“The man demands I bring his ex-girlfriend out to meet him for dinner and then
he’s late. Typical Republican power trick.” Josh groused.
“Like you haven’t used it often enough. Do I need to warn you again about what
will happen if you don’t behave yourself, Joshua?”
“No. I’m not some recalcitrant child, Donna.”
“I’m just saying that he did us a favor, when he had no reason to and-“
“He did have a reason to.”
“And what exactly was that reason in your warped little mind?” Donna
demanded.
Josh looked away from her and busied his hands playing with the silverware.
“Oh my God. You do NOT think he did that because of me.”
“No, not because of you…to get you back.”
“Josh Lyman I am not even going to dignify that statement with a response.”
“I am a man, Donna. I know how men think. He went way out on a limb for you.
You honestly think that your relationship had nothing to do with it?”
“I’d like to think it had everything to do with it. We did have a relationship, Josh,
whether you like it or not-“
“I do not.”
“And maybe because we did have a relationship, he felt that he wanted to help
me during a difficult, embarrassing time in my life. That doesn’t mean he wanted
anything from me in return.”
“Sure it does.”
“Why?”
“Because he’s a man; and a Republican man to boot.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“What is it you don’t believe?” asked Cliff as he took a seat at their table.
“Nothing.” Donna shot daggers at Josh.
“She’s having a hard time believing you might have ulterior motives for helping
her with the diary business.” Josh leveled his gaze at Cliff.
“I’d have to be a complete idiot to think I had a chance with her after I read her
diary.” Cliff responded. “Can we get on to our business now?”
“What exactly is ‘our business’? Josh asked ignoring the reference to the diary.
“I need you to talk to Leo about the deal on the table.” Cliff said without
preamble.
“What deal?”
“He was offered a deal last night; the President accepts a joint resolution in
exchange for dropping the rest of the hearings.” Cliff explained.
“What, you couldn’t do this before I had to testify?” Donna complained.
“Sorry, Donna, you’re not a big enough fish in this metaphor. He’ll listen to you,
Josh. Leo needs to take the deal. You know where Gibson was going with his
questions?”
Josh shot a quick look at Donna, to whom he had not given the details about
Leo.
“Would you like me to leave?” Donna snarked.
“No, I don’t think that would be wise.” Josh answered seriously. “Yeah, I know
where Gibson was going. Why did Bruno recess the hearings?”
“I asked him to.”
“Why would you do that?”
“I can promise you it had nothing to do with Donna.” Cliff said.
“Hey!” Donna objected.
“Leo won’t do it. He’d never ask the President to take a political hit so Leo could
avoid scandal.”
“I know. That’s exactly what Leo told us when we approached him last night.”
“So what do you expect me to do then…?” Josh’s expression changed as he
realized what Cliff was asking him to do. “You don’t seriously think I’ll do an end
run around Leo McGarry to the President, do you?”
“Yeah, I do. You know why? Because you want to spare Leo this humiliation as
much as anyone. And down deep, where you won’t admit it to anyone else,
especially a Republican whose motives you question, you want Jed Bartlet to
stand up and take responsibility for his decision to keep the M.S. a secret.”
Josh’s jaw clenched as he admitted to himself the damn Republican was right.
“You got the paperwork?” Josh asked him and Cliff produced a file folder. Josh
flipped through it. “Concurrent resolution H.R. 172…” Donna looked over at Cliff
while Josh reads it.
“I don’t like to sound stupid, but what does the joint resolution mean?”
“It’s a statement from Congress condemning the President for lying.” Cliff told
her. “The White House would have to let anyone who wanted to, vote for it. In
exchange, Congressional Republicans will drop the rest of the hearings;
everything. We can close the book on this whole ordeal.”
“Josh?” Donna asked him.
“I can take this to the President tonight, but I can’t guarantee how he’ll respond
to a bi-partisan vote calling him a liar as he’s going into a Presidential re-
election.” Josh noted.
“Understood. You want some dinner first?” Cliff asked.
“No, I’ll go over to the White House now.”
“Good. Donna and I will catch some dinner and you can call us with an update
after you see him.”
“Like hell…” Josh took Donna’s hand and pulled her from the table. Cliff grinned
as they left.
When they got to his car, Donna pouted. “You could have let me stay and eat. I’
m hungry.”
“Like hell.” Josh repeated.
“Are you concerned that he’d make sexual advances at a public restaurant?”
Donna teased.
“It’s not funny, Donna. You’re a beautiful, intelligent, funny woman. Why wouldn’
t he make sexual advances in a public restaurant?” Josh replied.
“You know, you can be really sweet sometimes when you’re acting like a
Neanderthal.”
“Shut up. I’m trying to concentrate.”
“On what?”
“On how I’m going to ask the President of the United States to accept a
Congressional censure for lying.”
“Okay, that’s more important right now.” Donna admitted. “It is the right thing to
do Josh.”
“I know that.”
“Then maybe you should start there.” She suggested.
Josh shot her a surprised look. “Maybe I should.” He agreed.
*************************************************
“I take the censure, and everything else goes away?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You trust this Calley?”
“As much as it is possible to trust a Republican lawyer. He went out on a limb for
Donna with the diary and he got Bruno to call a recess before Gibson could
smear Leo.” He noted.
“You want to talk to Leo or should I?” The President asked.
“I will. Margaret said he’s downstairs in the mess. Eventually, though, it’s going
to have to come from you.”
“Have Charlie set up the calls for the Congressional leadership while you talk to
Leo. I’ll run it by Leo once that’s done and he comes back upstairs.”
“Good enough, sir.”
“Thank you, Josh.”
“Thank you, Mr. President.”
“Oh and Josh?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Donna is a wonderful executive assistant. The data in that girl’s head…She’s
amazing.”
“Yes sir, she is.”
“I’m going to try to stump her on trivia about Weddings tomorrow.”
“Weddings, Mr. President?”
“Yeah, they’ve been on my mind a lot recently; probably because our
Anniversary is coming up. Anyway, I’ve been doing some research on the
subject and I think I can stump her tomorrow.”
Josh studied the President’s innocent expression carefully before replying,
tongue in cheek. “Good luck with that Mr. President.”
“Goodnight Josh.”
Goodnight? With thoughts of the President peppering his girlfriend about
Wedding trivia? He was a dead man.
*****************************************************
“Diamond engagement rings became the rage in the 15th century in Venice
when it was discovered that diamonds were the most durable substance known.”
“Uh-huh.” Josh replied absently. If had been like this for the last two days.
President Bartlet passed on wedding/engagement trivia to Donna and she
passed it on to Josh. Josh was sure it was payback for something, but he wasn’t
sure for precisely what.
“The term "tie the knot" goes back to Roman times. The bride would wear a
girdle that was tied in many knots which the groom had the "duty" of untying.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Sir Temulji Nariman and his wife Lady Nariman were hitched for a grand total of
86 years, although they did have a distinct advantage over most people. Both
were age five when they got married.”
“Hmmmm.” Josh continued to peruse his files for the budget sheet he needed.
“I think that may be a little too young, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh”
“You’re not even listening, are you?”
“Why? Is there a quiz coming up?” Josh looked up at her. “I can multi-task.”
“There’s been no evidence of that so far.” Donna quipped. “The average length
of a couple’s engagement is less than 1.5 years and the average cost of an
engagement ring is between 2 and 3 thousand dollars.”
“Should I be saving up my money, Donnatella?” Josh’s dimples were out now.
“I would think you’d be interested in purchasing new living room furniture, but
that’s just me.” Donna responded. “I was just telling you what the President
shared with me today.”
“Uh-huh.” Josh left his papers on the table and walked over to where she was
sitting, flipping through the television channels.
“I get the feeling that the President may have ulterior motives for bringing up
this particular subject with you.” He sat next to her, took the remote from her,
and turned off the television.
“Donna, do you want to get married?” he asked her point blank.
“Do you?” she responded quietly.
“I already am.”
“Excuse me?” Donna exclaimed.
“I mean…I FEEL like I already am. It feels like we’ve been together forever and I
can’t imagine a future without you in it. It’s just that this year has been a little
chaotic and I thought YOU might need some time to get used to the idea.”
“I’m pretty used to the idea already.” Donna smiled.
“You are, huh?” Josh smiled back.
“I’ve even started thinking about children.” Donna moved to sit on his lap. “I’d
like a few little children with big brown eyes and dimples.” She kissed him
thoroughly.
“I’ve heard sometimes it can take awhile to get pregnant.” Josh noted. “Maybe
we should step up the practicing, so when we’re ready…we’ll be…good at it.”
Josh suggested.
“I’ve always been a big believer in practice makes perfect.” Donna agreed and
‘practiced’ with Josh for the next couple hours.
****************************************************
“I need 10 minutes.” Josh told her as he walked toward the Oval.
“No.” Donna replied.
“No?”
“Sorry, no.” Donna didn’t even look up.
“But, Donna, I need 10 minutes to talk about India.”
“He doesn’t leave for India until next week, so it can’t be too pressing. He needs
to get out of the Oval and get some sleep.”
“Sleep? The President doesn’t need sleep; he only sleeps, like, 5 hours a night.”
“I know the feeling.” Donna muttered. “But he hasn’t been sleeping well the last
few nights and it’s beginning to show.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know, but he told Charlie he hasn’t slept at all in the last 3 days, so as
soon as he’s off the conference call, I’m shooing the President up to bed.”
“You really shouldn’t use the words “shooing” and “President” in the same
sentence, Donna.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. You can have 10 minutes tomorrow at 2:30?”
“2:30? You know, I really thought when I willingly allowed you to transfer here,
there would be some perks for me; like getting in whenever I wanted.” Josh told
her.
“You really should have known better, Joshua. And ‘willingly allowed me to
transfer’? That’s a complete joke, it took a Presidential order, and still you
pouted for 2 weeks.”
Josh smiled at the teasing reminder of the fuss he kicked up when the President
said he was stealing Donna from his Deputy Chief of Staff. He tilted his head
toward the Oval.
“Is he really okay?”
“I think he’s just exhausted. Hopefully, he can get some rest tonight and things
will be better for him tomorrow. Are you heading home now?”
“I…have one more meeting and then I’ll head home.” Josh hesitated and that
was all Donna needed to get suspicious.
“Do you need me to help you prep for it?” she smiled sweetly. “I could come
over to the bullpen and wait until you’re done. Then we could drive home
together.”
“No, that’s okay.” Josh said quickly. “It might go late and you had to be here
early this morning. You go ahead.” He started to walk out backwards toward the
door.
“Who’s the meeting with, Joshua?”
“Someone from the W.L.C. about the thing…”
“And you’re meeting in your office?”
“Not exactly. It seemed like a better idea to meet off campus for this meeting.”
“Tell me you are NOT meeting with Amy Gardner.”
“I’m not meeting with Amy Gardner.” He answered quickly.
“Liar!”
“Politician!”
“Joshua she has been trying to get her hooks in you for months.”
“That’s a little over the top.”
“She made up that whole problem with only getting 20.5 million instead of 21
million for paid family leave just to get you alone with her.”
“Paid Family Leave is a very serious issue, Donna.”
“So is living with someone Josh.”
“I couldn’t be living with Amy Gardner, Donna, I’m already living with you.”
“Not for long if you meet with Amy Gardner outside of regular business hours
and outside the office.” She threatened.
“Why is it okay for you to accept some nebulous dinner invitation from a former
lover, but I’m suspect for having a business dinner with the head of the W.L.C.?”
Donna’s face registered shock that Josh would throw Cliff in her face.
“That was completely different!” she whispered intently.
“Not to me it wasn’t. I still have to work with that man on the hill. How do you
think that makes me feel knowing he’s read every word of your diary?”
“That was hardly my choice was it?”
“It was your choice to sleep with him.”
“That’s enough, Josh. No more.” Donna went back to her desk and saw that the
phone light was off. “You’d better be on your way or you’ll be late for your
‘meeting’.” She said snidely as she knocked on the Oval door and entered.
Josh blew out an exasperated breath. How had things deteriorated so fast? One
minute they were bantering as usual and the next they were throwing out nasty
accusations at one another. He thought briefly about canceling with Amy;
Donna was right that she was making moves, but they needed the W.L.C.
support on several measures and nominations coming up. In the end, he
decided to go. She was going to have to learn to trust him a little more…and
maybe he’d have to do the same.
******************************************************
Josh got home a little before midnight and entered his apartment quietly so as
not to wake Donna. All the lights were off in the living room which furthered his
theory that she was already in bed, but when he approached the bedroom, he
could see a dim light shining underneath the closed bedroom door. He opened
it slowly and quietly. When he got inside he was surprised to find it empty. Then
he spotted something lying in the middle of the bed…Donna’s diary.
His heart sank. He didn’t mean for her to do this. He knew how humiliated she
had been that other people, including some strangers, had read her private
thoughts. He wasn’t trying to get her to let him read it. Hell, if he had wanted to
read it, he would have done it back when she and Sam had offered it to him.
Alright, sometimes he felt resentful about the fact that others…okay, Cliff, had
read it and he himself had no idea what she had written. It made him feel like he
was outside looking in. But he still didn’t feel right about invading her privacy.
Then another thought occurred to him. Donna wasn’t home. She had given up
her apartment the month before, and it was almost midnight now. Where could
she be? Not considering the late hour, he picked up the phone and started
dialing. She wasn’t with C.J., Sam hadn’t seen her, and neither Bonnie nor
Ginger could say where she might be. He was starting to get worried and
contemplating whether or not he should start calling hospitals when there was a
knock on the door. Josh ran to open it.
Outside his door stood a clearly inebriated Lord John Marbury and an equally
sauced Donnatella Moss. What the hell?
“Good evening, Joshua. May we come in?” Lord John asked politely.
“He’s come to read my diary.” Donna added as she swayed in the doorway.
“Uh-huh.” Josh opened the door and led Donna to the couch.
“You can fetch it for me, if you’re done with it, can’t you Joshua?”
“Sure. How about I get you some coffee and some Advil, too.”
“Okay, would you like some coffee, Lord John?” Donna turned flirtatious eyes to
him.
“No, thank you, fair Donnatella, coffee doesn’t agree with me, but if your man
had a small shot of Whiskey…?” Lord John suggested.
“He’s not my man and he doesn’t have Whiskey in his apartment…sensitive
system.” Donna whispered the last part like it was a secret.
“Oh, bad luck that. Well then I shall leave you in Josh’s capable hands and go
in search of some Whiskey elsewhere.” Lord John got up, kissed Donna’s hand
and walked in a fairly straight line toward the door. A horrible thought came to
Josh.
“You didn’t drive, did you your Lordship?”
“Heavens no! You people drive on the wrong side of the road here…very
dangerous. Goodnight, Joshua.”
“Goodnight, Lord Marbury.” Josh locked the door behind him and spotting
Donna lying prone on the couch, went to make coffee and find the Advil. She
was going to need it.
***********************************************
Donna opened her eyes and instantly regretted it. She wasn’t entirely sure, but
it felt like her head might have exploded. There’s only one thing that could
make this worse…
“Rise and shine! Time to get up and start the day.” Josh said in a voice both
loud and enthusiastic.
“Please…not so loud.” Donna whispered.
“Sure, sure. How about some breakfast? I could make some scrambled eggs?”
Donna’s stomach turned and began to revolt at nothing more than the thought
of eggs. If she had to look at or smell the eggs, it would be all over. Memories
started to come back to her; the fight with Josh outside the Oval office, Lord
John stopping by to see the President and asking her to drinks when he
learned the President had already gone to the residence, Donna stopping
home first to leave her diary out for Josh, and driving away from their apartment
feeling hurt and just a little bit guilty for her reaction to Josh’s business meeting
and for leaving with Lord John.
“No…thank you.” She managed.
“Then you’d better jump in the shower or you’re going to be late.” Josh told her.
“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she accused.
“Just a bit.” Josh admitted. “I was pretty concerned when I got home last night
and you weren’t here.
“Yeah…”
“Then when I saw your diary on the bed…Donna, I never meant for you to do
that.”
“You have to read it, Josh. I can’t have you throwing it in my face every time you
have to deal with Cliff or you’re resentful that Sam knows things you don’t.”
“I won’t read it. And I won’t throw it in your face anymore. I can’t promise not to
feel…things, but I can promise not to punish you for it.”
“I really blew it with you about Amy last night, too. I know it’s your job to placate
her and keep her in the President’s corner. I guess I just get insecure when I
see her trying to catch your attention. She’s smart, educated, and has a high
profile job, why wouldn’t you be interested in her?”
“Because I’m in love with you.” Josh said simply. Donna’s throbbing head was
only part of the reason tears coursed down her face.
“I’m sorry, Josh.” She told him.
“Yeah, me too.” He stood up and grabbed the coffee and Advil he had brought
in for her. “I think you might be needing this.”
“God, yes.” Donna took them gratefully.
“Then you can get in the shower and tell me about how you ended up in a limo
with Lord John Marbury.” Josh teased. “I’m not going to have to, like, challenge
him to a duel or anything, am I?”
“Maybe a drinking contest, but I’d think a duel would be too messy for Lord
John.” Donna replied.