~DONNA'S POV~
Okay. So it's quite possible I made the biggest mistake of my life.
Leaving Josh – I mean the campaign for this guy? Someone please tell
me what I was thinking. I was doing well on the campaign. I was
learning a lot from Josh. And he was a lot of fun. They all were. I
really miss Sam and CJ. CJ was my girl. I want to be her one day.
Successful, beautiful, REALLY well dressed. Hell, I even miss Toby.
And right before I left, Toby "hired" himself an assistant, Ginger,
who was from New Jersey, and she was a LOT of fun. She was the
closest person on the campaign to my age.
I don't miss Mandy though. What a bitch she is! She and Josh used to
date and so now she struts around like she's got some kind of claim
on him and it gives her lifetime privileges to own him. I tried to
like her, but from the moment I was introduced to her, she was never
nice to me. CJ says it's because Josh introduced me as "his new
assistant" and that's when Mandy formed her obviously bad opinion of
me. I don't get it myself.
Three weeks ago, I told Josh I was coming back home to try and work
things out with David. Josh's response was, "Let me get you drunk and
talk you out of making the biggest mistake of your life." Since I
like hanging out with Josh and the others, I accepted. They all gave
it their best shot. Well, not Toby. He told them all to shut up and
stop trying to run my life. But I hugged them all and left anyway.
And now Josh gets to say I told you so.
And he will, too. It's not like I've gone these three weeks without
hearing from him. We've emailed and we've talked on the phone, more
than occasionally. Josh and I did really well together. Six weeks I
was with that campaign, and by the end of the second day he was
running on time, he was up to speed on what they were meeting about,
his office was clean, well, when we got back from South Carolina, I
cleaned his office. I spent the entire bus ride briefing him. Though
he seemed rather...shocked...by my note cards. He seemed to
eventually get used to them, either that or he was just resigned to
their existence and shut up about it.
I think he was a little surprised to discover I was a food stealer.
I'll be honest with you, it wasn't until I met Josh. See, stealing
food off of someone's plate requires a certain level of trust and
comfortableness with that person. I would never steal food off of,
say, Leo's plate. I might be inclined to steal something off Sam's
plate, but I like stealing Josh's stuff. It just seems kind
of...intimate. And the fact that he doesn't seem to mind...I don't
know. It's something. Maybe it establishes some kind of connection.
So, here I am, sitting in the ER of the University of Wisconsin
Medical Center waiting for my so-called boyfriend to come get me.
Sally Sidelman and I were driving back from Borders when someone hit
us and now I've got a sprained ankle. Sally's going to be here longer
though; she's up in x-ray. I should have just called my parents to
get me, but I called David because...well, I don't really know now.
I think when I called him, two and a half hours ago, that I called
him because I thought he loved me. I mean, that's what he told me
three weeks ago. He loved me and he missed me and he was really sorry
about that nurse, he didn't know what he was thinking. Hmm...I'm
thinking not so much. I'm now thinking that he probably had a major
utility shut off in my absence, like, you know, cable. Suddenly not
getting the Playboy channel and ESPN probably makes a guy miss the
girl in his life that paid for all that.
I was discharged two and a half hours ago, and now I'm sitting in the
ER waiting room for him when my cell phone rings. Yeah, I know, they
told me to turn it off, and I forgot. Sue me. It's not like anyone in
the building's life support is getting shut off now by the signal
waves from my phone, they just find it annoying and disturbing to the
other patients.
I look at the caller i.d. and smile because it's Josh.
"Hey!" I greet quietly into the phone; maybe I can hide the fact that
I'm on it.
"Guess where I am." he announces with great bravado.
"Madison, Wisconsin?" I reply.
"How'd you know that?" he asks incredulously.
"I hid a locator chip on you when you were sleeping one night." I
quip.
"Really? See anything you like while you were hunting for a good
hiding place?"
He's such a freaking flirt, I swear to God. It's amazing we got
anything done with the amount of time we spent flirting. "Bantering"
is what Sam calls it.
"The Governor's speech was pretty well advertised, Josh." I say like
he's frustrated me already.
"Were you going to go?" Uh, miss the chance to see him? Not likely.
"Of course I was going to go!" I say like he should have known
better. Well, actually he should have known better. "If I can get the
hell out of the hospital between now and the speech tomorrow night."
He's quiet for a second. "I'm sorry. Did you say get out of the
hospital?"
"Yeah."
"What the hell are you doing in the hospital?"
"Car accident. I sprained my ankle. I was discharged two hours ago,
and I'm waiting for my ride."
"You didn't call your parents to come get you?" Yeah, I know this
particular tone of his voice. He knows exactly who I'm waiting on.
"No." I sigh. "I called David." Here it comes...
"Is Madison so big that it takes two hours to get from one side to
the other?"
"No." I admit. I mean, my opinion of the man pretty much matches
Josh's right now.
"What hospital are you at?"
"University of Wisconsin Medical Center."
"How long does it take to get there from the Sheraton?" he asks.
"Um, I don't know. 15 minutes."
"I'll be there in ten." he says hanging up. I stare at the phone a
second in awe. I'm going to get to see Josh? Now? Well, in 10
minutes? There's nothing I can do about this. I can't get ready. I'm
in jeans and a long-sleeve t-shirt, my hair is up in a ponytail. I
mean, David was going out with friends tonight, I wasn't expecting to
see him, so I didn't take too much care with how I was dressing to
run to Borders with Sally.
I look at the clock on my cell phone. 9:48 p.m. At 9:58 p.m., I'll be
in Josh's presence again. I have butterflies in my stomach. Why do I
have butterflies in my stomach? I can't have butterflies. Josh is my
boss. Well, Josh WAS my boss. Now he's...I don't know what he is.
He's my Josh. Seven minutes later, David saunters into the ER.
"Hi, Dr. Daley." a nurse smiles at him. Yeah, he's doing his
residency here. He just walked in like he owned the friggin' place.
So now David's here, and Josh is on his way.
Oh, this should be good.
"Sprained ankle, huh?" he says walking up to me.
"Where the hell have you been?" I demand.
"You know I was supposed to meet the guys." he says. "I stopped to
tell them I couldn't hang around."
"It took you two and a half hours to tell them that?"
"Well, I had a beer while I was telling them that." he says
shrugging.
"A beer?" I'm queen of nursing beers and it doesn't take me two and a
half hours to get through one.
"Well maybe it was more than one." he smiles at me. That smile would
have worked before, not tonight. The ER doors open and Josh comes in.
I look down at my phone. 10:00. It took him 12 minutes.
And he's got CJ with him! Woo-hoo! Bonus! They head right for me.
"Are you all right?" he demands. I nod smiling. I can't believe he
got here in 12 minutes. It's taking every fiber of my being to keep
me in this chair and NOT allow myself to propel my body at him.
"Okay. Obviously we just can't leave you to your own devices." CJ
jokes. She leans down and hugs me. Josh is eyeing up David. "But on
the other hand, we can't leave US to own devices either. Josh drove
like an idiot to get here."
"I did not!" Josh exclaims.
"You ran a red light!" CJ protests.
"It wasn't red when I started to go through it." Josh gets defensive.
"Then why the hell did I scream, Josh! That's a red light?" CJ shoots
back.
God, I really missed these guys. These two are ALWAYS fighting. Well,
actually, CJ is always fighting with all three of them. They're
constantly giving her a hard time. That's why I wish I could go
back...you know...to get CJ's back in a fight.
Yeah, okay. I don't believe that either. But I think I want to get
back to the fact that David had two beers while he was dawdling along
on his way to get me, and Josh ran a red light in his haste to get to
me.
"Who ARE you guys?" David finally asks. How rude was that?
"David, this is Josh and CJ."
"How do you know them?" he asks.
"From the campaign." I say. Josh's cell phone rings.
"It's the governor." he says to CJ, flipping the phone open and
putting it to his ear.
"Hi Governor." he says. A nurse is immediately on him for being on
the phone. Yeah, you guys are real observant. Nobody noticed me on
the phone 13 minutes ago.
"Sir, you can't talk on that here." the nurse says. Josh arches his
eyebrows at her.
"It's the Governor of New Hampshire." Josh says to her. "You might
have heard of him. He's running for President. I most certainly can
to talk to him in here."
"Josh." CJ warns and nods her head back to the doors. Josh rolls his
eyes and sighs loudly, but walks outside nonetheless.
"Are you guys volunteers, too?" David asks CJ as she sits down in the
seat next to me. CJ's eyes bug out of her head and her jaw drops.
"CJ has a masters degree in communications from Berkeley." I
say. "She's the campaign spokesperson. She's on television all the
time." He shrugs again. And Josh comes in. And I know that look in
David's eyes. He's wondering why if Josh and CJ are so important and
so high up on the campaign food chain, why they're bothering to come
get little old, insignificant, assistant me. These are all things I
didn't see before. Six weeks traveling with actual adults gives you a
different spin on things...that and you start using the word "spin."
"That was fast." CJ notes to Josh.
"He wanted to see how Donna was." Josh smiles at me.
"He confuses you with Sam, but he remembers Donna's name?" CJ
laughs,
though I think that was more for David than a dig at Josh. David was
pretty obvious with that condescending look he just gave me.
"Must have been that hour you spent on the bus talking to him about
national parks." Josh smiles at me. "He says vacation's over; time to
come back to work."
"He thinks I'm on vacation?" I ask them.
"We may have told him that." CJ hedges. I can't believe it. They left
the door open for me. All I can do is smile at them.
"All right. Well, can we get out of here, Donna, before they make me
work?" David sighs.
"We got it." Josh says.
"I drove all the way down here on my night off." David says to me.
"Yeah, well we just spent seven hours on a bus and we managed to get
here in less than 15 minutes." Josh says. Is it no wonder I'm in love
with his man?
"It's all right, David." I say to the guy I'm suppose to love. "I'll
go with them. You can go back to your friends."
"And go where?" he demands. CJ raises her eyebrows at his tone; Josh
looks like he's ready to beat him up.
I look over at Josh and CJ. CJ nods at me; Josh smirks. "The
Sheraton." I answer.
"So you're leaving me again." David concludes. I sigh. Why can't he
just go away? He probably hasn't even stopped seeing that nurse. "For
this guy?" He throws a thumb in Josh's direction. Now both CJ AND
Josh look vastly amused and turn their eyes expectantly back at me.
"Even as only my boss he's a better boyfriend than you are." I shoot
back. CJ now throws a hand over her mouth to keep from squealing and
Josh looks...proud?
"I HAVE heard of you, you know." David says now turning his attention
to Josh, who merely raises his eyebrows at him. He's probably trying
to figure out whether to punch David, or just cut him off at the
knees. "You've left quite the string of women behind. Girl at every
campaign stop. Isn't that what the gossip columns say?"
Nice try, David. Josh is probably the sweetest guy I know, but he's a
mess at relationships. He'll tell you all about it. Josh figures out
that he likes a girl, and then he has no idea what to do. He has
always been so focused on his job, he doesn't generally have the
spare attention for a girlfriend, which is why he said he and Mandy
didn't work. Well, that and she's mean to him.
"David," I say softly. "You should remember that you work here. If
you want to cause a scene with me, it's only going to be ugly for
you. I'm going home. With them. You can think whatever you want. I
don't particularly care anymore."
I stand up and accidentally put too much pressure on my injured
ankle. I fall right into Josh's arms. He doesn't immediately release
me. I know the look he's giving me. It's dangerous. It's one of the
reasons I tried to work it out with David. He doesn't look at me the
same way he looks at CJ, or Dr. Bartlet, or Margaret. And I would
imagine that I don't look at him the way I look at Sam or Toby. I
sure as hell never looked at David the way I look at Josh.
When I look at Josh, my breath catches a little and my stomach gets
butterflies. Josh is a good man, with a good soul and it's rarely
seen by others. Don't get me wrong. I don't have total blinders on
here. Josh is probably the most egotistical person I've ever met. But
the more I'm subjected to his ego, quite honestly, the more I think
we're going to win this election. We have to. Why? Because Josh said
so. And Josh always seems to get what he wants.
Josh and I have always been different than everyone else. We're
pretty open with each other, flirty, touchy, we have fun, he's always
teaching me stuff. Sam told me to pick his brain about politics every
chance I got, and I do. And he loves to talk about it. But it's not
in a know-it-all sort of way, which is surprising given the high
opinion Josh has of himself professionally.
And he spent seven hours on a bus, and instead of trying to get some
sleep, he hijacked a car and drove to the hospital in a strange city
to get to me.
I've never worked as someone's assistant before, but I'm pretty sure
that's not the way bosses act.
"You all right there, Donnatella?" he asks softly. His arms are
pretty tight around me. I'd hazard a glance over to CJ to see what
she thinks of this particular position, but that would entail taking
my eyes off of Josh, and I have no particular interest in doing that
at this second. We're not just looking at each other, we're
communicating. He missed me, and it's sick how much I missed him the
past three weeks. And now we both know it.
Suddenly, things are clear to me. I wrap my arms around his neck in
an impulsive hug. "Take me home with you." I say softly so only he
can hear.