. She know what this particular facial
expression I'm giving her means, but she either doesn't care, or
hasn't actually looked at me for a little while.

I know some of you are a little surprised by my attitude right now,
right? You probably thought that now that I've admitted that I'm
head over heels in love with this woman, that I hang on her every
word now, didn't you?

Wrong.

I'm still me and she's still her and there's stuff that still annoys
the shit out of me. I can just cope with it better now because I've
seen her naked.

Wait a minute.

I'm a genius! That's right! I can distract her from this onslaught of
girliness with sex! She and I are the misdirection king and queen
after all. I'll just employ some now.

"Hey, Donna?" I interrupt her mid-sentence. Don't look at me like I'm
rude. She stopped being offended by that like before we even took
office.

"Yes, Josh." She sighs out of habit.

"Let's go get naked." I blurt out. How's that for a pick up line?

"I'm sorry? I'm supposed to just strip naked and go for it with you
because you just got an idea?"

Well...yeah. I stand up now and slowly cross over to her. When I'm
right in front of her, I wrap my arms around her and drop a kiss on
her collarbone. She sighs in response. I love that I do that to her.
I've had many a compliment from women in my past about how I am in
bed, but I can't say that I've ever made a woman sigh like that out
of pleasure. Maybe it's because Donna and I are in love and more
tuned to each other? I don't know.

"I can't help it." I say as I continue kissing her neck. She's got a
great neck. When she's got her hair up, like it is now, I'm like a
moth to a flame here. "You're talking about inauguration night, and
all I can remember is how incredible you looked at the last
inauguration night we went to, and I couldn't get you naked then, but
I can now."

"Only you, Joshua, can say that to me and actually turn me on." See?
This is what I'm saying. She's got her hands on my hips now and she's
tilting her head back so I can get at her neck better. It seems I'm
making quite the compelling argument here. "You didn't tell me about
the rest of your day today."

"No work; let's play."

"I was going to take a shower." She says. She says it in all honesty,
but it stops me dead in my tracks. Oh my God. We've never actually
done it in the shower. Yeah, we were all about that bathtub in
Hawaii, but we haven't actually done it in the shower. How can this
be? How can we have been so neglectful? I'm mentally ticking off the
locations of our sexual escapades. Bed, couch, bathtub, floor,
against the wall, kitchen counter. No shower.

Well, hell.

I grab her hand and tug her along behind me to the bathroom. It's
time to right a terrible wrong.

TBC


Title: Transitions (7/?)
Disclaimer: I don't own them. There's no copyright infringement
intended. I'll give them back in one piece
Rating: R for language
Timeline: Post-Transition
Feedback: It's the best ever.
A/N: Extra points to the English teachers who can identify what Josh
quotes!
A/N: Okay. So it's possible this one took a left at Mushville.

DONNA'S POV

Everyone's looking at me. What the hell? Why are you all looking at
*me*? I wasn't in that office just now. I don't know what the hell
happened. I mean, I could hanker a guess.

Oh, sorry. Let me catch you up. Amy just had that 2:30 Thursday
meeting with Josh. Only it wasn't the five minutes that she said she
needed. It turned into an hour and 15 and she's just come storming
out. Then, Josh stuck his head out, threw a nasty look at her
stomping off and slammed his door. Now I can hear him slamming things
around in there. Carol and Sam have gravitated over to my desk and
we're all looking towards the closed door.

"Rock, paper, scissors to see who goes in?" Sam suggests to me and
Carol.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sam." I sigh. "We all know I'm going in. You
get a get out of jail free card until the inauguration."

"Better you than me then." Sam says. Yeah right! He thinks he gets
off the hook here? Oh, Samuel, you na‹ve, na‹ve man.

"No, I think you get the short end of the stick here, Sam." I
say. "You've got to go talk Amy down. I'll take Josh, you take Amy.
They've got to learn how to play nice."

"If Amy can't play nice then she's got to go." Carol reminds me.

"Yes, but she was hired specifically by the President-Elect. I don't
want Josh to look bad because it looks like he can't work with his ex-
girlfriend. He's trying to be professional."

I mean, come on here. Who wants Amy gone more than me? But, I'm
right, right? I've got to be the supportive girlfriend here.
Eventually, Amy's own agenda will be obvious to the President-Elect
and she'll be fired, I'm sure. But for now, she's on board and we
have to work with her. More slamming from Josh's office reminds me
that I have a mission at the moment. So, I take a breath and head
towards his closed door.

"Thank God." I hear Lou mumbled as I pass her and reach his door. "I
don't care what you have to do in there, but reign him in. He's
scaring the kids."

See the problem is Josh is brilliant. Yes, I know you've heard this a
thousand times over the years. But by putting Leo on the ticket, Josh
positioned himself to be going through the transition time with Leo
around. Leo's been here. I don't know who Leo's Leo was at the time,
but I'm sure he had someone. Josh has got Barry Goodwin, who's making
him crazy, and the President-Elect listens to him. It gets ugly
sometimes. Josh told the President-Elect he wasn't going to be a yes
man, and he meant it. But just like Josh told me several times over
the last year, the President-Elect is also his own man and will do
things on his own occasionally; like hiring Amy. Had Josh been
consulted on that, he would have advised him never to hire her for
Director of Legislative Affairs. Letting Amy head up the agenda is
nothing short of insane. But unfortunately, now he's got to see that
for himself, and Josh will have to resist the urge to say he told him
so later. Please, please let Josh be able to summon the restraint for
that when the time comes!

I'm not saying that Amy isn't a player in the party and can't handle
a job in the administration, she can. She's good. I hate to be the
one to say that, but she is. But she can't handle a job in this
administration because Josh is the Chief of Staff and she can't
separate herself. She's proven it many times since she got hired.
Hell, she proved it *before* she even got hired by cornering Josh
about Carol Gelsey. I hate to say this, but why can't Amy be more
like Mandy? Mandy and Josh were able to work together. Sure, they had
their little moments, but they were able to suck it up and work
together. I guess they were two different relationships. Amy used sex
to manipulate Josh and Mandy just tried to outwit him. I'll admit
that it was fun to watch when Mandy won. Sam once said that Mandy had
pluck. She really did. I actually got along with her okay.

I know what you're thinking. I told Josh that I couldn't work for
him. I enjoy my words to be salted when I have to eat them, thank
you, very much. But I'm not Amy. Amy didn't work for Josh while being
in love with him. So, I got that going for me there. Yeah, yeah, I
know. Get off my back. I'm a woman in love; I'm prone to get
defensive.

I open the door and peek my head in. He's leaning up against the
credenza behind his desk with his palms over his eyes. It looks like
it might be worse than I thought. He must sense my presence (and how
cool is that, I ask you) because he starts speaking without
uncovering his eyes.

"I need you to do me a favor." He says.

"Call my guy about putting out a hit?" I quip. He smirks and looks at
me now.

"No. I need you to go back in time to the night I first went out with
her and do whatever you feel is necessary to make me not go out with
her again. Can you do that for me?" I refrain from reminding him that
I pulled him away from that little encounter because Cliff called me
about making the deal.

"No." I say. "So you want me to call about the hit now?" I've moved
around the desk and I'm leaning up against the credenza next to
him. "Are you being professional?" It doesn't really matter what
exactly transpired. It's pretty obvious things got out of hand.

"*I* am." He says.

"Well, she'll learn what happens when she's not." I shrug.

"That's it? That's what you got?"

Oh, you silly, silly man.

"Of course that's not all I got." I say in my husky voice turning
towards him. I reach up and run my hand through his hair and lightly
drag a finger down his cheek. "I got a lot more than that. But, alas,
we're at work."

"It's just about 4 o'clock; we could leave early." He suggests
hopefully. Yeah. So I've been waiting six years to hear those words
from him. But I can't because I've got a 4:30 with my staff. When I
tell him that, I swear he looks absolutely crestfallen.

"So you're going to dangle sex in front of me and walk away?" he's
squeaking.

"It would seem so."

"Did you just use the word `alas'?"

"What of it?"

He shrugs. "The English language has come a long way since
Shakespeare; maybe you could catch up to us in the 21st century."

"There's something to be said for Shakespeare." I shrug.

"`Live with me and be my love, and we will all the pleasures prove,
that hills and valleys, dales and fields, and all the craggy
mountains yield. There we will sit upon the rocks and see the
shepherds feed their flocks, by shallow rivers, by whose falls
melodius birds sing madrigals. There will I make thee a bed of roses,
with a thousand fragrant poises, a cap of flowers, and a kirtle
embroider'd all the leaves of myrtle. A belt of straw and ivy buds,
with coral clasps and amber studs, and if these pleasures may thee
move, then live with me and by my love. If that the world and love
were young, and truth in every shepherd's tongue, these pretty
pleasures might me move, to live with thee and be thy love."

Oh.

My.

God.

You're speechless, too, right? And you know I'm staring at his lips
now, too, right? Those really kissable lips, and those puppy brown
eyes, and I'm leaning in because I'm going to kiss the hell out of
him right now...

Wait. Where'd he go? He pulled away from me?!

"Run along now." He smirks again. "Time for you to go figure out what
a kirtle is."

I think I'm actually gaping at him. He spouts words of Shakespearean
love and then doesn't let me kiss him?! Where's the fairness in this?
What a freaking tease!

"You've got to be smart to get into Harvard." He says softly.

I guess so.

I throw him a pout and push myself off the credenza. He's won this
round. Dammit! I just got my ass kicked! I had no idea he could bring
the Shakespeare. This is what happens because I wasn't privy to the
romantic Josh over the years. Shit! I was totally unprepared for
this! And what's worse, I've got no freaking clue what he just
quoted! I totally don't recognize that, and I was a drama major for a
semester! I played Viola in Twelfth Night. In high school, I even
played Juliet and also I played Tatiana. I know frigging Shakespeare.
Apparently, he knows it better than I. A worthy opponent to be sure.

"You're still standing here, Donna." He says.

Damn, but he's got me. I take a step away, stop, spin around and
stomp back over to him. Before he can figure it out, I grab his face
and kiss him. Hard. I'll show him. Yeah. I pull away from him and
stomp towards the door. I've got to go find out what a kirtle is now.
And what the hell he just quoted. Slamming the door on his laughter,
I stomp back to my desk.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

I open the door to our apartment and am immediately greeted by the
candlelit glow throughout the living room. There are candles
everywhere. Ray Charles plays softly from the CD player. There's
seduction afoot. I expected nothing less to tell you the truth. I
must say I pulled out the heavy artillery this afternoon.

But where art my Muse? She's curiously missing. I head in the
direction of the bedroom and hear a light splash as I pass the
bathroom. Pushing the door open, I find her in the tub. More candles
provide the romantic light for the bathroom. It's clear this is
exactly where she wanted me to find her. Her hair is piled on top of
her head and there's little pieces falling down around her face. I'm
sorry to say that I can't see any part of her body beneath the
mountain of bubbles. However, her neck is definitely available for
the kissing. But in a stunning show of restraint, I cross my arms and
lean up against the doorframe.

"He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need; If thou
sorrow, he will weep; If thou wake, he cannot sleep; thus of every
grief in heart, he with thee doth bear a part. These are certain
signs to know, faithful friend from flattering foe." She flawlessly
quotes. I smile. I knew she'd stop at nothing to figure it out.

"Did you corner Sam?"

"No." she says defensively. I'm going to kiss that pout right off her
face.

"Spend the afternoon on the internet?"

"No."

And then it comes to me. "Have you no shame?" I ask shaking my head
in what I'm hoping looks like disappointment.

She shrugs. She's busted. "He had a few minutes."

"I would think he does. He's a lame duck President; there's not a
font of work over there right now."

"Desperate times, Joshua." She says. "You didn't leave me a lot of
time for the recon work involved there."

I take my tie off and toss it on the floor in the hallway and
unbutton the top two buttons of my shirt. She's looking at me
expectantly now. One sleek leg peeks out of the water and her big toe
circles the water spigot. Damn, she's good. She's flawlessly
positioning me to dive in that tub and take her right there.

Which is exactly why I turn and walk out and back into the living
room.

An outraged squeak is heard from the bathroom, along with the sound
of slapping water. Oh yeah. She followed me.

But she brought both guns blazing into the living room with her.

I turn around and there she is wearing what has to be the smallest,
satin bathrobe I've ever seen in my life. I mean, why bother?

Oh yeah.

Her skin is flushed from the heat of the water and even in the dimmed
light, I can see her eyes have turned smokey. The candlelight is
dancing off the water drops on her body and making her shimmer.
Between that and the golden color her hair is in this light she looks
like the angel she's been to me. She's walking slowly towards me and
I confess, I concede the battle. I open my arms, she steps into my
embrace and we begin to dance.

We're poetry in motion.

I almost laugh out loud as I think that two people, who were so
glaringly meant to be together fumbled so blindly in the transition
between what we were and what we are. How could there ever have been
a time when I was unsure of this? It was Donna that brought us here.
I gave her the go ahead with that amazing first kiss. She took the
initiative and gave me her room key. Then when that got fucked up, it
was Donna again on Election Night that all but said, `For crying out
loud, Josh, this is what we've always been moving towards!' She
wasn't giving up on us and I'll thank her for it every day for the
rest of my life.

"I want more." She whispers as she divests me of my dress shirt. The
fingers of her left hand are slowly grazing the back of my neck and
her right hand draws a slow line down my neck, straight down the
middle of my chest, through my stomach and comes to rest on my waist.
Her gaze is locked on mine and I've dreamed of the day that she would
look at me with a lover's gaze.

"There's plenty more."

"Joshua." She groans softly. Oh. She wants more of the pretty talk. I
see. I search my memory for something appropriate. I mean, I don't
think bringing Macbeth or Othello is going to be a big turn on.

"Amen, amen. But come what sorrow can, that one short minute gives me
in her sight. Do thou but close our hands with holy words, then love-
devouring death do what he dare; it is enough I may but call her
mine."

A slow, sweet smile spreads across her face. "They kill themselves at
the end of that one, Joshua." I shrug. She wanted something more
romantic than Romeo begging the Friar to marry him and Juliet? For
crying out loud! The poor kid is throwing himself at the feet of this
guy for his true love that he met like the day before! But she starts
to speak, and now it I who is enraptured by her words.

"Come, gentle night; come, loving, black-browed night. Give me my
Romeo; and, when he shall die, take him and cut him out in little
stars, and he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world
will be in love with night and pay no worship to the garish sun."

Touche. I forgot that little acting bug she had in her youth. And
wow, she really picked a good one. I mean, that one's saying
something there. All those years and I couldn't see that she was my
match in every way. I smile against her lips as I realize that up
until a few short weeks ago, that was us. Star-crossed lovers, and we
even almost had the death.

She's worked me out of my pants now. She hops up and wraps her legs
around my waist. My hands immediately come under her legs to support
her. I marvel at her deference to me. She doesn't care where we end
up, just so long as we go there together. Well, I'm picking the
couch. It's the closest comfortable surface. I slowly lower us down
and she pulls away and looks up at me. Her beautiful, blue eyes that
look on me like I'm the only one on the planet, and I see the
unconditional love and trust there. Dear God, but you've made me a
weak man. Please, please do not have made me so mortal that the day
might come when I betray that love there.

"Donnatella, the greatest poet of all time cannot describe what you
are to me."

"And of all that you have said to me today, that is the most
beautiful."

She is my muse.

TBC.


Title: Transitions (8/?)
Disclaimer: They're not mine, blah, blah, blah
Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Transition
Feedback: Welcomed
A/N: The first two quotes in the last chapter were The Passionate
Pilgrim. The last two were obviously Romeo and Juliet.

JOSH'S POV

Okay. Carol of all people should know that when I walk in a room, any
room, it's best to absolutely NOT greet me with "There's something
wrong with Donna." Carol was in the bullpen with me that day; Carol
saw me grab my backpack and leave, ignoring many people who were
trying to get my attention at the time. She was there. She and 30
other people saw what happens to Josh when you say something like
that to him.

Yet, that's exactly what she says to me when I come back from my
meeting this afternoon with the party leadership. And my stomach
falls to my feet.

Again.

"Where is she?" Please don't say the hospital; please don't say the
hospital.

"In your office."

WHY THE FUCK DIDN'T YOU SAY SO, CAROL!!?? I'm past her and through my
office door in record time. Donna's sitting in one of the visitor
chairs and I can tell from here that something's wrong. I close the
door on Carol and walk over to kneel in front of Donna. She's crying.

"Are you hurt?"

She shakes her head.

"Are you sick?"

She shakes her head again. So, what the hell is going on? Who made
Donna cry? Who do I have to kill?

"What's the matter?" She looks at me like she's just noticed I'm
here, despite answering my first two questions, and she throws her
arms around my neck and cries into my shoulder. I hold her for a
little while until she can pull it together to tell me what's wrong.
I've never been good with crying Donna. Quite frankly, crying Donna
tends to freak me out. She seems to be settling down, so I ask her
again.

"Nothing." She says. Well, okay, then. Now that that's settled. She's
hysterical in my office, and I'm supposed to believe nothing's wrong?
We're going to start this stupid round robin? I'm thinking now that I
might be finally getting to the bottom of what's been bugging her
this week. She's seemed off all week. It's like she's been distracted
by something, yet incredibly attentive and deferential to me. It's
like I get whatever I want. It's weird. It's freaking me out. I've
been trying to figure it out on my own and I've been coming up short.
So, maybe she's about to clue me in here.

"Donnatella, can we just skip the misdirection part and get right to
the issue?" I ask. I say it quietly because I'm trying to take the
sting off those words. Because I DO care what's the matter. I just
don't want to go through a bunch of crap to get to it. Somebody's
made her cry. I want to know who it is so that I can go put the fear
of God into them.

She takes a deep breath and lets it out. She's not meeting my eyes.
Why isn't she looking me in the eye? Obviously no one's dead or sick
if she said nothing.

"It's stupid really." She says. "I swear I don't know why I flipped
out over it. I really didn't want to make it a thing."

"Okay. Well, you *did* flip out about it, and now I know that you're
upset about something, and it's been bothering you all week. So,
what's going on?" She looks up at me then, and she looks kind of
surprised. Granted, we haven't been doing this couple thing for a
long time, but this is me and her already. We really are tuned to
each other. She knows I know when something's bugging her, and she
knows if she doesn't come clean, I'm going to eventually call her on
it.

"It's just so stupid." She says. "I was Christmas shopping at the
mall. I went into the food court to get lunch and sitting at this
table were these two women. One was pregnant; and one was with a
small baby. And they weren't doing anything. They were just sitting
there having lunch. But, I couldn't take my eyes off them."

Okay, so so far, I'm not seeing any offense done here. So, I continue
to study her and wait for her to continue. It should be noted, she
still hasn't met my eyes, so I know we haven't gotten to the crux of
the problem yet. There's obviously something I haven't been told, and
she's not looking forward to telling me.

"Anyway," she continues. "I was late this week. And I'm not anymore.
And when I saw them, I just kind of lost it."

Late? Late for what?

Oooooohhhhh! Okay. I can count now. Okay. Let me just tell you that
in eight years, this is a subject that we have NEVER broached. There
were places we didn't go, and this was one of them, my friends.
Whenever I suspected that, you know, we were dealing with, you know,
*that*, I stayed way the hell away and made sure that at some point,
some form of chocolate came her way. One time, I even got her
flowers. She was just *that* mean and that much of a basketcase that
day. I'm thinking flowers might be in order again today because this
is just too much for me.

But here's the thing. She cried when she found out she wasn't
pregnant. Were they tears of relief or not? That's the question. And
I have a mounting suspicion that the question is about to be whether
or not it would be joy or relief for me. I think I better come up
with an answer to that.

Quickly.

"Donna," I say. "look at me and tell me what this is, please."

"Well, obviously I've been thinking about this all week." She starts.

Wait a minute.

Okay, now I'm pissed off.

"You've been afraid to tell me?" I demand.

"Well, yeah, kind of." She says. I stand up and pace in front of her
a bit. Yeah, I'm pissed. I think after all the two of us have been
through, and the kind of relationship we've had, she shouldn't be
afraid to tell me anything. We've never been that way before, except,
you know, with the whole being in love with each other thing. But
other than that, yeah, we've always been really open with each other.

"You're pissed." Yeah, because she didn't need to be able to read me
like a book to figure *that* out.

"Yeah, I'm pissed. You didn't tell me this."

"Because you'd freak out."

"No, Donna. I'm freaking out because there's something you thought
you couldn't tell me."

"It's just I realized that I had absolutely no idea what you thought
about having kids." She says. She's talking kind of quickly now. "And
I was freaking out because I knew this would be the worst possible
time for something like this to happen. We haven't been together that
long."

I stop pacing because I'm not mad anymore. Why? Because I just
realized that she's upset because she didn't know what I thought
about having kids; whether or not I want them with her. Yes. I
realize this is the same question that freaked me out a little bit a
minute ago, but I didn't see it for what it was then. This is an
admission of the long term. She does see this as forever and she
wants to make sure I want the same things as she does. I'm thinking
given her story here, she wants kids.

"Well, yeah. This would be a rough time for that." I say. I've never
lied to her before, I'm not going to start now. "What do I think
about having kids? I don't know. I've never actually thought about
it. I've never been with a woman that's compelled me to think about
it. But Donna, with you, I think about things like that now. And on
first spec here, I'm not completely turned off to the idea of kids.
And I'm not even going to get into what I think about the fact that
you thought there was something you couldn't talk about with me.
Let's just let my reaction here be enough said on that. And another
thing, if we were any other two people than you and me, I'd agree
with your thinking that it was too soon to talk about stuff like
this, and I would have run for the hills. But we are us. So instead I
say, if you wanted to marry me tonight, I'd move heaven, Earth, and
grab me the closest judge to make it happen."

"Really?" She's smiling at me now and I'm smiling back. Did I just
give her a convoluted marriage proposal? I'm not sure. But I think I
did. She's crying again, so I think she liked it anyway. I'm back on
my knees in front of her again and I lean in and kiss her. When we
break apart, she's still crying.

"Yes, really. From the moment I got my hands on you, it's been
forever. How could you not know that?"

"I did know that."

"So, this exercise in humility was..."

"An exercise in humility." She shrugs. "You could use it every now
and then."

She's smiling now as she leaves my office. I sit down at my desk and
think about what she said. I really never have thought about having
kids. I was never with a woman that I saw myself marrying. I was
serious about what I said. I'd marry her right now if she said yes.
That much I'm absolutely sure of. But now that I think about it, if
anything were to ever happen to one of us, a child would let us keep
a piece of the other behind with us. She would always be with me and
I would always be with her. And that's a really comforting thought.

But being a father? That's a little scary to think about. True. I'm
not always going to work in the White House. But I'm 45 years old.
Isn't fatherhood, like, physically strenuous? I dragged my father all
over creation, woke him up at all hours of the morning. Not only
that, but don't you need to actually *know* stuff to be a father? My
dad knew everything. And look at President Bartlet, for crying out
loud. That man will teach you something in every conversation you
have with him. So, now I guess I'm going from not ever thinking about
it to seriously thinking about it. Well, I know this. I'm not going
to lose Donna over it. So, if it's what she wants, then I'm going to
have to seriously reconsider my position.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

I really can't think of anything more magical than Christmas in New
York. The Santos Family is participating in a Christmas special from
Rockefeller Center. Don't get too caught up in the nostalgia of it.
The secret service nixed it actually being in Rockefeller Center.
They're upstairs in the Rainbow Room. Josh and I, however, are window
shopping. I'm freezing my ass off, but I'll be damned if I don't see
the Macy's windows.

Josh's secret service detail has started and there are two agents
with us. One walking in front of us; and one walking behind us.
Thankfully, they don't actually look like secret service agents.
Meaning they bundled against the cold and being as how we're on the
streets of New York, their ear pieces just look like MP3 players. I'm
surprised how well they blend. I thought that they'd freak me out
once they were always in our presence. I mean, I'm certainly used to
the secret service always being around, but not always being around
*me.* I mean, having them right there, and knowing that they'll be
jumping in front of Josh and he won't be taking any more bullets in
the presence of the President, that's a huge comfort to a girl like
me. Been there, done that, had the nightmares to prove it.

Currently, Josh is bitching about why we're walking at all. He's
provided with a nice, comfortable, warm town car that will drive us
wherever we want to go in the City, and park wherever the hell we
want. So what's with the freezing our asses off bit? He's just cranky
because at the moment, I'm sporting quite the diamond ring from
Tiffany's today. Turns out, that was a marriage proposal. Only Josh
can spout the beauty of Shakespeare at the drop of a hat and then
completely trip over himself when it comes to a marriage proposal.
Have I mentioned lately how much I love this man?

Anyway, his opinion is that after telling me to pick out whatever I
wanted at Tiffany's (lucky for him I picked something not
outrageously priced), we should be making out in the car. Did I know
he's not actually an outdoorsman? He knows he's lead me to believe
that over the years, but he's really actually more of an indoor type
of guy. Really? Gee, I never noticed that.

We've made our way back to Rockefeller Center and we're watching the
ice skaters. I look over at Josh and nod my head towards the rink.

"Not a chance in hell." He says.

"Come on." I pout. "It will be so much fun. Falling into each other's
arms. It's Christmas in New York! We've *got* to go skating in
Rockefeller Center. It's like the rule."

"We have two secret service agents with us, Donna." He
reminded. "They're not going to let us on that rink without them, and
I'm pretty damn sure they're not going to be inclined to put on ice
skates."

I give pleading eyes over to the agent to Josh's right who was
introduced to me earlier as Corey. "We can shut the rink down, if you
want, Ms. Moss. But we can't go down there with all those people."

Josh looks mortified as he sees that I'm actually considering this.
But in the end, he wins. I'd hate to ask all those people on the rink
and waiting in line to give up something they clearly came to New
York to do, just so I can go and make a fool of myself with my newly
minted fianc‚. And these are the NBC Studios that are covering the
President-Elect's visit here with his family. I'm sure they'll catch
it on tape. Josh smiles at my forlorn expression and plants a kiss on
my forehead.

"You didn't get enough ice today?" he smiles.

I rub my gloved thumb over the ring underneath my gloved ring finger
and smile at him. I'm bursting with joy here, I tell you. I told you
I knew what that trip to Hawaii meant. Six and a half years of
waiting impatiently will get a girl her man every time, I tell you.
Corey touches a finger to his ear and turns to Josh. "They're heading
out, sir. You need to get into the car now."

As soon as we're safely ensconced in the car, Josh immediately
attaches himself to my neck. The motorcade pulls away and we proceed
to cause gridlock in New York City at Christmas time. Sorry, guys.

"What are you doing?" I demand turning my head to face him. I've
effectively cut his lips off from my neck, but they're now only
attached to mine.

"Celebrating." He says between kisses.

"Not in the back of a secret service car, we're not." I say breaking
away and giving him a little shove.

He sits back with a huff and pouts at me. "I'll have you know I
disapprove of your lack of enthusiasm right now."

"I'm very enthusiastic. We're just not going to get it on in the back
seat of a secret service town car with an audience."

"You don't think they've seen it before? They're the very soul of
discretion."

I pretend to ponder this for a minute, because he's just that cute
right now. "You're right." I say, as I watch is face light up. "I do
have rather pert breasts. I think as many people as possible should
get to appreciate them while they're so cute."

He squeaks in horror and pulls the lapels of my coat closed. "They're
a work of art, Donnatella, but *they* can't see them."

"Darn." I say. "Just as I was beginning to warm up to the idea of
doing it in the car."

"You really have spent way too much time around politicians over the
years." He says, and I have to agree with him because I just took
that as a compliment.

"Don't worry, we're flying home now. There'll be plenty of time for
celebrating tonight." I whisper as I lean in and tug on his earlobe
with my mouth. He groans and drops down to my lap in a huff. I remove
the glove from my hand and stroke his temples, my ring sparkling
brightly up at me. He sighs and closes his eyes.

He won't sleep now, but he'll likely stay this way the rest of the
way to the airport, so he'll relax, which is a good thing because
he'll need his energy for later. What? Just because I don't want to
be that way in front of the secret service doesn't mean he's not
getting some later.

Looking down at him, I remember the last time we were like this, just
a few short weeks ago. Just a few short weeks ago, he confessed to
being in love with me, not that I hadn't already figured it out, but
for a man of limited declarations, it was extremely important. He
doesn't say it often. Like I said, he's not about what he says, but
what he does; like taking me to Tiffany's and letting me pick my own
ring. His moments of words are few and precious, which is fine by me
because he has a beautiful heart, and it's that much more beautiful
when he shares it. I don't need to hear that he loves me over and
over again. I see it when he looks at me. I just need him with me,
and that's enough for me. I tell him though, and that shows you the
difference in us. He does need to hear it, so I make sure he never
has reason to wonder.

We approach Laguardia Airport now where the plane from Treasury
awaits to take us back to Washington. When we get out of the car,
we'll be staffing our bosses and our moment of solitude will be gone.
Until tonight.

TBC


Title: Transitions (9/?)
Disclaimer: The usual that I've posted in the first eight chapters
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Series Rating: R for language
Feedback: Yes, please

JOSH'S POV

"You've never been one to resist the charms of Sara Wessingslut, have
you, Josh?" says an unwelcome voice behind me, as I'm watching the
form of Sara Wessinger, once pursuer of me, blend back into the
ballroom. I shudder once and turn around to greet Mandy Hampton. I
take a second to get a good look at her. She's changed. She let her
hair grow out and it's straight. It looks nice on her and she's
wearing a black ball gown. We're at our third ball of the night and I
knew I'd be meeting up with her at some point, since she had lunch
with my fianc‚ yesterday and all.

"That's *Lady* Wessingslut to you, Madeline." I reply. "Seems she's
bagged herself an English Lord."

"And to think, she could have been yours."

"I believe at the time I only had eyes for you."

"Well, we both know that's not true." She laughs in her haughty Mandy
way. "Though I hear now that you've got more than eyes for someone
else."

I follow her gaze over to my fianc‚, who is currently standing next
to the new First Lady and whispering names and information about
various women who approach for the honor to shake her hand.

By the way, tonight I discovered what creped back v-neck means on a
dress. Suffice it to say, it means it shows too much skin. Nearly her
entire back is exposed. And the front, well, let me put it to you
this way. I actually measured. It comes exactly two inches above her
belly button. How in the world her breasts are staying in this dress,
I don't know, but I'm thanking the Gods of fashion for whatever trick
they've employed. Oh, and I still don't know what the chiffon stuff
is, but there's no frilly shit.

Don't get me wrong. She looks stunning and I'm enjoying the thought
of peeling the dress off her later, but there's a lot of that
delicious alabaster skin showing and she's drawing the attention of
many men at these balls, and we have six left to go. Thank God we
travel with armed guards.

"I know you're well aware of that, Mandy, since you had lunch with
her yesterday." I reply.

"It was a business lunch." She says. Yeah. And let me tell you that I
voiced my displeasure on this subject, but Donna insisted she was
calling Mandy anyway. She wants to bring her on as a consultant for
the first year to make sure that the First Lady doesn't make any big
PR blunders. I'm loathed to admit that it's a smart move. At least I
can work with Mandy.

It's okay, you can say it. Donna, Amy and Mandy all in the same
building with me every day. Feel free to express your opinion on how
bad that's going to suck for me day in and day out. Not the Donna
part, of course; the Amy and Mandy part. Though I'd often wondered
who would win in a fight, Mandy or Amy. This may surprise you, but
I'm thinking Mandy. She's wittier.

"And?" I prompt.

"I'd love to take the First Lady on as a client." Mandy said. "I'm
looking forward to working with Donna. I've always adored Donna,
Josh. I just thought she was deluded when it came to you is all."

"Ah the days when you whispered sweet nothings to me."

"I am glad you found a woman that makes you happy, Josh." She
continues. "And you certainly make her happy. I mean, she actually
glows when she talks about you."

Okay. Mandy smiles when she looks over at Donna and says that. This
is getting kind of weird. I don't want to bond with my ex-girlfriend
about my fianc‚. I mutter something about catching up to her at the
White House and make my way over to Donna, narrowly avoiding Senator
Hanraty who's been itching to pin me down. So far, I've directed
every single one of his calls to Sam's office, but he's not getting
the picture. I'm at Donna's side and asking her to dance. She motions
to Annabeth to take her place next to the First Lady and follows me
out to the dance floor. This will be one of a very few dances we'll
actually have tonight, believe it or not, since for the most part we
need to be by the side of the President and First Lady, but we're
finding our moments to sneak away when we can be replaced by Sam and
Annabeth.

My hand snakes around her back and immediately comes in contact with
her bare skin and I'm reminded of the admirers I see glancing this
way. That's right boys, she's with me.

"I have to say, Donna, I'm not used to dancing with you at one of
these things and being able to touch so much skin."

"You've never been able to touch my skin before when we danced." She
reminded me.

"First of all, if you'd worn a dress like this before, believe you
me, I'd have found a way to dance with you often."

"Are you trying to tell me that you disapprove of my dress?"

"Oh make no mistake about it, Donnatella, in this dress you're
Cassiopeia sprung to life. I disapprove of the reaction you're
getting to this dress."

She smiles at me and she sparkles like the diamonds and sapphires I
bought her. I'm suddenly uneasy talking to her like this with people
dancing so close. One of the things I've become painfully aware of
since we've come back from Hawaii is that being this open to Donna
gives me a vulnerability politically. It's why I've been pushing
everyone I can off to Sam. I won't give a second in her arms up for
my job, but I can also not lay my neck on the chopping block. Donna's
job puts her in a pretty good position to be unwittingly used as a
pawn against me. People have pitted the First Lady's office against
the President's office before. It's good theater to watch when you're
not in the play.

As I watch her in my arms now, I really am breathless. She's so happy
tonight and it makes me sick to think that there are those we'll
encounter tonight who will stop at next to nothing to change that one
day. One character trait that Donna has not lost over the years is
her compassion for other people (well, those people that I'm not
currently battling with, those people she has no empathy for). If
she's strong enough to stay that way after eight years in the most
ruthless city in the world, she's strong enough to stay that way
forever, and it's my silent promise to her right now to make sure of
it.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

I don't want this night to end. I want to stay in this night forever
in the arms of this man. The last time we danced on inauguration
night, it was after he came and threw snowballs at my apartment and
brought me back to the balls. That was a magical night. He had
revealed more than he knew he felt and after that amazing moment in
the snow, immediately went back to keeping me at arm's length. It had
become clear by the end of that night that he wasn't ready to admit
what he'd nearly discovered, so I went back to waiting. But I was
happy anyway because we were back. There was no Amy, there was no
Jack, and it was just us again.

Not tonight. I'm dressed to seduce and he's all over it. I've even
put on my secret perfume that I wear only when I want to make an
impression on him. Between you and me, I wore it to the last
inauguration, too. Every girl has her secrets. This little
aphrodisiac is mine.

I take a moment to consider some of the attendants at this particular
ball and wonder if Josh has noticed it. Sara Wessinger, Mandy and
Amy, not to mention there are women in his past I don't know about.
President Bartlet's administration was not Josh's introduction to
this city. I've had my suspicions about a few women tonight by the
way they had gravitated toward him and their body language while
standing near him. I can't say I blame them; I can't keep my hands
off him either. And let me tell you how well this tuxedo looks on him
since I've revamped his diet and had him in the gym the last six
weeks. Can't wait to see what the occupants of Lemonlyman.com have to
say about him tomorrow.

Yeah, I confess. I visit it every now and then. I want to make sure
they're not saying anything damaging. But in case you're wondering,
they're just as weird.

Our limited time at this ball is up and Josh leads us back to the
President and First Lady. I shrug on the wrap that Josh holds out for
me that he relieved my assistant of, and his arms linger for a moment
longer around me. As I smile and look back at him, there's a
flashbulb pop. As we look up, I see that it's the White House
photographer. I'll be tracking him down this week for a copy of that
picture. He takes my hand and we follow the President and First Lady
out of the ballroom. There's a dress change for Mrs. Santos now, so
we'll be heading back to the White House for a few minutes.
Thankfully, she has four stylists helping her tonight and I'm not
needed for this part. The President heads up to the Residence with
his wife, and Josh and I slowly wander the corridors. He's still
avoiding his office a little today. I think it freaks him out a bit.
I don't push the issue because I know he'll go in there when he has
to and eventually will force himself to get past it. He'd gone to see
CJ this morning in there, which made him suitably depressed at the
ceremony this afternoon.

He looks down at our linked hands between us and raises them up a
bit. "This is a first for us," He says quietly. "walking through
these halls like this." I smile at him as he drops our hands down
again. It is a drastic switch from the fast-paced, bantering walk and
talk from the old days. For just a moment, I miss it because I know
it will never be again. Now if we meet up in the halls, we'll be
talking of other things, what time we'll be getting out of here for
dinner, who's going to be home to let the repairman in, and other
mundane issues of day-to-day life. Gone are my brief lessons in the
affairs of state; the moving briefings for the next meeting; the
begging for a raise because I couldn't think of anything else to bug
him about that day.

"It's all real today." I say to him as our wanderings take us to my
new office. We walk in and I flip the lamp on on my desk. He wanders
around for a minute and stops by the fireplace.

"That one actually works," I say. "you know, for the next time the
heat in the building breaks." He smiles and looks down into the dark
fireplace and then back up at me.

"I'm proud of you." I say walking over to him.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." I nod and take his hands in mine, but they stay clasped down
at our sides. "Nothing about today would be, if it wasn't for you.
This day is all about you."

"I don't think I can take credit for all that, but I like your
confidence."

I shake my head at him. "You convinced him to run. You got him
elected. You put your faith in me nine years ago. I'd never be
working in this office today, if it wasn't for you. Don't think for a
moment I didn't think about that today." He looks down at our hands
and shifts his feet. He's uncomfortable listening to this. He's got
an ego the size of this building, but shies away from the type of
praise I'm giving him. Oh, he'll take all the credit when a tough
bill passes, or he puts three judges on the Supreme Court, or he
torpedoes a vital part of the republican agenda, believe you me.
There's much drinking from the keg of glory those days. But moments
like this make him almost bashful. It's so damn cute, I tell you.

He lifts his head and kisses me, and I can tell that he's thinking of
all those moments we've shared in this building, and all those
moments yet to come. His hands come up to either side of my head and
the kiss gets deeper. Our entire association with this building has
been with each other and don't think that doesn't humble me. This
building has brought us joy; this building has brought us love; and
this building has broken our hearts. This building is what made Josh
and Donna. In all it's goods, it's bads, it's evils, and it's magic,
it's molded us into what we have become.

"Mess up my hair, Joshua, and I swear to God, I'll kick your ass." I
say when we come up for air. He laughs against my cheek and I know I
can't wait any longer.

"Josh?"

"Yeah?"

"Remember how I said I was late?" He scrunches his forehead for a
minute and I can see him trying to remember what I'm talking about.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Turns out that was a little misdirection actually." He knows what
I'm saying. And he's got an interesting expression on his face. It's
one of acknowledgement. He's acknowledging the situation and
reserving an opinion on it.

"Huh." He says. Still not giving me a straight opinion on the
situation. "So much for the bad timing thing."

"Have you ever known us to have good timing?"

"No." he laughs. "I was going to spend the rest of the night getting
you drunk so I can take advantage of you later."

"Well, you can still take advantage of me, but you can't get me
drunk."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Kay." I study his face as we walk out the door hand in hand. We
weave back through the corridors towards the Residence. We stop
outside Sam's office and Josh pokes his head in and turns on the
light. We go in a step or two and I look around with my mouth open.
It's a completely different set up. He's got a couch in here!

"You couldn't come up with this?" Josh says to me. "I could have had
a couch. You said a couch wouldn't fit in here."

"You have a couch now, Joshua."

"Huh." He says again, and with one last glance at the office, shuts
the light off.

TBC


Title: Transitions (10/?)
Disclaimer: Not mine
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Series Rating: R
Feedback: Keep it coming
A/N: I don't remember Katie from the press corps ever having been
giving a publication affiliation or a last name, so I made one up.
A/N 2: Please bear with me while I be quirky here.

CHIEFS OF STAFF TIE THE KNOT
By: Katie Reed, Associated Press

President Santos' Chief of Staff and Democratic bulldog Joshua Lyman
married Chief of Staff to the First Lady and former assistant to
Lyman, Donna Moss, in a small and exclusive ceremony in The White
House Friday night. Among the small, but distinguished guests invited
were the First Family, Former President and Dr. Bartlet, Former Chief
of Staff and Press Secretary Claudia Jean ("CJ") Cregg and her fianc‚
freelance political writer Danny Concannon, Deputy Chief of Staff
Samuel Seaborn and fianc‚, Representative Matthew Skinner,
Representative Andrea Wyatt, Deputy White House Counsel Ainsley
Haines, Honorables Evelyn Lang and Christopher Mulready, Political
Analyst Josephine Lucas, and British Ambassador Lord John Marbury, to
name a few.

Word leaked of the upcoming nuptials last week as the White House was
prepared for the event and guests were vetted. The bride was escorted
down the aisle in a sleek ivory Vera Wang gown by her father John
Moss. The wedding party included; Seaborn as best man; Cregg as maid
of honor. The couple was given three official toasts by Seaborn,
President Santos and Former President Bartlet.

Despite rumors and innuendos that have been swirling around the
couple for years, the couple has only been a couple since Election
Day 2005. Cregg had continuously dismissed the rumors that Lyman and
Moss were carrying on an affair while Josh was Deputy Chief of Staff
in the Bartlet administration and Donna was his assistant. "Please,
Katie," Cregg scoffs when pressed by my questioning, "Josh and Donna
had more respect for President Bartlet than that. By the way, you
lost in the pool and you owe me 50 bucks."

Congressman Skinner had this to say about the happy couple, "Donna
once came back to the White House from a date while Josh and I were
in a meeting. When I asked Josh who she had gone out with that night,
he said a man she had no future with. When I asked why no future, he
said because he said so. That's why I picked after the 2001 election
in the pool. Now I owe CJ 50 bucks."

"I always knew that Josh and Donna were destined to be together."
Seaborn said in his toast. "I also knew that they had too much
integrity and too much respect for President Bartlet to have an
affair while working in the White House. And because I'm so smart, I
picked after they left the Bartlet White House in the pool, much to
the ribbing of the other participants, and I have quite a bit of cash
coming to me today." Here, here, Sam!

From someone who covered all eight years of President Bartlet's
administration, and spent a lot of time traveling with the senior
staff and other White House personnel, and had a financial stake in
the game, I speak on my own observations that these were frustrated
lovers indeed. Thus, it came as no surprise to this reporter when
Lyman left the White House for the upstart Santos campaign mere days
after Moss left for then front runner and favorite Former Vice
President Russell. Everyone with eyes in their head could see how
they gravitated to each other during official events, campaign stops
and blowing off steam at the Hawk and Dove, a local favorite watering
hole to White House employees. So much so, that it's compelled this
reporter to stray from my normal political reporting format to write
this human interest piece.

When finally able to ask the newlyweds about their fairytale romance,
Lyman declines comment, instead deferring to his bride. "Why do I
love him so much?" she asks repeating my question back to me. "He
didn't stop for red lights," was her cryptic answer. When I ask other
guests close to the couple if they're able to interpret that answer,
they all shrug and shake their heads. "It's Josh and Donna," says
Former President Bartlet, "who the hell knows what that means."

- TBC -


Title: Transitions (11/?)
Disclaimer: See previous chapters of their not mine variety
Series Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Please

JOSH'S POV

Oh, disgusting! Oh, I'm going hurl! Doesn't she know what this does
to me? Not only is Donna inhaling food at a rate that will put
Ainsley Hayes to shame, she's got the cravings. And they are totally
gross. Like right now, she's sitting here with a slice of cheesecake
that has...wait for it...anchovies on it. I get up off the couch from
where we were watching t.v. and move to the chair away from her.

"What?" she asks. What? What? Is she kidding me? She can't see the
disgustingness of this? First of all, Donna and I have shared
literally thousands of meals over the decade we've known each other,
and I'm not even sure I've ever even seen her eat anchovies before,
even on pizza.

"I can't sit by you when you eat like that." I fess up. She looks at
me like *I'm* the weird one here.

"You want to try it? It's actually really good."

"No, I want to vomit." Good? This must be what they talk about on
that website Carol hooked me up with when the baby takes oxygen from
the mother's brain. Something's not right with my wife. Last week -
and this is really a doozey too - last week, she popped a jar of
cheese whiz in the microwave, heated it up, then put it on bread and
had a cheese whiz sandwich. I'm not kidding you. You have NO idea
what I'm dealing with here!

Carol's one of the very few people in the White House that is in the
know right now about Donna's condition. The others are the First Lady
and President and Sam. Otherwise, that's it. We needed some people to
be in the know just in case, well...you know, just in case of stuff.
We're still three weeks off of that recommended 12 week announcement
time. Her OB/GYN set her up with a pre-natal vitamin prescription and
told her to come in at the 12 week mark. She said that you can't
usually hear the heartbeat until then anyway and that's the official
medical diagnosis of pregnancy, otherwise, it's just elevated levels
of stuff in your blood (I don't know, Donna knew the name of it) that
says she's pregnant.

I guess that's why it's not really real to me yet. Right now, she's
got these crazy cravings, she's eating more, and she's sleeping a lot
more. But that's supposed to be normal. Carol put Donna's due date,
which is in August, into a website, and so now it emails me weekly
updates on what she'd be feeling and what's normal and stuff. It's
incredibly informative.

So anyway, I'm just going with the flow here. It's not like there's
baby stuff around and Donna's picking out baby names. Talk to me in
seven months. I take a look around the apartment at the thought of
baby stuff. Hmm...we're going to need someplace to keep this kid. We
have the office, but, well, there's a lot of stuff in there, and I
work in there a lot. Not to mention, Donna's going to have to take a
maternity leave, and she'll probably work in there a lot too. I mean,
she doesn't always necessarily have to be physically in the White
House. That's the good thing about that job. If something explodes
somewhere in the world, the East Wing still goes about a normal day.
Well, sometimes we pillage their staff, but not often.

So, anyway, what I'm realizing is we need an extra room, really
probably two extra rooms, so we have a guest room for visiting
grandparents. This is a two bedroom place. You know what though? I'm
not really attached to this place. This particular apartment has been
home base to me for a little over ten years now, but I don't really
care about letting it go for someplace bigger. Until Donna moved in,
I didn't spend that much time here, well, other than while I was
recovering after I got shot. Then I was a prisoner here, but Donna
was here then, too.

The secret service is going to be pissed when I tell them I'm going
to move. I mean, it's not like I can really just pick a place and buy
it like normal people. It's got to meet all these criteria for
security. I'm not kidding you, they did background checks on everyone
in my building. Then, they leased the apartment out of the building
that's directly across from me and kicked those tenants out. Then
they did background checks of the tenants in the surrounding
buildings. I'm not even sure, to tell you the truth, if these people
even knew they were being checked out. So, like I said, I can't just
move. I mean, I can, but it's going to cause some headaches for them.
I mean, they're even going to have to vet like the movers we use.
Yeah. They're not going to be happy with me. I'll have Donna tell
them. Ron Butterfield likes Donna. I think he actually smiled at her
once.

"Oh, hey." She says to me putting her disgusting snack down on the
coffee table. "Look what I got today." She leans over and pulls a big
envelope out of her tote bag that's on the floor in front of her and
tosses it over to me. It's pretty thick.

"Okay, just so you know," I say as I open up the envelope. "you're
brushing your teeth before you come to bed tonight. And make sure you
do a thorough job, too, because - God, Donna, that's disgusting." I
pull out the contents of the envelope and it's a big stack of 8 x 10
photos. I mean, there's a lot here. It's like a two inch thick stack.
I look at the front of the envelope and it's got the rubber stamp of
the White House photography department on it.

"There's dates on the back of them." She says to me. "They're all in
order."

I look down at a picture of us and, holy crap, we look young. It's
President Bartlet's first inauguration night. We're not the only ones
in the picture. CJ, Toby, Sam, Margaret and Leo are in it, too.
They're all looking at something, but Donna and I are laughing at
each other. I put the rest of the pile down in my lap and hold this
one in my hands, studying it closer. She's got her hand on my arm,
I've got a hand on her waist and we're leaning towards each other,
absolutely hysterically laughing over something, and for the life of
me I can't remember what it is.

Damn if it wasn't obvious then. Maybe we weren't in love with each
other then, subconsciously or consciously, but we very clearly have a
connection. I mean, whatever has everyone else so enraptured is of no
interest to us. I flip through the stack and they've all got a common
theme. Us. Some pictures have other people in them; some are just us.
They're from work events. Anywhere we went with the President and the
White House photographer came for the seven years she and I were
there is in this pile.

"I went down there today to see if I could get a look at a picture
they took of us at one of the balls a few weeks ago and Rodney, the
guy that does the developing, gave me this. Evidently, after so long,
he noticed a lot of pictures of us and he kept them aside. He said it
was amazing what the camera saw that people couldn't. Apparently, we
were a favorite subject of one of the photographers."

As I study each picture, I can begin to tell what was going on with
us in each one without even having to look at the date on the back.
It's not that I necessarily could identify the event we were at, but
someone's expression gave away details of what was going on in our
relationship. It's funny. I can tell when one of us was seeing
someone. We look distracted from each other in the picture. I pause
at one in particular. We're sitting next to each other on steps
somewhere and there's other people around us. She's got her head down
looking at the step in between us, and it looks like I'm looking at
something just past her head. We're turned in each other's general
direction, but not actually looking at each other. It strikes me that
this is a picture during the time that I dated Amy. I have a sudden
urge to rip it up, but I don't. It's our history and we might not
like everything there was about it, but it tells our story. There's a
couple of pictures that follow that are like that and I flip through
them fast. The pictures start to get happy again.

I stop at one that I can identify without looking at the date. The
Correspondence Dinner before she left for Gaza. We look happy in the
picture, but I know what came next. That's the night I lost her.
That's the night CJ told her it was okay to go get a life that didn't
have me in it. Eventually, I found out about that conversation, CJ
being so guilt ridden about it, because two days later, Donna left
for Gaza, got blown up, and I rushed half-way around the world to her
bedside, effectively shooting CJ's little theory all to hell. Of
course, she hadn't made the decision to leave that night. That didn't
come for another six months. But that was the night the bug was put
in her ear. There's more pictures after that, but we start to look
distracted again, sad even.

The last one is the picture she wanted that made her go down there in
the first place. My arms are around her, and she's smiling back at me
and I'm looking at her. It's a beautiful picture. More so to me
because I'll always remember it because it's the night I learned I
was going to be a father. It's the night that we had come full
circle.

I pick up the first picture and hold it next to the last picture. I
look at the first picture, where I see what only a photographer saw,
and then the last one, where I see what we finally saw. I'm going to
take these two back down there tomorrow and get copies for my office
made and have them framed. Believe it or not, I'm happy that there
seems to be a voyeur in the photography department. He's given us a
gift that I can't begin to explain. I wonder if they'll fess up which
photographer it was. I try to think of who it might be, but all I can
conjure are cameras and faceless people behind them.

I take the pile and slide back over onto the couch next to my wife.
She puts her head down on my shoulder and we slowly look through the
pictures together, laughing as we come across certain pictures, and
quietly passing by ones we'd rather not remember. And suddenly, I
don't care about her anchovy breath anymore.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

Does Lacy Lyman sound like a porn name to you? I really like the name
Lacy, but I'm afraid when it's paired with Lyman it'll sound like a
porn name. No, no. Don't give me that hyphenated crap and tell me
that it'll work as Lacy Moss-Lyman. I didn't hyphenate. I just
changed my name all together. I thought about keeping Moss for
professional reasons, but then I realized it wouldn't matter anyway.
I'll always been Josh's Donna in this town, so screw it.

Anyway, back to the name. Lacy Lyman could also sound like a stage
name, right? Or a Poet Laureate. And not porn? I'm kind of stuck on
girl names. I don't know why. So, I'm thinking this baby is trying to
tell me it's a girl. I don't know. Josh thinks I'm crazy.

We heard the baby's heart beat for the first time the other morning.
You could have knocked Josh over with a feather. We heard the heart
rate and watched the monitor as the doctor pointed the baby out to
us. When Josh finally looked at me, there were tears in his eyes. I
think I know his feelings on the subject now.

So, I'm stuck on a girl. Josh said he didn't care. Ten fingers, ten
toes, and all it's wits about it was good enough for him. He just
wants a healthy baby. I know I should share his feelings like that,
and I do. But, I just can't get past this girl part.

Carol told me about the website she set him up on. I must say, I'm
touched that he's taken that much of an interest in this. Not that I
didn't think he would, but most fathers don't really read the
literature. They leave it up to the mother. I really kind of thought
Josh would be one of them. I really kind of like it this way. He
doesn't say a word about me passing out cold at 9 o'clock each night;
doesn't say a word about my need to pee every ten minutes. The only
thing he's vocally opposed to is my cravings. He just can't stomach
them. He didn't even make fun of me the other day when I cried during
Vertical Limit on t.v., and that's kind of a strange movie to cry at.

Carol told me that he's been talking to the Secretary of Education
quite a bit this past week. He's looking for an inside track on the
D.C. school systems. Can he just go on line and do research on the
subject like a normal resident of this city? Noooooo, not my husband.
He just goes right ahead and calls the Secretary of Education.
Secretly, I think it's so six years from now when this kid is in
kindergarten and something goes wrong at the school that Josh doesn't
like, there's someone he can fire for it.

I come barreling through the security check in the main lobby and
take off towards the East Wing when I hear my husband's bellow across
the lobby.

"Hey!" he yells. Yeah, everyone turned to look. He walks towards me
at his normal brisk White House pace and falls into step with me for
a few steps before he takes me by the elbow and slows me down.

"Slow the hell down." He orders.

"Can't." I say. "I'm late for staff." I refrain from telling him that
I had to stop to pee twice before getting out of the house this
morning and now I'm running behind. Josh is usually in the office by
7, but I don't show up until about 8:30. Yeah, I know. We could
commute together, but well, I like the extra sleep and he doesn't
seem to care.

"They'll wait for you, Donna, you're their boss." He says taking hold
of my elbow and literally slowing me down. He's actually slowed his
pace down, too, and we're walking towards my office. It feels really
unnerving to walk through the halls of this building with him this
slowly.

"Don't you have something important to be doing now?" I huff as we
poke along. Okay. Maybe we're not moving so slow by normal people
standards, but this is ridiculous for us.

"I was coming to see you." He says, and I notice the newspaper in his
hand.

"What's up?"

"You've got a leak." I stop for a second and he hands me the copy of
the Washington Post he's holding. It's a gossip piece citing sources
close to the First Lady's office and confirming the pregnancy.

Shit.

Uh-oh. He's coming to see me in like an official capacity, and of
course, the first time it has to be personal. It'll be interesting to
see how this goes. How does he handle the First Lady's Chief of Staff
when there's a leak in their office and the Chief of Staff is his
pregnant wife? Damn, but I bet it took him a while to work up the
nerve to come over here this morning after he found out.

"Okay." I say and continue walking.

"Okay what?" he says, again with the elbow tugging. He's killing me
here!

"Okay I'll find the leak." I say with a lot more confidence than I
feel.

"Look at me, Donnatella." He says as he stops walking. I stop and
look at him indulgently.

Yikes.

I don't like the looks of this look.

"I will not have our child the subject of a gossip column." He
says. "Even if it is the Washington Post." I know this tone of voice.
I haven't heard it often over the years, but when I have, it's almost
chilling. It's his I-can't-mess-around-with-you-voice, which I'm
thinking has now been adopted as his Chief of Staff voice. Wow. Let
me tell you, I don't want to be on the receiving end of this voice
too often. If I wasn't married to him, I'd actually be scared of him
right now.

"Okay." I say again and walk into my office where I see my seven
senior staff members already assembled in their usual seats. They all
watch a little apprehensively as Josh walks behind me as I hang up my
coat and then sit down behind my desk. He stands in between the two
visitor's chairs in front of my desk which are occupied by Annabeth
in one, and my assistant in the other. He balances on his hands and
leans across the desk to me. This show better be for these guys and
not for me, or I'll kick his ass later.

"Find the leak, Donna, and have their ass in my office by the end of
the day." Then he turns and walks out of the office, not quite
slamming the door behind him.

"Well," I say to my staff. "I guess our first order of business today
has changed."

TBC


Title: Transitions (12/?)
Disclaimer: Not mine. Imitation is the best form of flattery.
Series Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Yes, please

JOSH'S POV

"Joshua Lyman, you've gone forth and multiplied."

Okay. *Now* I'm in hell. Before it was just with Amy sitting in my
office, now Mandy's poked her head through the door from the outer
corridor. Someone please explain to me why I don't keep that door
closed and force everyone around to Carol's door like she told me?
Well, lesson learned. Didn't I tell you that the day to day aspects
of my life in this job were going to suck? We all saw this moment
coming.

Mandy spares a glance at Amy sitting in a chair in front of my desk,
but stays standing, affording her the opportunity to remain looking
down at Amy. While Amy stays seated like she's staking her claim or
something, Mandy keeps the upper hand. This is interesting to me
because I always thought that Amy was more shrewd than this. It seems
appearances are more important in Amy's world. This play would give
someone entering the room the impression that Amy and I were closer
than we are. Too bad for Amy it was Mandy entering the room and not
someone else.

"Amy Gardner, Madeline Hampton." I introduce gesturing between the
two.

"Amy and I have met before." Mandy says. "We worked briefly together
at NOW." Hmm. Interesting, Amy was at NOW when we were dating. I
wonder if they know they have a common denominator here. I'm kind of
suspecting Mandy does and Amy doesn't.

"Jesus, J," Amy says, "work fast enough? Together less than six
months and you're married with a baby on the way? You were never the
type to be stuck in the 50s like that."

"Josh." Mandy says. I look up at Mandy, but she wasn't talking to me.
She was talking to Amy. "Or Joshua. He's not a fan of nicknames."

"Never bothered him before." Amy shrugs. Well, yeah, actually it did,
but I was ensorcelled at the time. Men put up with strange things for
sex. I mean, come one, my wife took out a spoon and ate salsa right
from the jar last night.

"Did you need something, Mandy?" I ask.

"The leak." Mandy says. I guess Donna told her about it. Well, if
word gets out that Mandy's on it, that person will be crawling pretty
far under soon. "It's a West Wing leak. It's not from us."

"The article said sources close to the First Lady." Amy says. "That's
you guys."

"The article says sources close to the First Lady's office." Mandy
retaliates. "That's the entire building. If it was sources close to
the First Lady, that's exactly what they would have said. This is a
West Wing leak, and it sounds like it's a relatively low level one."

"Carol!" I bellow. Yeah, I didn't use the intercom this time. I was
going for the drama so Carol could see my annoyance at the situation
that has just unfolded in my office. Don't get pissy at me, I *have*
used the intercom before.

Carol walks in and her eyes go wide when she sees my office
occupants. She throws me an annoyed look, like I brought this on
myself, and walks over to close the door to the outer hallway.

"Time's up, Amy." She says holding open the door. "Josh's next
appointment is here."

"Ms. Gardner." Amy says standing up and heading to the door.

"You call the Chief of Staff J, but make his assistant call you Ms.
Gardner?" Mandy laughs. "Where's the professionalism in that?"

And I am now reminded of why I was once ensorcelled with this woman.
I know you've all wondered. And see, I told you Mandy could win in a
fight. You doubted me there, don't think I don't know. Mandy and I
think alike in this respect. We use the same tactics with our
enemies. Amy walks out. Carol gives me one last look and closes the
door.

"Josh, we both know you have better taste in women than that." Mandy
says finally sitting down on the other side of my desk.

"I was bewitched."

"You were being played." Mandy counters. In my defense, I actually
figured that out on my own. "You should have seen the way she was
bragging around the office about dating you. She threw your name
around all over the place."

"Did you out me, Mandy?" I ask.

"No." she shrugs. "It was a lot more fun to watch her make a fool out
of herself."

"The leak?" I say.

"Yeah. It came from over here." She says confidently. "The only ones
over there who knew about the baby before that article came out was
Donna and the First Lady. It came as a surprise to everyone else."

"She would have known that when I talked to her this morning." I say.

"She said you were all fired up." Mandy shrugs again. "She thought it
would be a good lesson for her staff to see the consequence of
talking to the press without permission."

Yeah. My wife's pretty smart. I did put on a good show over there,
and it really wasn't for her.

"Congratulations, Josh." Mandy says. It looks like she actually means
it.

"Thanks." I say. "You are still Hampton right? Or do you go by Brice
professionally?"

"I'm still Hampton." She says standing up.

"You married a republican." I bait.

"There's more to him than his political affiliation." She says
walking towards Carol's door.

"Not when you work in politics."

"Damn. And I thought you were learning something." She opens the door
and disappears through it without so much as a goodbye.

You know what? I take what I said back. If this is how Mandy's going
to be, this might actually be fun. I mean, she won that round with
Amy like the seasoned pro she is. Carol buzzes through to tell me
that Donna's mother is on the line for me. I scrunch up my forehead
and look at the phone. That's weird. Donna's mother is on the phone
for me? I'm a little concerned now. And before you think it, yes, our
parents have known about the baby for a couple of weeks now. She
didn't find out from the Washington Post, which by the way, is still
just gossip. Nobody's confirmed anything for them.

I pick up the phone and hit the blinking extension. "Hi, Pat."

"Joshua?" I can hear it in her voice. She's upset about something.
And not mad upset, upset upset. I've heard Patricia Moss use this
voice before.

"Yeah."

"Chris was in an accident." Oh shit. Donna is one of three kids. The
oldest is Christopher, a middle school teacher in Madison and after
school coach; the middle is Donna's sister, Rue (always makes me
think of the Winnie the Pooh character). Donna's the baby of the
family.

I close my eyes and run a hand down my face. "Is he all right?" I'm
thinking no by the sound of her voice.

"No." she confirms. "It's bad. I think she should come out here. The
doctors aren't very optimistic. He was hit by a drunk driver late
last night. He's on a ventilator. And Joshua," Here it comes. "He has
a living will, but they'll wait for Donna."

I drop my head down on my desk. My wife's going to be devastated. You
don't understand - well, maybe you do. The sun rises and sets on her
older brother.

"I'll go talk to Donna now and call you back when I know when we're
landing."

"Thank you, Joshua."

"Yeah." I hang up the phone and walk out to Carol's desk. "Call Ron
Butterfield. Tell him I need to fly to Madison immediately."

"What happened?"

"Donna's brother was in a car accident and he's not going to make it."

"Shit." Couldn't have said it better myself, Carol.

"I'm going to go talk to the President; then I'm going over to the
East Wing to tell Donna. Find me immediately once you talk to Ron.
They're waiting for Donna to get there to shut the respirator off."

Carol nods and picks up the phone as I head over towards the Oval
Office.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

As it turns out, the Treasury's always ready to fly me. How about
that? Of course, I'm not going to spend too much time thinking about
why they're always ready to fly me, but needless to say we were on
our way to Wisconsin within three hours after I spoke to Donna's mom.
I took just enough time to brief Sam before walking out the door. And
apparently, when I travel, I get more agents. Yippee! Now we really
put on a show wherever we go.

Of course, I have my laptop with me. Shortly after we took office,
Carol had the internet on my laptop upgraded. Now, anywhere I get
cell service, I get internet. So her little laptop plan is now
officially being put to the test. She'll be sending me updates every
hour. Though no, I won't actually be checking my computer every hour.
I'll get a phone call if something blows up, so I'll only be
periodically checking my laptop. But don't tell Carol that. She's
pretty impressed with herself right now. Quite frankly, so am I.

As I warned you, Donna's a mess. Quite frankly, she's a basketcase.
For someone who's spot on during times of crisis, not so much right
now. I'm attributing it to hormones and the fact that she's directly
got a stake in the situation at the moment. She's said next to
nothing since I told her. She's just kind of withdrawn into herself.
I can't say I'm surprised. Dr. Bartlet said this is the way she was
in the hospital while I was in surgery. She didn't talk to anyone and
she didn't leave the hospital. Last time, she just sat there and
waited to hear about me; this time, she knows what's going to happen
when she gets to the hospital. That can't be a good feeling.

We landed at the airport and drove directly to the hospital. As soon
as we make it through the front door of the hospital, I send two of
the four agents with me running ahead upstairs to do their little
sweep before we get up there so Donna doesn't have to wait. I'm not
100 percent sure this would fly normally, but we've got Corey with
us, and I think he has a crush on Donna and feels pretty bad for her
right now. Plus, I'm the Chief of Staff, not the President, so I
think minor exceptions can be made in certain situations. Don't tell
Ron Butterfield that; these guys would be fired for sure.

The good thing about traveling with an entourage is everyone upstairs
knew we were here before we got there, so Donna got right into the
room. I waited out in the hall. Rue stayed in the room with Donna
while Pat and John came out in the hall with me.

"You can go in, Josh." John said to me.

"If I go in there, they go in." I motion to the four agents
positioned in the hallway. "Makes for tight quarters." He nods in
acknowledgement. That and I've only met Donna's brother the day we
got married. I've met her sister before that, and I've talked to her
sister on the phone. But my total contact with Chris has been pretty
limited. I'll go in if Donna needs me to, but she's got her sister in
there, and like I said, if I walk in that room, at least two of these
agents is going in with me. There's really just not need for that.

"You have a lot more friends with you than last time you and I were
in a hospital, Joshua." Pat says.

"You should see how many I have when I travel with the leader of the
free world."

"I've seen it on CSPAN." She says. Donna's mother is actually pretty
funny. Whenever she spots us on t.v., she calls to tell us she saw us
on t.v. Even when Donna was working for Russell, Pat would call me
when she saw me or saw something about the Santos campaign. One time,
she saw Donna on t.v. spinning something bad for Santos and she
called me to tell me that she was washing her hands of her daughter
and when the hell was I going to get off my ass, call Donna, and
demand she see that she's supporting a cardboard cutout. Can I tell
you? I LOVE Donna's mother! But now you can see where Donna gets her
drama from, right? You should have seen Donna's reaction when she
found out her mother was still calling me. Damn, but she was pissed.
What can I say? The woman has a soft spot for me, I didn't stop for
red lights to get to her daughter.

She's also got a funny way of pointing things out to me that she
wants me to know about without making it look like she's calling up
and telling me what to do. She'll say something like, "Now, before
this gets voted on, you did see that that'll raise the tax on dairy
farmers by 6 percent, right? Oh, you saw that? I'm just checking."
You can also see where Donna gets her sneakiness from now, right?
Yeah, Pat Moss is a crafty one. I can't say that she's ever actually
brought something to my attention that I didn't actually already
know, but her phone calls do tend to remind me that what I'm doing is
really going to affect people and it's not just statistics on paper.
So, it does serve a purpose.

I'm leaning against the wall when Donna and Rue come out, and Donna's
crying again. I pull her into my arms and she buries her face in my
shoulder and continues crying. You'd think that I was pretty good
with death, right? By now I'm pretty accustomed to losing people I
love, my sister, my father, Leo. No, I still suck at it. There's
still nothing that can be said to make someone feel better, at least,
if there's that perfect sorry for your loss phrase out there, no
one's ever said it to me. People are pretty selfish emotionally when
it comes to death, and you know what? I think that's fine. Donna's
got a right to be pissed off at that drunk driver and sad that her
brother's about to die. So, I'm just going to go ahead and let her
feel that way. If she wants to stand here and cry on my shoulder,
that's what I'm going to let her do.

When we leave the hospital, Rue somehow manages to get in the car
with me and Donna. I have no problem with this personally, but the
secret service is *unhappy* to put it mildly. They're not so unhappy
as to make her ride with the Mosses, but they're less than thrilled
by the idea that someone with absolutely NO security clearance is in
the car right now. She's been vetted, though, so they're more ahead
of the game than they think.

"Rue," Donna says as we drive through the city towards her parents'
house. Thankfully, when I had to fill out all the paperwork for the
secret service, Donna did it. She listed her parents' house and my
mother's house as places they can expect me to visit over the next
four years. So her parents' house has already been checked out.
Mostly. "what's proposition 520?"

"Streetcars." Rue answers. "The city wants to start using
streetcars."

"Portland, Oregon's using them now, so is Tacoma, Washington." I
supply.

"I don't know." Rue says with a non-committal shrug. "It's making us
crazy at the office. Everyone's calling there instead of the mayor."

So, the Governor of Wisconsin pulled a fast one. Well, really he sort
of pulled a Debbie Fidderer when Charlie applied at the White House.
Rue sent her resume in to the state capitol for a position that was
posted for the transportation department a few weeks ago. Guess whose
names she used as references? You got it! Me and Donna. Not that I
mind that she did that, she did call me first to ask if it was okay
to use me as a reference and I said yes. But that, of course, sends
up a HUGE red flag in human resources, so she got poached for the
Governor's office, who by the way, wasn't hiring. She's one of his
assistants now. Better paying job, probably a hell of a lot more
exciting, but well played, Governor, well played, sic my sister-in-
law on my ass when you need something.

When we get to the house, we find that there's a large delivery truck
in the driveway. Donna's parents are standing on the front lawn
watching guys unload the truck. There's a look of awe on their face.
We get out of the car and walk across the lawn to greet them.

"What are they unloading?" Donna asks.

"Food." John says. "A Mr. and Mrs. Potus have sent us apparently
enough food and alcohol to feed a small country."

Mr. and Mrs. Potus? Donna and I immediately whip out our cell phones
and dial our respective bosses.

I get through first.

"Josh!" the President jovially answers the phone.

"Sir, did you think we had to host an impromptu wedding while we were
out here?"

"What? Too much food?"

"Sir, this is an incredibly thoughtful gesture..." I begin.

"Wait a minute, *this* is from the President?" John gapes. I nod as I
hear Donna connect with Mrs. Santos.

"Josh, neighbors stop by unexpectedly when people die; family members
gather. Families need food. They don't need to be ordering out. We
wanted to make sure you were all set." The President explains.

"The White House usually sends -" I start.

"No. This is me and Helen." He says. It's the least we can do for you
and Donna. Then I see a hand truck loaded down with beer pass by.

"How long did you want to keep me drunk for?" I say with a chuckle.

"Call in later, Josh." The President says and disconnects the phone.
Donna's still on with the First Lady.

"Well, let's go see what's for dinner." I say snapping my cell phone
and heading towards the house. Donna's stunned family follows.

TBC


Title: Transitions (13/?)
Disclaimer: Nope, don't own them. However, when I take over the
world, I will.
Series Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Yes, please.


DONNA'S POV

Okay. So, I've now eaten my way through the dining room and moved
into the kitchen. You name it, the President and Helen ordered it.
When I called her to thank her for her outrageously kind gestured, I
used that word too, she gushed at how she finally found a small way
to repay me for everything I've done for her over the last six
months. Yeah. Helen Santos is just that great of a person.

Not long after we got home to my parents' house, family started
showing up. We've got aunts, uncles, cousins and some neighbors here
now. Not exactly the ideal scene for the secret service right now.
Can I just tell you that Agent Marks has always been within five feet
of Josh; Corey's at the front door; one guy's at the back door and
there's another guy outside the front door. Usually, he's only got
two agents, but they up it, I guess, when Josh travels without the
President.

My family and neighbors aren't really sure what to make of it. They
keep offering them food. The first time I heard someone offer Corey
food, I grabbed my mother, and we immediately put a boatload of food
aside for them after I found out from them what they like to eat. So
now they can eat when the crowd thins out. If they're going to be
putting up with this madness, they better be getting some good food
out of it. I mean, don't think I haven't noticed they've bent a few
rules for me since we've landed. Nothing major, nothing that would
put Josh in danger, but I've been around them enough to know how they
operate, and well, yeah, I noticed some stuff.

So, as I was sampling everything that was sent, Josh, Rue, and my
cousin Sara, were drinking. But now Josh is pissed off because the
Governor of Wisconsin just showed up and he doesn't want to be drunk
around him. Hopefully, the Governor won't be staying long. Maybe Josh
can tactfully find a way to get rid of him, since he's probably here
more to be seen by Josh than by Rue. So, now we've got four secret
service agents and the Wisconsin state police here. Yeah. We're
really ready for a barn raiser now.

My cousin Sara makes her way over to me. "Quite the distinguished
turn out." She says.

"It's distracting my parents at least." I shrug.

"He's cute." She says gesturing over to Corey. "Introduce me."

"He can't talk to you now." I say. "He's working."

"Everyone gets a break while they work." Sara says.

"Not these guys." I say.

"They never get breaks?"

"Well, they do. But they're not going to take any while all these
people are here." I explain. Sara seems pretty impressed with my
knowledge right now. "Once this place thins out, they'll start
rotating with each other. If you're still here, you can meet him
then."

"Do they ever get a night off?"

"First off, Sara, who cares? You live in Wisconsin." I remind
her. "Secondly, yes. But you may want to stop to reconsider the down
side of dating someone in the secret service. It's his job to jump
*into* the line of fire, not out of it." I refrain from getting into
the story of CJ and Simon Donovan.

"I'm relocating to Washington. I actually just found out yesterday."
She tells me. My cousin is an accountant with Jackson and Morris.
They're one of the biggest CPA firms in the country.

"Oh, really?" I say. Well, this will be fun. Sara's actually my
favorite cousin. We used to be really close growing up. I might need
to tell the story of CJ and Simon to her after all. But, then again,
I have no idea whether or not Corey's seeing anyone anyway, not
mention, maybe he's not even interested in women for all I know. I
guess I'll wait and see. "Well, if you really want to, then, I'll
introduce you later. Stay away from him now though, he's working. And
before you think of it, he's watching the room, not you."

"You really know how to rain on a girl's parade." She pouts. I look
over at Josh and watch as he shakes the Governor's hand and bids him
goodnight. Good, he got rid of him. As the Governor leaves the house,
Josh heads over this way.

"That guy's a putz." He says nodding towards the front door after the
Governor's closed it behind him. I smile. That's my man. He's rubbing
my back and watching me load up my plate. Again. He arches a brow and
looks at me as I'm shoveling in some potatoes.

"Did you eat?" I ask in my most ladylike way...with my mouth full.

"Don't have to. You've done it for me." He looks suitably disgusted
by the view of my potatoes. Hey! I don't normally talk with my mouth
full, but he's the one that started a conversation with me while I
was eating.

"You should eat." Yes, I've swallowed.

"Your parents are starting to look a little tired." He says looking
over to where they're sitting in the living room.

Now I'm looking around and seeing where the flaw is in the President
and First Lady's idea. As long as the food and alcohol hold out, so
will all these people. And Josh's is right. My parents do look pretty
tired.

"How are we going to get rid of all these people?"

"Double team them." He says. "You and your sister go around and thank
them for coming, and me and your cousin will start visibly cleaning
up. That'll give them the hint." My man, always thinking. This guy's
got a plan for everything, I tell you. That and he's also gone
through this enough times to have picked up pointers. "And if that
doesn't work, I'll have the secret service pull their guns."

I smile and hug him. Because I have to tell you, this husband of mine
gives the absolute, hands down, best hugs on the planet. And I'm not
just saying that because I'm biased. CJ and Annabeth have both told
me that before. He's just a good hugger, which is funny to me, since
he hates to show emotion. I swear to God, when you get a hug from
this man, you really do think that things are going to get better.
He's just got that kind of hug vibe going for him.

His plan works flawlessly. Half an hour later, the only people left
in the house are Sara and her parents. I think my aunt and uncle
probably would have gone, but there's no way Sara is leaving here
without talking to Corey. So now she's currently heating up food with
my sister for Corey and Agent Brian Marks, the two that were inside.
I guess they'll switch with the outside guys when they're done
eating. Can't say I blame them for eating first, this is February in
Wisconsin after all. It's really freaking cold out there.

I stretch out on the couch with my head in Josh's lap. My parents and
aunt and uncle are in the living room with us. He's stroking my hair
and I think I just might fall asleep here. He's amazing. It's not
like he's had any great words of wisdom or anything today, but just
his presence is soothing.

My poor assistant. She's having a really rough Josh day. First this
morning it was Josh and the leak thing, which by the way, wasn't us,
but he put in the quite the woe-to-the-leaker performance in in my
office this morning, which she saw. Then, when he came to tell me
about my brother, I was in a meeting, which is what she told him. He
told her to pull me out and then, she said it was a real important
meeting (Yeah, I'm going to have to talk to her about that. Josh
would never just pull me out of a meeting just because. So when the
Chief of Staff for the President says pull me out of the meeting, you
pull me out of the friggin' meeting for crying out loud). Anyway,
Annabeth was outside my office at the time, and she said that when
Maggie (that's my assistant's name) told Josh I was in an important
meeting, Josh got in her face and said in a real low voice, which I
think is this new Chief of Staff's voice, to pull me out of the
meeting. So, I think Maggie is now absolutely petrified of Josh.
Well, just about everybody but me has been there at some point in
their life. Either she'll get over it, or she won't make that mistake
again.

Anyway, his hands feel really good, and I'm now toning out the quiet
conversation around me.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

"I don't get how they work." Rue says.

"How who work?" I'm currently scrolling through the, count them, 30
email messages Carol has sent me since this morning. It's not like I
left real early in the morning. It was like 11:30 or something. 30
emails. One is from her giving a list of the stuff she scanned in for
me to look at. She must have some kind of super scanner because she's
got a 100 page briefing memo in here on the Baker confirmation. How
the hell long does she think I'm going to be out of the office? Well,
apparently her laptop plan works pretty well.

"The secret service." She says. Rue and I are the only two still
awake, and it's pretty late. Under any other circumstances, Donna
would have my ass by now. I finally convinced her to go to bed when
her parents did. So, now it's just me and Rue at the dining room
table as I go through all the stuff Carol loaded for me. Corey's
sitting by the door with a card table and a deck of cards, and one of
the other agents, Jeff, is by the back door on a computer. I guess
Brian, and I forget the other guy's name, are sleeping or something.

"What do you mean, how do they work?" What the hell is she talking
about? I mean, they're right there. She can't see what they're doing?
They're watching the room.

"They're slacking off."

"No, they're not."

"He's playing card games," she says pointing to Corey, "and he's on
the computer." She continues pointing at Jeff. "That doesn't concern
you? They're paid to protect you and they're slacking off."

"Watch them closer." I say. See, I've become so accustomed to them
that nothing they do surprises me or compels me to question what
they're doing. She's quiet for a few minutes as I open a transcript
of Bram's last press briefing of the night. Yeah, Carol's *that* on
top of things. Sam's questioning an answer he gave on Baker's wife.

"Ah." She says.

"Yeah?"

"I get it."

"What'd you see?"

"They're good."

"They get lessons."

"They're always watching."

"Yes."

"Can I talk to him?"

"Sure." She moves a couple of chairs closer to Corey. All the girls
with Corey. What is it about that guy?

"Can I ask you a question?" she says.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Have you ever shot your gun?"

"Yes, ma'am. We have target practice."

"No. I mean other than that. Like when you were protecting someone."
Why is it that every woman turns into a 16 year old girl around these
guys? And they always ask about the guns. I'm more impressed that he
knows about seven different ways to kill someone *without* a gun. Not
to mention, the guy runs along side of a car, for crying out loud.
But no, the first question they get is, have you ever pulled your
gun.

"Yes, ma'am." He says.

"When?"

"My last protectee." He says, and I perk up.

"Who was that?" she asks.

"Leo McGarry."

"Someone shot at Leo McGarry?" she asks confused. She's looking at me
differently now, like trying to figure out why someone would want to
kill a guy like me. Well, you've got to get to know me, I think.
Yeah, I'm even a smart ass with myself.

"He was at Rosslyn." I say. "He was on Leo's detail the night the
President and I were shot."

"Oh." She says. "Well, Josh was shot."

"I wasn't protecting Mr. Lyman," he says. "I was protecting Mr.
McGarry. And he didn't get shot." Yeah. There's the answer for the
chics. Take me to bed, lady! I got a gun and I always hit my target.

"Wait a minute." I say. I don't remember much of that night. But I do
remember reading the reports afterwards. "The secret service got
those guys in nine seconds from the firing of the first shot. You got
Leo in the car and then turned around and shot in nine seconds?"

"No." he says. Well see, now that makes a little more sense. He
wasn't one the guys that shot the shooters then. "I took Mr. McGarry
to the ground and shot from on top of him."

Oh. Well, that's impressive then.

"Were you one of the ones that hit them?" Rue asks suitably impressed.

"Yes, ma'am."

"How do you know?"

"You just know."

I go back to my laptop as she starts peppering him with other
questions. Some stuff he answers; some stuff he doesn't. But I'm
stuck on his answer a minute ago. He fired his gun while laying on
top of Leo. They carry their guns on the small of their backs. I
suddenly have a vision in my head of him tackling Leo to the ground,
while pulling that gun and taking aim. That's probably pretty close
to how it went down. I mean, these guys are hard core. I'm sure that
gun was drawn before they hit the ground. I mean, nine seconds goes
by pretty fast.

I sit there for a second and marvel at the difference in our thinking
that night. Because I do remember the first moments of the shooting.
I remember right up to the moment I got shot. Then I don't remember
anything after that. I do remember how scared I was. How my first
thought was to hit the ground, like they told us to. Get down and
don't get up until the secret service tells you to. But this guy
probably didn't feel any fear. How could he have? Nine seconds;
pushed his protectee to the ground, pulled his gun and killed a guy
who was like three stories above him. And he was laying on the
ground.

Wow.

This is what these guys do. No wonder Donna doesn't bitch about them.
And I thought what I did was important.

TBC


Title: Transitions (14/?)
Disclaimer: The characters aren't mine.
Series Rating: R
Timeline: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Love it

JOSH'S POV

I swear to you, I'm trying to pay attention to what Sam is saying.
And I know it's important stuff, but I'm really just not following
him right now. We're in our kitchen and he and his fianc‚ have come
by for dinner, so he can fill me in on what happened while we were in
Wisconsin. Believe it or not, there's not much I don't know given
Carol's new high-tech approach to the Chief of Staff's office. Sam's
in the middle of talking about who we're still getting problems from
on the Baker confirmation when I just can't take it any more.

"I think I should fire a gun." I say. Silence follows this, but it's
Donna who recovers first.

"Are you crazy?" Donna asks, kind of quietly for her. Sam's still
surprised into silence, and Robin I don't think really understands
what it is I just said. I mean, she's got two working ears and speaks
English, but you know what I mean, especially since you're probably
just as surprised as Sam and Donna right now.

"I think I should fire a gun." I say again, which not surprisingly
earns me the same response from my wife, only a little louder this
time.

"Are you crazy?"

"I think I should."

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY!" She slams down the glass she was holding
onto the table and some of the water splashes out of the top. Okay. I
started something here. Donna dropped an F bomb. That's not a good
sign.

"I think what Donna means," Sam says, "is are you sure that's the
wisest idea?"

"No. I want to know if he's crazy." Donna says.

"Corey says he'll take me over to their gym and let me fire his." I
explain.

"Oh Corey says?" Donna asks. Let me try and help you with the tone of
her voice right now. Think CJ during her press secretary days. Yeah,
I'm going to have to pony up here, this is going to get ugly.

"Uh-huh." Yeah. Take that.

"Let's forget for a minute the fact guns are pretty powerful and
provide quite a kick back, and you're going to get knocked flat on
your crazy ass." Donna says. "Has it occurred to you that it might
trigger nightmares again?"

It occurs to me now that we've just walked into territory that Robin
doesn't know about. I brought us into this conversation, though, so I
can't really back peddle now. Other than Donna, Leo and the
President, Sam is the only other person in the White House at the
time that I told about Stanley Keyworth's diagnosis. I never told
anyone else. Not CJ, not Toby. And since Donna would soon commit a
felony to keep people from finding out, I know she didn't tell anyone
else either. That was also a reason why Donna did what she did with
her diary. She didn't just protect me from the people outside the
White House, she protected me from people inside it, too (sometimes
your friends aren't *always* on your side). Every time I think of
that day, I get pissed off at her again. But, I also think that was
pretty bold of her to do. I should have fired her, which also made me
mad. How could Donna actually do something that would put me in a
position to fire her? How could she do that to me? To us? To be
honest, the only time I ever thought of us as boss and assistant is
when I wanted to kiss her. Other than those times, I always thought
of us as more of partners at work, like a team. So, it never made me
happy when she put me in the position where I had to actually *be*
the boss. But then I realized the enormity of the situation and,
well, how can you not want to keep that person in your corner?

"I think I'm past that." I say. I'm not, but I can handle a
nightmare; she'll be there. It's not going to freak me out, it's just
going to wake me up.

"Really?" Yeah okay, she knows I still get them from time to time.
She sounds totally unconvinced right now.

"Yeah."

"You're going to chance finding out?" And Donna calls the hand.

"What if it cures me?" I'm sure it won't, but I'm trying to make an
argument here.

"What if it sends you into a nutty in the situation room? How's that
going to go over with the boys?" Ouch. That was harsh, but it's a
valid concern, I suppose. And in case you're wondering, yes,
President Santos knows. I told him everything. I haven't had a
problem in years, but I still thought he should know, and before you
ask, it was before we won the election. I didn't spring it on him
after.

"I really don't think that's going to happen." I reply. See the thing
is, this is going to be one of those things I'm going to do whether
she likes it or not, and she's probably already figured that out. I
seriously think this is something I need to do, even though I know
it's upsetting her. And don't think I don't feel bad about that, I
swear, I do, but not bad enough to change my mind.

"Well, you're the best judge of your health, Josh." Sam says finally.
Well, we all know *that's* not true. I mean, Donna was the one to
figure it out to begin with and go to Leo who set up the session with
Stanley and made me go.

"It should be noted," I say to the room, but I'm still looking
directly at my wife. "that I have been absolutely fine for many years
now. I even talked about that night with your sister and Corey the
other night and nothing happened." That's not entirely true. I woke
up in a cold sweat and couldn't pinpoint the reason. So, I must have
been having a bad dream, if not exactly a nightmare. Donna arches a
skeptical brow at me. I think she knows I woke up that night, and now
I just told her why.

"So noted then." She says quietly. She stands up, walks to the
counter and pours herself a glass of wine and I wonder if she's
looking to pick a fight she can win, since she's not winning this
one. I know. You think I'm going to freak out about that. I'm not. I
told you, I've been reading up. She can have occasional drinks; she
can have the occasional cup of coffee. I even called her doctor to be
sure. All things in moderation, she said. Apparently that restriction
is really for women that are alcoholics. Don't get me wrong, I
wouldn't let her have a drink out in public, people just are too
opinionated and there's no way in hell I'd be able to keep my mouth
shut if some stranger said something to my wife. I'd end up
explaining to the President why I'm on the front page of the
Washington Post losing it on what looks like a poor unsuspecting
customer in the middle of a restaurant.

"Are you allowed to drink alcohol?" Sam says. Donna slams the bottle
down and glares at him. Oh Sam, if *I* wasn't going there, why on
Earth did you?

"Do you think me of all people didn't read up on being pregnant,
Sam?" she demands. She's yelling at Sam, but really it's me she wants
to yell at. "Do you think me of all people is going to go into
something like this blind? We're not stuck in a time warp. There are
actually doctors that will tell an expectant mother to drink a beer a
morning in extreme cases of morning sickness."

"I was just asking." Sam says. "I will be more than happy to shut up
now."

She looks over at me and our eyes lock as they have so many times in
the past. The battle of wills starts now. Please Donna, please
understand that I need to do this. Maybe it is going to be a
disaster, but I really need to do this. And if it's a disaster, it'll
be okay anyway because you'll be there, just like you were last time.
She holds my gaze for a minute. She walks over to me, kisses me on
the forehead and sits down. I close my eyes for a second and then
turn my attention to Sam.

"You were saying about Baker?"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

My husband is a world class political mind. I've always thought so,
but last year he proved it to the world. Back to back dark horse
candidates elected to the Oval Office. It was a strategy that college
professors are going to teach about. His brain is going to end up in
a jar on some doctor's desk to be studied by science.

He's also a world class jackass.

"I want to fire a gun," he says to us. Where does he get these things
from? Why in hell would he think this is a good idea? And he did,
too. He's got it in his head that this is going to provide him with
some sort of answer. Who lets this man loose in his own mind, I want
to know?

See, he got shot and then lost consciousness. He didn't have to be
awake for the 14 hours of hell that followed. More than that really,
because he came out of surgery and then slept for another four hours
before he woke up and found me by his bedside crying. That was a
weird moment, too. What do you say to your boss, who you've just
discovered you're in love with, who just got shot? You want heady
stuff? There it is, my friends. That was the weirdest moment we've
ever had. A close second to that is getting in the car and seeing
each other for the first time after we kissed in his hotel room. That
was really weird, too. Really weird.

Anyway.

He's there now. I'm sitting in his chair watching for him out his
office window. Old habits die hard, I guess. There's not as good of a
view from here. It's hard to see past the portico. It occurs to me
that I could just have security let me know when he checks back in. I
spin the chair around to dial the front desk when he walks through
the office door. I've already closed the door to the outside hallway,
so he closes Carol's door and then smiles when he sees me in his
chair.

"You can't see the door from there." He says.

"No, but I think I would have bugged Sam too much if I commandeered
his office." I reply. I stand up and come around to the front of his
desk, but I'm keeping my distance. I don't know why I'm doing that. I
don't really know what to expect.

"So?" I ask.

"I got knocked on my crazy ass." He announces.

"And?"

"And I didn't hit a thing." He continues. I look at him expectantly
and shake my head. Why is he giving me this crap? He knows what I
want to know. Is he working up to it?

"They really throw you back, too. I can't believe Corey can shoot
that thing lying down like that. I'm surprised he didn't dislocate
his shoulder."

"They're pretty powerful. They're meant to do a lot of damage when
they're fired."

"Well, that they do." He says quietly.

"Well?"

"I promise you, Donna," he says. "before I retire, I'm getting as
many of those guns off the streets as I can."

"Some of them are bought legally." I remind him. I refrain from
reminding him that the one that shot him was bought legally, but he
knows that.

He shrugs. "A lot aren't."

Carol pokes her head through the door as we continue stand there and
look at each other. "Josh, Ainsley's here for your 11 o'clock."

"Kay." He says. Carol opens the door and Ainsley comes through a few
seconds later.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She apologizes when she sees us. "Carol said I could
come in. I don't mean to interrupt."

"Josh fired a gun today." I say to Ainsley.

"Really?" This really interests Ainsley. As one of like four
republicans that work in this building, she is absolutely NOT with us
on our gun policy. Plus, I seem to remember when she was first hired
by Leo, some sort of altercation with she, Sam, and Josh about it. It
was like the two people in this building you would never hear debate
the merits of gun control is Josh and Ainsley. They're just way to
passionate about their positions to have it end in anything but
bloodshed.

"I did." He says.

"And what did you think?" I don't think she's looking for a debate. I
think she wants to know. She may be a republican and have an exact
opposite view on the subject than he does, but she's also his friend.

"I think I burned my hand." He says now sucking on a finger.

"Well, they're hot after they're fired." Ainsley says.

"Ainsley," I say finally breaking my gaze from Josh. "Sally's does an
all you can eat buffet lunch. Care to join me today when you're done
here?"

"Would I!?" she squeals. "Pregnant women are the only ones who eat as
much as me."

"Actually, Ainsley," Josh says. "I don't *anybody* eats as much as
you."

"All right." I say. "Let me know when you're done." I give one last
look at Josh, then head out the door.

He looked okay, I think as I head back to my office. He doesn't seem
freaked out about it. I'm not sure he found what he was looking for.
I don't actually know what he was looking for. I wonder if *he* knows
what he was looking for. He certainly seemed determined, that much is
true. I still don't know what brought this on; what sparked the
desire in the first place. Maybe he's trying to get a better
understanding of what happened to him? But it's been almost seven
years. And he's right. He's been fine mostly. At least, he hasn't had
any episodes in many, many years. That's been under control for him
for a while.

So what is it?

TBC



Title: Transitions (15/?)
Disclaimer: Not my characters. They belong to, well, I don't know who
exactly now, but not me anyway
Series Rating: R
Time: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Always appreciated.

DONNA'S POV

I'm walking through the lobby as I see Josh coming into the building.

"Good afternoon." I smile falling into step with him.

"Seriously, you have a job to do now. Stop looking for me out the
window." He says. "Well, you had a job to do then, too, I guess it
could be argued."

"I was just passing through." I say. "I'm going to get something to
eat."

He looks down at his crappy watch. "You haven't eaten lunch yet?
Donna, it's 2:15."

"It's 2 o'clock." I say. "You haven't remembered after all this time
to subtract 15 minutes off that watch?"

"2 o'clock, 2:15, my point is it's still way past lunch." He
says. "You're saying you didn't eat lunch?"

"I ate lunch." I assure. I ate breakfast, I ate a mid-morning snack,
which was pretty much breakfast again, I ate lunch. Now I'm going to
have my afternoon snack, but I'm thinking that's going to be a
cheeseburger. I'm pretty hungry. I think I'm carrying Ainsley's
baby. "What takes you out of the building?"

"Meeting with Ron Butterfield." He says. I'm confused. Are you
confused too?

"Ron Butterfield?" I ask like he just told me he was meeting with, I
don't know who, but someone just as off the wall. "Is there a
problem?"

"No." he says. "I was just talking to him about secret service
training."

"Oh." I say. "You think they need more training?"

"No." he says. "I was talking to him about what goes into their
training."

"You can't join the secret service, Josh." I quip. You know? He
doesn't really look amused by my joke.

"It's not strange for me to know these things, Donna." He
replies. "You think Leo was born knowing all that stuff?" You mean
he wasn't?

"I don't think he went to go see what it was like to fire a gun." I
reply.

"He didn't have to. He fought in a war. He knew how to shoot a gun."
He says.

"You need to know how to shoot a gun?" I ask. I'm still completely
confused by this.

"No." he stops and faces me. "Corey was on Leo's detail at Rosslyn."
He's talking quietly now and moving me away from the line of
traffic. "Your sister was asking him about it." In front of Josh!?
I'll kick her insensitive ass. I swear to God, I'll kill her. "He
described what he did. And, I don't know, it just got me thinking is
all. You know? I just started thinking about the difference between
what we all did when we heard the first shot and what they all did.
We all ducked; they all went to work. And not in a war zone either
where you expect that kind of thing, in Rosslyn, Virginia. He fired
his gun from on top of Leo. And you should have seen his face, Donna.
He's dead sure he killed one of those guys. And, I don't know.
They're being paid to take a bullet for me. And I guess if I'm ever
in that situation again, I guess I just want to know exactly what
he's doing. I mean, being as how I know how he's going to feel when
he gets shot and that he's willing to do it voluntarily, well, I sort
of feel like I owe it to them to understand the big picture for
them." We start walking again. And I'm starting to get it. So, he's
not freaking out.

"All right." I say. "But, Josh, you know they'll start moving around
your guys if you start thinking of them as your friends, right? The
intent isn't that you push *them* out of the way." Josh is that kind
of guy, too. He'd do that. It would be quite the mess. Come to think
of it, maybe I should have a discreet chat with his detail.

"Yeah, I know." He says. He stops walking like he's only just noticed
something, and I smile because I know what he's just realized. I was
wondering what he thought of it.

"You cut your hair." He says. I hacked my hair actually. It's
shoulder length and has long layers in it. Like five inches came off
it this morning.

"Yes."

"And it's darker." He says, moving to look at the back of my head. I
have a confession to make. I am a natural blonde and all, but I do
usually color it to make it lighter. But with the baby, I can't do
that. So, my natural "dirty blonde" color is coming through now and
you can really see it now that I've cut it.

"You are a natural blonde, right?" he asks. What the hell is he
talking about? *Of course* I'm a natural blonde. But could you just
imagine if I wasn't, and he was only just now finding out? Geez, I
don't even know what that would do to him. "What am I talking about?"
he smirks wickedly. "I know the answer to that."

"JOSHUA!!" I shriek and belt him in the arm. Oh my God! This is the
White House, for crying out loud! And I'm blushing. I'm actually
blushing. The man has made me blush! I didn't think he could make me
blush. I mean, he used to make jokes about sex equipment and Catholic
school uniforms to me. I can certainly handle the innuendos from him!
And as I'm standing here in this corridor, blushing and being
mortified, he's looking at me. And it's a weird look, too. He's
looking at me like he's never seen me before. And now I feel a little
self-conscious. My hair's not actually done. I stuck it behind my
ears. It was all cute and puffy before. But I guess from running my
fingers through it throughout the day, it took the puffiness out. And
I was tired and running late this morning, again, so I didn't do my
normal make up routine either. I by-passed most of it. I mean,
there's only so much energy I've got right now, so some stuff is
taking a back seat. So, I don't really look like my normal done up
self.

But what does he do? He gives a quick covert glance in either
direction, then leans in and kisses me quickly. Right there in the
corridors of the White House; something he's NEVER done before, I
mean, even after we started the kissing thing. "You look beautiful."
He whispers, then starts walking again.

I stand there smiling like a teenager that just got her braces off
and a cute boy just told her she looked pretty before I rush to catch
up with him. I'm so getting him coffee when I to the mess.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

This is bad. I can't concentrate on anything. I'm trying. I really
am. But I just can't focus. I can't stop thinking about Donna. She
just looks so beautiful today. This new hair cut really frames out
her face, and she didn't have all that crap on it that she usually
does. Not that she looks bad with make up on, but she totally doesn't
need it. I can't figure out why she's compelled to use it at all. But
I don't go there. I know better than to get involved in all that
stuff. And I don't know what came over me then. I kissed her right in
the hallway. Which, you know, I'm allowed to kiss her, but that's the
first time I did it in the White House for people to see; I've done
it a few times behind closed doors, but not right out there for
everyone. We've been pretty good about that.

But I just couldn't help it. She looks cute as hell like that.
Standing there in the hallway, looking at her, all I could think of
was the day we met. And it was strange. All of the sudden, I felt all
warm. It was really weird, I'm telling you.

But I haven't been able to focus on anything since then. My eyes keep
drifting over to the picture of us at that first inauguration night.
It's on one of my bookshelves next to the one from the recent
inauguration night. It keeps taking my attention. It probably doesn't
help that I'm actually lying on the couch and trying to read. That
usually doesn't keep me very focused either. So, I stand up and walk
over to the picture.

My wife's always been beautiful. Every day since I've met her, I
thought that. Even when I had a girlfriend, I thought she was
beautiful. But I'm a man, and she's a beautiful woman. After she was
hired, Sam told me she was beautiful, too. Bram wanted to date her.
It's not just me that thinks this. It's a fact. The thing is, there
are moments in our relationship where I can specifically remember her
being particularly beautiful that day. The day I met her, but I'm not
sure that really counts because I came in and was like, oh hey,
what's this beautiful woman doing in my office before we even
introduced ourselves, but still there it is. The second time was when
I woke up from surgery and she was by my bedside. That's when I
realized that I was more than just her boss to her; that I was her
friend. (Of course, later I found out that I was more than her
friend, but I didn't know that at the time.) The third time was when
we were in the emergency room Christmas Eve waiting for me to see a
doctor for my hand. That's when I realized that despite all our
joking around, damn, she really was tuned to me. The fourth time was
in the snow outside her apartment (of course, you knew that). The
fifth time was right before I went to interview Joe Quincy and she
told me that I was the only man she found handsome and powerful
(yeah, because that wasn't an enormous turn on or anything.) The
sixth time was when I saw her the first time in Germany and she was
alive. (Enough said there). The seventh time was when I kissed her in
my hotel room (I tell you, she was smoking hot that day!) The eighth
time was that night at home when we reciting the Shakespeare. The
ninth time was our wedding day. And then, there was today.

Sometimes I know what made these moments what they were and sometimes
I have no clue why I was more attracted to her on that day as opposed
to others. Today is one of those days. Maybe it was the blushing
thing she did and it reminded me of how innocent she looked the day
we met. Maybe it was the blushing thing itself. If she's ever blushed
because of something I said, it's been after I walked away because
I've never seen it. And I'll tell you something about that. Donna
when she blushes, that's pretty endearing. It was just so sweet.

"How could you not be ready yet?" Well, that's a little freaky. Did I
just conjure her?

I turn at the sound of her voice then look at the clock. 6:30. She'd
called like 20 minutes ago to say she was coming to get me to leave.
I look back at her. She's got her long tan wool coat on, a scarf,
gloves, and she's eating ice cream out of a styrofoam cup. She's
inhaling it like she hasn't eaten all day, and I just have to laugh.
I mean, she really is endearing sometimes.

"It's February." I say. "You're eating ice cream?"

"Ice cream is the pregnant woman's required eating." She shrugs and
holds the spoon up for me to take a bite. When I do, she smiles.

And that's when I see it.

"You're glowing." I'm smiling.

"What?"

"You are. You're totally glowing." I can't believe it. I thought that
was a myth. My Donnatella actually glows.

"Shut up." She says.

"If I shut the lights off right now, you'd totally light this place
up."

"Josh!" she laughs.

"You're blushing again! That's twice in one day!"

She groans and grabs my coat off the rack and holds it out for me. I
shrug into it and turn around to look at her again.

"God, but you're beautiful." I whisper.

"Stop! Now, you're doing it on purpose." She accuses.

"Maybe." I smirk. "I'll say anything at this point to make you blush
like a 15 year old on prom night."

"You took a 15 year old to the prom? You sicko."

"It was an expression."

"Whatever."

I shut off my office light. I've got my arm around her as we say good
night to Carol when we pass her desk. The moment's over and we're on
our way home, where, I promise you, I will make her blush again.

TBC


Title: Transitions (16/?)
Disclaimer: They don't belong to me.
Series Rating: R
Timing: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Who's better than you guys??

DONNA'S POV

Maggie just buzzed me to tell me Otto's here to see me. Otto? They
send me Otto? Is this supposed to be a learning experience for the
young Deputy Communications Director? Has he even turned 24 yet? The
man can't rent a car yet on his own and they send him to deal with
me? I'll eat for lunch.

I mean, I was expecting to get a visit from the West Wing this
afternoon. Between you and me? Talk about screwing up! Not me, of
course, Mrs. Santos. But, you know, that means me.

We were at a luncheon this morning; things are going great. She's
charming, she's funny, she's poised. She decided to take questions.
She got asked about abortion. Her answer? She couldn't imagine any
circumstances under which she would decide to have one.

That's it.

Mandy quite literally silently walked out of the conference room and
banged her head on the wall outside. I had to stand there and look
like we didn't just witness a train wreck. I've never been so envious
of Mandy in my life. Now, of course, we're all over it. If anyone
gets in Mandy's way right now, they will, quite literally, be run
over.

So, you know, this obviously wasn't going to slide by without the
West Wing's notice. We would have been fantastic, had she said what
she really feels, but I guess she got nervous. Her actual opinion on
the subject? She would never have one herself, but she supports other
women's rights to have one. That's how she feels. Fine. Why the hell
she didn't say all that? Not a clue.

So apparently, I'm about to be dealt with by the West Wing by a kid
who's college degree hasn't even had time to be framed yet. This
probably wasn't actually the decision of my husband. Luckily for him,
since I was once the assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff, I know
that by the time these things hit the Chief of Staff's radar, they're
already being dealt with by senior staff. So, this has Sam's
fingerprints all over it.

Chicken shit.

See, the other thing is? I get emotional at the drop of a hat now. I
was doing okay. My hormonal sieges were few and far between; now, I
can pretty much count on at least one a day. I'm surprised it didn't
come at the luncheon, to be honest. So, I can see why Sam is afraid
to come here himself.

I tell Maggie to let him in and Otto enters. He's got his hands in
his pockets and he's strutting across the room. I see what happened.
They prepped him. He's trying to own the room. I stand up, come
around the front of my desk, lean up against the front of it, and
fold my arms across my chest. When I do this, the small bulge in my
stomach is a little more obvious, giving Otto a subtle reminder of
who my husband is and just what's in store for him should he screw
this up.

You ain't owning MY room, rookie!

"Something I can do for you, Otto?" I ask sweetly. He stands his
ground and doesn't sit down. Good boy.

"I'm sure you know why I'm here, Donna." He starts. Ooh, Otto, first
bad play.

"No." I say. "Did you bring charts with you to explain it for me? Oh,
and it would help if you use small words."

"We're a little concerned about what happened at the luncheon today."
He says.

"Oh? Are we?" I practically have my own melody going here. "Who's we
exactly?"

"Umm, the senior staff." He says.

"Really? And what's the senior staff's concerns?" Right here, I now
employ one of Leo's tactics. I go walk back around my desk, sit down,
and pick up the memo I was reading when he got there. Show my lunch
he doesn't rank higher than the crap on my desk right now, I'm so
uninterested in what he has to say. Nobody could bring the
intimidation like Leo McGarry.

"Well, it appeared from an answer she gave that she didn't support
the administration's position, and the Democratic Party's it should
be noted, on abortion." He says now taking his hands out of his
pockets, yet doing nothing with them.

"Well, I have the best media director in Washington taking care of
it." I say. "Unless you think you can offer me something more?"

This is where you're supposed to ask me what we're doing about it,
Otto.

"Umm, okay then." Oh Otto, Sam's going hang you out to dry
next. "Well...okay, then."

Sit, Otto, sit. Good dog.

"Thanks for stopping by." I smile. He starts walking towards the
door, but I'm not done with him yet. "Oh, Otto?" I ask sweetly. He
turns around and it's apparent to me that he now knows that this
didn't go well and he's leaving now like the lamb to the
slaughter. "Go tell Sam to start giving you chess lessons." I can
tell by the look on his face that he doesn't know what that means,
but Sam will. And Sam's not going to be all that amused that I just
called him on sending me someone less than qualified to deal with the
situation. A situation, I might add, that if Sam or Lou had just come
themselves, would have gone a lot more smoothly. But they send the
rookie, and he strikes out.

I'll wait ten minutes for Otto to get back and give his tail of woe
to Sam and Lou. Then I'm going over there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

Oh, God. They sent Otto to deal with something that should have been
ridiculously easy and she chewed him up and spit him out. Sam just
made Otto go through his encounter with my wife, word for word,
movement by movement, tone for tone. Donna is quite obviously
insulted that Sam, and by extension We, sent Otto. I smile when I
hear the Leo tactic that she employed. Otto didn't stand a chance.

For the record, I didn't find out about this until it was happening.
I just came down to Sam's office to talk about something else
entirely. In fact, I only just learned this happened. The truth is
I'm not the slightest bit worried about it. They've got Mandy over
there. Mandy will have this walked back by the end of the day. In my
opinion, this really wasn't something that the West Wing had to
go "deal" with the East Wing on. But this is the kind of thing that
doesn't see my radar unless it explodes, which by the way it did. Not
politically or even in a PR way, mind you; in the fact that Donna's
going to freak.

Otto just asked Sam what Donna meant when she told him to come back
here and ask Sam to give him chess lessons. Me, I burst out laughing.
Now Sam sees that Donna's using Otto to play him because she's
insulted that he sent Otto. Now Sam's mad at Donna. This should be
good. Just as I'm wondering when the show down at the OK Corral is
going to be, Donna slams into Sam's office and it's high noon.

She walks right past me and Otto and stands face to face with Sam.
And I swear to God, starts poking him in the chest.

"Don't you dare screw around with me like that, Sam!" she shouts, as
I discreetly close the door she slammed open. Because they're Sam and
Donna and they go back as far as me and Donna do, this isn't going to
be your normal office argument. They might say things that they
wouldn't say if they were just going to fight with someone else
around here.

"You don't take my staff out for a walk, Donna!" he shouts back in
kind. Wow. I'm impressed, Sam. Way to not back down in the face of
pissed off Donna. Something he's *never* done before. But he doesn't
have much of a choice. Otto's in here. There are two people in this
building that can walk into the Deputy Chief of Staff's office and
rip his face off. Me and the President. I know that CJ and Toby used
to do that all the time, but not in my White House. Plus, Lou and
Bram aren't on the same level as CJ and Toby. Things might have been
a little different there if they were. I mean, Lou's good, but she's
no Toby. Not to mention, Donna would never be doing this if she
wasn't hormonal. And if Otto wasn't in here, Sam would handle Donna a
*lot* differently. He'd handle her like the hormonal pregnant friend
she is. Many things could be different right now, but well, they're
not.

"When he comes to see you, you consider everything coming out of his
mouth to be a direct quote from this office." Sam says. Otto looks
impressed.

"Yeah?" Donna says. "How many `ums' did this office tell him to say?"
I'm smirking now, I know it. She's feisty when she's pissed.

"Donna -" Sam starts. But Donna jumps right back in.

"You know god damn well, Sam, that Mandy was all over that the second
Mrs. Santos stopped speaking." Donna says. Yeah, Sam really should
have given Mandy more credit than this. I mean it may have taken
Mandy by surprise at the time, but this is amateur stuff for Mandy.

"Well, then what's Mandy doing?" Sam asks.

"Ask Mandy!" Donna shoots back.

"I'm asking you." Sam replies.

And that's when the wheels come off the wagon and the hormones kick
in. Her eyes well up with tears and she starts to whimper, which
effectively neutralizes Sam.

"Oh Donna, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you upset." He says,
completely changing his tone to concerned Sam. I guess he's decided
screw Otto. I mean, really, Sam's a man. No man wants to deal with a
crying pregnant woman. The President would be doing the exact same
thing right now. Crying pregnant women ALWAYS win. Trust me, I know
of what I speak. Sam looks to me for help.

"You can go Otto." I say to Otto who practically leaves a trail of
smoke behind, he leaves the office so fast.

Donna turns to me still crying. I walk over and hug her as she cries
in my shoulder and apologizes.

"It's okay." I say quietly.

"I'm really sorry, Josh." Sam says to me.

"It happens all the time, Sam." I say shaking my head.

"Really, Josh, Mandy's taking care of it." Donna says crying. "We're
fixing it, we are."

"I know."

"I can't believe I'm crying over this! I can take Sam!"

"Hey!" Sam says.

"I know you can."

"Otto's going to think I'm a basketcase."

"No, I think Otto will resign before he has to deal with you again.
The chess was a nice touch." I say smiling as she starts calming
down.

"Well, I mean, really," she sniffs. "I couldn't help it. He's going
to have to do better than *that*. Can you imagine if Mandy was in
there at the time?" I shudder when I think of poor Otto being taken
out for a walk by both Donna and Mandy.

"Donna," Sam says more gently. "if you could please just have Mandy
fill me on what she's doing about that, I'd appreciate it." Donna
turns and glares at Sam, and then puts her head back on my shoulder.

"She will, Sam." I say.

"You've got to get it together, Donna." I say. "You can't go out
there like this. Everyone's going to think Sam won."

"No!" Sam said. "I don't want a reputation for making pregnant women
cry. I get enough nasty looks from the women around here."

"I'm all right." Donna says pulling away and wiping her eyes.

"You're sure?" I ask. She nods her head, gives me a quick kiss, and
leaves Sam's office.

"She's a mess!" Sam says after Donna closes the door behind her.

"Yeah." I say.

"How are you dealing with that?"

"You just saw how I'm dealing with that." I say. "She wins. She
always wins."

Now Sam's smiling at me, and it's a little unnerving. He looks like
he's going to hug me now. I move to the door so I can make a quick
escape before that happens.

"What?" I ask.

"You and Donna." He says smiling. Yeah, it still surprises me from
time to time, to tell you the truth. "You and Donna having a baby."

"She's doing all the hard stuff." I say.

"I was starting to think for a while there that this day would never
come."

"You and me both."

TBC


Title: Transitions (17/?)
Disclaimer: I've temporarily kidnapped them from their rightful owners
Rating: R
Timing: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Like Spree Candy Canes at Christmas (Think I'll go grab
another one off the tree now)
A/N: Just a reminder that I'm my own beta. I go through them a couple
of times before I post, but something always gets in there anyway.

JOSH'S POV

As senior staff breaks up, Sam lingers behind.

"Whatcha got, Sam?" I ask. He gives me some sort of strange Sam hand
signal that I'm assuming translates to "hold on" as he closes the
doors to my office. I raise my eyebrows at him as he comes back and
stands in the middle of the room.

"What's going on?" I ask again.

"Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"It's not about work."

"Kay."

"Were you surprised when Donna told you she was pregnant?" he asks.
What?

"Yes." I say.

"You were?"

"Yes."

"Did you wonder how something like that happened?"

"My dad had this talk with me, Sam." I say.

"No," he says like he really thinks I didn't know what he meant
there. "I mean, it wasn't planned, and Donna's pretty responsible,
you didn't wonder how a slip up like that could happen?" I really
hope he's going somewhere with this, for both our sakes.

"Honestly, she probably just forgot to take her pill." I say. "There
was a lot going on." Honestly, between you and me, I didn't question
how it happened. It happened. It's not the result of a one night
stand. We were together; it was always my intention to marry her. So,
I'm not feeling trapped. I mean, if she was looking for a way to trap
me, she would have done it years ago.

"You guys got married fast though."

"Not really, Sam." I say. "She's been in love with me since I got
shot and I've been spending the better part of the last two years
trying to figure out how to get her. If you were in our shoes, could
you see any need whatsoever to wait?" He seems to consider this for a
minute. "I thought you were happy for us." I say.

"I am!" he says quickly. "I totally am! No one in this building is
happier for you than me. That's not where this is going."

"Then where the hell is it going, Sam?" Because I got to tell you, I
haven't a clue what the hell he's trying to say right now.

"Robin wants me to set a wedding date." He says.

"You asked her to marry you, Sam. You didn't think she'd expect you
to follow through with it?" I can't help but give him a hard time
right now. He's unspooling before my very eyes here. Usually it's me
freaking out and losing my shit. This is a nice change.

"She wants to start a family right after we get married." He
continues. He looks worried.

"You don't want kids?"

"I do want kids."

"What's the problem then?"

"I work in the White House." He says.

"I work in the White House, too." I reply.

"Deputy seems to have more demands." Sam says.

"I'll remember that next time I'm in the situation room."

"No, I mean longer hours."

"Okay. I'll remember that next time I'm in the situation room at 3
o'clock in the morning." He sighs and sits down in one of the chairs.
I follow suit, sitting down in my desk chair.

"My dad wasn't such a good dad." He says.

"So don't be your dad." I reply.

"What if it happens when I'm not looking?" he counters. "Or when I'm
not even there?"

"Sam," I say. "you know I'm not Leo and Matt Santos isn't Jed
Bartlet, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you can have a family and still be my deputy." I
reply. "Donna's got me out of here by 7 o'clock nearly every night.
When did Leo ever do that? True, sometimes I have to come back or
sometimes I can't leave. But, Donna's important to me; this baby is
important to me. I take work home with me if I have to. This job
ruined Leo's marriage, I'll be damned if it ruins mine. Your job
spent years ruining something wonderful I could have had a long time
ago because I had the same fears you're having now. But I'm a
different person than Leo. You want to have a family, Sam, and still
work in the White House, then we'll just have to work something out.
You and I will make sure that we don't miss dance recitals, and t-
ball games, and school plays. The President has young kids himself,
he understands, and if he doesn't, Helen will kick his ass clear back
to Texas."

"I just get a little worried." He says. "Reelection's going to come
up, and I'll be out of town a lot -"

"Sam, this job takes us to other continents." I remind him. "If we're
in the 48 states here, we're usually there and back in 24 hours. And
reelection is three years off. I'm still trying to get Baker
confirmed here."

"You're right." He says standing up.

"Sam," I say. "we're okay, right?" Because I'm a little concerned
right now. It's a little early on for me to lose my deputy.

"Absolutely." He says.

"You're with me still?"

"Yup."

"You'll tell me if you're thinking of not being with me?" I ask.

"Absolutely." He repeats.

"Because I'm still your best friend." I say.

"Yeah." He says. "I guess I just needed to hear you say that things
were different this time around."

"Things are different this time around." I repeat for him. "I do
think it's possible to work in this building and have a life. In
fact, I'm determined for it to be that way."

"Thanks." He says and walks out.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

"God, hungry Josh?" Sam asks after Josh orders our food. We're out
with Sam and Robin at the Hawk and Dove. It's Friday night and Josh
and Sam decided to make dinner plans tonight. Of course, I don't
really consider this dinner. I mean, we're eating and all, but they
were really making we never hang out anymore plans. So, Sam and Robin
ordered, and then Josh ordered for us and he ordered a TON of food.
He points over to me in answer.

"Donna's not going to eat all that." Sam scoffs.

"She just might." Josh says, earning him a glare from me. "See, Sam,
it really has been a while since you've been out with us. She may eat
more right now, but nothing's changed. Our food's going to get here,
and she's going to want what's in front of me. Never fails."

"Why don't you just eat half of one thing and then switch?" Robin
suggests. Like in the last nine years this hasn't occurred to us.

"Because once it's in front of me, she'll want it anyway." Josh says
smugly.

You know why I've done that all these years? I'll tell you, but don't
tell *him*. I do that because it's one of the very few things that
was just *ours*. Whether one of us was seeing somebody or not,
whether everyone was out together or it was just us, we did the same
thing every time. We always share our food, and we would switch back
and forth. Of course, there's always something that we got that Josh
wanted to keep for himself, but I take it anyway and he doesn't get
mad. But it was the only way we could somehow keep a connection with
each other and have some kind intimacy with each other. I never stole
food off of Jack's plate; it never even occurred to me to do it. Josh
never let Amy steal his food that I saw anyway. I've only ever split
a beer with Josh, and I've never seen him share a beer with Amy. It
was just our thing.

"So, Sam never told me how you guys met." Robin says. And quite
frankly, I'm kind of surprised. Robin will hold a conversation if you
start it just fine, but I can't say in the few times we've been
around her that she's actually started one. "Was it just a job
interview or something?"

"Donna hired herself." Josh says.

"I did not!" I didn't. I volunteered. I saw a job that needed to get
done and I did it. That's just the way I am.

"You walked into my office and started answering my phone." Well
crap, Josh, someone had to. That place was a nightmare!

"I told you, I thought it was Toby's office." I defend. Sam sits back
and smiles. It occurs to me he may not have ever actually heard the
whole story here.

"You walked into my office and started answering my phone and
announced yourself as my assistant." He says. Well, yeah. Josh needs
to be hit over the head sometimes. I mean, the man needed his
assistant to clue him in that he needed an assistant in the first
place.

"Why would you want to work for Toby?" Sam asks.

"I thought he would be less maintenance." I say. I did. That's true.

"Oh, well, can't really fault you for that." Sam says.

"Hey!" says Josh. "I am NOT high maintenance." Sam and I look over at
him indulgently. "I'm not!"

"You had to be forced into taking a vacation." Sam reminds him.

"I had to call you and wake you up every morning for seven years." I
say.

"Donna had to unlock all your hotel room doors."

"I had to trick you into changing clothes after you'd been wearing
the same thing for 31 hours." I say. Damn, but I had to get crafty
with that one.

"I get the picture." Josh says.

"I'm not even going to talk about how you were when we got left
behind in Indiana." I say.

"I get it, Donnatella!" he says. "Anyway, Donna hired herself."

"Geez, can you imagine what it would have been like if you actually
*had* walked into Toby's office?" Sam laughs. Josh meets my eyes and
we smile a little. You know, I actually have wondered that. If I had
worked for Toby, would Josh and I have connected like we did? Would
we have been able to get together sooner, and if we did, would it
have worked? Then I think that our entire relationship would have
been totally different. I'm glad I didn't walk into Toby's office.
Josh is frustrating and high maintenance to work for. But he's a
teacher, too. Never once did he tell me that he didn't have time to
explain something to me. Never once did he show any kind of
frustration when I didn't understand something. For someone who can
be pretty impatient, he's always shown me the utmost patience when I
wanted to learn something from him.

"No." Sam continues. "You would never have worked for Toby. Somehow,
you would have ended up with Josh. It was meant to be." He says it
with such a tone of nostalgia that now I'm tearing up. For the second
time today, the tears start to fall.

"Sam!" Josh shouts dropping his head back and putting his palms over
his eyes. "Why, Sam? Why?"

"I'm sorry!" Sam laughs. "I didn't know things set her off *that*
easy!"

"It's okay." I say. "I really can't control it." I feel like an
idiot. I compose myself much faster than the last time, I'm proud to
say.

"Got it together now?" Josh asks as the appetizers show up. I nod my
head and dive into the jalapeno poppers. "Good. Sam and I are going
up to the bar to get another round of drinks." He pecks me on the
forehead as he goes by.

"I'm so sorry." I laugh to Robin as they leave. "I swear, I'm not
normally this much of a basketcase."

"It's okay." She smiles.

"How's work going?" I ask. Robin got a job with a big corporate law
firm in town.

"It's okay." She sighs.

"You don't like it?" I ask. This is what I was afraid of. This must
have been a pretty big change for her to make for Sam.

"I guess I'm still adjusting." She says. She looks back over to where
Sam and Josh, and one of Josh's secret service agents, are standing
by the bar. She smiles a bit and looks back at me. "You and Josh
really do have such a great history. Sam's told me a lot of it since
we made the decision to come back here."

"We do." I agree. It strikes me now that Robin seems a little sad. I
don't know her well, so I don't want to pry. It's times like these
that I miss CJ. CJ would just go right for it. But since I'm such an
emotional freak right now, I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to get
through it without crying. "You know, Robin," I say. "if you ever
need someone to talk to, I may have been Sam's friend first, but I'm
your friend now, too. If you ever want a sympathetic ear, just call."
She smiles now and it occurs to me that that might have been what she
was looking for.

"It's just a little overwhelming." She says. "The job I can adjust
to, no problem. But this whole world of Sam's is just really so
foreign to me. I just never really followed politics and now -"

"You're thrown to the lions without your whip and chair?" I smile.
She smiles back at me, relieved to see I know what she's talking
about. "I've been there! When we were just talking about how Josh and
I just met," she nods, she seems genuinely interested. "I had driven
from Madison, Wisconsin to Nashua, New Hampshire to volunteer for
Bartlet for America. I had a couple thousand dollars and my trusty
Jetta and that's it. I walked into that office with no political
experience and the hope that I would find some direction. I had been
following the primaries, and I heard President Bartlet during a
debate, and I thought, that's a guy I can get behind."

"So you just dropped your life and left for New Hampshire?" she asks
me incredulously. Yeah, this part is usually what amazes people. This
was the one completely impulsive thing I've done in my life. The
organization, detail-orientated, plan ahead person you know? That's
exactly who I am. This was like the only totally spontaneous thing
I've ever done in my life. I know, it was a doozey, huh?

"Well, my life kind of dropped me." I say. "My boyfriend, who I had
been supporting through med school, dumped me. I had dropped out of
college to support him and I thought I needed a change of life. So,
off to New Hampshire I went to find myself."

"Looks like you found more than you were looking for." She smiles as
Josh and Sam return to the table. This time, Josh pulls his chair
closer to mine. He really didn't have much of a choice. Somehow the
appetizers ended up all in front of me. Not really sure how that
happened.

"I did." I smile, looking over at him.

TBC


Title: Transitions (18/?)
Disclaimer: Alas, if they were only mine
Series Rating: R
Timing: Post - Tomorrow
Feedback: Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside
A/N For those that were looking for a little more Santos interaction

JOSH'S POV

"God, Donna, that's gross."

The sound of the President's voice in my wife's office stops me just
outside her door. I should go right in, but I'm more interested to
listen for a little bit first.

"I'm not asking *you* to eat it, sir." Donna replies. My wife might
be one of the less than five people in the United States that can get
smart ass with the President and he actually enjoys it. It must be
that whole Chicken Fighter thing. In case you were wondering, I can
usually get away with being a smart ass, as well. The only other one
is Helen, in this building at least.

"Thank God for that." He says. He sounds thoroughly grossed out right
now. "Anchovies on a bagel with cheese? That might just out gross
anything Helen came up with when she was pregnant." Ugh! Donna!
Please, enough with the anchovies already!

"I can't help it!" she says. "I crave what I crave. Besides, what is
it with you guys? You act all big and manly, but cower in the face of
harmless food." Yeah. You heard that all right. My wife just
questioned the President of the United States' manhood to his face.

"There are certain places even the manliest of men won't go, Chicken
Fighter." Yeah, he took it. But she hates when he calls her Chicken
Fighter, so he got his dig in.

"I guess that means we women are the braver sex."

"Actually, you'll get no arguments from me." The President says. "I
don't envy what you have to go through in a few months."

"Are you trying to freak me out?" she demands.

"It's an added benefit while I wait for my wife."

"You know, sir, we can send her to you when she comes down." Donna
says. "I'm sure you have much more important things to do than pester
a pregnant woman."

"This is much more fun than listening to the Department of Defense
drone on about the cost of a hammer." He replies. I can tell that my
wife wants to eat her disgusting mid-morning snack in peace, but even
she isn't bold enough to kick the leader of the free world out of her
office.

"Have you felt the baby move yet?" the President asks.

"Yes, she's pretty active actually." Donna says, and I smile. Yeah,
we found out the baby's a girl. Turns out, Donna was right. "Josh
can't feel her yet though. Soon." Yeah, that kind of bums me out. I
can't wait to feel her kick.

"So, you do know it's a girl?"

"Yup. We just found out a few days ago." Donna confirms.

"Josh didn't tell me." The President says. Oops! Shit. I didn't know
he wanted updates.

"You were in Japan." Donna reminds. Nice save, Donna!

"I talked to him on the phone several times a day." The President
reminded. Oops! Shit again.

"You really want the taxpayers to find out that you're catching up on
your Chief of Staff's family life when they're footing the phone
bill?" she asks. Yay for Donna!

"You really will get in the line of fire for him, won't you?" Hmm...no
response from my wife there; must have been one of those answers she
just gives with her eyes. "So, what names are in the running?" the
President asks, thankfully steering the conversation away from my
wife's unfailing loyalty to me. Because unfortunately, I think I know
what look she gave him. I actually saw her give it to President
Bartlet after the Carrick fiasco. It's her "I'm loyal to you and all,
Mr. President, but fuck with Josh and things will get ugly" face. At
least that's what I call it anyway.

"Lacy Joan." She says.

"That's pretty." He says.

"The Joan part I think makes it sound less like a porn name." Oh no,
she did NOT go there! I should go in there now, I really should. You
can't discuss porn names with the President of the United States. But
it's kind of like watching a car accident, you feel like you should
do something, but you just can't turn away...

"You think Lacy Lyman sounds like a porn star's name?" the President
asks clearly amused that the subject came up, in the White House no
less.

"You don't think?" she asks hopefully. Okay. She asked it in all
honesty. But please, Donna, please don't ask the President of the
United States to admit to having watched porn!

"I think it sounds very Congresswoman-like." He says. Nice sidestep,
sir.

"Surely nothing less than Senator!" Donna laughs.

"This is Josh's daughter." The President says. "That's a presidential
name." See that there? That was a nice thing the President just said
about me. And now, it's time to go in there.

"Josh!" Donna greets looking up when I walk in. I love the smile she
gives me when she sees me. Remember those singing angels I told you
about? Did I mention they're around every time she smiles? I might
not have been specific. She's got a great smile. I smile at her and
then turn to the President.

"Sir." I greet.

"Well, I was waiting for my wife," the President says standing up,
Donna rises with him. "but it seems I'm going to have to go to her. I
thought that she'd be a little more cooperative if I became
President. That doesn't seem to be the case."

"Did I leave that part out, sir?" I ask.

"Conveniently." He says heading to the door. "But don't think I'm not
still thinking of reasons to punish you for it." After he disappears
behind Donna's office door, I turn back to my wife.

"You gave him the face, didn't you?" I ask.

"What face?"

"The don't-mess-with-Josh face."

"I did not."

"You did too; I heard you."

"You can't hear a face!"

"Wanna bet?"

"You really are addled-minded." She says sitting back down and
picking up her anchovy and cheese bagel. I come around to her side of
the desk and lean up against it. "Are you here as my husband or do I
have to send the Chief of Staff back to the minor leagues with Otto?"

"You're a funny girl." I smirk. Truth is, politically, I've turned
Donna into the female version of me over the years. I may be a
tougher target, but she could most certainly dress me up and down on
certain issues. It's a little unnerving, and a huge turn on. "I'm
here to discuss living arrangements."

"Kicking me to the curb?" she asks.

"Yes. We can't make rent because of the amount of food you've been
consuming. It's blown apart our budget. Would you still live with me
in a cardboard refrigerator box?"

"With only newspaper and our love to keep us warm? Absolutely, my
love."

"My love. That has a nice ring to it, almost as nice as Wild Thing."

"The baby's not sucking out that much oxygen from my brain." She says.

"I was saying something, wasn't I?"

"Living arrangements." She says getting us back on track. It's nice
to see that we can still be easily distracted by the banter.

"Yes. Living arrangements." I say taking control of the conversation
again. "I'm thinking we should call a realtor and look at townhouses."

"And by we you mean me, of course." She says. Well, yeah, of course.
She didn't actually think I meant me included in that we, did she?

"You know what you want in a bigger place." I say. "And you'll just
tell me what I want. So, yeah. Call one up, get it rolling, and let's
go look at places."

"Is it that easy?" she asks. "The secret service spent a lot of time
at the apartment checking things out." Crap, busted too early. I was
going to ease into that part.

"Well, you're probably going to have to talk to Ron Butterfield about
it." I say as casually as I can. "I'm sure they're going to want to
send someone additional along."

"You're afraid of telling Ron you want to move, aren't you?" Damn!
She knows me REALLY well.

"It probably is going to be a pain in the ass for them." I confess.

"You're afraid of Ron Butterfield." She smiles. Don't be ridiculous!

"I'm terrified of Ron Butterfield." I reply. I didn't mean to say
that out loud.

"Okay." She shrugs. Well, that was easy. "Anything else you wanted to
talk about?"

"Well, I was intending on a quick make out session, but now that I've
seen you're eating anchovies, no way." I smile and she takes a huge
bite of her disgusting bagel.

"Well, I didn't know you were coming." She says with her mouth full.
Yeah. My woman is quite the lady sometimes, I tell you. She swallows
and continues. "I'll brush my teeth between now and lunch, and we'll
pencil each other in for later."

"Sounds like a plan." I agree. And because there was no way in hell I
was ever leaving this office without my lips coming in contact with
some part of her body, I lean over and drop a kiss on her forehead.
She's smiling, and she's got anchovies stuck in her teeth, but she's
still gorgeous.

"You could have been nicer to me during this conversation." I say.

"Nicer than getting in between you and the secret service?" she
replies sweetly.

"Yes."

"Well, that would entail you kissing me with my anchovy breath." Ick.
With one last shudder towards her bagel, I leave her office.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

"No way, Donna!" Uh-uh. There is no way in hell I'm letting Donna go
through this. Surely she knows I'd never go along with this. I mean,
she's got to know I'm going to stonewall the pain thing. There's this
Baby Story marathon on t.v. today, we're on our third episode. So far
we've seen two of the more extreme cases. One was a high risk
patient; and one was twins and a caesarean. Now we're watching a
natural birth one. And let me tell you, it's not sitting well with me.

First of all, this woman is screaming in pain. How does Donna think I
can be of any help to her whatsoever if she's in all this pain? I'm
already trying to psych myself up to be ready to see Donna in a
hospital bed again. She's going to have to be screaming in pain,
too?

"Josh," she says gesturing to the t.v. "that's what it's like. It's
painful."

"Aren't you going to get the epidural?" I ask. Please, Donna, please
get the drugs! And don't think I don't know you're impressed I know
the name of the pain medication.

"I was going to try to go without it first." She says. "I have a
pretty high tolerance for pain." God, don't remind me. I look back at
the t.v. This woman is still screaming. I'm really uneasy about
this. "Josh," Donna says getting my attention again. "the pain goes
away after the baby's out. And once she's out, I'll get all the pain
medication you want." If it's possible for her to go through this
feeling next to no pain, why is she not taking that option?

Okay. So now the baby's coming out. There's goo, and blood, and if
that's a baby, that's really unappealing. Talk about a face only a
mother could love. What? It's got stuff all over it. Yeah. I'm going
to be sick. I lean forward on the couch and put my head between my
knees and groan. Donna starts rubbing circles on my back. This is
bad. I can't be this way in that hospital room. I've got to figure
out a way to get a handle on this. But, Donna, blood, pain, doctors,
and hospital rooms is just too much for me. I take the remote
control, sit up, shut the t.v. off, and because I'm so offended by
what I've just seen on t.v., toss the remote control across the room,
as far away from me as I can get it.

"Okay. There's got to be another way to do this." I say after a
breath. "There's no way you're going through that."

"Josh!" she laughs.

"No way, Donna." I say again. "There's no way you're going through
pain again because of me."

"Because of you?" she's still laughing at me.

"I sent you to Gaza, and I did this." I say gesturing at her stomach.

"Well, I'm pretty sure we were both there for this." she says
mimicking my hand movements. "And I'm the one who screwed up my pill
in the first place. Plus, we're not going down that other road again."

"Donna," I say. I'm pleading with her now. "you can't go through
that."

"Josh," she says, she takes my hand in hers and rubs my leg. "there's
no other option. I have to go through that. Plus, it's not like I'm
the first woman ever to go through that. Women have been having
babies forever. Plus, some women have more than one, so it can't be
*that* awful."

"Those women aren't you." I say. Doesn't she see? Those women can
have 10 kids and feel all the pain they want. They aren't Donna. I
swore Donna wouldn't ever have to feel pain like that again. Getting
her pregnant didn't really follow that plan too well.

I stand up, put my hands on the back of my head and take a deep
breath. Okay. You know what? I've got to do something about this.
This is a baby, for crying out loud. I've got some issues here. I'm
going to have to call someone because she's right. She's not going to
be going through anything any other mother hasn't gone through. But
those mothers weren't blown up in a Suburban. Yeah, okay. I'm going
to have to call my therapist. This is going to be a thing for me.

"Are you okay?" she asks. I look down at her and, shit, she looks
pretty concerned right now. I'm worrying her.

"Uh-huh." I squeak.

"Josh?" she asks again.

"I'm fine." I'm totally NOT fine. But she's not going to be able to
help me with that.

"Come here." She invites with her arms open wide. Okay, maybe there
IS something she can do. I wrap my arms around her and drop my head
on her growing stomach. I stretch out on the couch, close my eyes and
sigh. I can feel myself begin to calm down. I'm rewarded for my
efforts with a punch to the eye. Well, for all I know, I could have
been kicked in the eye.

Oh my God!

I snap my head up and look at the spot on the stomach where my eye
just was. There it goes again! I could actually *see* it. Holy shit!
That's nuts! I look up at Donna with my mouth hanging open. She's
smiling and giggling.

"That's wild." She laughs and I'm thinking she hasn't seen it from
the outside yet either. She pulls her shirt up to reveal her bare
stomach and we watch and wait. It's not as obvious as it probably
will be in a little while, but there's definitely movement there.
Long minutes pass before we see it again. That's really amazing.
We're laughing now as we sit for a little while and watch the show.
It only happens two more times before it seems like she's gone back
to sleep or found a comfortable position.

"Josh?" Donna says quietly after a few quiet moments.

"Hmm?" I reply. I'm still looking at her stomach, waiting to see if
it'll happen again, even though it doesn't look like it's going to.

"I'm really glad we're doing this together." She says.

"Me too." I prop myself up and kiss her. I only meant it to be a
quick kiss, but she put her hands on either side of my face and it
just sort of spiraled from there. Suddenly, we were all over each
other. It was as if we were suddenly overcome with the need to
celebrate this little life we had created. Little Lacy Joan had made
her first contact with me tonight and I'm humbled. Later that night,
Donna busted me talking to the baby. I thought she was asleep, so I
had taken my stolen chance to talk to my daughter and beg her not to
hurt her mommy when she came out. I thought I was in the clear, until
I felt light fingers in my hair. Oh well, she's got more embarrassing
dirt on me than that.

TBC


Title: Transitions (19/?)
Disclaimer: They're not mine
Series Rating: R
Timing: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Always welcomed
A/N: Sorry about this. I'm experiencing some writer's block. I'm
still not sure this chapter has come out the way I want it. But here
it is, such as it is...Hopefully it won't bite me in the ass later.

DONNA'S POV

So, I've got to tell you. I'm really relieved right now. Guess what I
found out? If I go into labor in a public place, like, oh, the White
House, it won't be like some huge gush of fluids that you see in the
movies. Evidently, when I'm standing up, the baby's head is kind of
like a plug. So, if I go into labor in the Green Room, I'll be the
only one that knows it. Well, don't get me wrong, I'm sure I'll make
sure everyone in there with me knows it. But I won't be ruining some
priceless heirloom carpet from when like, I don't know, Andrew
Jackson was President or something.

Don't look at me like that. It could be.

Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever been *in* the Green
Room. I'm going to go in there on Monday and check it out.

Right now, I'm doing my pre-natal Pilates routine. I've got a video.
I do Yoga, Pilates and walk on the treadmill. And Josh is currently
lying on the couch watching me with interest. He's taken to doing
this when he's home and I'm doing my workout; though he usually loses
interest once I move to the treadmill. For some reason, all the
stretching pretty much captivates him. I'd admonish him for his
laziness, but he's still going to the gym three to four mornings a
week. He used to use the White House gym, but then he moved over to
use the secret service's gym. It actually kind of works out better
for them; they've taken to doing their shift changes there when he
goes there.

"I got a question." He announces.

"Yeah." I say stretching my arms above my head.

"Don't laugh at me." He continues.

"We both know that's not going to happen, Joshua." I reply.

"Does it ever feel like you're going to tip over?"

What the hell? I take a glance down at my stomach. Okay. I guess it's
probably a reasonable thought for a man to have. It probably does
look like I'm going to tip over.

"No." I reply, effectively not laughing. "My body compensates for
that weight. That's probably why my back hurts so much."

"Well, if you ever get too tired of carrying that thing around, just
let me know." He says. "I'll carry you; help you out a bit."

I stop and smile at him. See how incredibly sweet he is? Of course,
he wouldn't get me from here to the couch because I'm a lot heavier
now, and he's never picked me up before anyway. Honestly, he'll
probably kill his back doing that. But see how he says so much? He'll
haul my fat ass around if I get too tired from carrying his kid from
place to place. That's so sweet. Completely deluded, but sweet. I'm
going to email CJ that he said that later. She's still completely in
awe of this new Josh loves Donna thing. It's my way of telling her I-
told-you-so every chance I get.

We bought a townhouse, too. We move in in a couple of weeks. It's
here in Georgetown. It's old, too. It was built in the early 1800s,
and it's totally charming. Hardwood floors, and this great crown
molding that reminds me of the White House. Have you ever seen the
crown molding in that place? Next time you take a tour, look up. It's
really quite impressive.

Anyway. The townhouse is three bedrooms upstairs and there's a den
downstairs. It's got a big living room, with an awesome fireplace in
it. There's also a fireplace in the dining room and master bedroom
(which has its own bathroom). And the kitchen's recently been
redone. It's got a totally cute courtyard in front that has a
wrought iron gate across the front and even a back yard with a patio.
And what's more important is it hasn't put us in the poor house. So
if these jobs aren't here in three and a half years - don't tell Josh
I said that - we wouldn't actually have to live in that refrigerator
box.

So, new house, just in time for new baby. And I've got the most
adorable crib set on the planet picked out. It's scheduled to be
delivered a week after we move in. I wanted time to paint the baby's
room and have it carpeted. I don't know why, but there was just
something about the baby playing on cold hardwood floors that bugged
me. Ainsley and Annabeth said they'd help me paint the nursery. So
I'll send them up the ladders and that'll make Josh not have so much
of a heart attack.

Josh has really been freaking out about this whole labor and pain
thing. If he looks like he's going to lose it in the delivery room,
I'm going to get the epidural so he'll feel better. I don't have
anything against pain medication, but I've been exercising my ass off
because it's supposed to help you have a faster and an easier labor.
We'll just see about that. That and I don't want to be dealing with
having to take a lot of weight off afterwards. If I'm going to be a
pain in the ass about Josh staying in shape, the least I can do is
make sure I look good for him, too. Though in all honestly, I
seriously don't think he cares.

I finish my exercises and grab my water bottle. He pulls his legs up
a bit on the couch, and I sit down at the other end. He's got his
head on the arm rest and he's studying me.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing." He shrugs.

"What are you looking at?" For some reason, my hand immediately goes
up to the pony tail at the back of my head. It's a little messy.
Since my hair is layered, some fell out while I was working out. It
probably looks like a nightmare right now.

"What the hell do you think I'm looking at? I'm looking at you." He
says. He's a little defensive at the moment.

"Okay." I say. "Calm down." He settles his head on his arms and turns
on his side, still looking at me.

"How are you feeling?" he asks.

"Fine." I'm a little surprised by his question. I tell him when I
feel crappy.

"Nervous?"

"About what?"

"I don't know. We're coming down the home stretch." He says. "You're
going to be taking off work in a couple weeks -"

"My doctor said I could work up until the day I go into labor." I
remind. I was kind of thinking about doing this.

"You're going to be taking off work in a couple of weeks -" he
repeats. And he's got this don't-go-there-with-me look in his eyes.
Hmm...how important is this argument, other than I have no idea what
the hell I'd do with myself for four weeks. "I was just wondering if
you're nervous about stuff."

"Well, now I'm nervous about what the hell I'm going to do by myself
for four weeks." I reply. I try and give him my I-mean-business look,
but he's obviously having none of it. This is going to be one of
those things I'm just not going to win. This is one of those times
it's unfortunate that we work in the same place. By the look on his
face right now, he clearly is ready to play dirty to win this
particular argument. "No. I'm not nervous." I say.

"Would you tell me if you were?" he asks. Okay. That's weird.

"Why wouldn't I?" He just shrugs in response. I move to lay next to
him and he shifts back up against the back of the couch, now looking
down at me, as I've got my head on his arm.

"Are *you* nervous, Josh?" I ask. Best get it out there ahead of
time. I know he's having issues with the pain involved.

"Yes."

"About what?"

"About all of it."

"I have a really good doctor." I say to him.

"I'm worried about the stuff that comes after it." He says.

"The fatherhood part?" I smile and he nods his head in response.

"I'm not worried about that part in the slightest bit." I say.

"Because you're going to be a great mother." He says. "You've been
taking care of me for nine years."

"No. I'm talking about you." I say softly. "This little girl is so
lucky to have you as a dad. You've got so much love to give her and
so much to teach her. With you as her dad, she's going to do great
things." That and she'll know two ex-Presidents. That's not going to
hurt her college applications in the slightest bit there.

He leans down and kisses me softly. "I do great things because of
you." He says. Well, yeah. Behind every successful man, and all. "And
with you as her mom, she's going to be beautiful."

"Smart and beautiful," I say. "that's a tough combination."

"Just like her mother."

"Just like her father."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

SAM'S POV

I'm lingering behind after senior staff again, and I think Josh is
now on to me, he's directed Carol to close the doors. I guess he's
figured out that I'm probably going to ask him something personal
again.

See, I don't know what's going on with my fianc‚ at the moment. She's
taken a huge interest in Josh and Donna. I guess she's just
fascinated by their history and she asks me a lot of questions about
them. But see, she asks me questions I don't know the answer to, and
then I get all curious about it myself. Like the question that's got
me in here now.

"Josh," I say. "Robin asked me a question the other day and well, I
feel kind of strange asking you, but -"

"Because you're Sam, you've been obsessing over it?" Josh asks me
with a smirk.

"Yes." I say.

"Kay."

"You don't have to answer this if it's too personal." I say. "But I
was just wondering what the whole red lights thing means with you and
Donna." An interesting expression comes over his face, and I know
it's not too personal. He smiles like he's lost in thought and then
gestures for me to sit down across from his desk again.

"Remember a long time ago when we were all here late on a Saturday
trying to punch up the jokes for the Correspondence Dinner?" He asks.
Remember that night? I'd later come to find out that that's the night
Toby found out about President Bartlet's M.S. I'm not likely to
forget it now.

"I was fighting with Ainsley over the ERA and Donna was pissed at you
for getting her flowers for your not anniversary." I say.

"Well, it was our anniversary." He says, because Josh always has to
be right. "Anyway, we had it out in my office over the whole
anniversary thing. And she tells me that the reason she came back to
the campaign wasn't because he dumped her again like we thought, but
because she left him. She was in a car accident out there and that
night he was supposed to go out with his friends. She called him to
come get her, and he stopped at the bar his friends were at to tell
them that he couldn't stay, but he had a beer before he left to get
her. So, she dumped him."

Okay. My opinion of Donna's ex-boyfriend has just taken up residence
in the basement. What a jackass! He convinces her to leave our
campaign and go back to him, *that's* how he shows her how much he's
changed! Wow. No wonder Josh can't stand the mere mention of him.

"So, I tell her that if she was in an accident I wouldn't stop for a
beer on my way to get to her. And here I am thinking I'm saying
something all sweet, and she tells me, if I was in an accident she
wouldn't stop for red lights."

"She said that to you?" I ask and he nods. "Like six years ago, she
said something like that to you?" And he nods again.

"Quite a complicated situation." I say.

"We got hundreds of them." He replies, and he sounds almost bitter.

"Oh yeah?" I ask. I know I should probably drop all this. I probably
sound like I'm interviewing him. But, knowing Josh as long as I have
and not knowing that all this was going on with him and Donna over
the years is a little surprising to me. Plus, for the moment, he
seems to not mind talking about it. "How do you measure up after she
says something like that?"

"By committing a felony." He answers as causally as if I just asked
him for the time.

"I'm sorry?" I say. A felony? What the hell is he talking about? What
felony? I don't remember them getting in any trouble. I was working
here then. Surely I would have remembered one of them getting
arrested.

"At Donna's congressional deposition during the MS hearings, she was
asked if she keeps a diary. At the time, she did, but she said she
didn't." he says.

"She lied under oath to a congressional hearing?" I ask. I'm amazed.
What the hell would possess her to do that? Donna's a pretty
upstanding citizen, other than all those parking tickets she used to
get. She could have blown the whole works! She must have known that.
That would be just the stupid thing they'd be looking for. "Why?"

"Because they would have wanted the diary." Josh answers. "They would
have subpoenaed it to look for evidence of a cover up. She was the
senior assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff. That would have been
exactly the kind of thing that would have given them what they
needed."

"But none of us knew about it before he told us." I say. I mean,
Donna wouldn't have known anything about that.

"No, she didn't have anything in there about the M.S." Josh says.

"So why not turn it over?" I ask. What's the big deal? I mean, it
might have been a little embarrassing for the U.S. House of
Representatives to read your inner most thoughts, but it would only
have served to prove that we didn't know anything about it and
weren't trying to cover anything up.

"Because it had my post-traumatic stress disorder in it." He says.

"So, what'd you do?" I ask. I'm riveted by their story. I'm really
starting to think these two have a romance of epic proportions here.

"Well, Cliff Calley and Donna had a really brief fling around that
time, before she knew he was on that committee, and he knew she lied,
so he called her out on it outside of the deposition. That's what
made her have to tell me in the first place. We met with him in
secret and let him read it. If he saw something he didn't like, he
could subpoena it and get it back, otherwise that was that."

I suddenly see just how complex their relationship really was over
those years. She lied to protect his reputation in Washington and he
covered it up to keep her from going to federal prison for perjury
for him. And they put it all in the hands of a Republican
congressional lawyer.

"Okay." I say moving the conversation away from past felonies
committed by the current White House Chief of Staff. I'm a lawyer
after all, don't forget. "She said you didn't stop for red lights and
that's why she loves you." I say.

"Because of Germany." He says, and now I truly am surprised. He's
never spoken about this to me and I've never asked. CJ said he was
different after he came back from Germany. She emailed me after Josh
came back. She was kind of freaked out about it all. She told him
about the explosion, and she said his eyes just sort of died. That's
exactly what she said, too. Then he had like this little nutty
outside the Oval Office where he was talking about finding everyone
involved and killing them. This really surprised me. Josh isn't
vengeful like that. He's not the they shot our plane down, so let's
blow the hell out of their airport kind of guy. CJ said he took it
extremely personally. Leo let him go and he just left the White House
and got on a plane, and came back like four days later, and was a
different person. She wanted to ask what happened, but she couldn't
bring herself to do it.

"Germany?" I ask delicately.

"Leo told me I could go to her. I grabbed my laptop and backpack,
took a cab to the airport and got on the first plane to Germany;
didn't stop to pack a bag."

"Thus not stopping for red lights." I say and he shrugs.

Wow. They really do have a complicated history.

"Robin and I have absolutely nothing like that." I say. "We don't
have any stories like that. No great love affair like that. We met,
we liked each other, we fell in love. Period. End of story. You guys
have got it all, drama, love, tragedy, all the makings of an American
movie romance."

"When all we wanted to do was meet, like each other and fall in
love." He says not so much to me, but to the empty room. "After she
came back, everything was different, with us, with the White House.
She stopped believing that she and I could do any more good here, and
when that was gone, all that was left was that she and I were in love
and couldn't be together, and she didn't even believe in the reason
keeping us apart any more. So she left; and I was gone within the
week. We were getting stonewalled all over the place here. CJ
wouldn't trust anyone; Donna was pissed at the whole CJ promotion
thing. She and I sort of passed the point of no return in Germany.
And when Donnatella Moss stops believing in me, it's time to get the
hell out of Dodge and do something great again." Which he most
certainly did.

"Yet, it took you almost another year to get together." I say.

"Yeah, well, that's an after staff story for a different day." He
says sitting up. I take my cue and stand up to go. I mention catching
up to him later and head back towards my office.

I pause for a moment as I reach my office and I look from my
assistant at her desk, to my office, and think of all they must have
been feeling all those years. All those times, when it must have
looked like to one of them that there was a chance for them, only to
have it pulled out from underneath them. I'm suddenly a little sad
thinking about it. I wonder if they think it was worth it. I wonder
if they think sacrificing each other made anything better in the end.
Sure, they got their happy ending, but look at the cost. Gun shots,
felonies, explosions, being judged constantly by their co-workers,
and finally total disillusionment, not to mention the stuff he didn't
tell me. No wonder they finally cracked.

And no wonder they look at each other the way they do.

TBC


Title: Transitions (20/?)
Disclaimer: I don't own them
Rating: R
Feedback: Yes, please
A/N Thanks for helping me through my writer's block. That chapter got
the most feedback so far, ironically enough! I've got specific
chapters in my head, but I've just got to get to them. Thanks for
indulging me with the Sam's POV in the last chapter.
A/N This chapter sort of typed itself. Once I got going, I was like,
yeah, I wonder what Josh would do in this situation.

JOSH'S POV

I'm hiding in Donna's office. It's Sunday and I don't think anyone
really knows we're here. Donna wanted to come to for a little while.
The First Lady is giving a speech on volunteerism next week at the
American Red Cross and Donna had some notes she wanted to make on the
draft speech. Yes, she could have done this tomorrow. But her current
theory is, she doesn't know if she's going to get a tomorrow at work
right now, since she can't predict when she's going to go into labor,
or, God forbid, have a problem. Don't get me started on what I think
of this mentality of hers. But I think it also has to do with the
fact that I'm making her take the time off work, so she's cramming in
as much time here as she can before she goes. And don't think I don't
know she's going to be constantly calling here from her maternity
leave. I know how her mind works.

Anyway, I'm stretched out on her couch watching her walk slow circles
around her office, while making notes on the speech. Every now and
then, she'll bounce something off me. But I don't think she actually
wants my opinion. I think she just wants to know whether or not
something sounds stupid.

I love watching her lately. I love watching the way her body moves
now. It's so incredibly different, and each day, I notice something
new, something different. Like when she does those stretching work
outs she does, I'm riveted. It's like those kids videos where they
wind up some toys and stick it to Mozart music and kids stare at them
all day. Damn, I should probably learn the name of them. They'll
probably be useful to me later. Anyway, it's like them. When Donna
starts those exercises, I totally zone watching her.

It's so amazing, it really is. Not only just the changes her body is
going through on their own, it's the whole picture. Less than a year
it's been since we got together, got married and are having a baby,
and it feels so natural to be like this with her. It's like we've
always been, except, you know, we've added the baby making thing. I
know I didn't think about kids before. But if I did, I think I'd
probably have pictured having them with Donna, and I probably would
have pictured it pretty close to this way. I mean, I pictured the sex
part all the time. Woman of my dreams? Hell yeah. And from the moment
I kissed her, I started to picture being married to her. I started
trying to work out how I could get my foot out of my mouth long
enough to apologize to her. And I had many different versions going
in my head. Turned out, Donna just used sex to break the ice. I swear
to God, she's brilliant. She knows us way too well.

So, I'm lying here on the couch, just taking the precious quiet time
we have at the moment to marvel in the enigma that is currently Donna
and what Donna represents, when one of the staff members, no I have
no clue what their name is, pokes her head in to tell her that Bram
is here to see her. That stops us both. She looks at her staffer and
then over at me. I shrug in response to her silent question. I've got
no clue what he's doing here. I'm flying under the radar here. I'm
just a guy lying on a couch right now. Except, I have the sinking
feeling that is about to change. She nods to her staffer and Bram
appears moments later, walking across her office. He stops short when
he sees me. He's quite obviously surprised. Interesting. He wasn't
expecting to see me here. Now, I'm totally intrigued.

"Uh, hi, Josh." He stammers.

"Hey Bram." I say.

"I didn't know you were in today." he says.

"Was I supposed to check in?" I reply. Hey, back off. The guy is
making a covert visit to my wife, who lucky for her is quite
surprised to see him. He's about to ruin my day either personally or
professionally, so cut me a little slack for giving him a hard time.

"No. I just didn't realize you were here."

"Donna's here." I reply. "We came in together." BECAUSE. WE'RE.
MARRIED. BRAM! I keep my cool though. I don't want to rip his head
off before I know why he came.

Donna puts her folder down on her desk. "What's the problem, Bram?"
she asks.

"Well, I kind of thought that I was going to be able to talk to you
on your own first, before I talked to Josh." Bram says. He seems
really nervous and unsure about himself. I sit up and look at him.
Yes, *of course* he's getting my republican stare right now. Did you
think he wouldn't? Donna sighs when she sees my look and turns back
to Bram. Can I tell you? That wasn't what I needed from her just
then. Way to show the solidarity there, honey!

"Well, he's here now." She says. "So you can either just go ahead and
say what it is you were going to say, or he's going to force it out
of you anyway. Trust me, you won't like any methods that he employs
to do that. Josh isn't known for always playing fair." Under other
circumstances, I'd make an indignant objection, but I want Bram to be
nervous right now.

Bram sighs and runs a hand through his hair. Damn. He's really
nervous. I stand up and take a step or two toward him. I'm starting
to think that he's screwed up something.

"Okay." He says. "Well, I'm going to have to come to you about it
anyway. I wanted to talk to Donna about it first because I thought
she might give me good advice on how best to handle the situation
without taking my head off."

"This isn't the best sales pitch here, Bram." I say. "Why don't you
just dive right in?"

"See, the thing is Laura and I have kind of been having a thing." He
says. It takes a second for this to actually sink in. It sinks in
with Donna. Her jaw kind of drops and she looks over to me. Then it
registers. Laura is his assistant.

I. Can't. Believe. It.

Yeah. I can definitely see why Bram is hesitant to come straight to
me on this one. Okay. I'm not going to freak. I'm not going to freak.
I'm not going to freak. I was in Bram's exact same position, except
no. I didn't act on my feelings. Evidently, Bram and Laura have.

"Bram, what exactly did you think coming to Donna before me was going
to accomplish?" I ask. I'm trying to keep all emotion and judgment
from my voice, but I think I'm using my You Idiot voice right now.

"You guys have been there." Bram says. "I just wanted to get some
advice first from someone that understood my situation but I didn't
directly work with. I swear, Josh, I was coming to you next."

"You just wanted to find out how I would react first?" He
nods. "Bram, if you want to continue working here, don't ever do that
again." He nods again. I start pacing. Donna's still silent. She's
watching me. She's waiting for my actual reaction to this. See, this
is a whole different thing now than just Bram, who I think I'll send
on special assignment to the Yukon. President Bartlet always
threatened us with that, so it must be a sucky assignment. Whatever
comes out of my mouth right now could be really dangerous and totally
misinterpreted for my actual feelings on the situation. See, there's
Josh who was in love with Donna and in the same position as Bram; and
there's Josh the Chief of Staff, holder of the fate of the
administration. Don't look at me like that. It's totally true.

"Okay, Bram." I say. "You said you and Laura have been having a
thing. Define that please."

"Well, we've been sleeping together." He says.

"That much I've figured out. How long?"

"A couple of months." He says.

"Why exactly are you coming clean about it?" I ask. He seems unsure
of my question. Donna seems unsure of my question, too. "Did
something happen? Were you seen? What prompted you to think you had
to tell us?"

"I don't like hiding it." He says. Well, I can't say I blame him
there. Hiding your feelings for someone you work very closely with
every day? SUCKS my friends!

"This not about to explode in the press room?" I ask.

"No. I'm pretty sure it's not." He says. Well, he's probably right.
If he's been sneaking around, he's probably been pretty paranoid
about watching out for photographers and reporters.

"What's your best case scenario here?" I ask again. "What are you
hoping to come away with?"

"Being allowed to see her openly." He says. I nod and start pacing
again.

"See here's the thing." I say. "Is this a fling? Or are you looking
for something serious?" Donna's watching me with interest again. I
really hate the fact that she's so quiet right now.

"Well, it's more than a fling, but it's only been a few months. So, I
can't say that I want to run off and get married or anything. But
yes, I would hope it can turn into something a little more serious."
He says. So I would be taking a chance here. This could either be the
real thing for Bram or blow up in our faces in a few months.

"What would you say if I told you she had to be reassigned?" I ask.
Donna snaps her head up at me and I get my first hint that she might
be coming down on Bram's side here. It should be noted, I have yet to
form an opinion on this! Bram drops his head and sighs.

"We work well together." He says quietly. "I would hate to see that
happen." Oh, *of course* they work well together. If they didn't work
together, this wouldn't be the absolute INSANE parallel that it is.

"You can head back to your office, Bram." I say. Both Donna and Bram
look surprised. "I'll get back to you on this." I don't want to leave
him hanging, but I've got a LOT to think about. I mean, you can
imagine how this just totally blew my mind, right? Remember me saying
I was just a guy lying on a couch? What happened to that? Bram tosses
Donna a look and she shrugs. Then he gets up and walks out, wisely
closing the door behind him. She looks up at me and raises an
eyebrow.

"Talk about your roosters coming home to roost." She says finally.

"You were a big help there." I say.

"He's your staff." She reminds me.

"He was coming here for your advice." I reply.

"But he ended up with you instead." She said. Okay. I guess her
silence makes a bit of sense. She didn't want to say anything that
might undermine me, if only I had an opinion to undermine at the
moment.

"What do you think?" I ask quietly sitting down in the other visitor
chair next to her. She shrugs and looks down. "Donna, what do you
think?"

"I think you should let him do it." She says quietly.

"We weren't allowed." I counter.

"That's bullshit, Josh." She says. "We never even asked. And you know
what? Leo did let us. He let you come to me in Germany. Why? Because
he knew you were in love with me. He knew exactly what would have
happened there had Colin not showed up." Hmm...she has a point. "Am I
right?" she demands.

"You're probably right." I say. I have to say, I did kind of
translate that as official permission. Maybe I was presumptuous
there, but I'm thinking not.

See, there *is* a difference. Donna may not really see it, or care,
but there are glaring differences. First of all, I was the son Leo
never had. And when my father died, he stepped right into the father
figure role. I don't feel that way about Bram. Leo giving me his
blessing there was something totally different. Secondly, that
happened after Donna and I had been working together for like six
years. Bram and Laura have been working together less than a year. I
try to think about what Leo might have said about me and Donna if the
subject had came up after I was shot, when Donna says she realizes
that she loved me. I'm coming up with nothing there. Third of all,
the situation with me and Donna happened in our second term, not
right out of the gate of our first term. There really are differences
here.

"What did you want?" I ask her. She looks up at me and she has a sad
look in her eyes.

"I wanted you." She says, and her voice cracks. "Anyway I could have
you."

"That doesn't answer my question." I say, despite my breaking
heart. "Did you have too much integrity?" She shakes her head no.
That's what I thought. She wanted to try both; she thought we could
do it. The thing is, I think we could have done it, too. But again,
this situation came up, well, sort of, years later, not months. If
Bram and Laura break up, she'll have to be reassigned.

"What do *you* think?" she asks me.

"I think I'm pissed off for having been put in this position." I say.

"Don't chicken out." She says with surprising force. She pushes
herself out of her chair and walks over by the fireplace in her
office. I'm sorry? Chicken out? How the hell am I chickening out? I
haven't even made a decision.

"Don't chicken out?" I repeat. "What the hell does that mean?"

"It means exactly what you've been saying." She says. "You're
different than Leo and Santos is different than Bartlet. Bram and
Laura have been seeing each other. You've been there, and you hated
it. I hated it. And look what happened. Why can't we stand up for
what we believe in? I mean, actually stand up and say, there's
nothing wrong with it. If it doesn't work out, she'll be reassigned.
There's not going to be a congressional investigation because of it.
Two people fell in love and they want to be together; they're two
dedicated public servants. There are worse things you can be accused
of than letting two people who love each other be together, Josh.
We're not going to lose re-election because of it."

"You don't think the White House is held to a higher standard?"

"I think the White House sets the standard." She countered. "Who's
going to welcome the country to the 21st century, Josh? What
President is going to be brave enough to say stop?"

She's so impassioned right now. It's not that she's not making any
sense either. But my question is, is she only making sense to me? Am
I making this decision because it's what she and I wanted and didn't
get? I'm too close to this situation. I dial Carol's voice mail and
leave a message for her that I want to see Sam and Lou first thing in
the morning, before staff, before anything else. I want this played
out from every angle before I make a decision.

I look over at Donna and she's got that sad look in her eyes again.
She wanted me to say yes right away.

"You don't think I want to say yes, Donna?" I ask quietly. "Do you
really think I want to stand here and feel like I'm betraying us just
because I want to make sure I think this through fully before signing
on for the media frenzy it will create? And it will be a thing,
Donna. They will try and make it a scandal. In the grand scheme of
things, no, it's not going to matter. But there are things we want to
do here right now. We also can't have an entire agenda taken hostage
because some conservatives don't agree with us. You'll take painful
notice Donna that we *didn't* get together while we worked here. Stop
looking at me like you gave up."

"I haven't given up." She says quietly. "I know you'll do what's
right.

"It's pretty hard to constantly be the hero, Donna. It's not always
easy." I reply.

"I imagine it would be." She says. "But, Josh, I love you whether
you're the hero or not. I love you whether you say yes to Bram they
can work together or reassign Laura. You are right. Bram and Laura
aren't us and they don't work for the administration we did. But, I
meant what I said. Everyone is so afraid to love who they love these
days. Someone has to stand up and say you can't define love. Someone
is going to go down in history as the President that stood up for
that. Fighting the good fight and not worrying about re-election is
what makes Presidents beloved. It's what makes them respected on both
sides of the aisle. Maybe not now; maybe they aren't vindicated until
decades after they're out of office, but they stand up and say you
can't treat people like that. You're allowed to be who you are. I
mean, what's the point of freedom of expression if it's only
contingent upon the mood of the Oval Office."

I look at her now, and this is one of those moments. This is one of
those moments when Donna is right. Its reasons like these that I
wanted to work in this building. And it's this passion that made me
want to be with this woman. And I'm just not sure I can chicken out
right now.

TBC


Title: Transitions (21/?)
Disclaimer: Not my characters
Series Rating: R
Timing: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Always welcomed

DONNA'S POV

I am a genius. I really am.

We are currently completely moved into our new house. It's unpacked,
decorated, the baby's room is completed, awaiting baby. I was totally
bored out of my mind. It worked out that we moved in as I started my
maternity leave. So, the unpacking and decorating took me exactly
three days. Josh thinks I set a record even for myself.

So, with four weeks left until the baby's due date, I've got a new
plan to keep myself busy for the next few weeks. And don't go giving
me that the baby could be early crap. This is half my kid, dammit.
She's either going to be right on time, or take after Josh and be
late. I know me and then Carol have done an excellent job of keeping
Josh on time over the years, but his natural tendency is to be late.

So, why am I so smart? What's my grand plan? I'll tell you.

Christmas.

You heard me right. It's July and I'm thinking about Christmas to
occupy myself from now until mid-August. No. I'm not so totally
neurotic that I'm talking about actually doing my Christmas shopping,
though the idea certainly has merit. I mean, if I get bored enough, I
just might. But I don't think that'll happen. No, no. Christmas at
the White House.

See, here's the thing, and this is something I never knew. The First
Lady is in charge of everything Christmas at the White House. And let
me just tell you something, December 1st on the nose, that building
looks like Christmas threw up all over it. Don't get me wrong, that
building is absolutely beautiful at Christmas. But if you work there,
when the Christmas decorators are in there doing their thing, it's a
bit of a pain in the ass. But I never asked who did it all. I assumed
that it was the Chief Usher, quite frankly. But as it turns out, the
Chief Usher is just executing the First Lady's plans.

When I told Helen this, I'm not kidding, she came really close to
hyperventilating. I told her I had a plan though, so she started to
calm down. I told her all I wanted her to do was come up with a
theme, and I'd get to work on the other stuff. She's going to have to
meet with artists, maintenance, HGTV, the Chief Usher, the head
pastry chef, the head White House chef, the events coordinator, the
White House florist. I mean, you should see this list. And it all
starts around August.

So, she picked a theme. Actually, several. I've got to say, props to
Helen's ingenuity and style. It's going to be awesome, but a complete
pain in the ass. Anyway, she's going with a "Christmas Classics"
theme. The four themes picked are: Dickens, the Nutcracker Suite,
Children's Christmas stories, and Norman Rockwell. For the main tree
in the Blue Room, which is typically the main attraction and what
sends the Chief Usher all over the United States to Christmas tree
farms looking for the perfect tree that meets incredibly specific
regulations, Helen's going to invite two artists from each state and
the District to create an ornament for the tree in their median that
represents their favorite historical monument of their state.

The tree theme throughout the White House is White Christmas, which
seemed to make the head florist very happy. I'm not sure if she just
really likes the theme or Helen picked something easy. The main entry
way and staircase will be the Nutcracker Suite; the Green Room is
going to be Norman Rockwell; the Blue Room will be Dickens; and the
Oval Office is going to be the Children's theme. Peter and Miranda
are psyched about that. Sam's out of his head over Dickens. Roland,
the White House's former head pastry chef, has once again agreed to
design and create his Gingerbread White House. The man's been doing
it for like 30 years. Why mess with a pro?

Not to mention, the White House Christmas parties. There is, quite
literally, a party every single night of the Christmas season. Which
the President and First Lady are required to attend. Isn't that lucky
for me and Josh? New baby and we have to attend a Christmas party
every night? I'm thinking I'll be begging one of our mothers to spend
the month of December in Washington. We were never really required
before. But as the Chiefs of Staff, that's not really the case this
year. Guess who's got to go dress shopping. No. I'm not going to buy
25 new dresses. I am, however, going to call CJ and have her ship me
out a bunch of hers to balance out the holiday wardrobe. There's no
shame in cheating. Especially when there's going to be women there in
$8500 Oscar de la Renta gowns. There's the White House Media Party;
the White House staff party; the Senate party, the DNC party. I mean,
I can't even keep track of them all. And they're all exclusive
invites, too. So invitations, which are also traditionally designed
by an artist specifically for the invitations, as is the official
White House Christmas card, also go out relatively early, as well.

So, we're off to the Christmas races. My plan brings me to the White
House often during my leave, something that is annoying the hell out
of my husband. I can't help it. I'm not the one who decided the First
Lady's office was in charge of Christmas. He's just pissed because I
found a loophole. I mean, how am I supposed to meet with Helen and
dodge my staff at the same time, I ask you? And some on my staff are
real talkers, too, I tell you. It's not my fault sometimes I'm there
longer than I intended. Seriously. Don't look at me like that.

So, here I am walking through the lobby. I'm about to head towards
the East Wing for my meeting with Helen and the Chief Usher when Josh
walks into the lobby from the West Wing.

Shit.

Just as he does, Helen's emerging from the East Wing. He walks over
to me and stands right in front of me, while I try and pretend, amid
the bustling lobby, that I'm not there. I'm looking everywhere but
right at him, which really must look pretty comical to anyone paying
attention to us. Because when I say he's standing right in front of
me, I mean he's like literally a foot away from me. He's looking at
me expectantly.

"I can't help it." I say finally. "We have to approve the design for
the wax models. There's a lot. The artist needs to know this week.
These things take up a lot of time, Josh."

You have no idea how much he's NOT buying it right now. Helen walks
over to us and smiles.

"I'm leaving for a meeting." He says. "I'll be gone for about an
hour. If you are here, Donna, when I get back, I'm not kidding, I'll
have the park police physically take you home." I huff in response
and he turns and continues to the door. "One hour, Donnatella!"

"Someone needs to remind me why I love that man." I huff to Helen.

Helen calmly turns to the agent next to her. "Jack," she says. "Mrs.
Lyman and I will be meeting with the Chief Usher in the residence
today. Please tell the agents on duty that unless it's a matter of
the utmost national security, the Chief of Staff is not to get into
the residence while we are there."

"Yes, ma'am." The agent says and talks to his wrist.

"Remember how I was worried that I wouldn't find any perks to living
here?" Helen smiled. Have I mentioned how much I love Helen Santos?
She's got a criminal mind equal to me and CJ's, to be sure.

It also doesn't help that I'm really trying the patience of my
husband after he's long since past his boiling point. You guessed it.
Bram and Laura.

Josh, Sam and Lou spent an entire morning strategizing that out. When
Josh took it to the President, his initial reaction was to say to
transfer Laura. But Helen told him that he may control the world, but
not their bedroom and if he didn't want to spend the rest of his term
on the couch, he'd at least *try* it and see how it goes, with the
stipulation to transfer her later.

So, that's what happened. And it didn't take long until they were
found out. Now, the heat from the boss/assistant thing isn't all that
bad. There's some people screaming about it, but no one who doesn't
hate us anyway. So, it's not like we're losing friends over it. But
there is a lot of media attention on them. They're followed
everywhere they go.

Personally, it's nice to have some of the attention diverted from me
and Josh. Stuff still shows up about us. Not often, but I did get
named "Best Dressed Expectant Mother in Washington" by the Washington
Post's Fashion section. I was pretty impressed with myself. I beat
out two congressmen's wives, a senator and a news anchor. Josh wasn't
liking the attention I was getting, so at least poor, unfortunate
Bram has diverted a bunch of it.

I have to admit, when the decision was made to go ahead and let Bram
and Laura work together and date, I was annoyed anyway, even though
it's what I wanted. I was pissed at Josh for a few days actually. I
kept wondering how come he'd go through this for Bram, but not us?
Why was braving public opinion and the respect of our co-workers and
President good enough for Bram, but not good enough for us?

I didn't actually tell him I was pissed, but he could tell. I'm
pretty sure he knew why, too. And I'm actually glad that I didn't
tell him I was mad. Within the week, the story broke and Bram and
Laura couldn't go anywhere without seeing reporters. And I started to
think that maybe that's one of the reasons why Josh never acted on
his feelings for me. It's exactly what would have happened to us, and
I don't know that I would have wanted to have a relationship like
that. I mean, people are calling Laura some really nasty names. I
guess Josh didn't want to hear those things said about me. And they
most certainly would have been, I'm sure.

I smile and head off towards the residence with Helen. And I know
I've been talking a good game, but I'm going to make sure I'm gone in
an hour.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

JOSH'S POV

I must say, I'm impressed. I came back from my meeting, and Donna
was, in fact, gone from the building. I called home and she answered.
She actually didn't fight me for once. Don't get me wrong. I REALLY
miss her here. It seems really weird without her here. It keeps
reminding me of when she left to work for Russell and I hate thinking
about that.

It sounds weird to hear about all these Christmas plans in July. I
mean, the First Lady and Donna are really getting caught up in the
plans. Donna's been pouring over pictures of the decorations from
previous years, estimates from vendors, draft sketches from artists,
nearly every night. Sometimes I wonder if it really IS this much
work, or if she's just taking on more than she needs to to keep busy.
It doesn't really bother me, actually, whatever keeps her happy. I'm
just happy that there's less pictures being taken of us. I don't
mean to make it sound like it's this huge thing, but in my opinion,
one picture of my pregnant wife that she didn't specifically pose
for, is one too many. She's going to get photographed for work stuff
anyway, but really, why'd a photographer take a picture of her
walking across the mall?

I feel bad for Bram right now. I mean, he asked for it. We told him
before he went open with Laura that it would happen, and it did.
Laura seems a little overwhelmed, and Bram's getting testy in his
briefings. I know Donna got pissed at me when I said yes, even though
she wanted me to. She wonders why I didn't want to take the chance
with us, I'm sure. This is why. There is no way in hell I could
quietly stand by and let people call her a whore. I just cannot
stomach someone saying that she got her job because she was sleeping
with me. Can a boss and assistant successfully work together while
dating? Sure. Is it inappropriate for them to have a personal
relationship? You know, I don't actually think so myself. But in the
jobs she and I had, we would have gotten the same treatment.

Her credibility would have gone down the crapper. I would have rather
not had her at all, than had her like this. I wonder now if Bram and
Laura are going to make it. I think me and Donna would have, but
still. Donna doesn't have as thick of a skin as one might think.
People saying things like that would bother her. She'd try not to let
it, but I know her.

I don't know. Maybe I should have asked her opinion on it back then
instead of unilaterally making the decision on my own. But if she had
shown the slightest interest, I'm not sure I could have made the
decision. See, I'm a powerful man. I am, figuratively speaking. But
I'm a weak man when it comes to Donna. All it would have taken was
one moment of weakness on my part, and let me tell you, there were
almost many moments of weakness on my part, and I would have done
anything she wanted. Our eyes met briefly during that first kiss, and
right then I knew I was done. I had to have more. It would have been
the same if it had happened earlier. And if it had happened earlier,
she would have been in Laura's position, and I never would have
forgiven myself.

She's currently got her head and shoulders sprawled across my lap and
her knees propped up. She's been reading a book like this for the
last hour, and I've just been sitting here with my head propped up on
my hand, leaning on the armrest of the couch, thinking.

"What are you thinking about?" she asks putting her book aside.

"Hmm?"

"You. I've been laying here for an hour and you've been doing
nothing." She says looking up at me.

"You seem comfortable, so I've just let you lay here." I reply. I'm
suddenly reminded of the plane ride to Hawaii as she looks at me
concerned. I guess I'm developing a pattern here.

"What's eating you?" she asks.

"Nothing's eating me." I say.

"Something's eating you." She replies.

"I was thinking about Bram and Laura." I say.

"You think you made a mistake?"

"No."

"I thought they were still working well together."

"It looks like they are. I think Laura might be getting a little
frazzled."

"How do you know?"

"I watch her." I admit.

"You watch her?" she asks. "May I ask just what the hell you're doing
watching Laura?"

"She's my employee, she's going through some pretty intense media
scrutiny, and I want to make sure she's not cracking up. It's part of
the job when you're the boss." I counter. She's cute; she's jealous.
I like it.

"Really?"

"Yes. You don't think Leo watched you after I got shot?"

"Did he?" she seems pretty surprised by this.

"Everyone did." I reply. They did. CJ, Toby, Sam, and Leo all gave me
reports on how Donna was doing at the office when she went back to
work. I didn't actually ask for them, they just volunteered the
information.

"I didn't notice." She shrugged.

"Your mind was a little preoccupied." I remind her.

"Yeah. There was too much to think about then." She agrees laughing
softly. "So, you're worried about Bram and Laura?"

"She had a couple of nasty editorials written about her." I say.
Donna sits up and sits next to me. She pulls one leg up and turns
towards me.

"You laid it all out for them." She says. "They were told what was
going to happen."

"I did." I sigh.

"You gave them the chance they asked for."

"Bram's handling it a lot better than I would have." I admit. She
smiles and kisses me on the cheek.

"I know." She says. "You would have gotten us fired for sure,
shooting off your mouth."

"Probably." There's no probably about it, actually. I would have
grabbed the closest reporter and responded to everything they wrote
and said about her. And I would have done it right up to the point
when CJ killed me.

"I've been wondering what to do about my brother's house." She says
changing the subject in her classic Donna way. Donna's brother had a
house and a life insurance policy that were valued about the same
amount. He left his sister the insurance policy, and Donna the house.
It's outside Madison and not a bad size. If she were to sell it, it'd
fetch a nice price.

"Keep it." I say immediately.

"What the hell am I going to do with it?"

"It's good to have a home base." I say.

"Isn't this home base?" she asks gesturing in general to the house.

"Outside of Washington D.C." I reply. She looks at me a little
confused for a second and then I watch the recognition dawn across
her face.

"You want to run for office one day." What? Did she hit her head?

"Nooooo." I reply quickly. Is she insane? Me? Run for office? Hell
no. I get people elected to office, I do not run for it myself.

"Okay. Now I'm confused." She confesses.

"You." I say.

Watch this.

Her jaw drops and she puts her hand to my forehead. Talk about
dramatic.

"Are you hallucinating?" she's demanding. "Me?"

"Start with Congress, then move to the Senate." Yeah. I have thought
about this. I've thought it through, too. I've got a whole plan. And
the good thing is, by the time we'd do it, I can bring Toby back on.
He'd be all over it for Donna, too. I'll admit though, I didn't think
about this until I found out that her brother left her his house. It
occurred to me then when I was wondering what the hell we were going
to do with a residence in Wisconsin.

"You're serious."

"You'd be fantastic. And with your experience, you'd sail right
through election. That's a democratic district, too. A republican
against you wouldn't stand a chance. I mean, it's such a sure thing
that when we file for you, we could just go put your name on the door
on the Hill."

"And what about the incumbent?" she asks. "You don't think they'll
have an objection to losing their job?"

"No." I say. I'm sure the DNC will make them a brighter offer. Don't
tell Donna that. Remember that whole thing about Ambassador to the
Federated States of Micronesia or whatever the hell country that was?
Yeah. Whoever's in that job then won't complain.

"I don't have a college degree." She reminds me.

"Well, if anyone has proven that you don't need a college degree to
work highly placed in the government, it's you." I say. "But yeah,
you should probably finish it before you run." The secret service
agent pokes his head inside the front door and tells me Sam's here.

"That's my polling numbers." I say standing up.

"You polled this?!" she shrieks. She seriously thinks I'm crazy.

"No! I polled something else entirely. Sam said he'd bring the
results by tonight." I meet Sam as he comes into the living room.
Donna pounces on him immediately.

"Josh thinks I should run for Congress after we leave the White
House." I swear to God, she sounds like she's telling on me for
something.

"You absolutely should." Sam says immediately, and with complete
conviction. See? I told you it was a good idea.

"I thought *you* wanted to run." Donna says to Sam.

"I do." Sam says. "We'd be there together. It'll be fun!" Only Sam, I
swear to God. He makes it sound like he and Donna just decided to go
to the same college after high school. "And you know what? By then,
we'd be able to take Toby out of the penalty box, not to mention, I'm
sure we could get CJ on board."

"All this muscle for a congressional seat?" Donna asks skeptically.

"No." Sam says. "All that muscle because it'll just be fun."

"Okay." Donna says, as I start flipping through the polling numbers
Sam just handed me. "You know what? I'm going into overload right
now. So, I'm going to forget you said this, Josh, for a few years,
and just, you know, think about my current job and having a baby like
any second."

I smile at her and then at Sam, because while she thinks I'm crazy at
the moment, she hasn't said no.

TBC


Title: Transitions (22/?)
Everything else is in the first 21 chapters for crying out loud!!
Let's just get to it

JOSH'S POV

I've just come slamming into my office from the situation room. I
really hate that place. I forgot about that little aspect of the job
when I accepted the position. Nothing happy ever happens in there. I
mean, CJ said sometimes things work out our way, but I sure haven't
seen it yet. So, I've just slammed my office door, and now I feel bad
because Donna was evidently sleeping on my couch.

Wait a minute. Why do I feel bad for waking her up? *I* didn't know
she was going to be sleeping in here. She's supposed to be home. You
know what though? I feel bad anyway. I'm either whipped or well-
trained. Well, isn't that the same thing? No. I'm neither of those.
I'm sensitive to her needs. *That's* what I am.

Okay, fine. I'm trained. Nine years will do that to a guy.

She rubs her eyes and looks up at me and smiles.

"You okay?" she asks.

"No. I'm pissed off." I reply. I mean, I can't really lie to her,
given the grand entrance I just made. She looks at me for a
second. "Situation room." I say. Luckily, those two words end the
discussion. "What are you doing here? Feel okay?"

"I came to see you." She yawns. "I miss you." And now, I immediately
feel bad. See, she's not here during normal business hours, normal
for the White House that is. It's 10 o'clock at night. And I'm pretty
much stuck with this stupid Iran thing for a while. I know she didn't
mean to make me feel bad. I asked her what she was doing here, and
she answered. I mean, she knows these things happen and kind of
often. "And my back is killing me." She says.

"You came all the way over here so I could rub your back in between
the situation room stuff?" I smile. She smiles back. She's busted.

"Won't it be a nice distraction for you?" Donna can really bring the
innocent face when she wants to, let me tell you.

"You're always a nice distraction for me." I smile.

"Really? Even all big and fat?"

"Do not draw me into a conversation where there's no winner and no
way out." I say. I walk over to my desk and open one of the side
draws and pull out a tennis ball. I've found that Toby's little
stress coping mechanism is actually pretty handy. It really does help
focus your thinking. Only I'm limited to the walls I can bounce it
off of, since one of mine connects to the Oval Office. Donna sees the
tennis ball and her face lights up.

"On your side." I say. She rolls to her side and shimmies forward
towards the edge of the couch. I'm not even going to tell you how
incredibly funny she looks when she does that. She leaves me just
enough room between her back and the couch. I start rolling the
tennis ball along her lower back. You have no idea how much I have to
dig this thing in. The harder I push into her back, the better she
feels. She loves this tennis ball. She closes her eyes and sighs
against the pressure.

"Are you going to be here late?" she asks.

"Yeah." I say. And now I'm even more sorry about it. If she's not
feeling well, I don't like to be away from her. Then again, she came
here to me. I should send her home, so she can sleep in our bed. But
I'm thinking if she came all the way over here, she might be a little
nervous being alone. I can't blame her. Her due date is tomorrow. I'd
probably be freaking out a little too. I mean, I kind of am. This not
knowing and it can happen any time really makes you jumpy sometimes.

"Someone's giving us a hard time?" she asks.

"Yeah."

"Is it bad?"

"Yeah."

"Going to war bad?"

"Not that bad."

"And you can't get called at home?"

"I'm getting updates every half hour."

"Oh." Donna's drawn her own conclusions that when I say I'm getting
updated every half hour, it's because we've got a mission going. In
this case, it's true. "I can't say that I ever thought the guy that
refers to Italy as the one that looks like a boot would end up in the
situation room." She's laughing at me now. You make a wise ass
comment once in the presence of a couple of smart asses like she and
Leo and that's it. Note to you, DO NOT crack jokes like that in front
of Donna, they always come back to haunt you later.

"Look at that, there's you and your unfailing faith in me." I reply.
If she's going to be a wise ass, I'm going to snark her. It IS a
word! We didn't make it up!

"I do have faith in you." She sighs and burrows more into the
couch. "Why do you think I'm not hiding under your desk right now
fearing an air raid."

"Well, I did have to talk to several heads of foreign governments
tonight." I say. "An air raid may not be out of the realm of
possibility." She's drifting back off to sleep and a few minutes more
of the tennis ball and she'll be done. I really should have someone
take her home, but if things don't go our way, I'm glad that she'll
be here for me. I mean, I imagine after the baby's born, she won't be
doing this all that much anymore. I'm sad that I'm not going to have
her undivided attention any more.

"What if this thing's still going on and I go into labor?" She asks.

"It won't be." I say. This things going to be over in a couple hours.
But, I can't tell her that. I hate not being able to tell her stuff,
especially stuff like this that really bugs me.

"But what if it is?" she asks again. Oh, I see what this is. This is
what's more important to Josh world peace or birth of his child?

"I'm not going to miss it." I assure her. Like it's even a question
to me. The President and I have already discussed it. I've got a cell
phone, they'll use it. Plus, he's got the Joint Chiefs, the National
Security Advisor, the Secretary of Defense, and if he absolutely has
to have that last opinion and I'm unreachable (which I doubt I'm
going to be all that unreachable with a couple of secret service
agents with me), he's got Sam. See, I told you the President and I
were different men than President Bartlet and Leo. Is Sam fully
briefed on what's going on right now? No. He's got no clue what's
going on right now. But Sam can be pulled into the room at any time
and be ready to go. There's a reason why I picked him. That's the
kind of deputy I've made Sam. None of this we're going to bomb the
hell out of whoever for whatever they did, which is going to piss
people off at home, but don't tell the guy who's job it is to
interface with Congress every day and who will be demanding our heads
on a pike, so he can run interference. Not to mention, the President
has a bunch of military experience; President Bartlet had zero.
Nothing's going to get all screwed up if I'm not there one time.

She's asleep now, so I stop with the tennis ball and cover her up
with a quilt that Carol keeps stashed under my couch, for - well, I
don't really know why since Donna doesn't let me sleep here. I guess
it's one of those things that Carol is prepared for anyway. Again,
I've got to tell you how brilliant Donna was with that whole Carol
thing. I can't even imagine anyone else at that desk out there, even
Margaret. She's out there now. If I'm here, she's here. That's
another reason why I try to make sure I get out of here at a
reasonable hour, so if Carol wanted to have a life, she could. And
that way, I don't feel as bad when nights like this happen.

No. I didn't care if Donna got out of work at a reasonable hour when
she was my assistant. If Donna did get out at a reasonable hour,
she'd date. We all know I couldn't have that. I don't care if Carol
dates. She's a nice girl, she should date.

I press a kiss to Donna's forehead and stand up, just as Carol comes
in tell me that they're ready for another update. With one last look
at everything that's right in the world, I head out the door to go
deal with everything in the world that's going to hell.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

DONNA'S POV

I TOLD you this baby would come on time! Thank God she got my sense
of time! The morning of my due date the labor pains started. I felt
so bad for poor Josh. He had next to no sleep, the situation room
stuff kept him at work until about 2 a.m., and since I was sleeping
on his couch, he just stayed awake. He's so sweet. But damn! You
should have seen him at the end of the day yesterday. Having to help
me through 14 hours of labor and, count them, three and a half hours
of pushing, he could barely stand by the time we were moved into my
room. And for a while, I was pretty sure I actually broke his
fingers. Turns out, I didn't.

And yes, he did outstanding. He was a little freaked out in the
beginning, but he got past it. I mean, he didn't have much choice.
And he even had the foresight to bring that tennis ball, too, which
was totally brilliant on his part. And yes, I did get the epidural.
Josh got a lot calmer after that, and believe it or not, I actually
slept, which was a good thing because three and a half hours of
pushing is really hard work. That's one amazing drug, let me tell
you. You go from this massive pain, to feeling nothing. It was
stunning. Of course, they lower the dosage at the end and everything
starts to suck again; for me that was three and a half hours of
suckiness.

But she's here, and she's beautiful, and she's healthy. And if I
didn't see her when she came out of me, I'd question who her mother
is because she doesn't look ANYTHING like me. Figures. I guess Josh's
bossiness is genetic after all. I mean, his genes seem to have taken
over mine in our daughter. Well, at least she'll be on time. Maybe
she'll be as organized as me, too. Can you imagine being as brilliant
as Josh and as organized as me? This little girl's going to take over
the world. She'll be Nancy McNally. Not that Nancy tried to take over
the world, but damn, Nancy had a pretty impressive career. I've
always admired her. I'm only sorry I never got to see her get in
everyone's face in the situation room. Admiral Fitzwallace told me
while we were in Gaza that it really was a sight to behold.

So, the whole world's been by this morning. Literally, almost. The
President and First Lady, of course, were here this morning, Carol
stopped by on her lunch, Sam and Robin, Annabeth, even Mandy (don't
think Josh wasn't unnerved by that one, either). Plus, since Bram was
nice enough to announce it in his briefing (yes, that's sarcasm
there), CJ, Charlie, President and Dr. Bartlet, Will, and Former Vice
President Russell all called this morning.

Josh is currently passed out on a cot by my bed. It took him a while
to fall asleep last night with all the adrenaline flowing through
him, then with everybody visiting today he's had to be awake for
that. I was just thinking about flipping on the t.v. when the door
opens to admit another guest. I paste a fake smile on my face (I
mean, come on here, I'm really tired and I look like crap), but it
immediately becomes genuine when I see that it's Josh's mother. She
must have just got in. In 100 years, you'd never believe this woman
was 75 years old. First of all, she doesn't look it. Secondly, she's
got more energy than me, and she just might be in better health.
Nothing stops this woman. That must be where Josh gets it from. If
Josh got this from his mother, we'll be good in the longevity
department. Not that I think even forces of nature was going to keep
Anna Lyman from her granddaughter.

"Donna, honey, you look radiant." She gushes at me, giving me a big
hug. Josh mumbles something inaudible, rolls over and buries his head
under the pillow. Anna rolls her eyes and looks at me. "I see my son
is his normal cordial self."

"He hasn't had much sleep." I say in his defense. "Stuff happened the
other night and then I went into labor. I wouldn't expect too much
from him."

"I know, dear. I can always tell what kind of day my son is having by
watching CNN in the morning. Where's my granddaughter?"

"Her body temperature was a little low, so she's in the nursery under
that warming lamp." I explain. Anna looks deeply offended that the
hospital would commit such an outrageous act when the baby's
grandmother was coming. I laugh at her expression. "She'll be in in a
little while to eat. Or you can go see her through the window."

"No. I want to hold her." She replies. "I'll wait for her. I've
waited 48 years for her, another few minutes won't kill me I suppose."

"Oh, mom!" shouts Josh from under the pillow. "Just bury that guilt
already!"

"Oh, look, it speaks." Anna says walking over to Josh and poking him
in the shoulder. "Joshua, I don't suppose you're going to come out
from under there and give your mother a hug." Josh flips onto his
back and whips the pillow off his face in a huff.

"Mom, we got in a fight with Iran the other night and then my wife
had a baby. I'm tired. Cut me some slack." He huffs.

"Yes, dear, I know. I saw on CNN. Actually CNN covered your little
tiff with Iran and announced that you had a daughter yesterday."

"I called you, mom." He says. "You didn't find out about the baby on
CNN." He sits up and his mother sits in front of him and gives him a
hug. He drops his head on her shoulder and closes his eyes again. I
can't decide if he's really that tired or just being a pain in his
mother's ass, but she has to nudge him off again and he's pretty
dramatic about it, too. You think Josh gets whiny when he's miserable
around me? You should see him turn it on for his mother.

"Joshua, take me to the nursery and introduce me to my
granddaughter." She says. "Let's let Donna get some sleep."

"She's under the McDonald's light." He says.

"They'll give her to you." Anna assures. They will. We can get her at
any time. Plus, when Josh walks down to the nursery, two secret
service agents are going to be walking with him, one of whom is
Corey, who, of course, all the nurses are gushing over, he's not
going to get too many problems. Josh sighs and stands up. He leans
over and kisses me on the forehead and lets his lips linger there. I
like it; it's nice. Then he heads out of the room with his mother hot
on his heels. I smile and burrow into my pillow.

TBC


Title: Transitions (23/?)
Disclaimer: The characters belong to someone else. There is no
copyright infringement intended
Series Rating: R
Time: Post-Tomorrow
Feedback: Always appreciated
A/N What's supposed to be the second half of this chapter and Donna's
POV is currently stuck in the mud. So, I'm just going to post this
part as it's own chapter and continue to try and muddle through the
next part

JOSH'S POV

Okay. As it turns out, babies don't actually come with subtitles and
translations. And you know what else was a crock of shit? You don't
just *know.* Everyone tells that to expectant parents, "Oh, don't
worry, you'll just *know*." I'm now trying to my damndest to remember
the people who told me that over the past months, so I can have them
killed. Because my daughter has now been screaming her head off for
45 minutes, and I've got NO clue why. In case you're keeping track,
yeah, she's got my bellow.

She's not hungry. She already ate. She doesn't need to be changed,
thank God. And she doesn't have a fever. Is it normal for little
girls to just be bitchy this early on? Maybe it's that. I'm now
walking back and forth with her on my shoulder and it's 3 a.m. Donna
was in here first, but when she looked at me with tears in her eyes,
I took over. I think Donna's still getting a little emotional. I
think she thought she'd just *know,* too. I know I'm not really
qualified to say this, but I don't think she's got that post-pardum
depression. I think she's just really tired, still hormonal and
trying to figure out this kid.

I think that's why everyone says the first six weeks suck the worse.
I think it takes the parents and the baby six weeks to figure each
other out, you know? She's got different cries, and we're still
getting them down. Donna's got the "I'm hungry" cry down. I thought
we were learning the "I'm tired cry," too. This one's not those.

I'm pretty good about not getting stressed out about a crying baby,
even one that's been crying as long as Lacy has now. See, this is
what I learned. Crying is her only way of communicating with us. So
she needs something, and it's just a matter of figuring out what it
is she needs and fixing it. This is what I do. I figure out problems
and I fix them.

I prop her up a little further on my shoulder and that's when I hear
it. Her stomach's making noise. And not hunger growling kind of
noises. That sounds like gas. I actually "A-ha!" out loud at this
point, grab the Mylicon drops out of the medicine cabinet and head
downstairs. Donna won't sleep right now, but at least if she can't
hear the baby crying, it might distress her a little.

So, once we're downstairs, I give her the drops and settle down onto
the couch with her, patting her back. While we're on the subject of
the couches, Donna got new ones when we moved in, and damn, but she
picked REALLY comfortable ones! They're those ones with the big
cushions and big pillows, and they're pretty deep, too.

It takes a little while, but the drops kick in and she quiets down.
Whoever invented those is a genius. I'm going to figure out what
company that is and have the FDA send them a letter of outstanding
drug or something. Instead of going to sleep though, she's wide
awake. She's quiet, but since she's awake, I feel like I have to
entertain her. I mean, it's not often that she's awake, especially
when I'm home. I never knew that newborns slept this much. Did you?
When you think about it though, I guess it makes sense. I mean,
they're seeing things for the first time and hearing things for the
first time. It's got to be pretty stimulating.

Donna says she looks like me, but she doesn't actually. I mean, she
kind of does. But mostly, she looks like my sister and I think that
she's aptly named now. We picked that name before she was born, but
it's nutty that she came out looking like my sister.

You're going to think I'm nuts, but I didn't think I could love
someone as much as I love Donna. Yet, here she is. It's a different
kind of love though. The cool thing is, she totally recognizes me,
like the sound of my voice. I was worried at first because Donna
carried her and would have this like instant bond, you know, like
what did I do that was so great that would form a connection between
me and her? But the first time I spoke to her, she turned her head
toward me. It was wild.

I look at the grandfather clock in the corner and see that it's
twenty after three. I should probably bring her up and try to rock
her back to sleep. But I have a confession to make. I don't mind when
I'm up with her like this. I sort of look forward to it. Does that
sound nuts? The house is all quiet, and it's just me and her. I can
pour my heart out to her, and she'd absorb every word and never tell
a soul.

I lay her down on the couch towards the inside and prop myself up on
my elbow so I can get a good look at her. Her little hand is
clutching my finger. She's really got quite the grip on her. I look
down at her, this little creation of mine and Donna's. I just can't
get over the fact that she's here and she's ours. You know, they
actually let us leave the hospital with her. She does have some
features of Donna's. Like her ears, and I think her smile. Everyone
says that she's not really smiling and that it's gas. But well,
regardless of what puts it there, she's smiled, and I think she has
Donna's smile. Donna also said that she got her sense of time. That's
a definite point in her favor. I hope she also got her mother's
compassion.

"So, Lady Lacy," I say softly. "here you are. Now I know why your
mommy always got so mad when I yelled. We Lymans get quite loud,
don't we? I know your mom and I have big dreams for you. But if I
forget to say this later, I'll love you no matter what you do. As
long as you try your best, you can be anything you want, just not a
republican. I don't think Daddy's heart can take it. But, I suppose
if it's what you really believe, I'll love you anyway. But you can
expect a lot of bitching from me about it.

"We got a lot to teach you, your mom and me. We have to teach you how
count, and tie your shoes, and I have to teach you about the Mets.
We'll have to teach you how to walk and say please. Mommy will teach
you how to pout and bat your eyelashes at me. That'll be your code
for let's make a sucker out of daddy. I'm only telling you that this
once though. You're going to have to remember that later on your own.

"We have a lot of people to introduce you to, too. I know you already
met the President of the United States. Not many kids can say that at
your age. We'll take you out to California to meet your Aunt CJ and
Uncle Danny, and your Uncle Charlie. Aunt CJ and Uncle Danny are
getting married in the spring. Aunt CJ was the one that sent you that
enormous stuffed rocking horse. I don't think she realizes that
you're not going to be able to actually climb onto that for a few
years. You've already met your Uncle Sam and your Grandmas and
Grandpa. Maybe we'll take you up to New Hampshire to meet your
Grandpa Jed and Grandma Abbey. I know they're very excited to meet
you.

"You're really a lucky little girl, you know that? You got some kind
of mom. I know that you'll fight with her over the years, and me too,
I'm sure, but she's got a lot of love to give you. So, I expect you
to show a lot of respect for that. And your daddy...well, you got me
for a daddy. I have to say, I know some stuff. There's stuff I can
teach you. I have to tell you now though, I can overreact. Sometimes
you might think that that means I'm mad, and I guess sometimes I will
be. I don't know if I'll be the perfect daddy, but I'll try. Just
don't ask me to help you with your hair. You want me to help you with
your history homework, that I can do. You want those pig tails,
you're going to have to go to your mom. I can also teach you how to
argue and negotiate. I'm really good at that. So, between me and your
mom, I think we have everything covered. I don't know if I can teach
you how to drive though. That might be too much for me. I think we'll
have your mom teach you that.

"One day you're going to like boys. This will probably happen when
you're about 30. You should know now. I'm going to be very particular
about the boys you hang around with. First of all, they're going to
need to be gay. That's a prerequisite. No boys that like girls. But
that probably won't be very fun for you, I suppose. But if the boy
you love takes seven years to figure out that he loves you, I'm going
to kick him to the curb. Your mom already put up with that. I'm not
going to let you, too."

When I yawn, I decide that it is time to bring her back upstairs and
save the rest of our chat for another early morning. I do have to
work tomorrow...or today rather. Hmm...in two hours. I lay her down in
her crib upstairs, the walk up having put her back to sleep. As I
turn to leave the room, Donna's standing there with tears in her eyes.

"You figured it out?" She looks devastated.

"Gas." I said.

"I'm a horrible mother!" What? Is she insane? She's been a mother for
two weeks for crying out loud. I mean, we're still parents on
probation here.

"Hey," I say quietly pulling her into my arms. "I'm her dad. It's
okay for me to figure things out sometimes. Just because I figured
something out once doesn't make you a bad mom. For the love of God,
it's usually going to be you anyway. Her stomach just happened to
have been making the noises when I heard them."

"I don't know what's wrong with me."

"You're hormonal."

"We haven't even been together a year and I've spent most of it
hormonal."

"I've got eight years experience knowing you're not always like
this." I laugh.

"I'm a mess."

"Not a big one though." I smile. She smiles and gives me a little
shove. "I'm sure it'll be gone soon." I kiss her and pull her close,
rubbing her back as she sighs. I don't know what to do for her right
now. She really is a mess. I think she needs some sleep. "Let's go
back to bed so you can go to sleep."

"She's going to want to eat soon."

"You've got bottles in the refrigerator, I'll feed her."

"You've got to go to work."

"I'll go in late. I can do that; I'm the boss."

We head back to bed and she shimmies up next to me in the bed. I drop
a kiss on her forehead and pull her close.

"I love you." She says. Every time she says that to me, it's music to
my ears. None of my previous relationships ever evolved to that
point, at least not for me. Can you imagine if I said that to Amy?
She would have eaten me for lunch for sure. Mandy...well, the Mandy I
know now is different than the Mandy I went out with, so that's hard
to say. But I never said that to her. I don't say it often to Donna,
but I say it now and she smiles. Donna's and my relationship has
always been more of what I do than what I say, at least on this end;
hers was what she said. I got pretty good at sifting through all the
misdirection to find out what she actually said.

I know, I know. How much more dysfunctional could we be? She had to
try to interpret the meaning behind my actions, and I had to
constantly read between the lines of what she said. You know what?
Even if we could just say what we meant all those years, I'm still
not sure we would have. I was pretty freaked out by my revelations in
Germany. What I wanted, what I needed was right in front of me all
that time. All that time, I had exactly what I wanted.

I often wonder what would have happened if I had said to her, "Hey,
Donna, I'm in love with you, but if we date, we'll lose all our
privacy and be followed everywhere. But now that you know that, can
you just not date for a while until we get out of here?" If I said
that, do you think she would have done it? I sort of think she would
have to be honest. But I couldn't say that. Because what if I did and
it went the other way and she quit? Well, she did quit actually.

I rub my eyes with my free hand and stare up at the ceiling. You know
what? I'm not going to think about that stuff anymore. It just makes
me crazy. I mean, it made me crazy for eight years. So, here I am
now. She's in bed with me, married, mine forever, and I'm still
letting all that go round and round in my head. I smile as a memory
pops into my head. She once told me that the definition of insanity
was doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different
result. I think we were talking about Mexico at the time and she said
it was time for some tough love and I told her to go home and get her
equipment. But yet, here I am, constantly playing all this over and
over in my head and wondering if there could have been a different
result along the way. I still hate it when she's right.

TBC


Title: Transitions (24/24)
Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.
Timing: Post-Tomorrow
Series Rating: R (This one's got some "adult content")
Feedback: Yes, please.
A/N Time to wrap this one up. Hope you've enjoyed it. Thanks for all
your great feedback along the way. So, this series will go out with a
bang. He, he, he. Get it? Yeah, okay. Anyway, let's get to it then.
It's actually not *that* dirty. I mean, it's still on this list after
all.

DONNA'S POV

"A very pleasant Sunday morning to you, Mandy." Josh says entering
the living room. "If I knew you were going to be gracing us with your
presence, I'd have put on some pants." Yeah. You heard him right.
That's my man, ladies; try not to all jump him at once. He's just
wandered in making his first appearance of the day, in a t-shirt and
boxers. Had this been any other woman, I'd be a little annoyed with
him at the moment. But it's Mandy, and I have to remember that she
has seen him naked.

"Gee, Josh." Mandy deadpans. "You'd go through all that trouble just
for me? I just don't know what to say."

"You don't know what to say, Madeline?" Josh replies. "Is it suddenly
cold in here, or is that just hell freezing over?" Mandy arches an
unamused brow in his direction.

"All right, children." I reply breaking it up. Josh settles down on
the chair and a half adjacent to the couch with his coffee and looks
at me. I guess he's wondering what Mandy's doing here on a
Sunday. "I'm going back to work tomorrow. Mandy's going out of town
for a week. She was updating me on some stuff."

My maternity leave is up and I'm rather depressed about it. There's a
day care over at OEOB for government employees that we have her
enrolled in, though Josh has still been looking around at private
ones. Frankly, I'm a little nervous about private day cares. The one
Lacy will be going to is in a building with TONS of security. If
she's going to be remotely in the public eye, I'd like many armed
guards between her day care and the front door. I thought I'd be
happy to be going back to work, but I've really enjoyed my time home
with Lacy. I think Josh has come to like it, too, but he's not brave
enough to suggest I do it permanently. Though I do plan on sitting
down with Helen to discuss some kind of arrangement where I can bring
things home. I mean, I usually work 8 to 6 as it is, so it's not like
I work a real long day like I used to. But I kind of want to try to
figure something out where I can be home a little more. I don't want
to give up my job by any means. I like what I do. I love where I
work. But I really didn't anticipate becoming *this* attached to our
daughter. The thought of leaving her for any amount of time is just
breaking my heart. And the East Wing just isn't as unpredictable on a
day-to-day basis as the West Wing is.

Mandy bids us good bye and I wish her a safe trip. When she's gone, I
turn to Josh.

"So, Mandy just told me an interesting piece of gossip." I broach.
Actually, I was kind of back and forth whether or not to share this
little piece of information with him. I thought it might have been
spiteful of me. But then again, given the subject of the information,
I certainly don't owe her any loyalty, Sisterhood or not.

"Is it something of actual fact or just gossip?" he asks. One thing
Josh has never been interested in throughout the entire course of our
relationship is office gossip. Information I have from actual
concrete back up facts was always one thing, the rumor mill was
something else entirely. I always scoffed when he'd turn down his
nose at my gossip, until I found out that he and I had actually been
ongoing fodder for office gossip for years. That kind of pisses me
off. I mean, if I was going to do the time, I should at least have
been doing the crime. You know what I mean?

"Seems your Legislative Director is about to get offered a job from
the National Federation of Women Legislators." I say. Good riddance,
Amy! Well, I guess not entirely, but she'll be out of the building.

"This is fact?" He asks with eyebrows raised.

"The director over there is a friend of Mandy's." I reply.

"I'll miss her so."

"I thought you'd be heartbroken."

"I think I'll actually throw her a Bon Voyage party."

"How thoughtful of you."

"I bet Carol will be more than happy to handle that."

"Watch out for the `Bye Amy, Don't let the door hit you in the ass on
your way out' banners." I laugh. Carol HATES Amy. She's going to be
really happy about this. Even if it does mean that she has to deal
with Donald Sherman and his little spit bubbles for a while.

"There's actually banners that say that?"

"You can get them made, Joshua." He seems like he's actually
considering this. Can you imagine seeing that in the Mural Room?
Sometimes I wish someone would be that brave just to see if it would
slide by.

He stretches out and suddenly, I remember what I had planned for
today. Actually, they were my plans for last night, but he got stuck
at work and rolled through the door at 4 a.m., which is why he got up
so late today. He looks at me with surprised interest as I stand up,
cross over to him, and straddle his lap.

"Hi ya." He says.

"You were home late last night."

"I was home early this morning." He corrects.

"I had plans."

"Did you?"

"I had my six week check up yesterday." I say running my hands along
his chest and leaning over to give a light nip under his ear.

"I take it you're good to go then?" he squeaks.

"Mmm-hmm." I purr. I have a confession to make. I'm a little scared
of having sex again because the doctor told me it was going to hurt
like hell, like worse than your first time ever. So, that's freaking
me out a bit. But my plan here is to do it the first time so I can
move to the second time where I'm hoping it'll be good again. Know
what I mean here? I've decided not to share this plan with Josh.
He'll flip out if he finds out he's about to hurt me.

He's taken my shirt off and is now running his hands up and down my
back while kissing along my collarbone. He goes right for my hot
spots. I mean, we haven't gone six weeks totally cold turkey here;
we've certainly had our fun along the way. Did you actually think we
could go six weeks and keep our hands off each other? Remember
CJ's "Everything But" sex education report? Yeah. That's been us. But
now we get the but part. Wait a minute. That didn't sound right. It
made sense in my head.

"Too much clothes." I murmur, pulling his shirt over his head.

"We're going to have to be stealthy here, Donna." He says between
kisses. "She'll know we're up to something." Lacy he means. She's
interrupted all our fun since we started having fun again. It's like
she *knows.*

"You've never been able to be stealthy or quiet, Joshua." I pant as
he's now worked his way to my breasts.

He stops and looks at me. "I have to tell you, Donna," he says. "I've
never been loud before you."

"Really?" I ask. Hmm...this is interesting news.

"You've got access to two references, ask them." He says.

Wow. That's hot.

"Am I also the one that made you multi-orgasmic?"

"Mmm-hmm." He mumbles into my chest.

I'm da woman! What? Oh, like *you've* never celebrated your sexual
conquest over someone? Just because I'm a woman I'm supposed to be
more timid or something? Of course, it should be noted that he's the
only man that I've ever had four orgasms in one go with. But he
already knows that.

"I'm quite a talented woman." I say.

"Mmm-hmm." He smirks again. He shifts and yelps. "Ow! Shit!"

"What?"

He reaches underneath him. "Baby monitor up my ass," he mumbles
tossing it to the floor, and we take this opportunity to divest each
other of our pants.

"Wait a minute." He says as I settle back onto his lap.

"What?"

"This is going to hurt you." Shit. Why do I get the husband that's
got to read stuff anyway? Why couldn't I just have one of those
blissfully clueless ones?

"Yes." I sigh.

"Donna!"

"Josh, if you ever want to have sex again, it has to be done." I say
sternly. He looks a little shocked by my commanding tone. "This is
why I'm on top. I'll take the lead."

He gives me a wicked grin. "Holy shit you're hot right now. Do you
have a whip, too?"

I rise up a little and slowly impale myself on him.

FUCK THIS HURTS!!

I yelp and bite my lip against the pain, clutching his shoulders with
a force that I don't think I've used before, except for maybe child
birth.

"Donna." He says quickly.

"Shut up and don't move for a minute." I whimper. I try to hide the
pain from my voice, but he can see the tears.

"Donna, please let's stop."

"No."

"Donna." He's begging now.

"Shut the hell up." I order smacking him in the head. He wraps his
arms around me and kisses my forehead as I begin to relax a little. I
shift a bit.

OW! Damn! I wince again.

Okay. But that time it wasn't as bad.

"Okay, okay. Take it easy." He says softly stroking my hair. He's
quiet for a minute. "Hey, Donna?"

"Yeah?"

"I think they gave you the husband stitch."

"What?" What the hell is he talking about?

"That extra stitch to make you tighter." He says smiling. "Cuz this
feels awesome!"

"Joshua!"

"Well, one of us should have fun, right?"

I take my death grip off his shoulders and rub the tears from my
eyes. I know you all think he's nuts, but he's just totally calmed me
down. I look down at him and he rubs the tears off my cheeks with his
thumbs.

"I love you." He says softly. "Thank you for making me so happy."
Which of course now deserves a kiss from me. I told you he says it
when it means the most. The pain has subsided and I begin to move
against him.

"Oh, look who's decided to get the show on the road." He murmurs
while placing wet open-mouthed kisses along my neck.

"Shut up or you'll be left behind." I retort increasing my speed. I
have to say, that I can't say this is all that enjoyable for me, but
like I said, I have to get this over with so I can go back to the
mind exploding sex that I've become used to with Josh. He, on the
other hand, seems to be all about this husband stitch. Well, if it's
not going to be great for me, the least I can do is make sure it's
great for him, so I give him a little clench.

"Oh my God!" he shouts squeezing his eyes shut and burying his face
in my neck. Yeah, kegels. And that's that. Six weeks and a tight wife
will do that to you, I suppose.

"Josh?" I ask after a pause.

"Don't talk to me right now, Donna." He says. Would you look at that?
Even when I'm not in my top form I can incapacitate him.

"Joshua." I coo.

"Shut up, it's still going." He hisses.

Hell, yeah!

He drops his forehead down to my chest and lets out a breath.

"About done now?" I smile.

"Oh my God," he sighs pulling us down into the cushions and pulling
the quilt that's hanging over the chair over us. "I think my head
exploded."

"Something exploded."

"I hope you stay that tight for a while."

"Me, not so much." I curl down into his chest and we stretch our legs
out onto the ottoman in front of the chair and a half.

"You okay?" he asks brushing the hair from my face and kissing my
forehead.

"Yeah."

I gotta say I've never been better actually. I lean up a little and
look over to the bassinette where Lacy is still soundly sleeping, and
then I look back down at Josh. He's looking up at me and the look in
his eyes is just simply amazing. There's peace and tenderness there,
contentment and love. There's no worry or fear, which I normally see
behind his gaze, even when he doesn't intend for it to be there.
Right now is one of those rare moments where he lets his guard
completely down and immerses himself in the serenity he's found.

Armed secret service agents at the front door notwithstanding, I must
say I haven't felt this safe in a long time. More than just a
physical safety, it's an emotional safety that over the last year
seemed to have formed an orb around me. Well, us really. And it's
increased to add our daughter. I settle back down against his chest.
He's drifted off to sleep. I listen to his heart beat for a little
while and hear the baby breathing evenly in her bassinette next to
us. I smile and join my family in a nap.

THE END