On a Roll : The first Easter in the
Santos White House brings stress
to Josh and Donna's relationship.
Title: On a Roll

Category: Humor

Time Period: First year of the Santos Administration

Rating: Everybody

Disclaimers: Don't own them, make nothing from
them, but I am high on sugar right now.



7 DAYS BEFORE EASTER



"You have to come, Josh, it's a very serious White
House tradition." Donna insisted.



"Which I managed to elude the entire time I worked
for President Bartlet as Deputy Chief of Staff. Did you
honestly think I would be lining up for an egg now
that I'm Chief of Staff?" Josh argued.



"This has nothing to do with your position and
everything to do with mine. I planned this event from
start to finish, and it would mean a lot to me if you
were there to experience it with me." Donna pouted,
but just a little bit; no need to bring out the big guns
yet.



"It's a PR event…for kids and their doting parents. I'm
sure you'll do fine." Josh turned back to the file on
his desk.

Donna crossed her arms and tapped her foot.



"I'm sorry was there something else?" he asked with
a smirk.



"No, I'm sure you can be an ass all by yourself in
here." Donna exited as Lou entered.



"Whoa, what was that all about?" Lou asked Josh.



"You really want to know?" Josh returned.



"Not really, no. Simons has left the reservation. Sam
is on it but I thought you'd want to know."



"The man is going to be the bane of our existence
through this whole term, isn't he?" Josh ran his
hands over his face.



"Yeah, he really wanted that cabinet position, but no,
you couldn't give it to him and now our legislative
agenda had been hijacked. Couldn't you make him
Ambassador to something?" Lou considered.



"I can't make him Ambassador to anything. Let Sam
have a run at him, if he runs into a wall, tell him to let
me know. And Lou?" he stops her as she's about to
leave. "Nice job on the speech to labor yesterday.
The whole event ran like a Swiss watch."



"Thanks." Lou responded with a nod of her head, but
as she turned the corner out of his office he saw her
fist pump in the air and a quiet "yes!" came from the
hall. He really did work with a bunch of screwballs.



5 DAYS BEFORE EASTER



"Carol!" Josh hollered for his executive assistant.
"Can you get me the file on the clean air initiative for
the conference call? What time does it start?"



"You have 2 hours to review it; they'll be calling
through at 5." Carol told him as she handed him the
file.



"Are you sure? I thought it was earlier than that?"
Josh asked confused.



"It was but there was a conflict for two people on the
call, so I pushed it back."



"That's not right. I have a thing with Donna at 5:30."
Josh checked the calendar on his desk. "A cocktail
reception for `Families for Universal Health Care' in
the East room at 5:30." Josh smiled at his ability to
remember the date and time, but when he looked up
Carol was looking away. "What?"



"Donna cancelled." She said quietly.



"She cancelled the event? There were like 400
people coming!" Josh noted.



"No, she cancelled your date. She gave me a very
specific message." Carol ran back to her desk and
read it to him verbatim. "Tell Josh I'm cancelling our
date; it is just an East Wing event catering to kids
and their doting parents." Carol grimaced as
she finished it.



"Carol, will you call the First Lady's Chief of Staff and
tell her on my way over?" Josh got up determinedly.



"I don't know if her schedule is clear." Carol
protested.



"I'll clear her schedule, Carol, just tell her I'm on my
way." He grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair
and strode purposefully toward the East Wing. A
couple different staffers tried to
intercept him, but the patented Lyman glare had
them all backing away.

By the time he'd arrived at Donna's office he'd
worked up a full head of steam. He passed Donna's
assistant without a word and banged the door open.
Donna didn't even look up from the group of
people she was meeting with, but continued to
speak as if there had been no interruption at all.



"…but attendance has varied between 25 and 35
thousand over the past ten years, so what do we
have in terms of contingencies?" she
asked one of her staff who just gaped at Josh.
"Greg, I asked you what we have in terms of
contingencies. Ignore the rude man in my
doorway."



"The rude man in your doorway is the White House
Chief of Staff, and I need the room…now." Josh
asserted and got into a war of wills
with Donna. While Donna held his gaze, her staff
quickly got up and out of the line of fire.



"Don't you ever come into my office and throw your
weight around like that again. You undermine my
authority. You can do that all you
want in the West Wing, but don't ever do that in the
East Wing again." Donna stood up and crossed her
arms.



"Then don't relay personal messages through my
professional staff. Carol felt awkward as hell reading
your message to me and I felt-"



"Embarrassed? Belittled?" Donna offered. "Strangely
enough that's exactly how I feel every time you put
down the job I do here or I have to explain to
someone how you are far too important to be
bothered with the events I do."



"Donna, that is not –"



"That is exactly what you do, Josh. I know you're an
important
man; the entire world knows you're an important
man. Does putting down the job I do make you feel
more important?"



That one simple sentence took all the wind out of
Josh's sails. He stopped and took a deep breath,
wanting to say this just right. He'd
already messed up pretty badly he realized.



"Donna, nothing could be more untrue. There is no
one in this building, East or West Wing, who has a
better appreciation for the job you do; whatever it
is." He uncrossed her arms so he could take her
hand. "When we first met, you told me that I might
find you valuable. There has never been a greater
understatement. Personally, professionally, I am
where I am and who I am today because of you.
I'm sorry I made you feel belittled." He kissed her
hand.



"It makes it awfully hard to stay pissed at you when
you say things like that you know." Her mouth
quirked. "I'm probably going to have to replace Greg
after the coronary you gave him."



"Lose him; the guy obviously can't function under
pressure." He joked. "You finish your meeting. Since
my afternoon got reshuffled I now have a conference
call scheduled for 5, so I may be a little late to the
thing, but I will get there, okay?"



"Okay." She walked him to the door, and before he
could open it, she pushed hum against it and kissed
him senseless. "See you at the thing." She told him
as she opened the door and pushed him out.


3 DAYS BEFORE EASTER AT THE HOME OF JOSHUA
LYMAN



"I'm just saying that a bunny in a tux is a disturbing
image and it might scare the children. It's your call."
Josh teased his girlfriend.



"It's a little late for that warning Joshua. There are
35,000 wooden eggs all embossed with the bunny tux
picture and `Happy Easter from the White House' in
my office awaiting distribution." Donna said drolly.



"It's great to know this is where our tax dollars go."
Josh started in but then noticed the look on Donna's
face. "I'm doing it again?"



"You're doing it again. This is a very big deal, Josh.
This is one of the longest standing traditions at the
White House. It began in 1878 and it is one of the
most anticipated events in the District."



"Oh please, tell me more." Josh said sarcastically.



"If you insist." Donna told him tongue in cheek and
sat next to him on the couch. "The Easter egg roll
tradition started with real eggs, progressed to
plastic eggs, and then to its' latest
incarnation, the wooden egg." Josh literally groaned
and Donna kissed his neck. "Although the First
Family is the official host of the event, it's been
hosted by cabinet members, Vice-Presidents and
their wives and even First Family pets." She told him
as her lips moved down to the v formed from his
open shirt. He leaned back and pulled her on top of
him.



"I think I may have underestimated the appeal of the
Easter egg roll." He murmured as he returned her
kisses.



"It has only been cancelled during World Wars and
the occasional rainy days." She informed him as she
unbuttoned his shirt and pulled hers over her head.
"Otherwise every Monday morning following Easter
the tradition has rolled on."



"That's perseverance." He agreed as he too, was rid
of his shirt. "Although I'm beginning to worry that talk
of the Easter Egg Roll may get me sexual aroused at
inappropriate times; like in the sit room-" he
suddenly stopped and tried to sit up. "Wait a
second, did you say Monday morning?"



"Josh, you've worked in the White House for 8 years.
You're telling me you've never noticed that the
Easter Egg Roll occurred every Monday after
Easter?" Donna cocked her head at him.



"No?" Josh replied. "Monday is a work day Donna; a
long, serious work day. I mean going on Sunday was
one thing, but Monday…" Josh protested.



Donna pushed him back into the sofa cushions.
"Children collect the wooden eggs as well as eggs
that are specially marked that they can turn
in for prizes and candy." Donna unbuckles his belt
and pulls it from his slacks.



"Well…Candy and prizes…I'm sure Carol can clear an
hour or two…" and that was the last word spoken for
some time.



EASTER MONDAY: THE WHITE HOUSE LAWN



Helen Santos had just finished her remarks
welcoming everyone to the White House for the
Easter Egg Roll when Josh rushed up to Donna's
side.



"I'm here, I'm here. They didn't start yet, did
they?' Josh asked all out of breath.



"No, the First Lady just finished her welcome
speech." Donna kissed his cheek; very happy that
he'd kept his promise. It wasn't that Josh broke his
word, but the promise had been made under
a form of duress.



"Gorgeous weather; no calling it on a count of rain
today." He noted.



"I wasn't exactly responsible for the weather,
Joshua." She laughed.



"If anyone could make the sunshine from sheer force
of will, it would be you." He smiled at her until
several children ran screaming between them
anxious to be the first to find eggs.



"There should be traffic signs or something.
Someone's going to get killed." They were awfully
fast for such little creatures. It wasn't long before
children were running back to their parents to
show off what they'd found. There was a table set up
along the South lawn where they could redeem
those special eggs for prizes handed out by
the First Lady and Donna kept an eye on the table to
make sure everything ran smoothly.



She and Josh wandered through the yard watching
the children and making comments about the
parents. After about 30 minutes one of the staff came
running toward Donna.



"Donna, one of the children has brought an egg to
the redemption table with a strange note on it. Will
you come take a look?" Donna nodded and headed
to the table with Josh in tow. When they got there, a
little girl in pig tails and a gingham dress held her
prize in both hands and only reluctantly agreed to
hand it over to Donna.



The message on the egg read: Bring this egg to
Donna Moss to receive your prize.



Donna was flummoxed. She had never seen this egg
before. It was wooden, but it didn't have the
embossing that the eggs she ordered for the
White House all had on them. On the side she
noticed a tiny clasp and after working at it a moment,
managed to open the egg and inside was a
diamond ring. The words `Marry me' were written
inside the upper half of the egg. Her eyes shot to
Joshua who was grinning at her.



"Is that my prize?" the little girl asked.



"No, I hope that's my prize," Josh answered, "but I do
have one for you." He pulled out another egg from
his pocket and offered it to the girl. She twisted it
open to find candy and a plastic ring
inside.



"Thanks!" she smiled and ran off to find her family.



"Joshua…I don't know what to say." Donna blinked
back tears.



"Say yes." He encouraged. "Tell me you'll marry me."



"Yes, I'll marry you." She kissed him on the South
Lawn for all to see. "You know, you took a bit of a
risk putting a diamond ring in a wooden egg on the
White House lawn."



"Nah, the kid's a ringer." He laughed at his own pun.



"Excuse me?" Donna didn't get it.



"That was Eric Baker's Granddaughter. I passed it to
her on the way over to you when I got here." Josh
said smugly. Donna looked in the direction the young
girl had gone and saw Vice-President Baker
standing next to her smiling and waving at them.



"Joshua Lyman, you devil. Just when did this idea
occur to you?" she inquired.



"After Valentine's Day. The President and I were
discussing the opportune time to propose and he-"



"You discussed this with President of the United
States!" Donna turned red.



"Well you both insist I run with him 3 times a week
and he refuses to talk business when we run, so
yeah…we talk about you and the First Lady
and…does it really matter?"



"And you've been planning this since Valentine's?"
Josh sensed a trap in here somewhere, but couldn't
figure out where yet.



"Yeah? I had to special order the egg, they don't just
come like that you know." he insisted.



"So all the time you were giving me grief about this
event…when you pretended you didn't even know
the day it occurred…?"

`Ah, there it is' he thought `the trap'; she was pissed
because he tricked her.



"I'd just like you to keep in mind how thoughtful and
romantic my proposal was and that it wouldn't have
been either if I hadn't pretended ignorance and
disdain for your event."



"So you lied to me for my own good?" she asked, but
Josh could hear the smile in her voice so he figured
he was in the clear.



"Damn, woman, the way you spin. We've got to find
you an office to run for; maybe out of Connecticut."
He mused as he put his arm around her and walked
her back toward the building.



"We'd have to establish residency there first." She
reminded him.



"All in good time, Donnatella. All in good time." he
kissed her cheek as they entered the building. "We
have the rest of our lives."



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