Title: Old Beginnings:Part 1
Author: Ohori
Disclaimer: I own nothing...
Summary: So the story is an AU pre-administration Fic, just my version of what could have/should have happened
Rating: PG 13 (Some swearing)
Spoilers: None
Author's Notes: Feedback would be appreciated, only because I have imagined this to be a longer multi-part story, but if no one is reading it I won't subject anyone to the posts :)
Note 2: I have no beta, so all mistakes are mine
February 1998
Wow! So that just happened. She can barely believe that she actually got the job. A job that didn't even exist until 5 minutes ago. She wished she could call her mother right now just to gloat a little – See, Mom. You always thought that my constant babbling and over sharing made people think that I'm a little flakey, but not this time. This time Josh Lyman thought I was charming and quirky enough to give a job to. And he should know cause he is –
Ah crap.
It is at this point that she finally realises that she has no idea what Josh Lyman actually does for the campaign. She knows she just somehow managed to get herself hired as his assistant, but beyond that, what his duties are, let alone what is in her job description is completely beyond her.
Okay, Okay. This is not a problem, she can find out the answers to these questions easily. All she needs to do is a little research and if there is one thing that she is good at it, it is researching things. Quietly, she makes her way over to an unmanned computer to do a quick internet search on Josh Lyman and campaigns.
Joshua Lyman...36 years old...worked for Hoynes, left to work for the Bartlett campaign...political genius...speciality in campaign strategies...
Feeling a lot more secure now that she understands what a political strategist is, she decides to concentrate on what her duties are. Well, answering the phone for one. That seems pretty clear to her. Managing his schedule should be another, which by the piles of scrap paper with dates and times scrawled over them littering his desk, indicates he is not the best at managing his appointments. Which is a good thing really, because it means that he needs her to help manage his work, and as long as she's needed she'll have a job. Okay, so more of a volunteer position because she's missing the one thing that makes a job a job, you know, receiving money in return for her services. But she is very confident that once she proves her worth, she will be on salary in no time. She wasn't lying when she told him she could be very valuable to him.
With a deep breath, she psyches herself up to tackle the overwhelming pile of junk that is passing for his office. Wow, this place is a mess. What do they say about a cluttered desk being a sign of a cluttered mind? She hopes it is not true in this case, because if Congressman Bartlett is going to make it to the White House, he is going to need all the help he can get from Josh Lyman.
Although she is probably the last person to judge the clarity of someone else's mind. After all she had how many majors in the two years she actually attended college. Plus, she just drove hundreds of miles in her old beat-up rust bucket she calls a car to help get a relatively unknown man elected president. If she was a little stronger, her mind might even let her think about the 3 years she spent supporting a man who, it turned out, wouldn't return the favour in the end.
But she doesn't have time for self-flagellation now, she has a job to do and a man to convince that he hasn't just made a horrible mistake by hiring her.
All right, where to start first? The files teetering precariously on the corner of his desk or the pile of phone messages clustered in a bunch near the phone, all seemingly unreturned.
"Well, first I'll need some index cards," she huffs.
He wonders, almost immediately, if he has made a mistake. He is the type of guy to go with his gut, his primitive instincts, and after talking to her everything inside of him screamed, "Yes, you need her." He hopes that this need his body screams of is work related, because he refuses to turn into the type of man who hires an assistant based on how she'll look when bending over to file. After so many years in politics, he is very familiar with that kind of guy, but he knows his parents have raised him better and he hopes that his many years in Washington have not broken down his integrity the way it has for so many others.
He can almost see her from his position near Sam and CJ, only half paying attention to their conversation, adding an occasional, 'ah' and 'yeah' so they think he's still listening.
He can't be 100 per cent sure, but from this angle, it looks like she might be...cleaning this office?
Curious, he tries to crook his neck so he can get a better view of her.
"What ya looking at there?" CJ's voice breaks into his thoughts.
"Hmm," he mutters back.
"I said what are you looking at?" CJ repeats.
"Nothing, just looking, you know, taking a lay of the land, surveying my domain." He hopes that will placate her.
"Oh, okay. Cause I thought you were breaking your neck trying to catch a glimpse of the extremely young, extremely pretty blond girl rummaging around your office, but you were only taking a lay of the land so I guess I'm wrong, silly old me."
Sometimes he hates how perceptive CJ can be.
"Yeah, who is that? A new volunteer? I don't remember seeing her before." Sam interjects into the conversation.
"What, are you in charge of welcome baskets?" Josh offers, hoping to divert the conversation to Sam and away from his new assistant.
"Sam, be quiet and you," CJ pivots and turns towards Josh, "stop trying to avoid the question. Who is that girl?"
"My new assistant?" Instead of sounding authoritative, the words come out more as a question seeking permission.
"And who hired her?" CJ demands.
"Me?" Again, the words come out weak.
"Really," CJ muses.
Josh senses that he needs to start asserting his authority before CJ permanently takes the upper hand, not only in this conversation, but in their overall working relationship.
"I'm a very busy man I'll have you know CJ. A very busy, and powerful man, so yeah, I need an assistant to help organise my busy schedule, which is really a plus for the campaign because the less I have to worry about petty stuff like returning phone calls and reading memos the more I can focus my brilliant mind on coming up with a strategy to get the Governor elected."
"Wow, well, all I heard was, 'Blah, Blah, I'm a big arrogant jackass'", CJ fires back.
"I'm walking away from you now, good-bye, CJ," with that parting shot Josh heads back in the direction of his office.
Leaning against the doorframe, Josh watches Donna organise his office in way that obviously makes sense to her, but to him all he can see are rainbow coloured index cards scattered around the room.
"What ya doing there Donna?"
"Trying to make sense of all these...things you have lying around higgledy-piggledy." She puffs out, blowing a wisp of hair away from her eyes.
"I'm sorry, did you just say 'higgledy-piggledy'?" He laughs.
"It's a word, Mr. Lyman."
A look of displeasure crosses his face as Josh explains, "Okay, now that, that is not allowed, no Mr. Lyman. It's Josh, you call me Josh. Never call me Mr. Lyman."
"Okay, Josh."
"Good. Now as much as I appreciate your cleaning skills, don't worry too much about this mess, we'll be travelling around so much with the campaign that we will hardly ever be in this office."
"Okay, so do you have a briefcase that you want me to organise, you know, put in your schedule and phone messages?" She asks.
"No, no briefcase, I just have this backpack." Josh moves into the corner and picks up a dirty brown bag and proceeds to reveal its contents. Stuck inside the bag are crumpled pieces of paper, which perhaps at one time resembled orderly files and an assortment of junk.
"Well, that is unacceptable. No, I will have to work on that. Put your bag on the table and I will work on creating a functional system so you don't look like a college freshman with that bag."
"Hey, what's wrong with my bag, I've been carrying it for years." Josh spits out.
"It reminds me of Pig Pen, you know from Peanuts, he is one of Charlie Brown's friends. He goes everywhere with his dirty blanket, trailing a cloud of dirt in his wake, your bag," she indicates with a wave of disgust with her hands, "is your dirty blanket. It is not appropriate for a man in your position of power in the campaign to be carrying a back pack."
"Don't you think that it is a little inappropriate for you to be sassing me when we have only known each other for, like, 25 minutes?"
"Sass? God Josh, how old are you that you think sass is a word that people still use in day to day conversations?" In any other situation Donna would never speak to her boss in such a manner, in fact Donna has never spoken to any of her previous employers like this before, but there is something about Josh Lyman that, even in the short amount of time that they have know each other, stops her from filtering herself.
"I will have you know that I have an excellent vocabulary, a 760 verbal score on the SATs type of vocabulary, so if I feel that the word sass is appropriate then I'm going to use it." While the tone of his voice may sound harsh, the smirk and dimples fighting to break out on his face lets Donna know that he is more amused than angered by her so called 'sass'.
With a mock bow Donna replies, "I apologise Josh, I did not realise I was standing in front of SAT verbal greatness."
"Okay, smart ass; I need you to organise all the requests for meetings that are coming in for when we're in South Carolina. Also, I need you to read over the documents that just came in detailing the new campaign polling laws as they pertain to Florida since we will be heading there shortly. Then I want you to talk to advance about putting you on the trip, tell them that you're my assistant so they'll need to make sure there is enough room on the bus and that there is a place for you to sleep, if they give you a hard time just send them over to me."
Donna is furiously writing down each task, determined to get everything exactly right. "Okay, anything else?"
"No, that's good."
"I'm on it and Josh, thank you so much for this chance. I promise I'm not going to let you down." With that declaration Donna takes off through the labyrinth of desks, heading over to find advance.
As she walks away Josh feels more confident in his decision to hire her. Yeah, she is really young, probably in her early twenties, and she doesn't have a college degree, but she is obviously focused and determined to do a good job. For some reason her earlier comment that she would be valuable to him is playing itself through his head and he knows for some inexplicable reason that she is going to be more valuable than he could ever imagine.
Two Weeks Later
It is amazing what you can learn about a person in only two weeks when you spend 18 hours a day with them.
Things that Donna has learned about Josh: the man eats more junk food than she thought was humanly possible, which is odd since he appears to have quite a delicate digestive system as he is unable to handle more than 3 beers at once, he loves to bellow (her name in particular), he is unbelievably arrogant and when he smiles and the dimples make an appearance butterflies magically appear in her stomach.
Things that Josh has learned about Donna: her real name is Donnatella, she has an unhealthy obsession with organising in general and index cards in particular, she openly steals food, she has a propensity for inane trivia and she possesses the most amazing blue eyes.
Things that they share in common: they both are tactile people; Josh always places a hand on the small of Donna's back as they walk, while Donna demonstrates her tactile nature through more violent means, by smacking Josh several times a day. They both enjoy flirting and bantering with each other, which might not be the most professional way for a boss and his assistant to communicate, but it works for them.
When Donna comes into the campaign office that morning, Josh has already arrived, usually Donna is always in before Josh, but this morning she was helping CJ organise the last minute details for a fundraiser later on that evening. As she removes her jacket to hang it up near her makeshift desk she notices that there is an attractive brunette sitting in a fold out chair across from Josh in his new 'office'.
Donna can't remember seeing or meeting this woman before, but there have been so many new people, new faces that even her impressive memory is having trouble keeping up. The one thing Donna can tell from the impatient look etched across Josh's face is that he needs rescuing and fast.
With a perfunctory knock on the door, Donna sticks her head inside the room. "Excuse me, Josh. CJ needs to talk to you about tonight, something about the order of speakers not being what was originally agreed to."
With a soft, "thank god", Josh nods his head and tries not to dance a jig at the very welcome interruption. "Thanks for coming by, Mandy; I'll let you know what the plans are as soon as the Governor okays them." Josh rises to his feet to escort Mandy out of the room.
"This is important Josh, the Governor can't simple ignore the imagine he is sending to certain areas of the country just because he think they are not going to vote for him." She explains in an exasperated tone.
"Well, I'll keep that under advisement. I'll talk to you later." As soon as Mandy is gone, Josh quickly closes the door and drops back down into his chair, releasing a huge sigh of relief.
"Who was that?" Donna questions, extremely interested to know the identity of any person who can make Josh look this uncomfortable.
"That was Mandy. Mandy Hampton, she is a consultant for the campaign," Josh offers.
"A consultant? What kind of advice was she giving that could make you look like you wanted to throw up?"
"I did not look like that."
"Um, yeah you did. You look exactly how you do when you drink too much, and your delicate system kicks in, like you may vomit at any second." Donna explains calmly, enjoying the sight of Josh squirming in his chair.
"I don't know why you think I have a so-called 'delicate system', I can handle my alcohol like a man, you know, in a very manly way," he counters.
"Ok-ay. While I would love to keep talking about your delicate system I'm really more interested in this Mandy person, so spill it." Donna has now taken over the chair that Mandy was in moments earlier, showing no sign of leaving until her question is answered.
"You know I am your boss, you should be showing me a little more respect."
"Yeah, I'll get to that later. Now Talk."
"Fine. Mandy is a consultant working for the campaign, who just happens to be my ex-girlfriend."
"Josh, your voice got really high and squeaky at the end there, did you say ex-girlfriend?" Donna can't stop herself from laughing at how awkward Josh is acting right now.
"You heard me. Which brings me to a new duty being added to your job description, it is your responsibility to make sure that I am never left alone in a room with anyone unpleasant again, starting with Mandy." Josh solemnly explains.
With a laugh Donna earnestly says, "Yes, Sir. Next time I will throw myself in her path if she even looks in your general direction."
"Leave my schedule and close the door, preferably with you on the other side."
Later that same day, Sam strolls into Josh's office.
"Hey."
"Hey."
"How's the speech coming?"
"Okay, I guess, I mean Toby is ripping apart everything that I wrote, but besides that okay. How are things with Donna?"
Slightly defensive Josh throws back, "Things? What things."
"You know things…general things." Sam clarifies in a way that actually clarifies nothing.
"I can't imagine why Toby would have a problem with your writing when you speak so eloquently," Josh replies sarcastically.
"Sometimes I wonder if you talked me into leaving a 6 figure job just so you could make fun of me every day."
"Ah, so you have discovered my master plan, the whole getting a great man elected president was all a ruse so I could rag on you every day."
"I'm just going to ignore your meanness and focus on why I actually came over here. The DNC says that it won't be possible to…"
Josh interrupts full of anger, "Damn it, Sam. We've been over this a million times with them already and they just keep dicking us around on this issue. Those assholes are making things purposely difficult for us because you know they want Hoynes as the nominee."
"Swearing in a federal campaign office is not acceptable behaviour, Josh." Donna suddenly interjects into the conversation.
"Stop eavesdropping!" Josh screams back at her.
"Also yelling is another violation of the rules of common courtesy."
"Donna!" He practically roars back at her.
Completely ignoring his outburst Donna continues, "Josh, there's a consultant here who wants to speak with you. And no, not that one," Donna laughs. "This one is male and very handsome."
Feeling irritated, which Josh chooses to blame on her interjecting herself into his conversation with Sam and not because it bothers him that Donna finds a man handsome, he gets up from his chair to greet his visitor.
"I'll see him in a minute. Can you get us some coffee?"
"That would be a menial task, Josh and as we discussed I don't perform menial chores. It is not in my job description."
"Aren't you afraid that one day I'll just fire you?"
"No, not really. I feel immune to your firing, almost impervious even."
The rest of the day passed in a blur as so often happens during the campaign, today everyone was doing last minute preparation for the huge fund raising/speaking engagement which was happening later on that evening.
"Josh, I'm going to head out and pick up your tux from the cleaners. I'll meet you back at the hotel, okay?"
"Hmm."
"Josh, I'm heading out now and you have to be out of here in like an hour, max, if you are going to make it on time."
"Donna, I don't even want to go so why would I care if –"
Now, Donna has seen some odd things from Josh during their brief relationship, and obviously she has yet to learn all of his quirks, but she's pretty sure that hiding underneath his desk it not typical Josh behaviour.
"Josh?" She begins slowly, "What are you doing down there?"
"Shhh..."
"Wha -?"
"I need to see Josh," Mandy says as she storms into Josh's office.
Well at least the hiding makes sense now.
"Hello, ma'am," Donna puts on her most dazzling smile, "Josh isn't here right now but please feel free to have a seat in our beautiful and ergonomically designed waiting area." Donna says with a mock wave of her hands in the general direction of the flimsy folding chairs outside of Josh's office.
"Where is he?" Mandy demands.
"I think he's already on his way back to the hotel to get ready for the event, I was actually on my way out as well to pick up his tuxedo."
"Fine," she huffs, "Tell him I need to see him, block out some time tonight in his schedule for me." As quickly as hurricane Mandy stormed in, it stormed right back out.
Donna watches Mandy make her way of the campaign office. "Okay there big baby, it's safe to come out now."
"She's really gone?" Josh slowly peeks his head out from under his desk, afraid that Donna might be playing a trick on him, that way you do with your scared friends when watching a horror movie. You know, they ask if the 'scary part' is over and you say 'yeah', so that they open their eyes right at the moment where the psycho masked killer sticks the knife into a helpless victim.
"Yes, Josh. She is gone. Real mature of you Josh, diving under your desk like that, is that how you handle all potentially uncomfortable meetings? Is this what it will be like in the White House every time you have to talk to a Republican, you'll be hiding under your desk or is this a particular Josh foible reserved for ex-girl friends only?" She mocks.
"First, I would never run away from a fight with a Republican, I get off fighting Republicans. Second, Mandy is worse than a Republican so hiding was justified and finally, Mandy, at this exact moment, may not technically be...my ex-girl friend so to speak."
"Not your ex? But this morning you said she was your ex. Was that a lie?"
"Not a lie really, more like wishful thinking" He supplies lamely.
"Oh My God Josh! You are still with Mandy, she is not your ex-girl friend, she is your girl friend! And you're hiding from her?" Donna asks incredulously. "What's your plan? Are you just going to keep avoiding her until she finally gets fed up and dumps your sorry ass?"
"That was the general idea, yes."
"Wow, that's a solid plan Josh, if you were 16 years old! I can't believe you. Is this how you end all your relationships?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
"As the layers that are Josh Lyman are peeled away I find myself more in awe of you every day." She says, sarcasm dipping off every word.
"Go get my tux, Donna." He ushers her out of the office. "We don't want to be late."
The event goes off perfectly. Governor Bartlett's speech was amazing, as she knew it would be with Sam and Toby working so hard on it the past week. Now, nearing 1 in the morning Donna can't wait to fall into her bed, or more accurately gather some pillows and a spare blanket to sleep on the floor in Margaret's room.
"Donna!"
Not now she thinks, as much as she loves working with Josh and loves seeing him in a tuxedo more, she has actually met her Josh quota for the day and wants nothing more than a quick shower and a hard hotel room floor.
"Not now Josh, it's time for bed." She continues walking away from him towards the room she shares with Margaret. "You remember that thing called sleep? Well, I going to try to get a few hours of it, so whatever thing you think it so important can wait until tomorrow."
She reaches her hotel room door and slides in the electronic key. She sees the reassuring green light flash and she pushes her way into the room. To her surprise, which in a way is not surprising at all given Josh's basic lack of understanding when it comes to personal boundaries, he follows her into the room and plops down on the bed.
"No, please come in. Can I offer you a beverage?" She asks with mock sincerity.
"No, I'm good." Either he missed the sarcasm in her voice or is choosing to ignore it.
It is becoming pretty clear that Josh is not going anywhere and Donna is starting to feel irritated at his incessant need to invade her personal time. "So, Josh, what do you want to talk about? What is so important that it can't wait the 4 hours I was so selfishly going to use for sleep?"
With quicker reflexes then she would have given him credit for, Josh launches himself off the bed to stand directly in front of her. He looks into her eyes for longer than he should, suddenly aware of a new tension, or electricity between them.
Donna feels her heart bounce up into her throat at the intensity in his eyes. Why is he standing this close, why is he staring at me she wonders? She knows she should step back, create more distance between them or at least look away, but she can't seem to tear her eyes away from him either.
"Your eyes are the clearest shade of blue I've ever seen," he almost whispers.
"Yours are brown," she offers lamely.
"Yes." Involuntarily his hand comes up and gently touches her flushed cheek.
"Josh?" It comes out more as a question, because she's not sure what's happening right now. But thankfully or not, depending on your point of view, Margaret chooses this exact moment to return to the hotel room.
"Oh, I'm sorry am I interrupting? Do you want me to come back later?" Margaret offers.
"Yes."
"No."
They both answer simultaneously.
"No, it's fine. I was just on my way out. I'll see you tomorrow. Bye Donna."
Without a look back Josh quickly exits the room leaving Donna feeling more confused than she thought was humanly possible.